Effects of affective variables and willingness to communicate on students’ English-speaking performance in Thailand

Recently, Willingness to Communicate (WTC) has been explored and proposed to be one of the key concepts for identifying when one decides to initiate communication in the target language. The attention, nonetheless, has been concentrated on how WTC interacts with other learners’ variables. This study, on the other hand, intends to offer empirical evidence on the direct roles of affective variables (self-confidence, anxiety, motivation, and grit) and WTC variables (WTC inside the classroom, WTC outside the classroom, and WTC in a digital setting) in Thai students’ English-speaking performance. The data were obtained from 35 undergraduate students (17.1% males; 82.9% females) using a survey questionnaire. Then, a speaking test was taken from an English Communication Skills course and was analysed using correlation and hierarchical regression. The results disclosed positive correlations among self-confidence, motivation, grit, WTC in a digital setting, WTC inside the classroom, WTC outside the classroom, and speaking performance, and negative correlations among self-confidence, anxiety, and grit. However, motivation was the only significant predictor of speaking performance. The findings offer some implications for English teachers in improving students’ English-speaking performance.

Thai and Serbian Student L2 Motivational Selves: A Contrastive Study

Applying L2 Motivational Self-System, the aim of this paper is to investigate how Thai and Serbian students construct their L2 motivational self-systems. A total of 543 students from Thailand and Serbia completed an 18-item questionnaire aimed at sampling relevant motivational factors. Although the students from both universities reported medium levels of motivated behaviour and a strong influence of their L2 learning experience, the most influential factors in the construction of self-systems were fundamentally different. While Serbian students construct their motivational self-systems on the basis of their ideal L2 selves, Thai students shape their motivational self-systems on the basis of ought-to L2 self. This difference points to the overall teaching approaches adopted in the investigated settings, where in Serbia learning experience is guided by the communicative approach to language teaching, while the Thai learning experience rests on a teacher-centred approach shaped by the collectivist cultural orientation.

Metadiscourse in postgraduate writing

<p>This thesis investigates metadiscourse in master’s theses and the relationship between metadiscourse frequencies and quality of thesis writing. Metadiscourse has been a major research focus in various genres and contexts, but only a small proportion of this work has compared metadiscourse in postgraduate writing across educational contexts and disciplines. While previous studies of metadiscourse have reported a positive correlation between metadiscourse frequencies and writing quality, all of these studies focused on undergraduate writing. Little is known about the relationship between metadiscourse frequencies and quality of thesis writing. This thesis includes two main studies to address the gaps in literature. Study 1 examined use of metadiscourse (i.e., frequencies, types, and functions) in master’s thesis discussion and conclusion chapters written in English by New Zealand and Thai postgraduates in the disciplines of English language teaching and business administration. Four subcorpora with a total of 116 thesis samples were compiled: 26 New Zealand students’ theses in English language teaching (NZ-ELT), 30 New Zealand students’ theses in business administration (NZ-BA), 30 Thai students’ theses in English language teaching (TH-ELT), and 30 Thai students’ theses in business administration (TH-BA). Hyland’s (2005) metadiscourse taxonomy was adopted for this study. Study 2 explored the relationship between metadiscourse frequencies and quality of thesis writing. Forty eight theses (twelve theses with highest and lowest frequencies of metadiscourse markers in each of the four subcorpora in Study 1) were selected for this study. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with twenty four disciplinary supervisors in New Zealand and Thailand in order to investigate supervisors’ attitudes towards and expectations of good thesis writing in their disciplines. This information was used to design a rating scale specifically for thesis quality assessment. Two New Zealand and Thai raters in English language teaching and business administration, four raters altogether, rated twenty four discussion and conclusion chapters in their own disciplines. The findings of Study 1 reveal a higher frequency of metadiscourse in New Zealand theses than Thai theses. While both New Zealand and Thai students use more textual metadiscourse than interpersonal metadiscourse, New Zealand students show a greater reliance on the use of interpersonal metadiscourse (all interpersonal subcategories, except for boosters) than Thai students. By contrast, Thai students show a greater reliance on the use of textual metadiscourse (especially transition markers and frame markers) than New Zealand students. With regard to disciplinary variation, English language teaching students use more metadiscourse than business administration students, in both textual and interpersonal metadiscourse categories. Transition markers and hedges are the most prominent metadiscourse features, contributing the preponderance of textual and interpersonal metadiscourse in this study. Despite palpable differences in frequencies, the analysis of individual types across the four subcorpora reveals similarities of New Zealand and Thai students in the two disciplines. They use similar markers, rely heavily on a small cluster of high frequency markers, and make scarce use of lower frequency ones in all subcategories. The functional analysis indicates that there are six subcategories whose functions contribute to differences between New Zealand and Thai theses, namely transition markers, frame markers, evidentials, attitude markers, engagement markers, and self-mentions. The findings of Study 2 reveal a positive correlation between metadiscourse frequencies and thesis quality scores in both English language teaching and business administration disciplines. However, a major difference between the two disciplines is that in business administration, the frequency of textual metadiscourse is more highly related to the quality scores when compared to interpersonal metadiscourse. In English language teaching, the frequency of interpersonal metadiscourse is more closely related to the quality scores. In the comparison of quality scores between high and low frequency groups, a statistically significant difference is found in business administration, but not in English language teaching. Insights gained from this study are that (1) business administration raters are likely to focus more on textual features which directly affect readers’ comprehension, while English language teaching raters seem to have more expectations towards interactional features (e.g., explicit expression of students’ attitudes towards their own research propositions), (2) not all metadiscourse subcategories affect thesis quality scores, and (3) apart from frequencies, factors such as appropriate use of a wide variety of markers in different subcategories may contribute to better quality scores. Based on these findings, this thesis also provides theoretical, methodological, and pedagogical implications, laying out a framework for postgraduate writing instructors in developing English for Postgraduate Academic Writing lessons and materials based on actual language use and expectations of members in specific disciplinary communities and educational contexts in order to improve postgraduate writing quality.</p>

Metadiscourse in postgraduate writing

<p>This thesis investigates metadiscourse in master’s theses and the relationship between metadiscourse frequencies and quality of thesis writing. Metadiscourse has been a major research focus in various genres and contexts, but only a small proportion of this work has compared metadiscourse in postgraduate writing across educational contexts and disciplines. While previous studies of metadiscourse have reported a positive correlation between metadiscourse frequencies and writing quality, all of these studies focused on undergraduate writing. Little is known about the relationship between metadiscourse frequencies and quality of thesis writing. This thesis includes two main studies to address the gaps in literature. Study 1 examined use of metadiscourse (i.e., frequencies, types, and functions) in master’s thesis discussion and conclusion chapters written in English by New Zealand and Thai postgraduates in the disciplines of English language teaching and business administration. Four subcorpora with a total of 116 thesis samples were compiled: 26 New Zealand students’ theses in English language teaching (NZ-ELT), 30 New Zealand students’ theses in business administration (NZ-BA), 30 Thai students’ theses in English language teaching (TH-ELT), and 30 Thai students’ theses in business administration (TH-BA). Hyland’s (2005) metadiscourse taxonomy was adopted for this study. Study 2 explored the relationship between metadiscourse frequencies and quality of thesis writing. Forty eight theses (twelve theses with highest and lowest frequencies of metadiscourse markers in each of the four subcorpora in Study 1) were selected for this study. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with twenty four disciplinary supervisors in New Zealand and Thailand in order to investigate supervisors’ attitudes towards and expectations of good thesis writing in their disciplines. This information was used to design a rating scale specifically for thesis quality assessment. Two New Zealand and Thai raters in English language teaching and business administration, four raters altogether, rated twenty four discussion and conclusion chapters in their own disciplines. The findings of Study 1 reveal a higher frequency of metadiscourse in New Zealand theses than Thai theses. While both New Zealand and Thai students use more textual metadiscourse than interpersonal metadiscourse, New Zealand students show a greater reliance on the use of interpersonal metadiscourse (all interpersonal subcategories, except for boosters) than Thai students. By contrast, Thai students show a greater reliance on the use of textual metadiscourse (especially transition markers and frame markers) than New Zealand students. With regard to disciplinary variation, English language teaching students use more metadiscourse than business administration students, in both textual and interpersonal metadiscourse categories. Transition markers and hedges are the most prominent metadiscourse features, contributing the preponderance of textual and interpersonal metadiscourse in this study. Despite palpable differences in frequencies, the analysis of individual types across the four subcorpora reveals similarities of New Zealand and Thai students in the two disciplines. They use similar markers, rely heavily on a small cluster of high frequency markers, and make scarce use of lower frequency ones in all subcategories. The functional analysis indicates that there are six subcategories whose functions contribute to differences between New Zealand and Thai theses, namely transition markers, frame markers, evidentials, attitude markers, engagement markers, and self-mentions. The findings of Study 2 reveal a positive correlation between metadiscourse frequencies and thesis quality scores in both English language teaching and business administration disciplines. However, a major difference between the two disciplines is that in business administration, the frequency of textual metadiscourse is more highly related to the quality scores when compared to interpersonal metadiscourse. In English language teaching, the frequency of interpersonal metadiscourse is more closely related to the quality scores. In the comparison of quality scores between high and low frequency groups, a statistically significant difference is found in business administration, but not in English language teaching. Insights gained from this study are that (1) business administration raters are likely to focus more on textual features which directly affect readers’ comprehension, while English language teaching raters seem to have more expectations towards interactional features (e.g., explicit expression of students’ attitudes towards their own research propositions), (2) not all metadiscourse subcategories affect thesis quality scores, and (3) apart from frequencies, factors such as appropriate use of a wide variety of markers in different subcategories may contribute to better quality scores. Based on these findings, this thesis also provides theoretical, methodological, and pedagogical implications, laying out a framework for postgraduate writing instructors in developing English for Postgraduate Academic Writing lessons and materials based on actual language use and expectations of members in specific disciplinary communities and educational contexts in order to improve postgraduate writing quality.</p>

Pieces of the puzzle: Stories from EFL Thai university students' language learning motivation, experiences, and self-identities in their imagined communities

<p>Despite the growth of English, the lingua franca of today’s world, most Thai undergraduates struggle to attain a high level of communicative skills in environments where English is a Foreign Language (EFL). This thesis explores and reinterprets Thai students’ language learning motivation, experiences, and their identity formation and development. The person-in-context relational view of motivation was used to complement Dörnyei’s theory of L2 Motivational Self System (L2MSS). These frameworks were used to analyse the multifaceted aspects of individual and contextual influences on the participants’ L2 self and identity. This study employs a research methodology with a focus on a narrative qualitative approach. Quantitative data were collected from 356 first-year students at a public and private university in Thailand and four Thai students were purposively selected. These four participants were formally interviewed three to four times about their English learning motivation and experiences. The narrative data were generated by a series of individual interviews and supplemented by stimulated recall interviews, an English diary, and other person-family-and-social artefacts. Their L2 learning motivation and experiences from school to university were presented as unique individual narratives. The interview transcripts were then analysed across the cases to create themes. The findings indicated that the rote-memorisation, grammar-translation, and examination-orientated methods practised by their secondary and tertiary EFL teachers impacted the participants’ language learning motivation and the development of their L2 self-identities. The Thai participants prioritised speaking skills and felt highly motivated to attain communicative English for their future career. Their ideal L2 self appeared to be strengthened by their sustained efforts to communicate in English in both formal and informal learning contexts. Nonetheless, their ideal L2 self and ought-to L2 self seemed to be interconnected and worked together in their motivational system. The participants regulated themselves by using motivational strategies in association with the promotion-focused and prevention-focused instrumentality to maximise their intended effort in learning English. The inclusion of self-efficacy into the L2MSS model yields insights into how the participants actualised their self system in their motivational orientation. They pushed themselves to gain more exposure to a variety of learning experiences in both face-to-face and virtual communication in their imagined communities. By investing their effort and time in majoring in English and Business English, they envisioned themselves after graduation improving their parents’ and extended family’s social status and well-being. Their ideal L2 self and transportable identities were developed to meet Thailand’s integration within the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC). For instance, two participants at a public university were able to envision themselves studying English at a Malaysian university. Narrative approaches shed light on the participants’ individual motivational orientations and the effects of these on the formation and development of their L2 self and identity in the past, present, and future. This study allows teachers and educators to understand the interplay between in-class and out-of-class learning experiences and the implication of the local, social, and global learning experiences of EFL Thai learners that may have been unexplored and unheard.</p>

Pieces of the puzzle: Stories from EFL Thai university students' language learning motivation, experiences, and self-identities in their imagined communities

<p>Despite the growth of English, the lingua franca of today’s world, most Thai undergraduates struggle to attain a high level of communicative skills in environments where English is a Foreign Language (EFL). This thesis explores and reinterprets Thai students’ language learning motivation, experiences, and their identity formation and development. The person-in-context relational view of motivation was used to complement Dörnyei’s theory of L2 Motivational Self System (L2MSS). These frameworks were used to analyse the multifaceted aspects of individual and contextual influences on the participants’ L2 self and identity. This study employs a research methodology with a focus on a narrative qualitative approach. Quantitative data were collected from 356 first-year students at a public and private university in Thailand and four Thai students were purposively selected. These four participants were formally interviewed three to four times about their English learning motivation and experiences. The narrative data were generated by a series of individual interviews and supplemented by stimulated recall interviews, an English diary, and other person-family-and-social artefacts. Their L2 learning motivation and experiences from school to university were presented as unique individual narratives. The interview transcripts were then analysed across the cases to create themes. The findings indicated that the rote-memorisation, grammar-translation, and examination-orientated methods practised by their secondary and tertiary EFL teachers impacted the participants’ language learning motivation and the development of their L2 self-identities. The Thai participants prioritised speaking skills and felt highly motivated to attain communicative English for their future career. Their ideal L2 self appeared to be strengthened by their sustained efforts to communicate in English in both formal and informal learning contexts. Nonetheless, their ideal L2 self and ought-to L2 self seemed to be interconnected and worked together in their motivational system. The participants regulated themselves by using motivational strategies in association with the promotion-focused and prevention-focused instrumentality to maximise their intended effort in learning English. The inclusion of self-efficacy into the L2MSS model yields insights into how the participants actualised their self system in their motivational orientation. They pushed themselves to gain more exposure to a variety of learning experiences in both face-to-face and virtual communication in their imagined communities. By investing their effort and time in majoring in English and Business English, they envisioned themselves after graduation improving their parents’ and extended family’s social status and well-being. Their ideal L2 self and transportable identities were developed to meet Thailand’s integration within the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC). For instance, two participants at a public university were able to envision themselves studying English at a Malaysian university. Narrative approaches shed light on the participants’ individual motivational orientations and the effects of these on the formation and development of their L2 self and identity in the past, present, and future. This study allows teachers and educators to understand the interplay between in-class and out-of-class learning experiences and the implication of the local, social, and global learning experiences of EFL Thai learners that may have been unexplored and unheard.</p>

Enhancing Thai EFL Students’ EFL Vocabulary Knowledge through the Use of Task-Based Language Teaching and Storytelling Technique Adopting Thai Folktales

This study aimed to examine the development of EFL students' vocabulary knowledge adopting a task-based method with 32 Thai students who enrolled in an English for Communication course at a university in northern Thailand. This study emphasized improving the Thai EFL students’ English vocabulary knowledge by requiring students to retell six Thai folktales in English translation to their group members. The pretest-posttest design, as well as an interview, were employed to indicate the students' vocabulary improvement after retelling Thai folktales. The findings showed that the students' post-test scores were statistically higher than their pre-test scores, and the students felt that the folktale tasks helped them enhance their vocabulary knowledge. The results of this study indicate that the students learned English vocabulary in an engaging and meaningful way through storytelling; therefore, the students’ vocabulary retention is likely high.

Software Development of Word Search Game on Smart Phones in English Vocabulary Learning

At present, mobile devices are a medium of learning in school that is enjoyable with educational content. They are becoming as a part of daily life with new software games, which are considered as entertainment. As we all know, a word search game has been implemented on mobile devices for decades. It facilitates English vocabulary acquisition of students. The word search game on mobile devices allows education to be delivered in a more flexible way, anytime and anywhere at the students’ own place. To this paper, a survey is conducted to target Thai students at Bangkok University, Thailand. Therefore the word search game on smart phones embedded with the English dictionary, which helps Thai students to memorize the words is developed. Additionally, the process in developing the word search game on smart phones has been presented. It is expected that our research findings in English learning on mobile devices for Thai students will be further shared in the future.

“I Apology no no I Mean I Am Sorry … Please Let Me Explain That First”: Enhancing Communicative Language Competence of Thai University Students Through CEFR-Based Online Intercultural Communication

During this COVID-19 pandemic, no one can deny the value of online communication. It has saved our lives by preventing us from going outdoors and becoming infected, while also facilitating achievement of various personal and professional goals. Online communication can also assist us with our academic goals, whether it is used to communicate with supervisors or with people from other lingua-cultural backgrounds to practice the language. This form&nbsp;of communication is emphasized in the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) framework, which is one of the most significant guidelines for language teaching and learning throughout the world. The present research has two aims: first, to determine the extent to which CEFR-based online intercultural communication can improve Thai students&rsquo; communicative language competence, and second, to investigate Thai students&rsquo; attitudes toward CEFR-based online intercultural communication and international volunteers. The results received from 15 fifth-year dual B.A. (Chinese) and B.CM. (Traditional Chinese Medicine) students and international volunteers&nbsp;using various research instruments revealed that Thai students could increase their communicative language competence after participating in CEFR-based intercultural communication activities. This encompassed linguistic, sociolinguistic, and pragmatic abilities that correspond to the CEFR (2001)&nbsp;scales. In terms of attitudes, the study indicated&nbsp;that, because they were more confident in their communicative language ability, they had a positive attitude&nbsp;toward&nbsp;the CEFR-based online intercultural communication activities and their international volunteers. Finally, further research on this topic should include a proper design of online communication activities as well as methods for assessing students&rsquo; competency both before and after participation.

Tracing Cultural Values in Thai Students’ Dialogical Argumentation

Critical thinking and argumentation skills are crucial for developing responsible citizens and active participants in society. Indeed, reasoning and argumentation are known to be exercised differently in distinctive cultures. Historical, cultural and institutional contexts shape the way people in a society think, communicate and act. In this regard, the predominant Western assumption that reasoning should be detachable from emotion may not necessarily be accurate within the Thai cultural context. This paper highlights how different cultural assumptions were displayed in dialogical argumentation in English for fourteen, first-year undergraduates of the English Programme at a Thai university. The analysis of the argumentation data indicated that some participants presented their claims close to the end of their argumentative turns. In addition, personal experience was regularly employed as an argumentative strategy. Interestingly, there was also an absence of claims in some argumentative turns. The aforementioned findings and the themes derived from an analysis of the semi-structured interview data reflect some specific characteristics of Thai culture and values. They include indirectness and a desire for harmony, a subjectivity in argumentation and modesty.