Crowdsourcing Translation for Community-Based Tourism Empowerment in Thailand

English has not only become a lingua franca for global communication, but it also carries a symbolic power that influences local people and stakeholders in community-based tourism (CBT) in Thailand. Thai villagers encounter communicative challenges due to their limited English proficiency. Thai-English speaking tour guides are valued, as they provide translation services on behalf of CBT members whose interactions with foreign tourists are minimal and marginalized. Losses in translation regarding local wisdom and heritage are inevitably unavoidable. This chapter addresses a conceptual model of crowdsourcing translation for CBT. The study hopes that the sociolinguistic and cultural gaps can be bridged for the enhancement of other CBT communities. Crowdsourcing in the form of collaborative translation and volunteering translators' efforts can potentially provide an alternative lens for possible translation scenarios. Tourism operators and stakeholders can apply these practices to assist the local people to promote lesser-known tourist attractions in remote areas in Thailand.

Which English Should We Stand For? Voices from Lecturers in Thai Multicultural Universities

The rapid transformation of English linguistic landscapes has introduced the world to newly emerging English varieties or World Englishes, which are not typically employed in the Inner Circle. To address the defying phenomenon, this qualitative study explored the perceptions of Thai university lecturers on World Englishes, Thai English and the feasibility of implementing World Englishes and Thai English in the classrooms. Data were collected from semi-structured interviews with 15 English lecturers in 5 universities across the Thai regions. Analyzed by content analysis, findings revealed that the participants demonstrated mixed perceptions. While most of the participants viewed British and American Englishes as representations of standard English varieties and questioned the legitimacy of World Englishes and Thai English, others reportedly recognized and accepted the existence of World Englishes and considered Thai English as a tool to convey Thai identities and cultures. The findings also indicated that most participants outright disapproved of World Englishes and Thai English in teaching practices, and these varieties were substantially marginalized and devalued. However, to prepare learners for realistic use of English and increase their awareness of World Englishes and Thai English, the remaining participants suggested that English language teaching should embrace flexible linguistic conventions that allow spaces for Inner Circle, Outer Circle and Expanding Circle Englishes.

Attitudes towards Thai English: Indonesian Pre-service Teachers Lenses During Teaching Practicum in Thailand

Over the last few decades, World Englishes have shifted the paradigm of how both native and non-native speakers view English as a lingua franca. This paradigmatic shift has attracted scholars to conduct a plethora of investigations on the roles of English as an international language. However, scrutinizing the pre-service teachers’ attitudes towards Thai English amid their teaching practicum in Thailand remains under-explored, notably viewed from Indonesian perspectives. This study investigated Indonesian pre-service teachers’ attitudes towards Thai English within their teaching practicum in Thailand to fill this gap. Four Indonesian pre-service teachers performing teaching practicum at diverse Thai schools were recruited as the participants. The data were garnered through semi-structured interviews and analyzed with qualitative data analysis framework. The findings revealed that Thai English was less intelligible. Besides, they contended that Thai English enables them to experience emotional shifts. Eventually, Thai English has adapted from the English and Thai language. With these in mind, understanding and employing Thai English practically offers the Indonesian pre-service teachers another variety of English to communicate in the classroom.

Global Englishes Constructs in Language Teaching: A Review of Facebook Materials

The rising paradigm of Global Englishes (GE) was faced with native-speaker norms and the principle of diversity therein called upon global contents when there was the paucity of globally-oriented language materials and typical models hardly meet the future demands of language learners in Pakistan. At the state-level, many varities of Englishes were not on the priority list of legislation. In this scenario, this study was a systematic review of Global Englishes constructs operating in facebook materials. Twenty-five Facebook posts of different Englishes were selected opting judgmental sampling and axial coding was affixed to analyze thematic patterns in data. Findings evinced the function of GE constructs coalesced in facebook material, and this bonding directed to shape comparative cultural topics for GE instruction which was a joint venture limelighting the deep concerns of L2 speakers assailing L1 cultural, social, and economic hegemony Global Englishes-informed instruction was a useful approach to develop linguistic proficiency of students, and facebook materials were a good source to plan diverse Englishes and their constructs for prospective students in Pakistan. American English, British English, New Zealand English, Pakistani English, Thai English, and Indian English were dissected in a review of facebook materials that could be integrated with language teaching. The study was useful in developing an insight into GE constructs to be a source of cross-cultural knowledge helping to nurture multilingual speakers. The synthesis suggested an action plan for Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) in line with inclusivity of GE as a teaching paradigm.

Attitudes of Thai English Learners towards Online Learning of Speaking

ABSTRACT A recent challenge in the field of education has been met as a shift to online classes from traditional face-to-face classes has been attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic. Hence, certain issues arise from such a sudden shift to an online learning environment, especially for those who have been mainly (or for others, solely) taught in a face-to-face setting. This paper aimed to determine the attitudes of Thai English learners towards online learning of speaking. The study involved fifty-four fourth year English majors in a university in southern Thailand. A survey questionnaire was developed to collect data. It consisted of a 5- point Likert scale asking for the students' level of agreement with statements and open-ended questions. The results show that the teacher being perceived as supportive and the students having a positive feeling when they had a stable Internet connection were the two areas that had the highest mean scores. On the other hand, being given enough opportunities to interact with classmates and preferring to participate in discussions using video (with microphone and video on) had the lowest mean scores. Moreover, the learners’ comments provided insights into their attitudes toward online learning in terms of preferences and challenges. Implications for teaching are then drawn from the results. KEYWORDS: attitudes, online learning, speaking

ELT Master’s Programmes in Thailand: Focused Areas and Research Trends

The increasing demand for competent users of English and qualified English teachers has accelerated the growth of graduate programmes in English language teaching (ELT). In Thailand, ELT master’s programmes have been serving as a training ground for Thai English teachers for decades. This study explores the focused areas and research trends of Thai ELT master’s programmes. The analyses involved ten ELT master’s programmes offered by ten different universities and 201 master’s theses submitted between the years of 2014 and 2018. Foundation and core courses were categorised into twelve content areas. The findings show that teaching and research methodology courses were the most common areas, indicating that the programmes were not only pedagogical but also research-oriented. In consistence with the international trends of ELT research, the Instructional effects research area still prevails. The number of studies on Assessment and Curriculum/Programme is relatively low compared with the number of courses in such areas. Also discussed are considerations for programme management, lecturers, and students. It is also recommended that all the courses offered be treated as a gateway to research opportunities in addition to teaching practice and professional practice improvement.

English in the Linguistic Landscape of Thailand: A Case Study of Public Signs in Hat Yai

During the last decades, English has become an international language in all kinds of contexts, including business and tourism, and Asian linguistic landscapes are a good reflection of this phenomenon. This paper focuses on Thailand and the city of Hat Yai, where a corpus of 165 public signs were collected. These were analysed quantitatively to discuss the functions that English performs in public domains, and also qualitatively, by means of a multimodal analysis, to observe the Thai and English prominence in the case of multilingual signs. The results show the importance of English, not only as an international communicative tool, but also as a language of prestige and media impact. Furthermore, some features of written Thai English or Tinglish were found in some signs, which may confirm the early stages of development of a possible new emerging variety of World Englishes.