THAITESOL Journal

Communication Apprehension among Thai University Students in an English as a Foreign Language (EFL) Classroom

Reuben Esteban, Kannika Pratumtone — Sun, 14 Jul 2024 00:00:00 +0700

This study aimed to investigate the level of communication apprehension (CA) of Rajamangala University of Technology Lanna (RMUTL) Phitsanulok students in their English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classes, and the factors that contributed to the emergence. It was conducted with the aid of 281 students in three different faculties, the Faculties of Business Administration and Liberal Arts (BALA), Engineering (ENG), and Science and Agricultural Technology (SAT) as respondents. A set of questionnaires was employed to gather data, and they were statistically analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively. Results revealed that students in EFL classrooms experience an average level of CA. Answering a teacher in English seems to be the most provoking CA among students. Speaking in front of the class in English is also a context with a high level of CA among Thai university students. Furthermore, reinforcement and modeling were the highest factors that contribute to the emergence of their CA. Students tend to experience speaking anxiety in an EFL classroom because they think that they are not well-versed in English. They shun speaking situations in an EFL classroom because they think that they may be laughed at or judged by their classmates when they commit mistakes in speaking in the English language. Meanwhile, results showed that the lower the year level of students in university, the more they are apprehensive compared to the higher years. It also shows that students who do not take a lot of English courses or subjects in university tend to be more apprehensive than those students who take English courses or subjects. In addition, the lower the grades in English of Thai university students, the higher their CA would be. Lastly, they tend to be more anxious when speaking or interacting orally with native-speaker teachers compared to Asian teachers.

Improving the English-Language Academic Paraphrasing Guidelines Taught at a Thai University

Andrew West — Wed, 24 Jul 2024 00:00:00 +0700

This case study investigates the effectiveness of paraphrasing guidelines taught in a graduate academic and research writing class at a Thai university. It evaluates the use of paraphrasing strategies, as taught through the guidelines, by students when paraphrasing English-language sources. The assessment considers the students’ utilization of these strategies while employing all available resources, which is the typical approach in academic writing. A pretest/posttest task was administered to determine the improvement, if any, in key paraphrasing strategies among the 12 students enrolled in the course. Background information was collected through a questionnaire before the pretest, and face-to-face interviews were conducted after the posttest. Although students demonstrated significant improvement in almost all strategies, it was identified that explicit instruction should be increased, particularly in skills related to reordering words, such as changing sentence structures, as well as adding text by conveying the same meaning in their own words. Additionally, a moderate emphasis on instruction could be placed on strategies related to changing words, such as finding synonyms. Other skills, notably citing, require no further emphasis. Based on the results, recommendations are provided for enhancing the guidelines, and suggestions are offered for instructors looking to refine their own writing courses that incorporate paraphrasing.

Investigating task uptake of a group role-play in assessing socializing skills in EFL learners

Patharaorn Patharakorn — Mon, 26 Aug 2024 00:00:00 +0700

This paper investigates how as assessment roleplay task was being interpreted and performed by its student test-takers. The rationale for this is that we need feedback into whether the task is functioning the way we intend it to be and to make sure that our interpretation of the scores that we get from grading these students correctly serve our decision making about the students’ ability. T First, there may be a significant difference between the teacher task design and student task uptake. To For an open roleplay task where students must choose their own persona to perform for the assessment task, the choice of roles can affect the quality of interaction, which in turn can affect the scores they eventually receive for the task. This study is a mixed method study which seek to answer the question of how we can use the information that we have about students’ task uptake to improve the assessment practices for the next iteration of this task. To this end, the study first evaluated the personas students had selected for their roleplay to see the features that separate between appropriate and inappropriate roles for the task. Later, the task uptake in terms of the qualities of their roleplay interaction was investigated through the lens of conversation analysis (CA). Treating this roleplay assessment task as a social practice, the study describes how students engaged in the roleplay within the parameters of the assessment task. The results show very few incidences of roleplay personas deemed to be inappropriate for the task, showing a good level of alignment between student task uptake and the intended design of the assessment task. The CA results show this roleplay’s features of the roleplay provides opportunities for students to display interactional skills that are similar to that of real-life interactions. The findings highlight the unique aspects of communication skills that this open roleplay task requires from the students such as turn-taking organization, overall sequential organization, and topic management practices.

Integrating Intercultural Competence into the Curriculum: A Catalyst for Critical Thinking in Thai Tertiary Education

Pasara Namsaeng, Eric A. Ambele — Thu, 26 Sep 2024 00:00:00 +0700

In Thai tertiary education, the adoption of intercultural competence represents a modern teaching approach. This paper seeks to unveils the potential of integrating intercultural competence into the curriculum to enhance critical thinking skills. The examination centers on two key components: intercultural competence and critical thinking. Initially, the paper delves into the origins and advantages of intercultural competence, outlining its frameworks. Subsequently, it addresses the challenges associated with teaching intercultural competence in Thai tertiary education and provides a general understanding of critical thinking. The article posits a connection between intercultural competence and critical thinking, asserting that intercultural competence has the potential to augment critical thinking for five primary reasons. These include the alignment of characteristics such as 'holistic' and 'judiciousness' in both cultural understanding and critical thinking frameworks, the shared learnability through inquisitive and analytical skills, the dynamic nature of open-minded critical thinking, the confidence-building aspect in reasoning against ethnocentrism, and the mutually reinforcing and systematic support of these elements. Consequently, the integration of intercultural competence into instructional practices holds substantial promise for cultivating critical thinking skills among tertiary students.