Improving English education in Thailand by modeling classroom behavior

English classroom behavior across Thailand is highly influenced by long-held traditions, culture and values. By comparing Thai secondary education classroom behavior with that of Chinese classes working at the same level, we have constructed a model of Thai students’ English classroom behavior. Comparison is made from surveys conducted by schools with students demonstrating similarly wide range of performance and ability in English. We also suggest effective ways to improve English teaching in Thailand for both Thai and foreign teachers of English by incorporating this model with the theories of J. Kunin, so as to help avoid culture conflict, motivate students’ interest and make better use of existing standards and practices

Pidginized English pronunciation in Thailand

Thailand Pidginized English Pronunciation (TPEP) is the pronunciation of English produced with a Thai accent. Its characteristics are systematic, stable and widely used and accepted within the country. This paper describes TPEP through an analysis of 12 hours of video interviews of seven hundred high school students from 50 of Thailand’s 76 provinces. The identified phonemic qualities include some vowel and consonant substitution and certain modification or loss of consonants, especially final consonants. Other characteristics include moving all stress to final syllables and endowing a certain tone to some words