Students’ Perceptions of Online Learning During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Study of Undergraduate Students from an International University, Thailand

The outbreak of COVID-19 had an impact on educational systems worldwide. This study was aimed at investigating the perceptions of students towards online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. Two hundred fifty-five undergraduate students from a private international university in Thailand participated in this study. Data were collected using the adapted version of Students’ Perception Questionnaire (SPQ) items from Bączek et al. through an Google Forms online survey. The research objective was examined by basic descriptive statistics (percentage, means and standard deviations). Results showed that student participants prefer both online and onsite learning. The most strongest advantage of online learning is allowing participants to stay at home (72.15%) whereas the participants chose technical problems (73.33%) and lack of interactions with friends (71.37%) as the major disadvantages. The participants perceived that online learning was effective that helped increase knowledge (35.29%), active classroom activities (33.33%) and enjoyable (30.2%).  Based on the research findings, suggestions and recommendations to improve the higher education online learning in the future and pedagogical implications are provided. Keywords: COVID-19, online learning, students’ perceptions, undergraduate students, Thai private international universit

A Comparative Study of Students’ Motivation and Perception of Parental Encouragement for Learning English

Purpose: The purpose of this quantitative comparative study was to determine whether there were significant differences among Grades 3-5 students’ motivation and perception of parental encouragement for learning English at an International School in Nonthaburi, Thailand. Research design, data and methodology: A total of 102 students participated in this study. The research instrument was the Motivation and Perception of Parental Encouragement for Learning English Questionnaire (MPPEFLEQ) which was adapted from the international version (2004) of Gardner's Attitude/Motivation Test Battery (AMTB). Results: The results showed that there was a significant difference in both motivation and perception of parental encouragement for learning English among Grades 3-5 students at International School in Nonthaburi, Thailand. Conclusions: The results indicated that there were significant differences between students’ drive for learning English and parental support for learning English among Grades 3-5 students at an International School in Nonthaburi, Thailand. Keywords: An International School in Thailand, Grade 3 Students, Grade 4 Students, Grade 5 Students,  Motivation for Learning English, Perception of Parental Encouragement for Learning English JEL Classification Code: C12, I20, I21, N3

The Impact of Work Engagement, Psychological Empowerment and Organizational Commitment on Organizational Citizenship Behavior in a Hotel Service Sector: A Case Study of a Hotel Service in Roi Et, Thailand

The purpose of this study is to identify the factors which contribute towards organizational citizenship Behaviour of ABC hotel’s employee in Roi Et, Thailand. For the research, the variables consist of work engagement, psychological empowerment, organizational commitment and organizational citizenship behaviour. The samples involve 40 full-time employees of the hotel who are managers and employees. To access the current situation, the researcher applied organizational assessment and SWOT analysis and it was found that employees needed many areas of improvement to raise higher hotel performance standards. In addition, the purpose of this study is to construct Organization Development Intervention training to the employees to maximize their capability and proficiency. Data was collected by using quantitative and qualitative approaches during pre-ODI and post-ODI stages to see the difference. The influence of ODIs were interpreted by using paired sample t-test and Multiple Linear Regression to test the relationship between variables. As a result, the key findings of this study showed that the improvements of the independent variables which were work engagement, psychological empowerment, organizational commitment have positively impacted towards organizational citizenship behaviour. The major findings of this study suggest that OCB shows positively predicts performance of the employees in the hotel

A Correlational Study of Student Engagement and Attitudes Toward Learning English with English Academic Achievement

Purpose: The purpose of this quantitative study was to determine whether there was a significant relationship between student engagement and attitudes toward learning English with English academic achievement of Grade 3 students at an international school, Thailand. Research design, data and methodology: A total of 115 students participated in this study. The first research instrument was the Student Engagement and Attitudes Toward Learning English Questionnaire (SEATLEQ). It consisted of the Engaged Learning Index (ELI): Student Engagement to determine the level of student engagement; and Attitudes Toward Learning English Questionnaire (ATLEQ) to determine students’ attitudes toward learning English. The second research instrument was the English Final Test for Grade 3 students to analyze their English academic achievement. Results: The findings indicated that Grade 3 students at the target school had an overall high engagement level for learning English. While the overall level of attitudes toward learning English was interpreted as partially positive. The English Final Test depicted that students had a good level of English academic achievement. Conclusions: The results specified that there was a strong, positive, and significant relationship between student engagement and attitudes toward learning English with English academic achievement of Grade 3 students at an International School in Thailand

A Comparative Study of Attitudes Toward Learning Chinese as a Foreign Language of Grades 3-4 Students at an International School in Samut Prakarn, Thailand

This study was conducted to investigate 63 Grade 3 and 66 Grade 4 students’ attitudes toward learning Chinese as a foreign language (in terms of affective, behavioral and cognitive components) at an international school in academic year 2018-2019 in Samut Prakarn, Thailand. It was designed as a quantitative and comparative study. An adopted version of The Attitude toward Learning Chinese as a Foreign Language Questionnaire by Abidin, Pour-Mohammadi and Alzwari (2012) was used for data collection. The questionnaire included three subscales (attitude in terms of affective component, attitude in terms of behavioral component and attitude in terms of cognitive component) to discover the students’ attitudes toward learning Chinese as a foreign language. The data collected from the 129 questionnaires were analyzed by means and standard deviations, a multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) and independent samples t-tests. These were used to determine whether there was a significant difference between Grades 3 and 4 students’ attitudes toward learning Chinese as a foreign language (in terms of affective component, behavioral component and cognitive component). The study suggested that there was a significant difference between Grades 3 and 4 students’ attitudes toward learning Chinese as a foreign language

The listening talker: A review of human and algorithmic context-induced modifications of speech

International audienceSpeech output technology is finding widespread application, including in scenarios where intelligibility might be compromised - at least for some listeners - by adverse conditions. Unlike most current algorithms, talkers continually adapt their speech patterns as a response to the immediate context of spoken communication, where the type of interlocutor and the environment are the dominant situational factors influencing speech production. Observations of talker behaviour can motivate the design of more robust speech output algorithms. Starting with a listener-oriented categorisation of possible goals for speech modification, this review article summarises the extensive set of behavioural findings related to human speech modification, identifies which factors appear to be beneficial, and goes on to examine previous computational attempts to improve intelligibility in noise. The review concludes by tabulating 46 speech modifications, many of which have yet to be perceptually or algorithmically evaluated. Consequently, the review provides a roadmap for future work in improving the robustness of speech output