Thai University Students' Beliefs about English Language Teaching and Learning and Awareness of Global Englishes

Y

21

Foreign Countries; College Students; Student Attitudes; English (Second Language); Second Language Instruction; Second Language Learning; Teaching Methods; Language Teachers

2148-225X

This study investigates how Thai university students believe about English language teaching and learning and to what extent they are aware of English variation or Global Englishes (GE). The participants are 13 senior English-major students who studied at a public university in northern Thailand in the academic year 2019. As the main research tool, the semistructured interview was employed to gain data from the participants and the data was analyzed using a qualitative content analysis approach. The results inform that the students' beliefs about English language are the core beliefs influencing other types of beliefs in the belief system including beliefs about English teaching and learning and English teachers. Nonetheless, such beliefs are dynamic and can change over a period of their exposure to English communication outside the classroom. In terms of awareness of GE, although the interview responses show some levels of students' awareness of GE, the analysis results place such awareness only at the implicit level given that the participants could neither express explicitly about GE nor explain it in detail. These results suggest Thailand's English classrooms reconsider teaching and learning focuses to be more related to the current sociolinguistic phenomenon of English as a global language.

As Provided

2021

EJ1318843