A Case Study into Anxiety Facing a Pre-service English Language Teacher in North-eastern Thailand

Paper presented at: "Building up of the Research Based Knowledge for Sustainable Development of the Greater Mekong Sub-region."

The 1st Nong Khai Campus International Conference 2013, Nong Khai, Thailand.
18-19 July 2013.

Abstract

English has gained even more importance for the countries of the Greater Mekong Sub-region (GMS) especially now that the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) intends to implement its Economic Community (EC) in 2015. At this time, English is the working language of ASEAN, so the teaching and learning of English has never been more relevant in this GMS zone.

In Thailand, the degree course for potential English language teachers was recently increased from four to five years to make use of a one year practicum period for pre-service teachers to work in schools to obtain experience before graduation from government universities.

This case study explored the anxiety experienced by one pre-service teacher from the northeast of Thailand to see to what extent the one year practicum experience reduced the anxiety faced by the teacher in the English language classroom, or not and why.

Through the use of questionnaires, online chat and an interview, this investigation presents and analyses data that illustrates how attitudes to anxiety can change over a period of time and details why opinions concerning small areas of anxiety in the English language classroom can change.

The results of this research has implications for the other members of the GMS region as they too strive to produce quality English language teaching professionals in order to increase the English language skills of their respective populations.

Paper will be submitted to a journal and will appear here after acceptance.