The Open University EdD

The Relationship between Thai Culture and the Learning and Teaching of English in Northeastern Thailand

Abstract

This Year 1 Initial Study Final Report illustrates the evolution that has taken place in my exploration into the relationship between Thai culture and the learning and teaching of English in northeastern Thailand. This investigation has been divided into five sections.

The first section is the Introduction detailing the relationship I have with this research and its context, leading to a statement of the research questions that need to be addressed. The second section is the Literature Review that covers culture and learner-centeredness. In this section general cultural traits are discussed and Thai values and beliefs in particular. In addition, learner-centeredness is defined and explained with regard to the Thai context.

Methodology is the third section, which details my research position, methods of data collection, ethical procedures and methods of data analysis. The penultimate section is Results and Analysis, where examples of classroom observation, teacher interviews and student interviews are analyzed and triangulated.

The final section is Discussion and Implications for the Main Study, which is the purpose of this Year 1 Initial Study Final report.

Introduction

This initial study investigates the relationship between Thai culture and the learning and teaching of English in northeastern Thailand. Thailand has been trying to move from a teacher-centered rote learning approach to teaching English, to a more communicative learner-centered methodology with little success (Baker, 2012). Detractors believe that education reform in Thailand has come to a standstill (Hallinger & Bryant, 2013). There is the danger of a potential mis-match when educational pedagogies are transported across cultures without due consideration for the host country’s values and beliefs (Nguyen, et al., 2009). In this research, I explore whether this is the case in implementing learner-centered pedagogies in Thailand. This section explains my role as a researcher, my relationship to the research and the research questions for this initial study.

The full initial study can be downloaded here.

The feedback from the Open University can be downloaded here.

The final thesis can be downloaded here.

The final thesis can be downloaded from The Open University at: http://oro.open.ac.uk/59050/1/steven-graham-final-29dec18.pdf