The objectives of this study were 1) to compare the main effects of different degrees of support ... more The objectives of this study were 1) to compare the main effects of different degrees of support for learner independence, i.e. most support, semi-support, and least support through web-based instruction on Englissh reading comprehension ability of the students, and their effect sizes; 2) to compare the main effects of different levels of students' general English proficiency, i.e. high and low proficiency levels on English reading comprehension of the students, and their effect sizes; 3) to study the interaction effect of degrees of support for independence and levels of students' general English proficiency on English reading comprehension ability of the students, and its effect size; and 4) to investgate learners' attitudes towards learner independence through web-based instruction. This study took the form of the true experimental research design and had the 3x2 factorial design. Among the 108 subjects, 54 were high and 54 were low proficiency students. The subject c...
In English as a foreign language context, to cultivate language learners’ critical thinking skill... more In English as a foreign language context, to cultivate language learners’ critical thinking skills has become a part of the education goal. In China, great efforts have been made in order to increase Chinese college students’ critical thinking skills, but their critical thinking skills are not satisfying. As to the reasons, lack of sufficient and comprehensive understanding of critical thinking skills is supposed to be one of the reasons. Thus, this paper proposed to analyze critical thinking skills from the philosophical, reflective, cognitive, cultural perspectives hopefully to enhance understanding of critical thinking skills in Chinese EFL context.
To compose an argumentative writing essay for a Chinese college student is a challenging activity... more To compose an argumentative writing essay for a Chinese college student is a challenging activity as argumentative writing requires the high-order skills such as analysis, evaluation, reasoning. These skills are also termed as critical thinking skills. Thus this paper proposed to teach Chinese college English learners to compose an argumentative essay through the approach of infusing critical thinking skills into argumentative essay writing classes. It also put forward a pedagogical framework to facilitate Chinese college argumentative writing teachers to develop students’ argumentative writing ability.
Buta The objectives of this study were to examine the effect of the autonomous learning process (... more Buta The objectives of this study were to examine the effect of the autonomous learning process (ALP) on learner autonomy of undergraduate students in English public speaking class and its effect size; and to explore how learner autonomy is revealed through the ALP. This study employed a variant of a mixed-methods approach, which is an embedded experimental design. Employing the cluster sampling method, nineteen Thai students were included. The students were trained in the ALP based on the four dimensions of learner autonomy (technical, psychological, political-critical, and sociocultural.) Quantitative data were collected from the Learner Autonomy for Public Speaking (LAPS) questionnaires and analyzed by the dependent samples t-test. Qualitative data were drawn from the Overall Written Reflections, and thematic content analysis was used to analyze the data. The findings revealed that the level of students’ learner autonomy in the post-questionnaire significantly increased from the...
This study aimed to 1) investigate learner autonomy of Mattayom Suksa 6 or Grade 12 students, and... more This study aimed to 1) investigate learner autonomy of Mattayom Suksa 6 or Grade 12 students, and 2) examine the relationship between learner autonomy and gender, GPA, deep and surface learning approaches. It took the form of survey research employing questionnaires to gather data from 178 Mattayom Suksa 6 students. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics and multiple regression analysis. In response to research objective 1, it was found that, on average, learner autonomy of students was at a high level (M = 3.57, SD = .41). The findings of research objective 2 revealed that the independent variables that had the effects on learner autonomy at significant levels of .05 and 0.01 were GPA (β = .14, p = .03) a deep learning approach (β = .63, p = .00), and a surface learning approach (β = -.19, p = .01). Gender had no effect (β = -.11, p = .09) on autonomy. All of the independent variables had a moderate correlation with learner autonomy (R = .60) and collectively could explain...
The objectives of this study were 1) to examine the English learning strategies used by Chinese s... more The objectives of this study were 1) to examine the English learning strategies used by Chinese students in Thai private universities, and 2) to compare the English learning strategies used by female and male Chinese students. This study took the form of a mixed methods research using a questionnaire to collect both quantitative and qualitative data from 318 Chinese students at four private universities in Bangkok. The findings revealed that 1) on average Chinese students sometimes used English learning strategies (M = 3.20, SD = 0.74), and 2) on average the use of English learning strategies of male and female Chinese students in Thai private universities was not significantly different (p > 0.05). Recommendations were provided for English teachers to train Chinese students to use more English learning strategies, especially the strategies that they rarely use, and to conduct further research on the outcomes.
The objective of this study was to explore the attitudes toward learner autonomy of graduate stud... more The objective of this study was to explore the attitudes toward learner autonomy of graduate students in English Language Teaching (ELT) international program in Thailand. Attitudes toward definition and importance of learner autonomy, important persons in a learning process, and factors promoting and hindering autonomy development were explored. This study took a form of a qualitative research design using an open-response questionnaire to collect data from 23 participants from China, Myanmar and Thailand. The data were analyzed by thematic content analysis and four themes emerged: 1) Learner autonomy as technical, psychological, and political ability; 2) Perceived value of learner autonomy; 3) Importance of teacher and student in a learning process; and 4) Teachers as a major factor both promoting and hindering learner autonomy.
In this study, self-directed learning (SDL) refers to practices for English reading comprehension... more In this study, self-directed learning (SDL) refers to practices for English reading comprehension ability of individual students outside of a classroom for 7 consecutive weeks. The objectives were to investigate the effect of SDL on English reading comprehension ability and its effect size; and to explore how SDL improves English reading comprehension ability of the 33 MBA students of Dhurakij Pundit University in Bangkok, Thailand. This research project took the form of an embedded mixed methods design with a variant of the embedded experimental model. Quantitative data were collected by the reading part of TOEIC, and qualitative data by a Learning Summary and Evaluation Sheet, and by the teacher’s reflections. The dependent samples t-test reveals that, on average, the English reading comprehension ability of the subject students before the SDL (M = 12.30, SD = 2.76), and that after the SDL project (M = 13.33, SD = 3.30) is significantly different (p = 0.02). This means that, on av...
Learner autonomy development will not be successful if teachers themselves do not know what it is... more Learner autonomy development will not be successful if teachers themselves do not know what it is and how to implement it. Therefore, this study aimed to address the three research questions which were 1) What are teachers’ perspectives of learner autonomy in terms of its definition?; 2) Do teachers believe learner autonomy is important?; and 3) What are possible constraints on the development of learner autonomy by Thai students? Open-response items questionnaires were distributed to 70 Thai and non-Thai teachers teaching English in five private universities in Bangkok. Thematic content analysis was used to analyze the data. The findings revealed that 1) There were six definitions of learner autonomy (learner’s responsibility, independent learning with choice and freedom, self-study, motivation, independent learning with conditions, and mutual relationship between teacher and student); 2) Every teacher agreed that learner autonomy was important; and 3) There were three major co...
The objective of this study was to assess learner autonomy of English Language Teaching students ... more The objective of this study was to assess learner autonomy of English Language Teaching students in terms of technical, psychological, political-philosophical, and sociocultural dimensions. The 19 participants were in their first semester of MA ELT, which is an international program in an international university in Thailand. Among them, there were 15 Chinese, three Burmese, and one Thai. This study employed the explanatory mixed-methods design. First, Measuring Instrument for Language Learner Autonomy (MILLA) questionnaire (Murase, 2015) was used to collect quantitative data (QUAN). Then, a semi-structured interview with five participants was carried out to gather follow-up qualitative data (QUAL). The findings revealed that, on average, the students demonstrated a high level of autonomy in all four dimensions. The thematic content analysis generated four themes concerning each autonomy dimension: 1) the use of metacognitive strategies through professional goal setting 2) the intr...
Reflection is essential for the teaching practice course since it enhances life-long professional... more Reflection is essential for the teaching practice course since it enhances life-long professional teaching development of the teachers. Capacity to reflect needs to be developed. The objectives of this study were 1) to investigate the levels of learning reflection of pre-service EFL teachers at the end of the teaching practice course, and 2) to explore how reflection contributes to changes of the reflection levels. This study took the form of an embedded experimental mixed methods research design using a close and open-ended questionnaire and semi-structured interview to collect data from 13 international students at an MA ELT program. Data analysis was performed by a t-test and thematic content analysis. The findings revealed that 1) on average, the level of Habitual Action, Understanding, and Critical Reflection at the beginning and the end of the course was not significantly different. However, the level of Reflection was significantly different at the end of the course. Thre...
The objectives of this study were 1) to compare the main effects of different degrees of support ... more The objectives of this study were 1) to compare the main effects of different degrees of support for learner independence, i.e. most support, semi-support, and least support through web-based instruction on Englissh reading comprehension ability of the students, and their effect sizes; 2) to compare the main effects of different levels of students' general English proficiency, i.e. high and low proficiency levels on English reading comprehension of the students, and their effect sizes; 3) to study the interaction effect of degrees of support for independence and levels of students' general English proficiency on English reading comprehension ability of the students, and its effect size; and 4) to investgate learners' attitudes towards learner independence through web-based instruction. This study took the form of the true experimental research design and had the 3x2 factorial design. Among the 108 subjects, 54 were high and 54 were low proficiency students. The subject c...
In English as a foreign language context, to cultivate language learners’ critical thinking skill... more In English as a foreign language context, to cultivate language learners’ critical thinking skills has become a part of the education goal. In China, great efforts have been made in order to increase Chinese college students’ critical thinking skills, but their critical thinking skills are not satisfying. As to the reasons, lack of sufficient and comprehensive understanding of critical thinking skills is supposed to be one of the reasons. Thus, this paper proposed to analyze critical thinking skills from the philosophical, reflective, cognitive, cultural perspectives hopefully to enhance understanding of critical thinking skills in Chinese EFL context.
To compose an argumentative writing essay for a Chinese college student is a challenging activity... more To compose an argumentative writing essay for a Chinese college student is a challenging activity as argumentative writing requires the high-order skills such as analysis, evaluation, reasoning. These skills are also termed as critical thinking skills. Thus this paper proposed to teach Chinese college English learners to compose an argumentative essay through the approach of infusing critical thinking skills into argumentative essay writing classes. It also put forward a pedagogical framework to facilitate Chinese college argumentative writing teachers to develop students’ argumentative writing ability.
Buta The objectives of this study were to examine the effect of the autonomous learning process (... more Buta The objectives of this study were to examine the effect of the autonomous learning process (ALP) on learner autonomy of undergraduate students in English public speaking class and its effect size; and to explore how learner autonomy is revealed through the ALP. This study employed a variant of a mixed-methods approach, which is an embedded experimental design. Employing the cluster sampling method, nineteen Thai students were included. The students were trained in the ALP based on the four dimensions of learner autonomy (technical, psychological, political-critical, and sociocultural.) Quantitative data were collected from the Learner Autonomy for Public Speaking (LAPS) questionnaires and analyzed by the dependent samples t-test. Qualitative data were drawn from the Overall Written Reflections, and thematic content analysis was used to analyze the data. The findings revealed that the level of students’ learner autonomy in the post-questionnaire significantly increased from the...
This study aimed to 1) investigate learner autonomy of Mattayom Suksa 6 or Grade 12 students, and... more This study aimed to 1) investigate learner autonomy of Mattayom Suksa 6 or Grade 12 students, and 2) examine the relationship between learner autonomy and gender, GPA, deep and surface learning approaches. It took the form of survey research employing questionnaires to gather data from 178 Mattayom Suksa 6 students. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics and multiple regression analysis. In response to research objective 1, it was found that, on average, learner autonomy of students was at a high level (M = 3.57, SD = .41). The findings of research objective 2 revealed that the independent variables that had the effects on learner autonomy at significant levels of .05 and 0.01 were GPA (β = .14, p = .03) a deep learning approach (β = .63, p = .00), and a surface learning approach (β = -.19, p = .01). Gender had no effect (β = -.11, p = .09) on autonomy. All of the independent variables had a moderate correlation with learner autonomy (R = .60) and collectively could explain...
The objectives of this study were 1) to examine the English learning strategies used by Chinese s... more The objectives of this study were 1) to examine the English learning strategies used by Chinese students in Thai private universities, and 2) to compare the English learning strategies used by female and male Chinese students. This study took the form of a mixed methods research using a questionnaire to collect both quantitative and qualitative data from 318 Chinese students at four private universities in Bangkok. The findings revealed that 1) on average Chinese students sometimes used English learning strategies (M = 3.20, SD = 0.74), and 2) on average the use of English learning strategies of male and female Chinese students in Thai private universities was not significantly different (p > 0.05). Recommendations were provided for English teachers to train Chinese students to use more English learning strategies, especially the strategies that they rarely use, and to conduct further research on the outcomes.
The objective of this study was to explore the attitudes toward learner autonomy of graduate stud... more The objective of this study was to explore the attitudes toward learner autonomy of graduate students in English Language Teaching (ELT) international program in Thailand. Attitudes toward definition and importance of learner autonomy, important persons in a learning process, and factors promoting and hindering autonomy development were explored. This study took a form of a qualitative research design using an open-response questionnaire to collect data from 23 participants from China, Myanmar and Thailand. The data were analyzed by thematic content analysis and four themes emerged: 1) Learner autonomy as technical, psychological, and political ability; 2) Perceived value of learner autonomy; 3) Importance of teacher and student in a learning process; and 4) Teachers as a major factor both promoting and hindering learner autonomy.
In this study, self-directed learning (SDL) refers to practices for English reading comprehension... more In this study, self-directed learning (SDL) refers to practices for English reading comprehension ability of individual students outside of a classroom for 7 consecutive weeks. The objectives were to investigate the effect of SDL on English reading comprehension ability and its effect size; and to explore how SDL improves English reading comprehension ability of the 33 MBA students of Dhurakij Pundit University in Bangkok, Thailand. This research project took the form of an embedded mixed methods design with a variant of the embedded experimental model. Quantitative data were collected by the reading part of TOEIC, and qualitative data by a Learning Summary and Evaluation Sheet, and by the teacher’s reflections. The dependent samples t-test reveals that, on average, the English reading comprehension ability of the subject students before the SDL (M = 12.30, SD = 2.76), and that after the SDL project (M = 13.33, SD = 3.30) is significantly different (p = 0.02). This means that, on av...
Learner autonomy development will not be successful if teachers themselves do not know what it is... more Learner autonomy development will not be successful if teachers themselves do not know what it is and how to implement it. Therefore, this study aimed to address the three research questions which were 1) What are teachers’ perspectives of learner autonomy in terms of its definition?; 2) Do teachers believe learner autonomy is important?; and 3) What are possible constraints on the development of learner autonomy by Thai students? Open-response items questionnaires were distributed to 70 Thai and non-Thai teachers teaching English in five private universities in Bangkok. Thematic content analysis was used to analyze the data. The findings revealed that 1) There were six definitions of learner autonomy (learner’s responsibility, independent learning with choice and freedom, self-study, motivation, independent learning with conditions, and mutual relationship between teacher and student); 2) Every teacher agreed that learner autonomy was important; and 3) There were three major co...
The objective of this study was to assess learner autonomy of English Language Teaching students ... more The objective of this study was to assess learner autonomy of English Language Teaching students in terms of technical, psychological, political-philosophical, and sociocultural dimensions. The 19 participants were in their first semester of MA ELT, which is an international program in an international university in Thailand. Among them, there were 15 Chinese, three Burmese, and one Thai. This study employed the explanatory mixed-methods design. First, Measuring Instrument for Language Learner Autonomy (MILLA) questionnaire (Murase, 2015) was used to collect quantitative data (QUAN). Then, a semi-structured interview with five participants was carried out to gather follow-up qualitative data (QUAL). The findings revealed that, on average, the students demonstrated a high level of autonomy in all four dimensions. The thematic content analysis generated four themes concerning each autonomy dimension: 1) the use of metacognitive strategies through professional goal setting 2) the intr...
Reflection is essential for the teaching practice course since it enhances life-long professional... more Reflection is essential for the teaching practice course since it enhances life-long professional teaching development of the teachers. Capacity to reflect needs to be developed. The objectives of this study were 1) to investigate the levels of learning reflection of pre-service EFL teachers at the end of the teaching practice course, and 2) to explore how reflection contributes to changes of the reflection levels. This study took the form of an embedded experimental mixed methods research design using a close and open-ended questionnaire and semi-structured interview to collect data from 13 international students at an MA ELT program. Data analysis was performed by a t-test and thematic content analysis. The findings revealed that 1) on average, the level of Habitual Action, Understanding, and Critical Reflection at the beginning and the end of the course was not significantly different. However, the level of Reflection was significantly different at the end of the course. Thre...
Uploads