Education approach guideline of Applied Thai course for Foreigners

Abstract

This research is aimed to study the circumstances of the program management of Applied Thai for foreigners in accordance with the views of the executives, the lecturers and the students; the employers’ preferences to student performances; the problems relating to the program management as well as to recommend the development approach on the program management of Applied Thai. The target group includes the executives, the lecturers of Applied Thai, the third and the fourth class students in the academic year 2011. The tool is the questionnaire, data analysis using SPSS. The statistics used include the frequency, percentage, mean, and the standard deviation. The results of the study are as follows:- 1. As for the overall views of the students, the students agree with the program management of Applied Thai in a high level (μ=3.59). The highest mean is the lecturers’ qualifications (μ=3.86). As for the overall views of the executives, the executives agree with the program management of Applied Thai in a high level (μ=3.56). The highest mean is the evaluation (μ=3.84). As for the overall views of the lecturers, the lecturers agree with the program management of Applied Thai in a high level (μ=3.80). The highest mean is the lecturers’ qualifications (μ=4.37). 2. As for the employers’ preferences to students’ performances, the employers are generally satisfied with the students in a high level (μ=3.96). The highest mean is the students’ responsibilities for professional ethics (μ=4.13). 3. As for the problems relating to the program management, the issues that are required to be developed include the improper curriculum: the curriculum content is irrelevant to curriculum objectives and several courses are useless. As for evaluation, the test results should be noted after work in order to enable students to know their mistakes and the tests are too difficult. As for learning resources, there are lacks of modern audio-visual materials, books in the library and internet access. As for course administration, the course syllabuses are not equivalent to students’ needs. As for faculty environment, there are inadequate boarding rooms, classrooms and other facilities. As for student activities, Chinese students would like to participate in Thai students’ activities. 4. As for the approach on the program management of Applied Thai for foreigners, the need and interest analysis of the students should be considered as the crucial basis by studying background information of the students, course syllabus content and learning activities before developing the curriculum. Moreover, the curriculum should be adapted to serve for the student purposes and labor market needs.