Exploring The Merits of Team Teaching in Thai Classrooms: A Critical Reflection on Practice in East Asia

Abstract

In an era of ever-increasing ‘internationalization’ in the region, and with the demand to excel in the English language stronger than ever before, this paper seeks to revisit the notion of collaborative team teaching partnerships between local and international teachers as a useful pedagogical tool.  Drawing on studies carried out in well-established team teaching programs in East Asia (e.g. JET and EPIK), team teaching is critically evaluated with reflection on its potential to be utilized in Thai classrooms.  It is suggested that much more research is needed in Thailand to understand what kinds of teaching partnerships are adopted in reality, how affective they are, and what can be done to capitalize on their potential in EFL classrooms. It is argued that by maximizing teaching collaborations, the communicational abilities of Thai students could be given a much needed boost.