Voices from Thai EFL Teachers: Perceptions and Beliefs towards the English Test in the National Examination in Thailand

Abstract

The Ordinary National Educational Test (O-NET), the national examination in Thailand, plays as a high-stakes test at an upper secondary school level as it can be used as a tool for several purposes in education such as gatekeepers for the university entry and measures for the teaching quality evaluation. English, out of the five core subjects in the O-NET, is believed to result in a high degree of washback effects for both teachers and students. Teachers and students are eagerly seeking how to reach high scores by mainly concentrating on the test-wiseness strategies, although the goal of English language teaching in Thailand is aimed at developing the English ability concerning both linguistics and communication. With respect to the English O-NET, this study aims to explore what Thai EFL teachers at an upper secondary school level think about the English test in the O-NET. The mixed-methods approach was employed to attain the research objective. A hundred teachers completed the questionnaires and 10 of them took part in the follow-up interviews. The main findings revealed that the majority of teachers were not satisfied with the English O-NET although they tended to focus on the test paper and taught to the test due to some pressures from other stakeholders in educational settings. The findings suggested that the test should include other aspects of language skills, such as listening and speaking, to avoid dependence on rote-learning and memorisation Some implications are also discussed in this study.