Thai Students’ Attitudes toward Co-Teaching between Thai Teachers and Japanese Teachers: the Case of a Conversation Class for Beginners

Abstract

The objective of this research was to study the attitudes of Thai learners in a beginner's Japanese conversation class. The population of the study was enrolled in the course Listening-Speaking I, which implemented co-teaching between Thai teachers and Japanese teachers. Data were collected using questionnaire with 74 students. The results revealed that the learners had positive attitudes toward the concept of co-teaching. As ideal ratio of Thai teachers to Japanese teachers delivering instruction for the course Listening-Speaking I, the ratio 50:50 was most selected compared with the ratio 100:0, 75:25, 25:75, and 0:100. The findings demonstrated the learners’ beliefs and preferences toward Thai teachers and Japanese teachers. The learners expected the Japanese teachers to be a good pronunciation role model while they expected the Thai teachers to provide a better understanding of language usage. Both the Thai teachers and Japanese teachers had an essential role in encouraging the learners to be motivated to learn the language and to practice it. The results also showed differences in learners’ attitudes toward self-expectations of communication skills between student groups, 1) the experienced major students, 2) the inexperienced major students, and 3) the non-major students.