Foreign literacy practices and learning skills among Indonesian and Thai students of graduate education studies

Abstract

     The research aimed to identify the English language competence of Indonesian (N = 73) and Thai (N = 60) students through describing their study skills by documenting their foreign language learning strategies, and documenting ways they used their competence in English or other foreign languages to facilitate their learning processes. Participants of the study possessed foreign language skills other than English. In this case, some Indo- nesian students were able to speak French and Japanese, and some Thai students were able to speak Chinese and Lao. However, their foreign language skills were mostly poor. Only a few students claimed that they were good foreign language speakers. It is believed that when individuals did not practice their foreign language skills frequently, they lost their skills acquisition as they were not able to keep their language knowledge in their memory. In terms of language use, they spoke their foreign language(s) mostly for academic and cultural purposes. In sum, both Indonesian and Thai graduate students were mostly classified into the receptive type of learners because they tended to manipulate receptive skills rather than productive ones. For their academic purposes, they only needed to read and listen. Hence, their writing skills were rarely developed. It is recommended that the students improve their literacy skills in order to enhance their study skills and a further study be conducted to gather more valid and accurate data.