No abstract

Elderly populations play important roles in society as providers of historical accounts, wisdom, culture, traditions, and social customs. As elderly people generally remain physically, mentally, and intellectually healthy, encouraging them to preserve and share their local identity through English language communication is one strategy that can support Thailand’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for older people. This study investigates the elderly’s need to learn communicative English for tourism to maintain local cultural identities. The participants included 170 retired elders from one district in a province in northern Thailand. The instruments used for data collection were questionnaires and semi-structured interviews. The results indicated that 65.88 % of elders expressed a need for English language training for tourism communication. The elders’ overall needs for training content were also at a high level (x̅= 3.69). Finally, the elders’ needs for situations for practicing English communication skills were at a high level (x̅= 3.74). The results of this study suggest that it is vital to survey and prioritize the elders’ needs for English language communication training courses for local community sustainability. The results of the present study have been used as guidelines for training elders to strengthen their role as a catalytic agent for local tourism.

Purpose – This paper discusses Chinese students’ negative and positive written feedback about Thai teachers using metaphorical descriptions and the links between it and their classroom experiences. Methodology – An open-response questionnaire was employed to collect the data from 21 Chinese female students. The questionnaire provided both positive and negative “people” or “thing” metaphors of Thai teachers for students’ selection. In addition, students were allowed to use their own metaphors to describe their teachers. Data was analyzed by using open and axial coding techniques. Findings – The results revealed that Chinese students were able to compare Thai teachers with either a “person” or “thing” metaphor and could write a metaphorical description that reflected different aspects of their instructors’ teaching, both positively and negatively. The quality of their descriptions was rich enough to link with their classroom learning experiences. Both positive and negative “people” and “thing” metaphorical descriptions were associated with three different viewpoints: academic, power dynamics, and emotion. The positive “people” metaphorical descriptions were linked to four classroom issues: knowledge and experience, teaching style, motivation, and guardian/protector. In contrast, the positive “thing” and negative “people” and “thing” metaphorical descriptions were linked to three classroom issues: knowledge and experience, teaching style, and emotion. Significance – These findings help to strengthen Thai-Sino understanding of the relationship between Chinese students and Thai teachers. Findings also suggested that Chinese students’ metaphorical feedback should be used with the non-metaphorical assessment form to evaluate and improve Thai teachers’ instructional practices in the Thai-Chinese student exchange curriculum.