Centering theory (CT) has been adopted in analyzing 84 zero anaphors in 50 informative texts. It is found that most zero anaphors occur in Continuation state both in English texts (source texts (ST)) and Thai translation (target texts (TT)). Zero anaphors in the TT outnumber those in ST and are found in more environments. In terms of translation, most zero anaphors in source texts remain in the same form in the target texts although some items are translated into different anaphor forms. Results indicate that zero anaphor is used to keep discourse coherence and to refer to the backward-looking center (Cb) of current utterances in both languages. Therefore, most zero anaphors in source texts are translated into zero anaphors in target texts when the CT transition state of utterances in source texts and target texts is Continuation, and are translated into other anaphors when the CT transition state in source texts is changed to another transition state in the target texts. Constraints in translation of zero anaphors can be explained in terms of anaphor interpretation, salience of entities, syntactic constraint, and naturalness of translation. However, this paper focuses only on one type of anaphor, namely subject zero anaphor; investigation of other types of anaphor will reveal other discrepancies in using and translating anaphors from this language pair.

As a result of Chinese economic growth in the 21st century, Chinese for Specific Purposes (CPS) has become a new paradigm for the teaching and learning of language.  Despite some differences, it is reasonable to adapt the English for Specific Purposes (ESP) framework, in which a Needs analysis is fundamental for course design, into the CPS process. This study has two aims: to survey the need for nurses in Phuket to learn the Chinese language, and to suggest a course design for the target learners. Data were collected from 100 nurses working in three public hospitals on Phuket Island. The research instrument was an online questionnaire. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. The results show a high demand for learning Chinese, especially listening and speaking skills for communicating with patients and their relatives. Writing and reading skills are not highly desired by the target learners. Therefore, it is recommended that hospitals in Phuket should arrange in-house Chinese language courses, with course design based on the learners’ needs and preferences reported in this study.

The contributions of centering theory (CT) have been widely accepted in linguistics, but there has not yet been much published research applying the theory to first language (L1) interference. This study applies CT to investigate L1 interference in discourse coherence in essays written in English by Thai university students. A corpus compiled from 50 essays is analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively. Statistical results suggest that CT is more reliable than human raters in measuring coherence, since the data shows no influence of subjective measurement. Further analysis by CT shows that word repetition is the most common form of Cb (focus of attention) in the continuation states (56.6%), and Downloaded from Brill.com07/04/2020 01:49:48PM via free access Coherence in Thai Students' Essays: An Analysis Using Centering Theory 113 pronouns are the second most frequent form (39. 6%). These findings conflict with the predictions of CT, which assert that pronouns are usually preferred over noun phrases. Results of qualitative analysis pointed out that this discrepancy is caused by L1 interference in writing, since word repetition is commonly used in Thai discourse. The Thai students' English-language writing abilities were at pre-intermediate levels of competence. However, this aspect is not considered negative L1 interference since the use of repetition in the students' compositions helped the raters follow the ideas in the writing. The results also show that the students were not aware of issues of cohesion and were not confident in using pronouns. The L1 interference in discourse coherence, specifically word repetition, was recognized by Thai raters but not by native English-speaking (NES) raters.