Thailand: Language Situation

Language, Education and Nation-building

“…The existing linguistic hierarchy, first outlined by Smalley (1994) and later updated by Premsrirat (2006Premsrirat ( , 2007 does not seem to be changing radically, apart from the reduced usage and endangerment of some marginal and enclave languages as their speakers shift to regional languages of wider communication or standard Thai. Most Thai citizens -particularly in urban areas -are largely unaware of the country's linguistic diversity, but accept the prevailing hierarchy at the higher levels, that is that standard Thai has a dominant position in the society, and all other language varieties are inferior to it.…”

“…Nevertheless, only an estimated 40 per cent of Thai citizens speak it as their first language (Lewis 2009). Despite this surprisingly low figure, standard Thai is widely spoken throughout the country, though no reliable data exist on the extent of people's bilingualism in it (Kosonen 2007(Kosonen , 2008(Kosonen , 2009Premsrirat 2006). High-level proficiency in standard Thai is essential for successful completion of higher education and for all white-collar jobs.…”

“…Leclerc 2012;Lewis 2009;Smalley 1994). 7 Many people, particularly in Central Thailand, however, see these regional languages as mere dialects or non-standard varieties of Central Thai, and not as separate languages (Kosonen 2007(Kosonen , 2008Premsrirat 2006Premsrirat , 2007Smalley 1994).…”

“…As in other Southeast Asian countries, the idea of using NDLs in formal education, however, is relatively new in Thailand, and difficult for many civil servants and politicians to grasp. Most use of NDLs in education has been in the non-formal sector, particularly in adult literacy and education as well as in early childhood education (ECE), before ECE became a part of the government system of education (Benson & Kosonen 2012;Kosonen 2003Kosonen , 2007Kosonen , 2008Kosonen , 2009Kosonen , 2010Prapasapong 2009;Premsrirat 2006;Smalley 1994).…”

“…) both within Thailand and with speakers in neighbouring countries (Person 2009a;Boonyasaranai 2010). Several revitalization projects among smaller groups with no previous orthographies have started as community efforts with some collaboration by academic linguists, particularly from Mahidol and Payap Universities (Kosonen 2008;Premsrirat 2006Premsrirat , 2007.…”