Enhancing Listening and Speaking Skills to Foreign Learners: Using the Blended TFL Instructional Model

An inevitable feature of Thai as foreign language learning in 21st century is integration of social media into classroom to improve language skills. This research, hence, aims to develop the blended Thai as a foreign language (TFL) instructional model based on communicative approach on social media to promote listening and speaking skills of non-Thai undergraduate students and examine the quality of the model. The researchers reviewed theoretical concepts related to the model development, studied teachers’ problems and opinions on teaching and learning TFL, then the present model was designed with eight elements. The model was evaluated the initial consistency by twenty experts in the related fields using IOC. The sample used in the research is the forty-four Chinese undergraduate students studying fundamental Thai language at Bansomdejchaophaya Rajabhat University in the second semester of the 2016 academic year from Guangxi University for Nationalities and Yunnan Agricultural University for the period of 15 weeks. The data were analyzed using means, standard deviation and t-statistics. The results of the research were as follows: 1) The Thai as a foreign language instructional model consisted of eight important elements which were: social media, contents, instructional activities, instructional strategies, instructional media, learners, instructors, and evaluation as well as there were three main steps and nine sub-steps: Language Presentation, Language Practice and Language Production. 2) The scores of listening and speaking skills post-test was higher than pre-test. 3) The experts and specialists shared opinions that the Thai as a foreign language instructional model was very appropriate, there were the mean scores between 0.87-1.

Keywords: Blended TFL instructional model, Non-Thai learners, Communicative approach, Social media, Listening and speaking skills.