Pornapit Darasawang

Developing Student Support in Self-access Centres

At the beginning of 2004, the Thai Ministry of Education established 80 self-access centres called SEARs (Students English Access Rooms) in secondary schools across the country. These SEARs are designed as a resource for students to help train them in how to learn according to their own learning styles, develop ability for self-directed learning and become independent learners based on their needs, interest and potentiality: in other words, to develop learner autonomy (Office of the Basic Education Commission, 2004). Despite central government funding and careful planning, many teachers and students are uncertain about how to gain the greatest benefits from SEARs. In this chapter, we explore from different perspectives what specific problems teachers and students face in making the best use of SEARs. Our goal is to understand what future support in such limited environments will best help the beneficial development of learner autonomy within SEARs in secondary schools in Thailand.

Innovation in Language Teaching: The Thai Context

This book is concerned with the study of innovation in English language education, in particular in the Thai context. It draws lessons from recent experiences in implementing innovation that can be useful for future developments, both in Thailand and abroad. This chapter begins by describing how English language education in Thailand has developed over the years, and how changes are initiated and implemented. We also briefly introduce each of the subsequent chapters.

Innovation in Language Teaching: Lessons Learned

On reading through all of the main chapters in this book, one aspect that stood out was the wide range of areas covered. The full gamut of educational levels is considered: from primary (Chapter 10) through secondary (Chapters 5 and 6) and undergraduate (Chapters 6, 7 and 9) to postgraduate (Chapters 3 and 4) as well as commercial schools (Chapter 8). In terms of scale of innovation, the chapters range from single courses or projects (Chapters 5, 8, 9 and 10) through whole curricula (Chapters 3 and 7) and institutions (Chapter 6) to national-level concerns (Chapters 2 and 6).