An Investigation Of Chinese Language Teaching And Learning At Betong Jong Fa Foundation School In Thailand

During ten months from later May,2014 to early March,2015, the writer of the thesis had the opportunity to teach Chinese at Betong Jong Fa Foundation School in Thailand as a volunteer. Basing on nearly one year teaching experience and on the information collected during teaching practice as well as from vast related works of literatures, the writer of the thesis studied the current situations of Chinese teaching, especially the teaching situations of native Chinese teachers and learning situations of the Thai students at Betong Jong Fa Foundation School. Therefore, on the theoretical basis of related works of literatures and on the practice basis of teaching, researching and analyzing, this paper concludes that there are four features about teaching and learning at Betong Jong Fa Foundation School. Firstly, they have a long history of Chinese teaching and learning. Secondly, Chinese is just one of the courses for they have arranged different classes based on Chinese. Thirdly, both the teaching and learning depend too much on Chinese teaching materials that do not meet the actual needs. Fourthly, teachers who teach Chinese there are relatively abundant, but young and experienced teachers are far less than experienced teachers who are retiring from their job. And both the level of their Chinese and their accomplishments need to be improved. Besides that, this paper concludes some situations in teaching and learing of Betong Jong Fa Foundation School. Firstly, they lack of young and promising administrators of Chinese teaching and learning. Secondly, teaching arrangement do not suit with teaching method of the school that ensuring the leading role of listening and speaking supplemented by reading and writing. Thirdly, the demand for native and qualified Chinese teachers is large. Fourthly, the teaching methods and the ways to manage students and classes are outdated. Fifthly, the teaching materials are beyond the understanding of students, which do not fit in with actual teaching and learning. Meanwhile, the teaching contents cannot motivate students to learn Chinese. Sixthly, students’learning goals are vague, and their learning interests and initiatives are relatively low. Based on the features and situations mentioned above, this paper is trying to come up with some suggestions and countermeasures accordingly. Firstly, the managing principles must be updated and creative. Secondly, the courses offered must take listening and speaking as first consideration. Meantime, extracurricular activities should be arranged to strengthen the atmosphere of learning Chinese. Thirdly, the school needs to intensify the construction and the selection system of native Chinese teachers. Also, it should offer teachers more opportunities for advanced studies and communication in order to explore their teaching potentials and to strengthen sense of responsibility. Fourthly, in order to improve students’initiative, teachers should select practicable and suitable teaching contents that close to life. Last but not the least, Betong is the habitation of Chinese, so administrators of the school should take advantage of this, and enhence the communication and cooperation with Chinese to realize resource sharing as well as introducing new ideas for Chinese teaching and learning. Basing on the research, we reckon that the teaching and learning situations of Betong Jong Fa Foundation School embodies those of other Chinese schools in Thailand. Therefore, taking the situations of Betong Jong Fa Foundation School seriously is important to improve the level of teaching and learning of Chinese schools in Thailand.