The effects of teacher vs student centered instructional strategies on the vocabulary learning of sixth grade Thai students

This study focused on three different techniques used for teaching vocabulary to English as Foreign Language (EFL) students in Thailand. The purpose of this study was to find the "best" possible match of instructional technique with selected cultural elements in Thai 6th grade classroom. The study, conducted with 10 EFL teachers and 599 EFL students in Thailand, took the form of pretest-posttest and questionnaire for students, and interview for both students and teachers. To determine the effectiveness of three instructional techniques, students were asked to complete a pretest and posttest on vocabulary. In between the pretest and posttest, teachers were asked to teach vocabulary lessons to their students following a prescribed plan according to the instructional technique assigned to each classroom. Students were asked to complete a questionnaire asking about their feedback toward the instructional techniques and cultural factors that effected learning environment. Teachers and students were asked about their perspectives and cultural factors that effect teaching and learning effectiveness during the interview session. Results indicated that in terms of learning effectiveness, students who received Teacher-centered instructional technique performed better in some parts of vocabulary test than those who received Learner-centered instructional technique. Within Learner-centered instructional technique, students who received Cooperative Integrated Reading and Composition (CIRC) instructional technique outperformed students who received Jigsaw instructional technique. In terms of cultural elements, the results indicated that CIRC and Jigsaw are better matched with Thai 6th grade classrooms than Teacher-centered. The study provides suggestions and recommendations for Thai classroom on the instructional technique that better match with Thai teachers and students in terms of both classroom culture and learning effectiveness.