A Survey On The Phonetic Ability Of Local Chinese Teachers In Thailand

After the inclusion of Chinese into Thailand’s national education system,universities,primary and secondary schools,and vocational colleges have successively established Chinese majors or opened Chinese courses,and the types of Chinese teachers have also become more diversified.As an international Chinese teacher volunteer serving in Thailand,the author participated in multiple local Chinese teacher training sessions and found that local Chinese teachers in universities,primary and secondary schools,and vocational colleges differ in educational backgrounds and the ways they learn Chinese,and their pronunciation abilities vary widely.Pronunciation teaching is the starting point and cornerstone of language teaching,and teachers’ pronunciation ability is related to teaching quality,which must be given due attention.Therefore,this article takes three types of local Chinese teachers as the research objects,and uses research methods such as questionnaire surveys,interviews,and data analysis to investigate and analyze the phonetic abilities of local Chinese teachers in Thailand.Based on the latest "Professional Competence Standards for International Chinese Teachers" released in August 2022,combined with previous research literature and my own teaching experience in Thailand,the author defined the concept of phonetic ability and designed a survey framework and self-assessment questionnaire for the phonetic ability of local Chinese teachers in Thailand.A preliminary survey and comparison were conducted on the current situation of Chinese phonetic ability among local Chinese teachers in universities,primary and secondary schools,and vocational schools in Thailand,Summarized the current situation and problems of phonetic abilities of local Chinese teachers in Thailand.The results show that university teachers’ pronunciation knowledge and application abilities are prominent,but they lack effective pronunciation teaching methods;primary and secondary school teachers have good abilities in pronunciation basic knowledge,pronunciation production,and pronunciation recognition,but they have weaker abilities in describing and analyzing pronunciation phenomena,pronunciation teaching,and pronunciation communication;vocational school teachers have only a good grasp of basic knowledge such as Chinese pinyin,tone,and phonetics,but their abilities in other aspects of pronunciation need to be strengthened.Furthermore,through interviews,the author analyzed reasons for the problems with local Chinese teachers’ pronunciation abilities in Thailand.Finally,combined with the issues of local Chinese teachers’ semantic abilities,their causes,and the Thai social situation,the author proposed strategies for developing local Chinese teachers’ Chinese pronunciation abilities in Thailand.First,develop the standard for Chinese teachers’ pronunciation abilities in Thailand.The author tried to propose principles and methods for developing the standard and the application direction of the standard.Second,improve the quality of local Chinese teacher training.Third,promote teachers’ selfdevelopment strategies.It is hoped that through the current situation survey and corresponding countermeasures proposals,attention can be drawn to the pronunciation abilities of local Chinese teachers in Thailand and promote the further development of Chinese teaching in Thailand.