Teaching Thai in a Multicultural Setting: A Case of Thai Language and Culture Courses in international Schools

Abstract

This article aims to introduce an alternative approach for teaching Thai language and Culture courses in a multicultural setting in international schools, namely Literature-Based Instruction, which could enhance 4 language skills among students and teachers could also integrate some content knowledge i.e. History, Social studies, Geography etc. to their lessons. This article results from the study of some related research papers and will be mainly presenting 2 points as follows: (1) current situation of teaching Thai language and Culture in international schools and (2) literature-based instructional model which includes 3 steps and 5 teaching strategies. Since international school is a diverse and multilingual community, the differentiated instruction is also suggested to support second language learners and/or those with different cultural backgrounds and mixed language ability to be equally successful at school.