Blended Thai So Culture and Realia in English Language Teaching for Youth Local Tour Guide
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This study of blending Thai So culture and realia in English Language Teaching (ELT) for local youth tour guides aims to develop ELT approaches to enhance the English communication skills of local youth tour guides in Ban Phon Chan School, Nakhon Phanom Province. The participants were 57 Thai students from the Thai So ethnic community in Phon Sawan District, Nakhon Phanom Province, Thailand, who speak the Thai So dialect and are surrounded by a unique culture and way of life. The research instruments consisted of a pretest and posttest, open-ended interviews, observations, and speaking presentations. Data analysis was preformed using paired sample t-tests and content analysis. The results show that using cultural tourism realia materials in the Thai So community can help develop the approaches used to teach English to, and the English skills of, the youth tour guides in the community. Assisting students who serve as youth tour guides to improve their English skills is advantageous for promoting community tourism because. the students use their English language skills to share information about their Thai So cultures and the related tourism realia. The participants’ scores on the pretest and the post-test indicate that the students who attended the local youth tour guide project were able to improve their ability to learn and use English and to relate information about their ‘Thai So’ culture at a statistically significant level (p<.01). Thus, the results indicate that the students should be provided opportunities to be able to practice their English skills in real-life situations and spend more time practicing with foreigners.
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