Students’ attitudes toward learning English through e-learning at a Thai university

Abstract

Abstract

          The standard of education has not increased in proportion to the demand for improving the standard of English in Thailand, especially in view of the pressure that the AEC will bring to bear on Thai people entering the employment market.  Although e-learning appears to be a solution, it is untraditional.  Thus, the concept of learning English through e-learning, while unsupervised (online self-study), was examined from the Thai student’s perspective. Three hundred and twenty students from Prince of Songkla University in Hat Yai completed a questionnaire, consisting of a 15-item Likert-type scale and one polar question. The objective was to ascertain whether the subjects are pro or anti learning English online and what the major obstacles to this are in terms of student preferences. It was found that the students were approximately 60 % pro the concept of e-learning. The obstacles were: students will seldom take the initiative to study English online unless they could gain credits; they feel uncomfortable without direct guidance from a teacher and feel that they lack self-discipline necessary for e-learning; and favor studying in groups. It is suggested that a pilot website be developed at PSU for further study.