Journal of Liberal Arts Prince of Songkla University

Narrating Critical Events Through OCER: A Narrative Inquiry Into Researcher Identity Construction Among MA Graduates in Thailand

Xinlu Tian, Sutida Ngonkum — Tue, 30 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0700

Despite growing interest in researcher identity formation in higher education, limited research has examined how master’s students form researcher identities through critical academic events within specific institutional contexts. This study employed narrative inquiry to examine how master’s students in an English programme at a Thai university formed researcher identities through critical academic events. Drawing on Gee’s (2000) concept of institutional identity and McCabe’s (2002) Orientation–Complication–Evaluation–Result (OCER) framework, the study explored how participants interpreted their experiences over time. The findings indicated that participants initially positioned themselves as postgraduate learners (Orientation), subsequently encountered challenges such as topic uncertainty, workload pressure, academic English, and research methodology (Complication), and ultimately engaged in reflection and strategic adjustment (Evaluation). These processes led to increased autonomy and identification with the researcher identity (Result). Supervisory feedback, coursework, peer interaction, and family encouragement functioned as key supports that sustained engagement and legitimized emerging identities. The study highlighted researcher identity formation as a gradual process shaped by the interaction between challenge and support. These findings suggest that graduate programmes should balance rigorous research demands with sustained academic and interpersonal support.

The Acoustic Characteristics of Thai-Pāli Buddhist Reading and Chanting

Rungpat Roengpitya — Tue, 30 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0700

Language and culture can reflect the thought and worldview of community members, as proposed in the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis (1929). In Thai society, Buddhism, the main religion of the Thai people, can be rigorously studied through mantra excerpts in the Pāli language, a language without native speakers but performed in chanting. By practicing Buddhist reading and chanting, followers can help keep the Pāli language alive while purifying their minds. With limited existing studies on this topic, some questions arise: how can Buddhist reading and chanting be acoustically documented and scientifically explained? Additionally, are the acoustic characteristics of Buddhist reading and chanting similar or different? In this research, the aim was to explore the acoustics of the Thai-Pāli Buddhist reading and chanting. Two professional Buddhists read and chanted three Buddhist excerpts from the Pāli Canon. Their voices were digitally recorded, acoustically measured, and quantitatively computed in the Praat program. The acoustic results revealed significant acoustic differences between Thai-Pāli Buddhist reading and chanting. Specifically, chanted excerpts exhibited higher fundamental frequency (F0) ranges, and their vowel and final consonant durations were two to four times longer than those of the read versions. Furthermore, chanting presented extra acoustic features, including extraordinary vowel and sonorant lengthening, as well as internal glottalization. Additionally, the vowels /a, oo, and aa/ were most frequently produced, and the Thai level tones were preferred over contour tones in both styles. This research may shed light on future interdisciplinary research in acoustic phonetics to help revitalize our glocal languages and cultures.

The Effects of Communicative Tasks on Thai Grade 5 EFL Students’ English-Speaking Anxiety, Speaking Skills, and Perceptions

Tue, 30 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0700

English speaking anxiety is a common challenge among Thai EFL students and can negatively affect their willingness to communicate and speaking skills in the classroom. This classroom action study investigated the use of communicative tasks to reduce English-speaking anxiety, to develop English-speaking skills, and to explore perceptions among Grade 5 EFL students. The participants were 28 Grade 5 students selected by purposive sampling and five students for the interview session from a public school in the Sakon Nakhon educational service area in the academic year of 2025. Data were collected using the Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS) questionnaire, semi-structured interviews, classroom observations, and pre- and post-tests of speaking. Data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics and thematic analysis. The findings revealed that students’ overall anxiety levels significantly decreased from 75.89 to 70.82 (t = 2.31, p = .029). At the same time, there was a statistically significant improvement in students’ speaking skills, with mean scores increasing from 10.29 in the pre-test to 12.46 in the post-test (t = 6.04, p < .001). These results indicated that communicative tasks had a positive effect on both students’ speaking skills and their anxiety levels. Moreover, four themes emerged from the qualitative data. The most prominent themes included the reduction of speaking anxiety and greater acceptance of making mistakes, indicating that participants perceived communicative tasks as effective in alleviating foreign language speaking anxiety (FLSA). However, some lower-proficiency students continued to experience anxiety, suggesting that the effectiveness of communicative tasks may vary in accordance with students’ language proficiency levels.

Enhancing Thai EFL Learners’ Knowledge of English Adjective Order and Meaning Through a Board Game-Based Intervention

Jiraphat Nadee, Peewara Harnwongsa — Mon, 29 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0700

This study examined the effects of the ADJ.VENTURE board game on Thai EFL learners’ knowledge of English adjective meanings and adjective order, as well as their perceptions of game-based learning. Grounded in game-based learning principles and form-focused instruction, the study employed a quantitative quasi-experimental pretest-posttest design. Participants were 88 Grade 8 students from two intact classes at a secondary school. The intervention was implemented over ten instructional sessions, during which the experimental group received board game-based instruction supplemented by teacher guidance, while the control group received conventional instruction. Data were collected using a recognition test, an adjective ordering test, and a perception questionnaire. Descriptive statistics and independent-samples t-tests were used for data analysis. The results indicated that students in the experimental group obtained significantly higher post-test scores than those in the control group on both the recognition test (M = 15.32 vs. 9.73, p < .001, d = 2.15) and the adjective ordering test (M = 8.23 vs. 3.23, p < .001, d = 4.10). These findings suggest meaningful differences between the two instructional approaches. Questionnaire results further showed that learners held positive perceptions of the board game, particularly regarding enjoyment, engagement, vocabulary learning, and understanding of adjective order. While the findings suggest that board game-based instruction may support the development of lexical and grammatical knowledge of English adjectives, the results should be interpreted with caution due to the use of intact classes from a single school. Future research involving larger and more diverse samples is recommended.

MA TESOL Students’ Perceptions of the Relevance and Application of Sociolinguistics Course Content for Teaching Practice

Sonporn Sirikhan — Fri, 26 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0700

This study explored MA TESOL students’ perceptions of the relevance of sociolinguistics course content and how it applies to their future teaching practices. Although sociolinguistics courses are often part of TESOL graduate programs, limited research has examined how students assess their practical value in teaching. Using a qualitative classroom-based approach, this study employed a post-course evaluation framework to examine students’ perspectives on course content. Data were collected through focus group interviews with six international MA TESOL students at a private university in Thailand. The findings indicate that multilingualism and pragmatics were perceived as highly relevant due to their clear pedagogical applicability and connection to real-world communication. Meanwhile, discourse analysis and language and gender were viewed as less directly transferable to classroom practice because their pedagogical applications were unclear. In addition to the relevance of the topic, participants’ reflections showed how they connected the course content to their teaching practice. Three recurring themes emerged: recognition of multilingual practices, reconsideration of norms of correctness, and awareness related to teacher agency. These shifts included greater acceptance of linguistic diversity, increased emphasis on intelligibility, and critical awareness of language ideologies, particularly native-speakerism and the professional legitimacy of non-native English-speaking teachers. Overall, although the sample size was limited, these findings highlight the importance of focusing on contextual relevance, explicit pedagogical connections, and awareness of language issues in TESOL programs to enhance reflective and socially aware teaching practices in multilingual educational contexts.

A Corpus Stylistic Analysis of Lexical Features and Interpersonal Meaning in Never Let Me Go

Taweewat Inree, Kamonchanok Sanmuang — Tue, 30 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0700

This study aimed to investigate linguistic patterns in the novel Never Let Me Go (hereafter, NLMG) to help explain interpersonal meaning through a corpus linguistics method. This research identified language features in the narration of cloned characters, particularly keywords, four-word lexical bundles, and patterns of Parts of Speech (POS). The NLMG corpus was compiled, and AntConc was then used to extract keywords and four-word lexical bundles. Part-of-speech tagging was conducted using TagAnt (version 2.1.1). The keyword results were from the comparison of the NLMG corpus with the American English 2006 Corpus (AmE06). The results indicated that personal pronouns, particularly, I, we, and you, have a major effect on the narrative voice and interpersonal relationships. Some four-word lexical bundles, such as I don't know, I'm not sure, and I don't think, showed hesitation and uncertainty. Other bundles, such as Tommy and me, which refer to Ruth and other characters, fostered relationships and patterns of interaction. These patterns showed degrees of certainty, alignment, and social roles. They were interpreted through concordance and file-view analyses of the NLMG corpus together with the interpersonal framework of Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL), particularly mood and modality, to explain how the characters express certainty, uncertainty, and social relationships. The integration of corpus stylistics and the interpersonal metafunction of SFL provides a functionally motivated account of how recurrent language patterns shape uncertainty, stance, and social standing in literary discourse, offering a depth of explanation neither method achieves on its own.

Metacognitive Reading Strategy Instruction: Effects on Reading Comprehension and Attitudes Among Thai EFL University Students

Aummaraporn Nooyod — Fri, 26 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0700

This study investigated the effects of Metacognitive Reading Strategy Instruction (MRSI) on Thai EFL university students’ reading comprehension and examined learners’ attitudes toward MRSI. A quasi-experimental pretest-posttest design with a non-equivalent control group was employed. The participants were 51 Thai EFL university students enrolled in a reading course at a Thai university. They were divided into an experimental group (n = 26), which received MRSI, and a control group (n = 25), which received conventional reading instruction, over a 10-week period. The instruments included reading comprehension pretest and posttest and semi-structured interviews. Quantitative data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics, while qualitative data were analyzed using thematic analysis. The results showed that the experimental group improved significantly from pretest to posttest, t = 22.58, p < .001, d = 3.36, and outperformed the control group on the posttest, t = 4.67, p < .001, d = 4.32. Qualitative findings revealed generally positive attitudes toward MRSI, including increased confidence and motivation, clearer direction during reading, and greater strategic autonomy. However, some learners also reported difficulties with MRSI, particularly initial confusion with multiple strategy steps, increased cognitive load, slower reading, and the need for teacher and peer support during the early stages of strategy use. The study recommends integrating MRSI into reading courses to promote self-regulated reading. Teachers should provide explicit modeling, while curriculum designers should embed metacognitive strategy training activities.