A study of Mission and Role in Chinese Research of the Confucius Institute in Thailand

Abstract

This paper aims to 1) study the problems in Chinese language research of Chinese teachers, 2) survey the demand in establishing a research center that will facilitate Chinese language teaching personnel, 3) initiate a guideline for the Confucius Institute's Chinese research cooperation with Thai educational institutions in the future using a combined research method. The sample groups were from 27 Confucius Institutes and Confucius Classrooms in Thailand. There were 106 participants giving their evaluation on the key performance of current Confucius Institutes and their opinion on forthcoming Chinese research support.

The results showed that the most special and outstanding of the missions and roles in Thailand is HSK Test Center with an average (Mean = 8.46). The development of Confucius Institutes in Thailand had three main phases are the first phase (2006-2011), the second phase (2012-2016), the third phase (2017-present). The top three obstacles for conducting Chinese research were 1) the lack of experts in Chinese research (53.3%), 2) the lack of financial support (45.7%), 3) non-existence of research advisory center (32.4%). Accordingly, the top three reasons or demands for teachers’ decision to conduct Chinese research were 1) the instructive experts (71.4 %), 2) research budget (68.6%), 3) the database to Chinese research resources (46.7%). Guidelines for future cooperation under the support of the Confucius Institute by establishing a Chinese Research Support Center in Thailand It has 3 main roles: 1) as a source of research funding; 2) Resource Center Chinese research and information database 3) As a center for Chinese experts to provide Chinese research consulting which will benefit teachers Thai teacher in line with the national education strategy is an upgrade of the role mission and reflect the value of the establishment of the Confucius Institute in Thailand to the world stage.