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Home » Learning Materials » Thai Language and Culture for Beginners

Thai Language and Culture for Beginners

Introduction

Thai Language and Culture for Beginners is a 2 volume beginner’s level textbook for conversational Standard Thai. It focuses on developing the learners’ listening and speaking skills.

Book Information

Author: Dr. Yuphaphann Hoonchamlong

Year published: 2007

Distributed by: University of Hawaii Press

To order the books from University of Hawaii Press, click BOOK 1 | BOOK 2

 

Designed primarily for use in a Thai as a Foreign Language class in U.S. universities, this course book uses a proficiency-based approach to learning Thai. TLCB coursebook set (Book 1 and Book 2) consists of 31 lessons and appendix sections providing samples of songs and poems of Thailand, as well as an index to structural patterns introduced in the text and a vocabulary index in both Thai to English and English to Thai order, providing both IPA transcription and Thai script.

Each lesson provides the learners with a presentation of the language points or skills to be practiced by providing key terms, structures and expressions relating to the skills indicated and contextualizing them in dialogues based on the theme of the lesson.

The content of each lesson also provides relevant cultural explanations and grammar notes for the learners, so that the classroom time can be spent on language practice and language interaction for communication between teachers and students and among students.

Learning Outcomes

As a beginner’s textbook for Thai language, TLCB materials intends to provide students with a foundation in Thai language proficiency for listening and speaking skills at the Novice High (as defined by American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL)), which is equivalent to CERF (Common European Framework of Reference for Languages) Level A2.

Completion of these materials through classroom study and self practice will prepare students for further study of Thai.

View the descriptors of these proficiency level here:

Proficiency levels

CEFR A2
  • Can understand sentences and frequently used expressions related to areas of most immediate relevance (e.g. very basic personal and family information, shopping, local geography, employment).
  • Can communicate in simple and routine tasks requiring a simple and direct exchange of information on familiar and routine matters.
  • Can describe in simple terms aspects of their background, immediate environment and matters in areas of immediate need.
ACTFL Novice High Speaking

Novice-level speakers can communicate short messages on highly predictable, everyday topics that affect them directly. They do so primarily through the use of isolated words and phrases that have been encountered, memorized, and recalled. Novice-level speakers may be difficult to understand even by the most sympathetic interlocutors accustomed to non-native speech

Speakers at the Novice High sublevel are able to handle a variety of tasks pertaining to the Intermediate level, but are unable to sustain performance at that level. They are able to manage successfully a number of uncomplicated communicative tasks in straightforward social situations.

Conversation is restricted to a few of the predictable topics necessary for survival in the target language culture, such as basic personal information, basic objects, and a limited number of activities, preferences, and immediate needs. Novice High speakers respond to simple, direct questions or requests for information. They are also able to ask a few formulaic questions.

Novice High speakers are able to express personal meaning by relying heavily on learned phrases or recombinations of these and what they hear from their interlocutor. Their language consists primarily of short and sometimes incomplete sentences in the present, and may be hesitant or inaccurate. On the other hand, since their language often consists of expansions of learned material and stock phrases, they may sometimes sound surprisingly fluent and accurate. Pronunciation, vocabulary, and syntax may be strongly influenced by the first language. Frequent misunderstandings may arise but, with repetition or rephrasing,

Novice High speakers can generally be understood by sympathetic interlocutors used to nonnatives. When called on to handle a variety of topics and perform functions pertaining to the Intermediate level, a Novice High speaker can sometimes respond in intelligible sentences, but will not be able to sustain sentence-level discourse.

ACTFL Novice High Listening

Novice-level listeners understand words and phrases from simple questions, statements, and high-frequency commands. They typically require repetition, rephrasing, and/or a slowed rate of speech for comprehension. They rely heavily on extralinguistic support to derive meaning.

At the Novice High sublevel, listeners are often but not always able to understand information from sentence-length speech, one utterance at a time, in basic personal and social contexts where there is contextual or extralinguistic support, though comprehension may often be very uneven. They are able to understand speech dealing with areas of practical need such as highly standardized messages, phrases, or instructions, if the vocabulary has been learned.

 

TLCB Multimedia E-Book Edition

The development of technology enhanced interactive multimedia e-book edition of TLCB started in 2016. These Interactive E-books serve as an "Audio visual companion" to the "printed" textbook, providing audio and video clips to the textbook content on demand.  These E-Books are accessible online, and are “mobile friendly”, i.e., the content and interaction is readily accessible across all different platforms, including smaller screen of smartphones and tablets.

 

TLCB Multimedia E-Activities

The latest redevelopment of a TLCB companion “workbook” which was developed as

an "on-line" language lab practice, focusing on the production and practice of sounds and sentence patterns of Thai, adding interactivity, with hints and answer keys for learners’ self-check and self-assessment

These activities have been developed with with up-to-date web technology that can accommodate most of the platforms and devices (computers, tablets, smartphones).

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Yuphaphann Hoonchamlong is Associate Professor of Thai and Coordinator of the Thai Language Program at the University of Hawai'i-Manoa. She taught Thai Linguistics for more than ten years at Thammasat University in Bangkok, Thailand, and since 1984 she has had extensive experience teaching Thai as a foreign language at various U.S. universities. She has been teaching Thai at the University of Hawai'i since 2001.

Dr. Yuphaphann Hoonchamlong

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