1

Message from Associate Professor Dr. Chiradet Ousawat

President, University of the Thai Chamber of Commerce

Your Excellency, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen. It is my privilege to

welcome you here today to the 2006 International Conference on “Language: In the
Realm of Social Dynamics.” I do so on behalf of the University of the Thai Chamber
of Commerce, one of Thailand’s pre-eminent private universities, and our co-sponsors
of this conference, The Nation Newspaper, Oxford University Press, SK Union
Language Sound Co., Ltd., and the Montien Riverside Hotel.

Universities have always been centers of enquiry, questioning, learning and research.
More recently with the growing recognition of an “international academic
community”, there has been acceleration in the exchanges of the fruits of these
endeavors between universities and other institutions of higher learning and
education. Forums like the one we are opening today provide an ideal vehicle for a
meeting of minds and the sharing of our collective wisdom.

It is particularly pleasing to note the attendance and participation in this conference of

colleagues from as far as the United States, Australia, the Philippines, Malaysia,
Taiwan and Brunei Darussalam - not forgetting, of course, our friends from many of
our sister universities in Thailand. Welcome all!

In the course of the next three days we will discuss the issues related to language and
social dynamics, seek definition of how language and society are intermingled in an
era of globalization, and share insights into the role of language and how it has been
affected in various domains such as education, media, business and commerce,
communication technology and in the field of law and politics.

So in welcoming you again, I ask that you be an active participant. Question,

challenge and stimulate the discussions. We will all be the richer for it.

Thank you.
 2

Conference Organizing Committee

Dr. Yajai Chuwicha

Panchai Poonwathu
Pornpan Boonpatanaporn
Patcharin Jamroonrojana
Dr. Parichat Wongsuwan
Assistant Professor Sutthinee Tangsajjanuraks
Dr. Wanida Ploysangwal
Ampai Boonyarug
Thanantiya Chaiyasate
Pasakara Chuasuay
Rossukon Rattanathada
David Brown
Andy Link

Reviewers of Abstracts

Dr. Yajai Chuwicha

Dr. Wanida Ploysangwal
Dr. Parichat Wongsuwan
Assistant Professor Dr. Kittisak Kerdarunsuksri
Assistant Professor Sutthinee Tangsajjanuraks
Panchai Poonwathu
 3

School of Humanities,
The University of the Thai Chamber of Commerce

2006 International Conference

“Language: In the Realm of Social Dynamics”
www.utcc.ac.th/lirod/

8-10 March 2006

The Montien Riverside Hotel Bangkok

Rationale:
Language and society are dependent to each other. People cannot learn a language
without learning about a society. Both are dynamic. When our society has changed,
we can also notice the change in our language. The study of language and society,
being closely inter-linked, will benefit from interdisciplinary collaboration. Research
in the field has been conducted to give insights of how language and society are
intermingled, and thus we can understand them more.

The 2006 International Conference entitled “Language: In the Realm of Social

Dynamics” will feature a variety of presentations and discussions about current
research focusing on language and its role in various contexts.

Objectives:
The conference aims to:
1. provide participants with an overview of issues related to language and
social dynamics;
2. define how language and society are intermingled due to rapid changes
in the era of globalization;
3. share insights into the role of language and how it has been affected in
various domains – education, media, business and commerce,
communication technology, and legal and politics.

Conference Themes:
• Language in Technology and Business Communication
• Language in Education
• Language in Media
• Language in Law and Politics
• Language and Culture
• Language Shifts and Maintenance

Dates: 8-10 March 2006

 4

Venue: The Montien Riverside Hotel

372 Rama 3 RoadBangkhloBangkok 10120 Thailand
Telephone: (662) 292-2999
Website: www.montien.com/riverside/default.asp
E-Mail Address: riverside@montien.com

Expected Outcomes:
1. Participants have a new vision of how language and society are
intermingled.
2. Participants gain from shared experiences and knowledge obtained
from research in this field.
3. Participants are motivated to conduct more rigorous research based on
interdisciplinary collaboration, so a new body of knowledge is
generated.
4. Participants make use of the knowledge gained from the conference to
develop themselves in both teaching and research work.

Registration Fees

Overseas US $ Local ฿
Participants 100 Participants 2,000
Presenter 85 Presenter 1,500
Students 75 Students 1,000
Note: Lunch, breaks and conference dinner are included.

Papers: Up to 20 minutes for presentation and 10 minutes for discussion

Submission of Abstracts:
Abstracts should be no more than 150 words. Papers should be on an aspect of
English in the realm of social dynamics and should preferably relate to one of the
themes of the conference listed above.

Send the abstract of your proposed paper electronically as an e-mail attachment in

Microsoft Word format to: Email : lirod@utcc.ac.th. Electronic abstracts will be
acknowledged within a week of receipt. If you do not receive an acknowledgement
within that time, please send it again. It is the responsibility of all those sending an
abstract electronically to ensure that the submission is virus-free. Alternatively, mail
your abstract (with disk copy in MS Word) to:

Mr. Panchai Poonwathu

Department of English for Business Communication
School of Humanities
University of the Thai Chamber of Commerce
126/1 Vibhavadee-Rangsit Road, Huay Khwang, Dindaeng,
Bangkok 10400, Thailand
Tel : (662) 697-6409 Fax : (662) 276-2127
 5

Please include a brief bio-data statement (maximum 50 words) with your abstract on a
separate sheet as well as contact information, including name, title, institutional
affiliation and address for correspondence, if different, and e-mail address.

Deadline for Abstract Submission: 31 January 2006

Participants will be informed within 30 days of their submission of abstract whether
their papers have been accepted for presentation at the conference.
 6

Conference Program Timetable

Wednesday 8 March 2006
08.00 am. – 09.00 am. Arrival and registration (Vimanthip Foyer, 5th Floor)
09.00 am. – 09.15 am. Opening ceremony by Minister of Education
(Vimanthip Room, 5th Floor)
09.15 am. – 10.00 am. Keynote speaker: Minister of Education
“A leap to the future: English language
teaching in transition or transformation?”
(Vimanthip Room)
10.00 am. – 10.30 am. Tea break (Vimanthip Foyer)
10.30 am. – 12.00 pm. Symposia
Mae Klong Room 2
• Dr. Gary M. Jones, Universiti Brunei
Darussalam, Brunei Darussalam
“Is success or failure in public examination a
fair reflection of language competence within a
community?”
• Professor Dr. Chan Swee Heng & Ain
Nadzimah Abdulah, Universiti Putra Malaysia,
Malaysia
“Reacting to the dynamics of social change in
language education planning and policy”
• Dr. Nesamalar Chitravelu, Universiti Brunei
Darussalam, Brunei Darussalam
“The interpretative and pedagogic corollaries of
genre and social dynamics in Third World
situations”
Mae Klong Room 3
• Associate Professor Dr. Chihiro Kinoshita
Thomson, University of New South Wales,
Australia
“Gendered language in teaching Japanese”
• Ann Gillian Elgar, Universiti Brunei
Darussalam, Brunei darussalam
“Learners of English and issues of language,
gender, and society”
• Tuanta Laosooksri, Srinakharinwirot University,
Thailand
“An Evaluation of the Srinakharinwirot MA in
TEFL Program”
12.00 pm. – 01.00 pm. Lunch (Chao Praya, 3rd Floor)
01.00 pm. – 02.00 pm. Keynote speaker: Professor Jamie Wallin
“Language education: Reducing the gap between
the advantaged and disadvantaged”
(Vimanthip Room)
02.00 pm. – 02.30 pm. Tea break (Vimanthip Foyer)
 7

02.30 pm. – 03.30 pm. Forum: “English language teaching in dilemma”

(Vimanthip Room)
• Associate Professor Dr. Somtawil Dhanasobhon
(Kasatesat University)
• Associate Professor Dr. Ruja Pholswad
(Rangsit University)
• Dr. Wanida Ploysangwal
(University of the Thai Chamber of
Commerce)
03.00 pm. – 04.30 pm. Symposia
Mae Klong Room 2
• Assistant Professor Sutthinee Tangsajjanuraks,
University of the Thai Chamber of Commerce,
Thailand
“An investigation of bilingual teachers
teaching”
• Maria Chona Lin, Ateneo de Manila University,
the Philippines
“Reading the wor(l)d: Examining everyday
texts as multimodal texts”
• Assistant Professor Dr. Damrong Attaprechakul,
Thammasat University, Thailand
“Inferring the book reviewers’ attitude”
Mae Klong Room 3
• Ron Darvin, Ateneo de Manila University, the
Philippines
A critical approach to the languages of film”
• Professor Dr. Maya Khemlani David & Kuang
Ching Hei, Universiti Malaya, Malaysia
“Local lexical entries in English dailies in
Multilingual Malaysia”
• Narupon Sonsri, University of the Thai Chamber
of Commerce, Thailand
“The possibilities of the language used in
translation of pop songs from English into Thai”
06.00 pm. – 09.00 pm. Reception & dinner talk
Invited speaker: Professor Dr. Richard Donato
“Sociocultural perspectives on language learning,
tools, tasks, and talk”
(Vimanthip Room)
 8

Thursday 9 March 2006

08.00 am. – 09.00 am. Arrival and registration (Vimanthip Foyer)
09.00 am. – 10.30 am. Invited speaker: Dr. Surin Pitsuwan
“Language, education, and southern issues”
(Vimanthip Room)
10.30 am. – 11.00 am. Tea break (Vimanthip Foyer)
11.00 am. – 12.30 pm. Symposia
Mae Klong Room 2
• Professor Dr. Zuraidah Mohd Don, Universiti
Malaya, Malaysia
“Analysing political discourse: A corpus-
based approach to code-switching in political
speeches”
• Ain Nadzimah Abdulah & Associate Professor
Dr. Rosli Talif, Universiti Putra Malaysia,
Malaysia
“Complying to national language policy:
Language use in the legal domain”
• TBA
Mae Klong Room 3
• Assistant Professor Dr. Kun-Lin Shu, Northern
Taiwan Institute of Science and Technology,
Taiwan
“How do Mandarin-speaking children acquire
and use aspect markers?”
• Dr. Wong Bee Eng & Lim Sep Neo, Universiti
Putra Malaysia, Malaysia
“Literacy in a foreign language classroom: The
learning of French pronouns by L1 Chinese
speakers”
• David Common, Dhurakij Pundit University,
Thailand
“Metapragmatic awareness: An investigation
into how mutual understanding might be
negotiated and achieved in cross-cultural
encounters”
12.30 pm. – 01.30 pm. Lunch (Chao Praya, 3rd Floor)
01.30 pm. – 02.15 pm. Invited speaker:
Assistant Professor Dr. Dhanate Vetpada
“Language in the mist”
(Vimanthip Room)
02.15 pm. – 03.00 pm. Invited speaker: (TBA)
“Language in advertising)
(Vimanthip Room)
03.00 pm. – 03.15 pm. Tea break (Vimanthip Foyer)
 9

03.15 pm. – 04.45 pm. Symposia

Mae Klong Room 2
• Dr. Wanida Ploysangwal, University of the Thai
Chamber of Commerce, Thailand
“Boosting reading aloud ability for Thai
students”
• Patteera Thienpermpool, Thailand
“Measuring the coherence of writing using
topic-based analysis”
• Preeyanuch Pawanarith Chanprasert, University
of the Thai Chamber of Commerce, Thailand
“The effect of the teaching kit on listening and
speaking proficiency of students enrolled in
English for Communication 4 at the University
of the Thai Chamber of Commerce”
Mae Klong Room 3
• David Brown, University of the Thai Chamber
of Commerce, Thailand
“A case study in encountering participation in a
Thai university English conversation class”
• Patcharin Jumroonrojana, University of the Thai
Chamber of Commerce, Thailand
“E-on-Air experience: Can it benefit language
learning and teaching”
• Chanpreeya Boonyarattapan, University of the
Thai Chamber of Commerce, Thailand
“Validation of a listening comprehension test:
The impact of test response formats”
 10

Friday 10 March 2006

08.00 am. – 09.00 am. Arrival and registration (Vimanthip Foyer)
09.00 am. – 10.00 am. Invited speaker: Professor Dr. Suwilai Premsrirat
“The language ecology in Thailand: Are they being
threatened and dying?”
(Vimanthip Room)
10.00 am. – 10.30 am. Tea break (Vimanthip Foyer)
10.30 am. – 12.00 am. Symposia
Mae Klong Room 2
• Assistant Professor Jariya Nualniran, University
of the Thai Chamber of Commerce, Thailand
“Language of art and language of morality in
Thai society”
• Assistant Professor Buaphan Supanayot,
University of the Thai Chamber of Commerce,
Thailand
“Sexuality in Thai folk songs”
• Assistant Professor Dr. Kittisak Kerdarunsuksri,
University of the Thai Chamber of Commerce,
Thailand
“Thai belief in Chinese amulets”
• Narupon Sonsri, University of the Thai Chamber
of Commerce, Thailand
“The possibilities of the language used in
translation of pop songs from English into Thai”
Mae Klong Room 3
• Monthira Tamuang, Thailand
“False friends in a Thai women’s magazine”
• Dr. Tipa Thep-Ackrapong
“Newspaper as teaching Materials in translation
class”
• Anat Wonggositkul, University of the Thai
Chamber of Commerce, Thailand
“A survey of languages used by Muslims in
Thailand”
• Dr. Supamas Eng-chuan, Ramkamhaeng
University, Thailand
“A comparative study of color terms among
Fujian speakers in Singapore, Taiwan, Penang,
and Southern Thailand”
12.00 am. – 12.30 pm. Closing ceremony (Vimanthip Room)
12.30 pm. – 01.30 pm. Lunch (The Emperor, 4th Floor)
 11

Abstract

Complying to National Language Policy: Language Use in the

Legal Domain
Ain Nadzimah Abdullah & Associate Professor Dr. Rosli Talif
Universiti Putra Malaysia
Malaysia
ain@putra.upm.edu.my

Language choice decisions in the Malaysian courtroom are often a result of

contact between Bahasa Malaysia (the national language) and English, that is,
languages belonging to separate language groups and families. This study takes a
domain related view of language choice and use in criminal court proceedings (in
the Malaysian High Court) whilst attempting to examine the social-cultural factors
which influence this choice.

The underlying question of importance in this study, relative to language choice

and use asks: Is there sufficient use of the national language, within the legal
profession when dealing with criminal legal matters as required by Malaysia’s
language policy? Essentially, the sub-domains within the criminal legal domain
are investigated in this study. In essence, this study aims at investigating what
accounts for a bilingual’s preference of one language over another in an
interaction within the legal domain when dealing with criminal matters.
 12

Reacting to the Dynamics of Social Change in Language Education

Planning and Policy

Professor Dr. Chan Swee Heng & Ain Nadzimah Abdullah

Universiti Putra Malaysia
Malaysia
shchan@fbm.upm.edu.my
ain@putra.upm.edu.my

The dynamics of a language education policy address changing social realities. These
dynamics are situated in policy innovations which can be historically staged. Prior to
1970, English was the main medium of instruction for the multi lingual and multi
racial Malaysian classroom. However from 1970 onwards, Bahasa Melayu (the
national language) replaced English as the medium of instruction. Today, a partial
reversal policy sees English being used again for the teaching of Mathematics and
Science in schools. In this study, a survey accompanied by a structured interview, was
carried out to empirically harness reactions and responses of Malaysians to the policy
innovation. The findings reflect how Malaysians cope with changing realities in the
context of language planning and policy. The effort constitutes an ongoing assessment
of language policy efficacy in Malaysia, which is currently challenged to nurture a
citizenry that would be able to meet global demands for economic efficiency.
 13

A Survey of Languages Used by Muslims in Bangkok

Anat Wonggositkul
Department of English for Business Communication
School of Humanities
The University of the Thai Chamber of Commerce
Thailand
anat1959@hotmail.com

There are about 10% of the population in Thailand which are Muslims. Muslims live
in every part around Thailand and they have different races: Malay, Indian,
Indonesian, Pakistani, Bengali, Cambodian, Chinese, etc. In these Muslim
communities, they still use their languages together with Thai language. The notable
ones are the kinship terms and the words used in the religious practice. This paper
will indicate the example of some groups with their languages and culture, and give
the suggestion in studying more in each race. It will help people to understand their
way of lives, belief and attitude.
 14

Learners of English and Issues of Language, Gender, and Society

Ann Gillian Elgar
Department of English Language and Applied Linguistics
University of Brunei Darussalam
Brunei Darussalam
annelgar@fass.ubn.edu.bn

Considerable research attention has been devoted to investigating areas of interaction

between language, gender, and society. This paper seeks to consider some of the
implications of this research for the practice of English language teaching, making
reference where appropriate to the presenter’s recent teaching experience at the
University of Brunei. The paper first highlights salient aspects of the research
literature on gender and language in society. Then, using written texts as its data
source, it samples past and current practice in aspects of the use of English of
relevance to the portrayal of males and females. Finally, based on the above
discussion, it provides an initial response to the questions: to what extent, and in what
respects, should students of English develop awareness of issues of language and
gender, and to what extent will such awareness be affected by developments within
the societies in which they live.
 15

The Interpretive and Pedagogic Corollaries of Genre and Social

Dynamics in Third World Situations

Dr. Nesamalar Chitravelu

Department of English Language and Applied Linguistics
University of Brunei Darussalam
Brunei Darussalam
nesa@fass.ubd.edu.bn

It is now a generally acknowledged fact that the content and shape of a text is a
response to the constantly evolving communicative needs of the people who use each
type of text in the fulfillment of their different needs. The locus of attention of this
paper will be on how the reciprocity of text and social dynamics does (does not) affect
literacy and pedagogic practices in Third World countries. This paper has a dual
focus. The first part of the paper will discuss some correlations between the content
and shape of some texts, e.g., food labels, film advertisements, journal articles and
news reports - and the social embedding in which they find their users and uses. The
second part of the paper will discuss the implications of the issues raised in the first
part for the interpretation and the pedagogic exploitation of such texts.
 16

Is success or failure in public examinations a fair reflection of

language competence within a community?

Dr. Gary M. Jones

Department of English Language and Applied Linguistics
Universiti Brunei Darussalam
Brunei Darussalam
gmjones@fass.ubd.edu.bn

Bruneian schoolchildren follow a bilingual English/Malay curriculum and the English

language is understood and used widely in the country. As well as being an important
school language, it is also used in commerce and industry and even to conduct and
record many functions of government. Younger Bruneians appear to be particularly
confident and competent in using English. However, success in the country’s main
English language examination, GCE ‘O’ level, remains remarkably poor. This is
obviously a cause of great concern for the Ministry of Education and schools, but
does not seem to disturb the average Bruneian. As this paper will demonstrate, while
education authorities and the government in general may use public examinations as a
measure of language success and ability, society at large judges competence in
different ways. This paper will demonstrate how misleading public examinations can
be and suggest other criteria that might be used to determine language competency
within a community.
 17

Reading the Wor(l)d: Examining Everyday Texts as Multimodal

Texts

Assistant Professor Maria Chona Lin

Anteneo de Manila University
The Philippines
clin@ateneo.edu

Drawing on a Freirian insight that we are constantly reading the wor(l)d—that is both
the world and the word—this paper explores how meaning-making resources (both
language and visuals) used in everyday texts realize different ways of constructing
some aspect of reality. Specifically it looks at how everyday texts articulate and
interpret events and offer principled and practical suggestions for using them in the
ESL classroom so that our students may learn to re-read the wor(l)d more critically.
 18

Local lexical entries in English dailies in Multilingual Malaysia

Professor Dr. Maya Khemlani David & Kuang Ching Hei

Faculty of Languages and Linguistics
University of Malaya
Malaysia
mayadavid@yahoo.com , kuangch@um.edu.my

There is a strong trend of ‘nativization’ of English according to the needs and

circumstances of a society This research examines data from English newspapers in
multilingual Malaysia to determine the extent of nativization of local varieties of
English. The papers examined are ‘The New Strait Times’ and ‘The Star’. This
coining of new words has on the one hand given a new color to English and on the
other hand, has enriched the English language with a new brand of vocabulary and
helped in the institutionalization of the new varieties of English in the world. The
borrowing and assimilation of a large number of lexical items are analysed,
categorized and discussed. Such informed knowledge truly makes English a
Malaysian language.
 19

The Possibilities of the Language Used in Translation of Pop Songs

from English into Thai

Narupon Sonsri
School of Humanities
University of the Thai Chamber of Commerce
Thailand
narupon2000@hotmail.com

More and more English song lyrics are being rendered into Thai for various aims, for
instance, culture and language teaching, edutainment, mutual understanding,
attracting MV viewers’ attention in the form of subtitles, singing and etc. The attempt
of this study is to share the alternatives of Thai language uses in translation of songs.
The target language (TL) is highlighted in this study to pilot the ways of translating
the lyrics into Thai. The source language (SL) is those of English lyrics of the popular
American female singers’ mainstream debut singles in the ‘Pop’ music genre in the
year 2000 with worldwide recognitions. The TL studied is those derived from the
experimental translation of Sonsri, 2001 in which efforts are to use the translation
approaches proposed by Thai renowned translation scholars. With emphases on the
lyrics, the craft and business of song writing, Braheny, 1987 and Cox, 2000, gurus’
texts of composing commercial hits, are referred as guidelines to be considered while
rendering the selected song pieces into the TL. The finding is categorized into three
main parts depicting the possibilities of the language used in Thai translated version:
1) Song Titles and Hook/ Chorus/ Punch Lines 2) Improvisations/ Interjections and 3)
Other Verses. This study is, however, within the translation conveying the ‘message’
and the ‘language’ of the source lyrics, not for the lyrics to be sung in the TL. Found
in this study, the crucial factors to be kept in mind are music genre, feeling within the
songs, translator’s imagination, language inspiration and translator’s choice. These
factors are like translator’s glasses that bring clearer pictures of the whole translation,
screen the language used and block some obstacles probably encountered.
 20

Measuring the Coherence of Writing Using Topic-based Analysis

Patteera Thienpermpool
Silpakorn University
Thailand
thienpermpool@yahoo.co.uk

Since writing is a productive skill and it is freely expressed according to the writers’
schemata, it is fairly difficult to evaluate some aspects of writing. One aspect of
writing which is problematic is orgainsation. There are two areas of organisation:
cohesion and coherence. Cohesion is explicitly shown in the texts. On the other hand,
coherence is not shown on the surface of the text so most teachers seem to pay
attention to cohesion rather than coherence in marking organisation. Moreover, there
are no objective criteria for marking coherence. Instead, teachers usually use their
own intuition in marking coherence. The difficulties in marking coherence may lead
to both an imbalance in marking organisation and a lack of reliability in marking.
Because of this, this study is carried out to investigate a method of analysing
coherence which is topic-based analysis. Topic-based analysis – a method which
successfully analyses continuity of classroom discourse – is chosen as the key method
of analysis because it is claimed that it is fairly reliable and objectively measures
coherence. Therefore, topic-based analysis has been applied to writing in order to see
its applicability and reliability.
 21

The Effect of the Teaching Kit on Listening and Speaking

Proficiency of Students Enrolled in English for Communication 4 at
the University of the Thai Chamber of Commerce
Preeyanuch Pawanarith Chanprasert
School of Humanities
University of the Thai Chamber of Commerce
Thailand
pawanarith@yahoo.com

This paper compares the teaching styles where audio-visual instructional materials
and a textbook are used as a means to encourage students to improve their language
skills – listening and speaking in particular. The two styles of teaching employed in
this experimental research are Traditional or Classic Style with the textbook and
Communicative Style with the ‘Teaching Kit’. Believing that language itself is
dynamic, the researcher produced the kit as an all-in-one toolbox which contains the
contents based on the employer’s needs and what is really in the interests of students.
Moreover, the audio-visual instructional materials were created to support the
contents as well as the assessments. Even though the research is an ongoing process,
there are some particular statistical aspects showing that not only the language but
also the language teachers should learn to adjust themselves with the changing world
of student learning.
 22

A Critical Approach to the Languages of Film

Ron Darvin
Ateneo de Manila University
The Philippines
rdarvin@ateneo.edu

Recognizing the powerful hegemonic capacity of film today, I would like to examine
the discourse that surrounds it—scripts, posters, taglines, synopses, reviews—for two
specific purposes: 1) to inspect more closely the often taken for granted language
features of this specific discourse, and 2) to fortify this critical approach with a visual
literacy, that is, to read critically not only the words but also the images that are part
of the message. In this case, interpreting the extra-linguistic not as “extra”, but as an
element essential in the construction of meaning in an increasingly iconic world. By
examining both words and images, I would like to demonstrate certain biases and
assumptions that may be embedded in these naturalized representations. It is by being
more aware of such I believe that we, as a reading and viewing audience, can develop
a more critical approach to the verbal and visual languages of film and resist its
hegemonic propensity.
 23

How do Mandarin-speaking children acquire and use aspect

markers?

Assistant Professor Dr. Kun-Lin Shu

Northern Taiwan Institute of Science and Technology
Taiwan
klshu7@yahoo.com.tw

This study investigates Mandarin-speaking children’s acquisition and use of aspect

markers. Aspect differs from tense in important ways. Aspect-marking is more
prominent in Chinese grammar than in English. Chinese marks tense and aspect
separately with temporal adverbials and aspect markers. There is extensive prior
research on tense, but few studies of the acquisition of aspect. The major Chinese
aspect markers are the perfective marker le, progressive marker zai4, durative marker
zhe, and experiential marker guo4. Data analyzed include 16,688 utterances produced
by 10 Mandarin-speaking toddlers in the CHILDES database, in conversations with
caregivers. An additional 6207 utterances were collected from 48 children in Taiwan,
ages 3, 4, 5, and 9, who completed picture-description and narrative tasks. Results
describe the order of acquisition of aspect markers by Mandarin-speaking children
and further reveal that as children mature, there is a developmental change in their use
of aspect markers in narratives.
 24

A Comparative Study of Color Terms among Fujian Speakers in

Singapore, Taiwan, Penang, and Southern Thailand

Dr. Supamas Engchuan

Graduate School
Ramkamhaeng University
Thailand
fujianman@hotmail.com

“Fujian” or “Hokkien” is a term signifying a Chinese dialect originating in Fujian

province in China. It can be said that this dialect has rarely been a serious object of
study in linguistic researches. The present paper, of which the primary aim is to test
the evolutionary theory of color terms universals put forth by Berlin and Kay (1969),
focuses on a cross- regional ethnolinguistic study of Fujian basic as well as non-basic
color terms found in Singapore, Taiwan, Penang (Malaysia), and southern Thailand.

The paper commences by briefly reviewing studies on color terms in a language

concentrating on a color evolutionary theory put forth by Berlin and Kay (1969). It
then discusses the methodology and data analysis used in the study. The results of the
study, a major part of the paper, are later presented. The paper is concluded with a
discussion and interesting notices found in the study. Recommendations for further
study are also provided as a final part of the present paper.Berlin and Kay
experimented on basic color terms in 20 languages in the world. They carried out the
study by firstly eliciting basic color terms from the informants by means of
interviews. Color chips from Munsell Color Collection were used in the experiment in
the second stage. The informants were to identify which color chips were colors
mostly expressed by their color terms. In the final stage of the experiment, the
informants were asked to specify a color boundary of each basic color category.
 25

Gendered Language in Teaching Japanese

Associate Professor Dr. Chihiro Kinoshita Thomson
School of Modern Language Studies
University of New South Wales
Australia
c.thomson@unsw.edu.au

Japanese language is considered to have distinctive gender differences. However the

traditional understanding of gendered language may not be relevant in current
methodologies for teaching of Japanese as a foreign language (JFL). This paper raises
three related issues: how male/female language functions in present day Japanese
language; whether one should teach it in JFL; and if yes, what male/female language
should be included in the teaching of JFL. Using data from a number of sources, the
paper concludes that present day male/female language is a linguistic system, which is
used sex-preferentially, and is moving toward the gender neutral; teaching of
gendered language is supported by all surveyed parties; and the issue is not what to
teach but how to teach gendered language.
 26

An Evaluation of the Srinakharinwirot MA in TEFL Program

Tuanta Laosooksri
Department of Western Languages
Faculty of Humanities
Srinakharinwirot University
Thailand
tuanta@swu.ac.th

This research was to evaluate the MA in TEFL program in terms of its objectives;
structure, content, and facility supporting the learning and teaching process; teaching
and learning process; and graduates’ ability and characteristic traits. The samples
were 9 instructors, 36 graduates’ employers and 50 graduates selected randomly. The
instruments were two sets of questionnaires with open-ended questions. One was
specially-designed for the instructors and graduates to evaluate the MA program, the
other for the employers to evaluate the graduates’ ability and characteristic traits. The
data were analyzed by the SPSS program to find means, standard deviation and
percentages. The findings revealed that the curriculum objectives were considered
highly appropriate by the graduates but moderately appropriate by the instructors. The
difference was significant at the level of .05. The structure of the program was highly
evaluated by both the graduates and the instructors. The content of the program was
highly rated by the graduates, but moderately by the instructors. The facility
supporting the teaching and learning were highly rated by the graduates but
moderately by the instructors. The difference was significant at the level of .05. The
learning and teaching were highly ranked by the graduates but moderately by the
instructors. The difference was at the level of .05. The graduates’ ability and
characteristic traits were highly evaluated by the graduates but moderately by the
instructors.
 27

An Investigation of Bilingual Teachers’ Teaching

Assistant Professor Sutthinee Tangsajjanuraks
Department of English for Business Communication
School of Humanities
University of the Thai Chamber of Commerce
Thailand
thinee03@yahoo.com

The present study was classroom-based research which aimed to investigate how
bilingual teachers taught bilingual pupils; what teaching strategies were used and how
they integrated academic and cultural contexts in their teaching. The subjects were
two bilingual teachers (Vietnamese/English) who taught at a public school in Boston,
USA. Classroom observations and interviews were utilized. The findings revealed the
use of native language and the teachers’ teaching philosophy affected the methods of
teaching, the design of teaching materials as well as teachers’ attitude towards their
bilingual pupils.
 28

Literacy in a Foreign Language Classroom: The learning of French

Pronouns by L1 Chinese Speakers

Associate Professor Dr. Wong Bee Eng & Lim Sep Neo
Faculty of Modern Languages and Communication
Universiti Putra Malaysia
Malaysia
bee@fbmk.upm.edu.my

This study investigates the French pronoun paradigm in the non-native grammars of
adult university L1 Chinese speakers who have learnt English as an L2 and French as
an L3. Specifically the study seeks to identify the types of Interlanguage structures
produced by LI Chinese speakers in their learning of French pronouns. A
questionnaire was administered to obtain information about the learners’ background
and to select the sample for the study. The respondents selected for this study are
twenty-eight (28) adult L1 Chinese speakers who are BA French students in the
Faculty of Modern Languages and Communication at Universiti Putra Malaysia. Two
tasks were formulated to collect the required data. The first is a Grammaticality
Judgment Task where respondents recognized and judged 75 items which focused on
pronouns (subject, direct object, indirect object and disjunctive object) in French. The
second task (50 items) required the respondents to replace noun phrases with the
correct pronouns (subject, direct object, indirect object and disjunctive object) in
French. These tasks were administered over two sessions of about one hour each. The
data indicate that some French pronouns are more problematic than others for the
learners. An explanation is provided as to why this might be the case and what the
data mean in terms of literacy in a foreign language.
 29

Analysing Political Discourse: A Corpus-based Approach to Code-

switching in Political Speeches

Proferssor Dr. Zuraidah Mohd Don,

Department of English
Faculty of Languages and Linguistics
Universiti Malaya
Malaysia
z.mohddon1@lancaster.ac.uk

The paper views code-switching as a discourse strategy for enhancing the persuasive
aspect of language use. It focuses on the use of code-switching in the political
speeches of Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamed and analyses his use of code-switching as a
resource to define interpersonal relationships and achieve specific communicative
goals. Code-switching is often ignored in political discourse, and it is hoped that this
study will contribute to a better understanding of this aspect of bilingual speech seen
from the perspective of a specific genre. The study is based on 1.3 million words of
Tun Mahathir’s speeches delivered between 1981 and 2003, and aims to uncover the
relationships between code-switching and the purposes for which it is used by Tun
Mahathir in this specific context. In analysing the data we will consider both the
wider historical, political context and the more immediate local and personal contexts,
especially the participants involved and the occasion. We will use the methodology of
corpus linguistics and hope to show how linguistic evidence available in the corpus
can be used to enhance the study of code-switching in political speeches.

(discourse analysis, code-switching, corpus linguistics, bilingual speech, political

discourse)
 30

Boosting Reading Aloud Ability for Thai Students

Dr. Wanida Ploysangwal
Department of English for Business Communication
School of Humanities
University of the Thai Chamber of Commerce
Thailand
daploy@hotmail.com

Reading aloud in English is quite a problem for Thai students. The purpose of this
project was to increase the ability of English language skill of reading aloud for
English major students who were studying in the Department of English for Business
Communication. The population consisted of 445 third-year English-major students,
Department of English for Business Communication, the University of the Thai
Chamber of Commerce, Bangkok, Thailand. The instrument used in this project was
pre and post reading aloud tests evaluated by native speakers. The intervention
between pre and post tests was reading aloud self-practice in a CD Rom by native
speakers. After the project was completed, it was found that the majority of the
students, about 65 percent, improved their reading aloud ability as well as their
English pronunciation.
 31

Language of Art and Language of Morality in Thai Society

Assistant Professor Jariya Nualnirun
Department of General Education
School of Humanities
University of the Thai Chamber of Commerce
Thailand
jariya_nua@utcc.ac.th

This paper explores the specific form of communication through the relation between
art and morality in Thai society. With a philosophical assumption “art as a mirror of
society”, the paper aims to the depiction of moral weakness appearing in Thai pop
music. In the past decade, this issue had been raised to discuss by many academics.
Most of them concluded that it was a result of globalization stemming from the west –
western cultural values, capitalism, and entertainment industries. In contrast, the paper
attempts to verify that Thai society itself is a main factor pertaining to moral
weakness and bad taste of the Thais.
 32

E-on-Air Experience: Can it benefit language learning and teaching?

Patcharin Jamroonrojana
Department of English for Technology
School of Humanities
University of the Thai Chamber of Commerce
Thailand
patcharin_jam@utcc.ac.th

E-on-Air project was one of numerous UTCC projects initiated by the School of
Humanities in the academic year 2005 to help enhance the quality of English
language learning and teaching. Only one designed task was started and carried out
with the News Reporting Contest, which invited interested UTCC students to join and
participate in reporting the talk on “Why do people say English is easy?” organized
by the UTCC English Club. At first, dozens of students were interested in joining the
competition, but later on only four were through the steps planned fro the final stage
of the competition. And this was planned to be video recorded and was supposed to be
on air by U Channel in the next couple of weeks so that all UTCC faculty and
students who failed to attend the talk would be able to hear what it was all about. It
was a pity our goal was half way completed due to a limit of time we had then and
just only a small number of students got involved in this project. Consequently, there
is a need for us the working group committee for E-on-Air project to assess if this
experience can benefit language learning and teaching. In this article, the author will
describe what the goal and the framework of the E-on-Air project, the 2005 News
Reporting Contest, in particular, are like by comparing with a typical TBL lesson, and
discuss the possibility of the positive results of this E-on-Air experience on ESL
learning and teaching if there might be any.
 33

Conversation means talking.

A Case Study in Encouraging Participation in a Thai University
English Conversation Class
David Brown
Department of English for Business Communication
School of Humanities
University of the Thai Chamber of Commerce
Thailand
davidwaterb@hotmail.com

This action research report examines the problem all too familiar to TESOL teachers
in Asia: “How to engage students and encourage participation in English language
conversation classes”. Specifically, it adapts the work of Hadley and Jeffrey (2003) to
experiment with a system of instant reward and recognition to encourage classroom
participation among English language students at a Thai university. With trial and
error and modifications to the system, a marked improvement in student willingness
to ‘speak up’ and join in classroom discussions was achieved. This was measured and
is described in the report. As a footnote, the system was considered such a success
that it was adopted by other expatriate and Thai teachers at the university.
 34

Metapragmatic Awareness: An investigation into how mutual

understanding might be negotiated and achieved in cross-cultural
encounters.
David Common
Dhurakij Pundit University
Thailand
nizaanda@yahoo.co.uk

Metapragmatics, the reflective ability of language to refer to its effects, is an ever

growing field relevant not only to pragmatics, but to many other areas of linguistics. It
is of particular current interest to those working in relevant theory, socio-linguistics
and that wide reaching term known as ‘cultural studies.’ In this paper, I explore how
an awareness of metapragmatics (MP) is indicated, what effect this may have in cross-
cultural encounters and the role MP awareness plays in creating context. Of interest in
this case is the reflective / creative function of MP markers in both facilitating mutual
understanding and in indicating misunderstanding, disagreement or dispreference. The
data are taken from covertly recorded ‘service encounters’ in the UK. The findings
show the key role of certain linguistic MP awareness indicators across different planes
of negotiation, and point towards a reconsideration of traditional concepts of
‘discourse marking.’
 35

Sexuality in Thai Folk Songs

Assistant Professor Buaphan Suphanyot
Department of Thai Language for Communication
School of Humanities
The University of the Thai Chamber of Commerce
Thailand
buaphan_sup@utcc.ac.th

This paper aims to investigate the role of Thai folk song in teaching sexuality and sex
education in Thai society. The study is a combination of fieldwork research and
textual analysis of folk songs – some of them were created and have been circulated
for over 100 years. It is found that the teaching of sexuality and sex education through
folk songs is informal and not included in formal school curriculum. However, Thai
people can unconsciously learn about sexual desire, sexual organs, sexual behaviors,
courtship, reproduction, and the role of husband and wife through folk songs.
Moreover, the content of folk songs is fun and easy to remember, but not against Thai
moral standards. Folk songs are creatively composed with beautiful language,
comparison, and symbols, which reflect both Thai sense of aesthetics and way of life.
 36

Newspapers as Teaching Materials in a Translation Class

Dr. Tipa Thep-Ackrapong
Department of Western Languages
Faculty of Humanities
Srinakharinwirot University
Thailand
tipa@swu.ac.th
ttipa@hotmail.com

The aim of the paper is to demonstrate how to use newspapers as teaching materials
to teach translation from Thai into English. First English and Thai news versions
which present the same story are selected. In the initial stages, English language
newspapers are used as scaffolding to help Thai students translate from Thai to
English. At the micro level, English words, structures and cultural notions in English
news are studied. At the macro level, the rhetorical patterns are analyzed. Later,
when the students are proficient enough to translate Thai news on their own, the
scaffolding English news version can be taken away.
 37

Inferring the Book Reviewer’s Attitude

Assistant Professor Dr. Damrong Attaprechakul
Language Institute
Thammasat University
Thailand
damronga769@yahoo.com

This classroom research investigates graduate students’ ability to infer the writer’s
attitude when reading a book review article. The results showed that identifying
specific feelings the reviewer expressed about the book content and the character or
event is challenging to most students. The teacher will have to teach and train students
to get this kind of implicit information.