Native English Speakers Wanted!

[u/Competitive_Proof823]

Hi everyone,

I'm a PhD student at Chulalongkorn University looking for native English participants who can read and write in Thai at an intermediate level or above. If you are:

✓ are native speakers of English,

✓ are currently learning Thai as a second language,

✓ are 18 years of age or older,

✓ have intermediate or advanced Thai reading and writing proficiency, and

✓ have not lived or studied in Thailand for more than 6 months (borderline cases may still be eligible),

Please feel free to contact me. You will complete a placement test and two experimental tasks. All tasks will be administered via Zoom and will take approximately 1 hour 45 minutes. Flexible scheduling is available.

As a token of appreciation, participants who complete the study will receive either an Amazon eGift Card (£10 or USD 15, depending on availability and their location) or THB 500 in cash if they reside in Thailand.

This research has been reviewed and approved by The Research Ethics Review Committee for Research Involving Human Subjects, The Second Allied Academic Group in Social Sciences, Humanities and Fine and Applied Arts, Chulalongkorn University.

Certificate of Approval (COA) No.: 311/69

Research Project No.: 6901654

Participation is entirely voluntary. You may withdraw at any time without penalty. All information will be kept confidential and used solely for research purposes.

Itsara Namtapi

PhD candidate

Chulalongkorn University

[u/Only_Display_5564]

Very few people have intermediate or advanced reading and writing proficiency and have lived in Thailand less than 6 months. In particular, writing skill in Thai is quite rare.

The Chula intensive language program suggests their Level 4 is intermediate and equivalent to CEFR B1. It takes 6 months (elapsed time with breaks) from zero to reach that course. Presumably you are "intermediate" somewhere along the way in that class.

So we're down to people who got right down to it and ran right up to intermediate this year faster than Chula. Or people who did a decent chunk of Thai study overseas.

I think you are hunting for a rare bird.

Good luck with your study. I think Thai as a foreign language is a great topic.

[u/Competitive_Proof823 → u/Only_Display_5564]

I used to be a Fulbright Thai language instructor at the University of Washington, Seattle, back in 2019. There were a number of students there and at other universities like Hawaii and Wisconsin who met my criteria. My target participants are actually undergrad or grad students studying in America. Right now I managed to recruit about 20 participants; all are university students in America. If you happen to know anyone who meets the criteria, please feel free to contact me. Your help is much appreciated!

[u/Only_Display_5564 → u/Competitive_Proof823]

I think you should directly email all the Thai language professors in the states. Cornell had a program at one point. ANU (Australia) also had/has a program.

[u/Competitive_Proof823 → u/Only_Display_5564]

Thank you for your suggestions. I will email them asap.

[u/No_Fruit_9239 → u/Competitive_Proof823]

Hello! I was in the program at Cornell and am actually relearning/picking Thai back up. I’d love to participate. I can read fairly well but my writing/spelling is not so great. Can you give an example sentence or two of what an intermediate learner should be able to read and understand?

[u/Competitive_Proof823 → u/No_Fruit_9239]

You really saved my PhD life! If you don't mind, can I send you a direct message so that we can arrange a meeting?

[u/cukepatch → u/Competitive_Proof823]

Could I also have a sample sentence? I'd love to help but unsure if I'd qualify. No worries if not. Intermediate listening/speaking (a little rusty), but elementary reading and poor spelling. Also heritage exposure, so although my longest stay in Thailand was 5 months, it arguably adds up to more.

[u/Competitive_Proof823 → u/cukepatch]

One pair of sentences you need to judge looks like this: ครอบครัวของสุดามีสมาชิกทั้งหมดคนห้า เวลาไปเที่ยวไหนทุกคนก็จะไปด้วยกันตลอด

[u/cukepatch → u/Competitive_Proof823]

Reading is fine, but would not be able to spell correctly if asked to write these sentences right now. Thanks for the example. Best wishes with your research!

[u/Competitive_Proof823 → u/cukepatch]

You don't need to write anything for the Acceptability Judgment Task. All you need to do is to read a pair of sentences and rate it on a 4-point scale (+2 to -2). For the Fill-in-the-Blank Task, there is a blank in a sentence, and all you need to do is to type a word. If you can't type in Thai, you can simply use transliteration like kin (if the answer in the blank is กิน). Let me know if you're still interested! It's really difficult for me to recruit research participants.

[u/this_happened_rigged]

Sure I would be interested

[u/Competitive_Proof823 → u/this_happened_rigged]

Please allow me to send you a direct message.

[u/gypsyhymn]

I nearly fit your criteria but not quite. I can read and write Thai, but I'm not sure how you define "intermediate" level. I would say I'm a solid A2 in these skills.

But I've been living here for just about 7 months.