Chinese Speaking Strategies as a Foreign Language - Success Stories from Thai Higher Education

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Mabel

Chinese has become a key foreign language in many countries, yet strategies for Thai learners to improve Chinese speaking remain underexplored. This quantitative study examines Thai students’ speaking strategies using questionnaire data from 114 students across four universities in Thailand. Findings show the most frequently used strategies are Compensation and Social, followed by Memory, Metacognitive, Cognitive, and Affective. Results highlight the importance of all strategies for learning Chinese speaking and support teaching design in Thai contexts.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages16

Reading Time40 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Research purpose and background

Study method overview

Findings and strategy ranking

Chinese Speaking Strategies as a Foreign Language: Success Stories from Thai Higher Education Jirachai Sae-thung Chinese Section, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Prince of Songkla University, Thailand, [jirachai.s@psu.ac.th](jirachai.s@psu.ac.th) Yusop Boonsuk English Section, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Prince of Songkla University, Thailand, [yusop.b@psu.ac.th](yusop.b@psu.ac.th) Chinese has become a prime foreign language in the educational policies of many nations, including Thailand. However, strategies for Thai students to successfully improve their Chinese, especially speaking skills, remain understudied. To minimize the knowledge gap, this quantitative study investigated Thai students’ speaking strategies when studying Chinese, which provided successful outcomes. Data were collected from questionnaires administered with 114 students in four universities across Thailand. Results revealed that the most frequently employed ̅ ̅ from the six strategies were Compensation (direct, X =3.94) and Social (indirect, X =3.81) . The ̅ ̅ remaining strategies were ranked in order as Memory (X =3.78), Metacognitive (X =3.72), ̅ ̅ Cognitive (X =3.71), and Affective (X =3.54), respectively. The results indicated that all strategies played crucial roles in learning to speak Chinese. The knowledge obtained in this study was projected to benefit educational stakeholders in Chinese language teaching (CLT) , including teachers, learners, policymakers, and curriculum designers, when planning or designing teaching and learning activities for Chinese speaking in Thai contexts. Keywords: learning strategies, Chinese speaking, Chinese speaking learning strategies, learning Chinese as a foreign language INTRODUCTION Learning a foreign language is now one of the essential 21st-century skills for global citizens. Chinese, besides English, is becoming increasingly popular and consequently significant. One of the reasons may be that China has become an influential economic powerhouse with continuing expansions in economy, urbanization, and technology. Consequently, the China-related proportion of global tradesand tourism is growing, along with the increased demand for proficient communicators in the Chinese language. The United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) confirms the importance of Chinese by recognizing it as one of the official languages. Similarly, Mandarin Chinese is utilized as one of the six primary languages for communication by the United Nations (UN) . With China’s persistent economic, social, technological, and cultural expansions from past to present, Mandarin Chinese has become a crucial language in several regions, including Southeast Asia. As a result, more than 500 Confucius Institutes and 1,193 Confucius Classrooms have been established in 154 countries to propagate the Chinese language and culture (The Momentum, 2020) . This phenomenon reflects that Mandarin Chinese is a top foreign language with sizable global learners no less than those of otherlanguages, such as English, French, German, Spanish, and Japanese. In Thailand, Mandarin Chinese has become one of the foreign languages with increasing popularity in recent years, especially in the Thai labor market. The language has multi-level use cases in Thailand ranging from tourism activities, Citation: Sae-thung, J., & Boonsuk, Y. (2022) . Chinese speaking strategies as a foreign language: Success stories from Thai higher education. Anatolian Journal of Education, 7(2), 157-172. [https://doi.org/10.29333/aje.2022.7213a](https://doi.org/10.29333/aje.2022.7213a) business communication, to joint-venture negotiations involving Chinese guests and businesspersons from Mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Singapore. With the current growth of China-related business landscapes, labor demand for speakers of Mandarin Chinese is also increasing (Rabob et al., 2016; Silarak, 2021) . In response to the growing demand, severa

FAQs

What does the study investigate about Thai learners’ Chinese speaking?

It investigates the speaking strategies Thai students employ when studying Chinese and reports successful outcomes based on questionnaire data.

How were the data collected for the study?

Questionnaires were administered to 114 students across four universities in Thailand.

Which strategies were reported as the most frequently used?

Compensation (direct) and Social (indirect) were the most frequently employed strategies, followed by Memory, Metacognitive, Cognitive, and Affective.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Mabel