ความต้องการจำเป็นในการฝึกทักษะการอ่านภาษาอังกฤษและการพัฒนาบทเรียนอ่านที่มีเนื้อหาเกี่ยวกับท้องถิ่นภาคใต้

Abstract

This study investigated students' needs in English reading skills practice and the development of reading materials with southern contexts. The study was divided into two phases: the survey and the experiment. In the survey, 23 English teachers were interviewed and 279 Matthayomsuksa 2 students in small size high schools in southern Thailand answered the questionnaires about needs in English reading skills practice. The results were as follows: 1) the three most needed reading strategies were reading for main idea, reading for details and identifying topics; 2) the serious reading problems were related to topic identification and the lack of vocabulary; 3) students specified a high degree of wants in reading skills practice using familiar context; and 4) the three most interested reading topics were "attractive places in the southern part of Thailand", "southern Thai food" and "southern festivals". These results were used to create southern local context reading materials to enhance English reading ability, English vocabulary, and vocabulary retention. The materials were used in the experimental phase. The reading ability of students studying English reading skills by using southern context texts was compared with that of students using general reading texts. The study also investigated English vocabulary development and students' opinions toward the use of southern context texts. The subjects in the experimental phase were Matthayom suksa 2 students from two small- sized secondary schools. Students from the first school were in the control group studying English reading skills by using general reading texts and those from the second school was in the experimental group studying English reading skills by using southern context texts. It was found that: the English reading ability of both control and experimental groups significantly increased (p=0.01) but there were no significant differences when compared between the two groups. The experimental group could develop vocabulary at 50.5 percent, but they could not retain the vocabulary level. The experimental group highly agreed with the use of southern context texts in reading skills practice, and favored the teaching process, and the reading activities.