3. Teaching English Speaking in the Thai Context
Although substantial efforts have been made to the reform of English language curriculum in Thailand, Thai learners’
English performance, as mentioned earlier, does not meet the standard required. In this regard, as pointed out by Foley
(2005), factors responsible for limited success of ELT in Thailand include lack of proper curricula, dry teaching styles
that overly focused on grammatical details, students, learning media, inappropriate texts, and testing and evaluation.
Among all these factors, with regard to the aim of this paper which focuses on improving speaking skills of Thai
learners of English, selecting appropriate teaching approaches and methods deserves our attention.