The Management of Language Institutes in Thailand: Manager experiences and perspectives

(มีเฉพาะภาษาอังกฤษ)

     Thailand has made English instruction compulsory at all levels of the education system, including the tertiary level, where all students must complete 12 credits of English as part of the General Education component of their undergraduate degrees. In order to manage the logistics of teaching often thousands of students from a variety of faculties, many Thai universities establish organizations, commonly termed (English) ‘language institutes’ or ‘language centers’.  Despite the prevalence and size of these organizations, little research has been done into their management, or their managers. This research thus investigates via face-to-face and online interview the management experiences, styles and opinions of 11 language institute directors as part of a preliminary study to identify further research areas. The findings indicate that the administrators share similar attitudes and experiences regarding their positions, including acceptance of the temporariness of the job, high levels of administrative work, acknowledgement of co-dependency in their team, and awareness of cultural norms regarding age and status

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