Factors Affecting the Efficiency of Teaching and Learning Chinese Language in the Secondary Schools under the Secondary Educational Service Area Office 1-3

Becoming a member in the ASEAN Economic Community of Thailand creates both economic and social impacts. People with good knowledge of foreign language have an advantage in negotiation and career. Teaching foreign languages for communication must be effective in order to develop learners to achieve their full potential. The educational institutions implement an administrative innovation and promote work incentives in order to increase teachers’ potentials. The objectives of this research were to study: 1) the levels of administrative innovation, working motivations, teacher potentials and Efficiency of teaching and learning Chinese language of schools under the Secondary Educational Service Area Office 1-3; 2) the influences of administrative innovation, working motivations and teacher potentials on the Efficiency of teaching and learning Chinese language in secondary schools under the Secondary Educational Service Area Office 1-3; and 3) develop a model for enhancing the Efficiency of teaching and learning Chinese language in educational institutions under the Secondary Educational Service Area Office 1-3. This research employed a mixed research methodology combining quantitative and qualitative methods. For the quantitative research part, the research sample consisted of 280 respondents including Chinese teachers, heads of foreign languages learning group and school administrators from 94 schools in the Secondary Educational Service Area Office 1-3. The sample size was determined based on the criterion of 20 times the observed variables. They were selected via stratified sampling. Data were collected with the use of a questionnaire and analyzed with a structural equation model. As for the qualitative research component, in-depth interviews were conducted with 17 key informants including experts and specialists involved in Chinese language teaching. They were selected by purposive sampling. Data were then analyzed with content analysis. The findings showed that 1) administrative innovation, working motivations, teacher potentials and Efficiency of teaching and learning Chinese language were rated at a high level; 2) administrative innovation, working motivations and teacher potentials had a direct influence on the Efficiency of teaching and learning Chinese language, with a .05 level of statistical significance. All of these factors could predict the Efficiency of the teaching and learning Chinese language by 63 percent; and 3) the model for enhancing the Efficiency of teaching and learning Chinese language, developed by the researcher consisted of three key components including: (1) learner development by implementing teaching and learning process that facilitate interactions with environment and emphasizing learners’ participation; (2) Chinese teachers’ potentials enhancement by promoting motivations to work,  emphasizing the creation of work pieces from classroom research and innovations to develop teachers and learners; and (3) management and administration where a template plan for teaching and learning Chinese language must be set up so it had similar atmosphere of studying in China. In addition, teaching and learning process should be designed to link each level of knowledge and facilitate continuity between different levels and various types of teaching and learning methods that could be adapted to situations should be used.  The model developed by this research can serve as a guideline for the development of a model for teaching and learning other foreign languages.