Attitudes of Thai English Learners towards Online Learning of Speaking

ABSTRACT A recent challenge in the field of education has been met as a shift to online classes from traditional face-to-face classes has been attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic. Hence, certain issues arise from such a sudden shift to an online learning environment, especially for those who have been mainly (or for others, solely) taught in a face-to-face setting. This paper aimed to determine the attitudes of Thai English learners towards online learning of speaking. The study involved fifty-four fourth year English majors in a university in southern Thailand. A survey questionnaire was developed to collect data. It consisted of a 5- point Likert scale asking for the students' level of agreement with statements and open-ended questions. The results show that the teacher being perceived as supportive and the students having a positive feeling when they had a stable Internet connection were the two areas that had the highest mean scores. On the other hand, being given enough opportunities to interact with classmates and preferring to participate in discussions using video (with microphone and video on) had the lowest mean scores. Moreover, the learners’ comments provided insights into their attitudes toward online learning in terms of preferences and challenges. Implications for teaching are then drawn from the results. KEYWORDS: attitudes, online learning, speaking