Learning English Language for Adults and Professional Thai Students : In Search of Strategy that Prompts Motivation
Abstract
In order for teachers to teach with their best, they ought to know best their students. The students who are the focus of this article are graduate students at Christian University of Thailand (CUT) aided by the kind of learners they are. The objective of this article is to suggest the Problem-Based Learning (PBL) to prompt the motivation of graduate students at CUT to improve their English proficiency in the four skills, e.g. reading, writing, listening, and speaking. The graduate students are the focus of this article because this group of learners is different from young learners of English in high school and university undergraduate students. The adults and professionals are problem-centered in their approach to learning, self-directed, and posses a great wealth of learning assets such as years of experience and knowledge, established values, beliefs, and formed opinions, the feeling of self-direction. They need a very different strategy or approach to learning English language - an approach that will prompt motivation to improve their English acquisition. This article suggests the Problem-Based Learning (PBL) due to its approaches to learning that is problem solving, critical thinking, and self directed learning which all fit the characteristic of adults and professionals. Furthermore, the Problem-Based imbues the competence, autonomy, and relatedness all of which drive to self-determination of English language learning. Present literature heralded the PBL as a leverage of increasing the motivation among foreign learners of English language.
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