Mother-tongue-tied: falling Thai language scores demand action

On this day, relevant authorities try to highlight the importance of the Thai language as well as to encourage Thais to realise that they should be proficient in their mother tongue. Over the past decade, foreign languages like English, Japanese and Mandarin have become increasingly appealing to young Thais, their parents and employers.

When an announcement of a job vacancy is posted, a good command of English or another foreign language is mentioned among the requisite qualifications time and again. Thai-language proficiency rarely, if ever, appears on the classifieds page. That explains to a certain extent why a lot of Thais could hardly pay less attention to their national language.

As a result, many Thais speak their mother tongue in a way that is not really clear, use inappropriate words or sometimes get lost in their speech.

In the latest Ordinary National Educational Test (Onet), less than half of the students in Grade 12 scored better than 50 per cent in Thai. A recent survey of Thai nicknames in Trat also showed that 53.4 per cent of children from kindergarten to Grade 9 have foreign nicknames like "Ice", "May" and "Fluke".

On the Internet, Thai surfers also love to spell Thai words incorrectly. Doing so looks trendy. If one spells the word correctly, others guess the writer is an odd person. To Thai-language scholars, such a phenomenon bodes badly for the future of this centuries-old language. The Royal Institute - which compiles Thai dictionaries - is now seriously planning to hold a standardised Thai-language test to determine Thais' command of their own language.

The test is going to gauge the subject's Thai-language proficiency in all aspects - speaking, reading, listening and writing.

The National Institute for Educational Testing Service (NIETS) will be responsible for organising the test. It is expected that the first standardised Thai-language tests will be held in December this year or January next year.

"This test will be very much like a TOEFL [Test of English as a Foreign Language]," NIETS director Utumporn Jamornmann said recently. She added that it wouldn't only be students taking the test, but that teachers would as well.

Following the test, those who have taken it and done well will get a certificate.

Royal Institute secretary-general Jintana Phandufak revealed that her institute was even assessing whether it was high time to include a language policy in the Constitution.

This policy, if included in the Constitution, would address standard Thai and all local dialects.

According to the Institute of Language and Culture for Rural Development, more than 10 out of 70 dialects in Thailand have become extinct. Without a proper management plan, the institute estimates that all local dialects will be gone in the next 100 years.

"If children are good at their mother tongue, they will have language skills to be good at other languages too," Professor Suwilai Premsrirat of the institute said.

The Office of Basic Education Commission (Obec) says that it is committed to improving citizens' Thai-language skills. To achieve that goal, Obec secretary-general Khunying Kasama Varawarn is going to spend Bt858.9 million to train Thai-language teachers.

She believes the improvements should in turn boost students' Thai-language competency.

In 2012, Obec hopes to see all students in Grades 1 through 3 able to read and write Thai, while older students in primary schools will be expected to do so fluently.

Meanwhile, Ramkhamhaeng University lecturer Ruenruetai Sajjaphan blames the Internet, some celebrities and the media for indirectly teaching young Thais grammatically incorrect Thai.

"We can see many personalities on TV spell Thai words incorrectly," Ruenruetai said.

In fact, the list of the causes why many Thais are not good at their language must be a long one. However, by teaching our children to appreciate and value our Thai language from a very young age, we will achieve the first and vital step to ensure that they can use Thai language masterfully later on.

In addition, our society should seriously show its appreciation for people with true Thai-language proficiency. Indeed, they deserve as much honour and respect as those mastering other languages. Let Thais be proud that they can speak, read, listen to and write Thai language well and correctly.