Assessing Thai

This chapter gives an account of the assessment of the Thai language both as first (L1) and foreign language (L2). The Thai language referred to in this chapter is Standard Thai, the national language of approximately 65 million people in Thailand. A brief linguistic description of the Thai language is given, followed by a presentation of the formal teaching of Thai in schools and universities. Two types of Thai assessment are discussed. The first is achievement testing of Thai as a native language (L1) conducted by individual schools nationwide, with the most important test being the university entrance examination administered annually by the Ministry of Education (MOE) to high school graduates wishing to pursue tertiary education. The second type of Thai assessment is the proficiency testing of Thai both as L1 and as L2. An L1 proficiency test of Thai has been developed by the Sirindhorn Thai Language Institute at Chulalongkorn University for college students and adult native speakers who wish to evaluate their proficiency in Thai. An L2 proficiency assessment in Thai is represented by the MOE test and the Sirindhorn Thai Language Institute Test. A description of the Sirindhorn Thai Language Institute proficiency test is given to illustrate the systematic process of standardizing Thai proficiency tests in Thailand.