ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Educ.
Sec. Teacher Education
Volume 10 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/feduc.2025.1627966
This article is part of the Research TopicRedefining Learning in the Digital Age: Pedagogical Strategies and OutcomesView all 9 articles
Enhancing Thai EFL Learners' Conversation Skills through the CA-T Model: A Conversation Analysis-Informed Approach
Provisionally accepted
- 1Faculty of Liberal Arts, Hat Yai Campus, Prince of Songkla University, Songkhla, Thailand
- 2Prince of Songkla University, Hat Yai, Thailand
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Building on prior research that applies Conversation Analysis (CA) insights to teaching conversation in Thai EFL contexts, this study proposes and evaluates the Conversation Analysis-informed Teaching (CA-T) Model, a novel pedagogical approach to developing EFL learners' conversation skills. A quasi-experimental study was conducted with 12 conveniently sampled Thai EFL teachers (Grade 6: n=3; Grade 9: n=5; Grade 12: n=3; undergraduate: n=1) and their students across primary, secondary, and tertiary levels in southern Thailand. Teachers received structured training in the CA-T approach before implementing semester-long unit plans with specially developed instructional materials. Students' overall English proficiency and conversational abilities were assessed through pre-and postinstruction direct and indirect tests. Statistical analyses revealed significant improvements across all educational levels (p<0.01), further supported by positive qualitative feedback from teacher and student group interviews. Teachers expressed a strong intention to continue using the CA-T model in their classrooms, while students reported satisfaction with their conversational achievements. These encouraging results support a systematic national integration of CA insights into EFL speaking curriculum design, empowering learners at all levels to strengthen conversational skills and effectively leverage abundant online recorded talk resources. The findings further suggest that integrating CA principles into English conversation instruction can enhance learners' interactional competence, motivation, and ability to engage with naturalistic spoken English, supporting the potential for broader application of CA-informed pedagogy in EFL contexts through authentic, naturally occurring materials and scaffolded, action-oriented instruction.
Keywords: CA-T Model, Con versation Analysis (CA)-informed ped agogy, con versation s kills, EFL lea rners, English langua ge t ea ching in Thailand, Teaching English conversation
Received: 13 May 2025; Accepted: 16 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Sinwongsuwat. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Kemtong Sinwongsuwat, Faculty of Liberal Arts, Hat Yai Campus, Prince of Songkla University, Songkhla, Thailand
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