Watthanapas Nitiwat, Hao Yung-Wei, Ye Jian-Hong, Hong Jon-Chao, Ye Jhen-Ni
BA Program in Southeast Asian Languages and Cultures, National Chengchi University, Taipei City 116, Taiwan.
Graduate Institute of Curriculum and Instruction, National Taiwan Normal University, Taipei City 106, Taiwan.
Brain Sci. 2023 Mar 20;13(3):517. doi: 10.3390/brainsci13030517.
Thai has its own unique spelling system and grammatical rules. Its word order is quite different from that of Mandarin and English, thus making it more difficult for students in Taiwan to learn. Past studies also point out that learning word order is one of the most difficult aspects when learning foreign languages. As science and technology advance, emerging technologies have been widely applied in foreign language learning. This research aims to explore the effect of using a multi-language VR learning assessment system on assisting Thai learners to learn grammatical word order, and to investigate the correlates between Thai self-efficacy, Thai language anxiety, word order learning retention, and task value of VR learning. In order to accomplish this purpose, we invited Thai learners who took Thai courses in the continuing education division of a national university in northern Taiwan to participate in a 5-week teaching experiment, during which the participants were asked to practice Thai word order for 20 min. They were administered a questionnaire to fill out after five weeks of practice and were tested for retention one month after the experiment. A total of 84 valid questionnaires were collected, with an effective return rate of 93.3%. Of the respondents, 30 were male (35.7%), and 54 were female (64.3%). The data were subjected to item analysis, reliability and validity analysis, and then underwent PLS-SEM for research model validation. The results revealed that: (1) Thai language self-efficacy was positively related to learning retention and task value; (2) Thai language anxiety was negatively related to learning retention and task value; (3) Learning retention was positively related to the task value of learning and continuous usage intention.
泰语有其独特的拼写系统和语法规则。其词序与汉语和英语有很大不同，这使得台湾地区的学生学习起来更加困难。以往的研究也指出，学习词序是学习外语时最困难的方面之一。随着科技的进步，新兴技术已广泛应用于外语学习。本研究旨在探讨使用多语言虚拟现实（VR）学习评估系统对帮助泰语学习者学习语法词序的效果，并调查泰语自我效能感、泰语学习焦虑、词序学习保持率以及VR学习任务价值之间的相关性。为实现这一目的，我们邀请了在台湾北部一所国立大学继续教育部门修习泰语课程的学习者参与为期5周的教学实验，在此期间，参与者被要求练习泰语词序20分钟。在练习五周后，他们被发放问卷填写，并在实验结束一个月后进行保持测试。共收集到84份有效问卷，有效回收率为93.3%。在受访者中，男性30人（35.7%），女性54人（64.3%）。对数据进行项目分析、信效度分析，然后采用偏最小二乘结构方程模型（PLS-SEM）对研究模型进行验证。结果显示：（1）泰语自我效能感与学习保持率和任务价值呈正相关；（2）泰语学习焦虑与学习保持率和任务价值呈负相关；（3）学习保持率与学习任务价值和持续使用意愿呈正相关。
