As indicated earlier, the book's genesis lay in my broad experiences as a teacher, teacher-trainer and academic working in several Asian countries. Then in order to achieve a depth of ethnographic analysis, I selected one slice of Asian EFL: classes held in the English department of a Thai university, my former workplace. Aspects of this research have been previously reported in various journals (see Forman, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2014a, 2014b, 2015a).

This chapter is in two parts: first, I introduce the Thai cultural context and describe how the research project was conducted; and then I present three scenes from classes observed, together with teacher comments at interview.

Part 1: The Research Project

Thai cultural context

There can be no discussion of Thailand without acknowledging the role of Buddhism. Variously termed a religion and philosophy, Buddhism occupies a significant visible and invisible part of the social fabric of Thailand, with 93.6% of a large-scale survey self-reporting religion to be an important part of their lives (Komin, 1990; confirmed in 2015 by the United Nations Thailand). It is still Thai custom that young men undertake a retreat of up to three months in a Buddhist monastery, in order to accrue merit for themselves and their families. Key cultural traits are reported to be those of social harmony, respect for age and status, desire for collaboration, and the maintenance of 'face' (O'Sullivan & Tajaroensuk, 1997; Hallinger & Kantamara, 2001).

Students in the present study, and at other Thai universities according to my experience, generally do exhibit the cultural traits referred to above, particularly perhaps those of harmony and collaboration. Bovonsiri et al. (1996: 60) comment, for example, that 'Perhaps the most concrete visible influence of Thai culture on contemporary campus life is the prominence of students studying in groups', and note that one can rarely find a student studying alone.