A Needs Assessment Interview: The Professional Development Needs of Non-native Speaking EFL Teachers in Thailand

This case study explored the support needs, in the areas of language proficiency and teaching methodology, of a group of Thai high-school English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers. What the teachers said they needed was explored by way of a semi-structured interview and a brief questionnaire (n = 11). 'Observed needs', or what others might see the teachers as needing, were partially assessed using the multiple choice Teaching Knowledge Test (TKT) for all these teachers (n = 11) and language scores from their English communicative performance in interview for a subset of them (n = 7). It was found that all these teachers, in spite of being very well resourced compared with most Thai EFL teachers, still wanted more in-service training. More importantly, the teachers still had observable needs, of which they seemed largely unaware, with regards to both their English and their understanding of communicative lesson planning. These results suggest that while it is important to ask teachers what they need, they cannot tell us what they don't know, and more objective needs-assessment should also be conducted.