Royal Thai Naval officers' perceptions of the English learning situation in active learning classrooms

This study explores ways that Royal Thai Naval officers learn English in active learning classrooms and examines their perceptions of active English learning classrooms at a Line Officer School. The quantitative research was conducted with 50 navy students attending the English class in the Line Officer School, together with the interview with 10 navy students. The results revealed that practicing English sound pronunciation, and intonation by listening or watching English contents was the most preferred English learning strategy. However, it appears that students of varying gender, age, and educational backgrounds may have distinct preferences and requirements when it comes to cognitive English learning strategies employed in the classroom. For the enhancement of English active learning, the results suggest that the teacher should gradually adjust the students’ learning styles and encourage them to participate more and more. The teacher should explain the benefit of adopting active learning in English class and set realistic expectation from the learning as in order to motivate the students to participate in the class, even they still have feelings of nervousness, shyness, or even anxiety.