Suggested Achievement/Proficiency Goals for Thai

Based on ACTFL Guidelines: First 250 hours

 

Listening and Speaking

At the end of the first year of intensive Thai (5 hours of classroom instruction/week; 10 hours of homework/week; 2-3 hours of lab), which ideally should total approximately 200-500 hours of exposure to Thai, the student should be able to carry on a conversation to:

            Name Single Objects:

  1. When asked, “What do you see?”, be able to name some things in a room: pencil, pen, paper, book, chair, table/desk, door, light, blackboard, floor, ceiling.
  2. Give their own name, names of family members.

 

Use Common Expression and Polite Forms:

  1. Hello/Good-bye. How are you?
  2. Excuse me.
  3. Thank you very much.
  4. See you later.
  5. Where are you going? And be able to answer, if asked.
  6. Answer the question, “Who have you come to see/are you looking for?”
  7. Say, “Excuse me. I don’t understand.”
  8. Say, “Excuse me. Could you say that again?”
  9. Say, “Excuse me. Do/ Can you speak English/ Thai/ eat Thai food?”

 

Deal with Numbers:

  1. Count from 1 to 1 million. Recognize and count Thai currency.
  2. Tell time (official 24 hours and colloquial “moong” daytime), date and year.
  3. Know the 5 periods of daylight and some of the things you do: eat breakfast in the early morning, go to classes in the late morning, etc.
  4. Give or find out addresses and telephone numbers.
  5. Ask/ tell someone their age, their birthdate, how many siblings they have.
  6. Ask/tell someone how tall, heavy they are (in metric system).
  7. Do some simple arithmetic and convert from A.D. to B.E. (Buddhist era) and to the metric system.
  8. Count things using six basic classifiers for people, pencils, pens, paper, books, animals/clothing/furniture.

 

Give/Receive Directions and Street Locations:

  1. How to walk from one place to another following a simple map.
  2. How to get directions to a men’s/women’s bathroom.
  3. Tell right from left, up, down, in front, in back.
  4. Looking at a map and say the names of streets that things are located on or where certain people live, work, eat, study: someone’s house, a restaurant, barbershop, embassy, and intersection or traffic circle.

 

Talk About Colors:

  1. Be able to look at pictures and tell what colors are shown, the colors that people are wearing, including one’s own clothing.
  2. Discuss one’s favorite colors, the colors of one’s hair and eyes.
  3. Describe the colors of one’s house.
  4. Tell where the White House is located.

 

Give Simple Descriptions and Make Comparisons

  1. Tall-short; fat-thin, long-short; hot-cold; good-bad; big-little.
  2. Who/What is taller, fatter, hotter, better, bigger, etc.
  3. Use the TOPIC + comment/question form in asking questions, as in: “ of the Father and Son, who is taller?”

 

List at least 50 verbs/adjectives

Come, go, see, watch, look for, meet, encounter, sit, lie down, go get, take something, take someone somewhere.

 

Use two word verbs (AUA Lesson 17):

  1. take something somewhere for someone.
  2. take/lead/accompany someone or some animal to someplace within reasonable distance.
  3. take someone to a distant place and drop them off.
  4. send something to somewhere for someone.
  5. drop someone off someplace.
  6. have someone do something.
  7. do something for someone.

 

Know the positions/ order [pre/post/main] and meanings of

  1. ได้
  2. ให้
  3. ไปมา
  4. อยู่
  5. มี

 

Use “Heart Words”

  1. happy
  2. kind
  3. satisfied
  4. sorry

 

Use the Question forms:

  1. Yes/No
  2. Eh?, I assume.
  3. And how about?
  4. Negative interrogative.
  5. A or B?
  6. ….or not?
  7. ….right?
  8. ….I am (saying it) correct(ly)?
  9. What?
  10. Where?
  11. Who/Whose?
  12. Why?
  13. When?
  14. How/in what way?
  15. How much vs. how many?

 

Verbs with overlapping meanings:

  1. to know something vs. someone/someplace/ vs. “polite know”
  2. to ask for something or permission to do something, vs. to ask a question.
  3. to say, speak, tell.
  4. to want something/want to do; have to-need to do vs. need something.

 

Forms of “Please”

  1. Please open the door.
  2. Can I say something, please?

 

Pronouns, Names and Kinship terms:

  1. I and you – formal when speaking to adults.
  2. Lovers speaking to each other (e.g. in love songs).
  3. Adult to child.
  4. Parent or “relatives” to child and vice versa.
  5. Teacher to student(s).
  6. Kids with each other.

 

Talk about yourself

  1. Name.
  2. Where you live.
  3. Your family members and where they live.
  4. Pets.
  5. What you like or dislike: colors, foods, personalities, cities, states, countries, restaurants, movie stars, teachers, universities, politicians.
  6. What you are doing this year.
  7. What you will do next year or in the future.
  8. Your love life/significant other.
  9. Plans for having kids.
  10. Where you would like to live, work in the future.

 

Reading and Writing

By the end of the first year of intensive instruction, the student will be able to read a Thai basic primer, common signs, an official Thai document that asks for basic personal information, and a simple restaurant menu. Writing proficiency expectations are limited to writing lists (e.g. foods, colors) and short phrases and sentences.