In countries where English is not used as the mother tongue nor everyday language, students’ opportunities to practice English speaking are limited, in most cases, to the classroom contexts. Increasing English interaction time in classrooms is thus one of the goals of English language education. English teachers are encouraged to use English as the medium of instruction and English speaker teachers are recruited to create meaningful contexts for the use of English. The management of the local and foreign teachers in this cooperative tasks in each country is varied.

This paper examined the current situation of these programs, e.g. how the foreign teachers are recruited and trained and how they cooperate with the Thai counterparts in managing the courses. In addition, the findings about the students’ English proficiency and willingness to communicate in English from the classrooms taught by foreign teachers will be reported. The study was conducted in Thailand where English mainly has its instrumental value for higher education and future careers, rather than a language of daily communication. To respond to the lack of English speaking environment in real life, a large number of schools around the country recruit English speaker teachers to co teach with Thai teachers. Such projects have started more than ten years but very few studies have been conducted to observe the actual practices and management in such programs.

The underlying assumption was that the classes that were taught by English speaker teachers would enhance students’ English oral proficiency effectively. And since the students were exposed to English speakers both in the classrooms and at school, their willingness to communicate in English should also be enhanced. Lastly, discussions on the challenges and opportunities of such programs will be presented.  

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