Attitudes towards English as a lingua franca among Myanmar undergraduate students in Thai public universities

Abstract This mixed-method study investigated the attitudes of Myanmar undergraduate students in Thailand towards using English as a Lingua Franca ( ELF ) to communicate with other non-native English speakers. Fifty students from five Thai public universities responded to a 1–5 Likert scale questionnaire about EFL features, and nine participated in the interview. The findings demonstrated above moderate acceptance of ELF with a mean score of 3.02. First, KMUTT students reported the highest mean acceptance score (3.38) for adopting ELF among the five selected institutions. Second, subject areas also mattered—students enrolled in engineering and information technology courses showed a more substantial acceptance of ELF than those in business and humanities. Finally, the students who had studied for more than two years in Thailand showed better acceptance of ELF than freshmen who had studied for one year or fewer. The study characterises the undergraduates’ diverse aspects of ELF acceptance, highlighting further research to examine the reasons behind these variations.