The knowledge landscape of German linguistics and German language teaching in Thailand: A comparative study with Japan and South Korea

This study surveys the knowledge landscape of German linguistics and the teaching of German as a foreign language in Thailand from 1957 to 2022. Despite decades of development in German language education, there has been no systematic, comprehensive survey of the research conducted in this field. The study categorizes and analyzes 173 research works across various subfields to identify prevailing research trends in German linguistics and German language teaching in Thailand. Furthermore, a comparative analysis of German linguistics and German language teaching research in Japan and South Korea from 2013 to 2022 is conducted, highlighting key similarities and differences in research methodologies, content and focus areas. The findings indicate that while Thailand encompasses a broad range of research topics in German linguistics, including grammar, phonetics, orthography, and pragmatics, the majority of studies are applied, focusing on pedagogical applications. In Japan and South Korea, however, research aligns more closely with that of German-speaking countries in terms of generating specialized knowledge in fields such as dialectology and computational linguistics. In research on German language teaching, Thailand, Japan, and South Korea demonstrate a strong focus on teaching techniques and methods, likely due to a shared emphasis on applying findings to enhance instruction in German as a foreign language.