To design an optimally efficient EFL curriculum, it is necessary to investigate factors which may obstruct or enhance the acquisition of the nonprimary language. It was found that affective variables and formal exposure were not good predictors of EFL proficiency of Thai first-year university students. The causal model, hypothesizing that demographic variables may cause certain attitudes towards English which may in turn affect the attainment of English proficiency, was consistent with the data although the observed relationships were weak.
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