In Thailand, one of the reasons for this linguistic deterioration is the government's unofficial policy of promoting standard Thai - the medium of instruction in all schools.
Like some of Thailand's minority languages, Chong had no written script. But with the help of the villagers in 2000, researchers at Mahidol University formulated an orthography based on a simplified version of standard Thai characters. Using the newly developed script, members of the Chong tribe then wrote instructional materials, trained their teachers, and for the first time, were able to record their own history and culture for posterity.