The objective of this paper is to investigate the applicability of acoustic emission(AE) technique to monitor the progress of the thermal shock damage on alumina ceramic. For this purpose, alumina ceramic specimen was heated in the furnace and then was quenched in the water tank. When the specimen was quenched in the water tank, complex AE signals due to the initiation of micro-cracks and boiling effect were generated by the progress of thermal shock damage. These mixed AE signals have to be classified for monitoring the degree of the thermal shock damage of alumina ceramics. In this paper, the mixed AE signals generated from both the boiling effect and the crack initiation under thermal shock test was analyzed. The characteristics of AE signals were also discussed by considering the variation of bending strength and Yongs modulus of specimens.