NEEDS FOR ENGLISH COMMUNICATION SKILLS OF THAI …

NEEDS FOR ENGLISH COMMUNICATION SKILLS OF THAI

EMPLOYEES IN A MULTINATIONAL COMPANY

PANIDA KARACHEDEE

A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF

THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE MASTER DEGREE OF

HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT

DEPARTMENT OF INTERNATIONAL GRADUATE

SUTDIES IN HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT

FACULTY OF EDUCATION

BURAPHA UNIVERSITY

JANUARY 2017

COPYRIGHT OF BURAPHA UNIVERSITY

The thesis of Panida Karachedee has been approved by the examining

committee to be partial fulfillment of the requirements of the Master Degree of

Human Resource Development in Faculty of Education of Burapha University.

Advisory Committee

……………………………………………Principal advisor

(Associate Professor Dr. Chalong Tubsree)

……………………………………………co-advisor

(Dr. Chalermsri Chantarathong)

Examining Committee

…………………………………………….Principal examiner

(Associate Professor Dr. Chalong Tubsree)

……………………………………………Member

(Dr. Chalermsri Chantarathong)

……………………………………………Member

(Dr. Nart Nontasak)

……………………………………………Member

(Dr. Denchai Prabjandee)

The thesis has been approved by the Departmemt of International Graduate

Studies in Human Resource Development of Faculty of Education to be partial

fulfillment of the requirements for the Master Degree of Arts in Human Resource

Development of Burapha University

……………………………………... Dean of the Faculty of Education

(Associate Professor Dr.Vichit Suratreungchai)

January .…, 2017

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This thesis could not have been completed without the support from several

people to whom I would like to use this opportunity to express my sincere gratitude

and appreciation. They are as following.

Great appreciation is given to my principal research advisor Associate

Professor Dr. Chalong Tubsree, my co-advisor Dr. Chalermsri Chantarathong, and the

teachers who suggested me during questionnaire development process. I also would

like to give my respectful thank all the teachers of Department of International

Graduate Studies in Human Resource Development (IGHRD).

In addition, I would like to thank to Mr. Kajonsak Suwattanakorn, Deputy

Managing Director, Miss Patchanee Minrattanakorn, Human Resource Division

Manager, Mr. Tarin Chantharavisoot, Advisor, all managers, and employee of Siam

Compressor Industry Co., Ltd. who provided me the information for the research.

Furthermore, thank you very much for Mr. Junlasak Sooksabai, Assistant

Professor Dr. Chaiwat Nuthong, Miss Usa Phuchadapirom, Assistant Professor

Pattaya Karachedee, and all members of my family who support me for the study.

Panida Karachedee

55921456: MAJOR: HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT;

M.A (HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT)

KEYWORDS: NEEDS/ ENGLISH COMMUNICATION SKILLS/

MULTINATIONAL COMPANY

PANIDA KARACHEDEE: NEEDS OF ENGLISH COMMUNICTION

SKILLS FOR THAI EMPLOYEES IN A MULTINATIONAL COMPANY.

ADVISORY COMMITTEE: CHALONG TUBSREE, Ed.D., CHALERMSRI

CHANTARATHONG, Ph.D. 98 P. 2017.

Globalization allows the companies to extend their business to overseas and

leads to the establishment of multinational companies around the world. Multinational

companies consist of two or more nationalities of employees, i.e. the employees of the

investor’s nationality and the local employees’ nationality. In this situation, the

company shall define the common language to be used as company’s communication

language. It is found that the common language for business is English, even in the

case that both investor and local employees do not use English as their mother tongue

language. For this reason, it is unavoidable for the employees to be fluent

communicate in English in order to work at the multinational company.

This research aims to study the needs of English communication skills of

Thai employees and the factors that might affect the needs of English communication

skills in the multinational company. It is found that most of Thai employees have

insufficient English communication skills. This will affect the performance of both

the employees themselves and the company. It is desirable to develop English

communication skills of Thai employees to elevate the performance of both the

employees themselves and the company. The researcher uses several tools to collect

data, e.g. interviewing the management level employee and questionnaire for the

sample group of Thai employees in multinational company. The collected data is then

analyzed by statistics. It is found that English communication skills are essential for

Thai employees in a multinational company. Furthermore, listening and speaking

skills are needed to improve. The needs of English communication skills are varied

according to some factors, such as working experiences, education level, and job

descriptions.

CONTENTS

Page

ABSTRACT……………………………………………………………………… iv

CONTENTS……………………………………………………………………… v

LIST OF TABLES……………………………………………………...……....... vii

LIST OF FIGURES……………………………………………………,………… x

CHAPTER

1 INTRODUCTION

Background of the Study…………………………………..…………… 1

Problem Statement………………………………………….…………... 3

Purpose of Study………………………………………….…………….. 6

Research Questions……………………………………………………... 6

Significance of Study………………………………………………….... 6

Scope of Work……………………………………………………........... 6

Definition of Terms…………………………………………………........ 7

2 LITERATURE REVIEW

Relevant Concepts and Theories……………….……………..……….... 10

Human Resource Development Concept……………………………….. 14

Components of Human Resource Development in Practice……………. 15

Needs Analysis for English Communication Skills in Multinational

Company………………………………………………………………… 18

English for Specific Purpose (ESP) and its Relationship with English

for General Purpose (EGP) ……………………………..……………… 25

Concept of ESP……………………...………………………………….. 28

Designing of ESP course……………………………………..……….... 30

Application of ESP Courses in multinational companies..……………... 37

vi

CONTENTS (Continued)

Page

3 METHODOLOGY AND TOOLS…….……………..……………………... 40

Population and Sample Size…………...………….……………………. 40

Research Tools…………………..……………………………...….…… 42

Data Analysis and Statistic in Use………………………………….…... 44

4 DATA ANALYSIS AND RESULTS……………………….….………….... 50

Data Visualization and Basic Statistic….…………..….……………….. 50

Analysis of Needs of English Communication Skills.…….…….……... 53

5 CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION…………….…..…..………. 75

Conclusion…………………………………………………..………....... 75

Discussion………………………………………………….…………… 77

Recommendation……………………………………………………….. 79

REFERENCES……………………………… ………………………………..… 81

APPENDICES……………………………………………………………………. 86

BIOGRAPHY………………………………………………………………..…… 98

LIST OF TABLES

Tables Page

2.1 Summary of EGP and ESP Characteristics……...…………..….…….……. 28

3.1 Table for Determining Sample Size ……………………………………….. 41

4.1 Gender of Management Employees……………………..………………..... 51

4.2 Ages and Service Years of Management Employees…..….……………….. 51

4.3 Education Level of Management Employees……..……….……………….. 51

4.4 Gender of Respondent………...………………………………………........ 52

4.5 Education Level of Respondents………….……………………….………. 52

4.6 Job Categories of Respondents………..…………………………………… 53

4.7 Analysis of Need for English Communication Skills from Management

Level Employees Point of View……………..……………..………………. 54

4.8 Basic Statistics Concerning Problems of English Communication Skills

for Thai Employees in Multinational Company………....…..….................. 58

4.9 Frequency of Use for English Communication Skills of Thai Employees in

Multinational Company…….……….…………………………………….... 60

4.10 Comparison of Needs for English Communication Skills Categorized

by Gender……………………………………………………………….….. 62

4.11 Comparison of Frequency of Use of English Communication Skills

Categorized by Gender…...……………………………………..………….. 63

4.12 Mean and Standard Deviation of Needs for English Communication Skills

Categorized by Education Level………………..…...……………………... 63

4.13 Analysis of Variance of Needs for English Communication Skills of Thai

Employees of the Selected Multinational Company Categorized by Education

Level…………………………………..……………………………………. 64

4.14 Mean Difference Comparisons of Needs for English Communication Skills

of Thai Employees of the Selected Multinational Company Categorized by

Education Level………………………………………...………………...... 64

4.15 Mean and Standard Deviation of Frequency of Use of English Communication

Skills Categorized by Education Level………..……………………...……. 65

viii

LIST OF TABLES (Continued)

Tables Page

4.16 Analysis of Variance for Frequency of Use of English Communication Skills


Education Level…………………………………………………………... 65

4.17 Mean Difference Comparisons of Frequency of Use of English

Communication Skills of Thai Employees of the Selected Multinational

Company Categorized by Education Level………………..……...……… 66


Categorized by Age…….………..…..……..…………………………...... 67


Employees of the Selected Multinational Company Categorized by Age… 67

4.20 Mean and Standard Deviation of Frequency of Use of English

Communication Skills Categorized by Age…………….………………… 68


of Thai Employees of the Selected Multinational Company Categorized

by Age………...………………………………………………………….... 68



Company Categorized by Age………..………………………………..… 69


Categorized by Working Experiences……………………………….…… 70


Employees of the Selected Multinational Company Categorized by Working

Experiences……..……………………………………..…………………. 70

4.25 Mean Difference Comparisons of Needs for English Communication Skills


Working Experiences……...……………………………………………… 71

ix

LIST OF TABLES (Continued)

Tables Page

4.26 Mean and Standard Deviation of Frequency of Use of English

Communication Skills Categorized by Working Experiences…………... 72



Working Experiences……………………………………………………... 72



Company Categorized by Working Experiences……………………..….. 73

4.29 The Study of Pearson Correlation……………………………………........ 74

LIST OF FIGURES

Figures Page

2.1 The Theoretical Foundation of Human Resource Development…..…...……. 15

2.2 Hierarchy of Needs……………………………………………………...…… 19

2.3 The Tree of English Language Teaching…………………………………..... 26

2.4 Factors Affecting ESP Course Design…………….……………………….... 31

2.5 A Language-Centered Approach to Course Design………………………..... 33

2.6 A Skills-Centered Approach to Course Design……………………………… 34

2.7 A Comparison of Approaches to Course Design ……………………………. 35

2.8 A Learning-Centered Approach to Course Design ………..………………… 36

3.1 Table for Determining Sample Size for +/-5%, +/-7%, and +/-10% Precision

Levels Where Confidence Level Is 95% and P=0.5.…………..…………….. 37

CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

Background of the Study Globalization is one of the main reasons that leads to borderless

communications. In the present-day world, communications are not only limited to

local areas or communities but also extend internationally. These include face-to-face

communication, communication via information technology, broadcasting media, and

social networks. The level of communication is applied for both personal and business

use. It should be noted that most of the communications mentioned previously use

English as a common language.

In addition, the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC), which starts by the

end of 2015, clearly illustrates the effects of globalization. Since the ASEAN

population is more than 600 million, this amount of population makes ASEAN the

world’s third largest market after China and India. This gives positive factors to

attract investors for taking an opportunity of mobility investment and free flow of

labour. As a result, it is likely that there will be many multinational companies

established or production-based units transferred to this region. Although, each

country in ASEAN has its own language, English is generally used as the common

language to communicate among people in ASEAN as well as in the multinational

companies. As a result, people working in a multinational company should be able to

communicate in English or better to have a high competency to communicate in

English.

Mutual Recognition Arrangements Agreement (MRA) among ASEAN

supports the previously mentioned scenario. That is, seven professional fields, i.e.

engineering services, nursing services, architectural services, surveying qualifications,

medical practitioners, dental practitioners, and accountancy services, can freely work

and be transferred among ASEAN countries. Hence, apart from individual capability

to communicate in the native language, those professionals who work outside their

home countries are bound to use English as a common language since English now

becomes the common language worldwide and thus applied to the AEC region as

2

well. This further implies that for the countries in ASEAN alone, there are thousands

of multinational companies from both eastern areas, e.g. Japan, China, and Korea) and

western regions, e.g. European countries, and USA. These multinational companies,

in general, are referred to as companies that have operations in several countries,

manage policy within their home country but consolidate their revenue from

operations outside their home countries. They expanded their business or moved the

production base to ASEAN countries. Furthermore, English is usually selected as a

commonly used language in the multinational companies, thus millions of citizens of

the ASEAN countries who work in multinational companies are directly or indirectly

forced to use English. Therefore, English communication skills are required for

human resource development at an individual level to deal with changes within AEC

and working in multinational companies.

As a means of communication for the multinational companies, it is not

limited only within the private sector, i.e. the companies themselves, but it also

includes the communications with the public sector as well. Thus, English will be the

unavoidable language commonly used for communications including, internal and

external discussions, daily conversation, e-mail writing, presentations, and reading

documents both for academic and specific purposes.

From previously discussed scenarios, employees in almost all levels who

work in a multinational company will be automatically forced to communicate in

English by their jobs and working environment. For Example, communicating to the

foreign expatriates from the company’s headquarters, reading technical terms on the

panel for machine operation, writing work instructions for technical documents, and

presenting products to foreign customers. It can be seen that, though necessary,

English communication skills are required differently in each job and works function.

Generally, English communication skills can be classified into 4 parts, i.e. listening,

speaking, reading and writing. Although, each job and work function might require

the levels of each English skill differently, the higher level of these skills are likely to

be more advantageous in working for multinational companies. From the necessity of

English communication in a multinational company mentioned earlier together with

needs for English communication skills improvement for local employees English

training becomes a crucial issue of human resource development. This will develop

3

the capability of individual employees to have competency in English communication

skills to match with their jobs, and be able to deal with business situations and

assignments. It is an important factor in enhancing organizational performance.

In Thailand, the Board of Investment (BOI) of Thailand reported in October

2014 that BOI approved 650 projects that were applied for by foreign investors in the

period of January to September 2014. Total investment amount of those projects was

268,286 million baht. It is expected that there will be 56,769 job titles available for

Thai employees and 2,387 job titles for foreign employees (Board of Investment,

2014). This implies that there will be many multinational companies starting up their

business in Thailand. For this reason, the companies’ staff members are likely to be

multinational, at least two nationalities, i.e. the investors’ original nationality and

Thai. Thus, English communication is unavoidable.

Problem Statement A multinational company, which is chosen for this study, is one of many

multinational companies located in Laem Chabang Industrial Park, Chon Buri,

Thailand. The company has been established since 1989 and has business in

compressor manufacturing for residential air conditioners. Its products have been sold

to both domestic and overseas residential air conditioner manufacturers. The

company’s business has been expanded continuously. In 2014, it is reported that the

company has a sales amount over 9,000 million baht and more than 2,500 employees.

The products are sold to more than 140 customers in 40 countries worldwide,

according to the company’s report as of October 2014.

Although, the company is located in Thailand, its headquarters is, however,

located in Japan. Thus, the company is said to be a multinational company consisting

of both local Thai and Japanese staff. Normally, the headquarters usually dispatches

the management level staff as expatriates to Thailand to run the business. It also

dispatches skilled technicians to train and transfer its knowhow and technology to the

local production and related staff. Note that it is not only the local technical staff but

also the support staff who have contact at some levels with the foreigners. For

example, purchasing staff have to contact the foreigners in terms of ordering raw

materials and parts from raw materials producers, suppliers, and machine makers

4

from time to time. Marketing staff often have to communicate with foreign customers

for product exports and sales. Engineers usually have to contact the foreigners either

during knowhow transferring process with the foreign experts and skilled technicians,

or services provided in product development, specifications, and technical manuals to

the foreign customers. Even the Human Resource staff themselves sometimes have to

communicate to company’s branches in foreign countries in order to dispatch local

staff to work as expatriates or in issuing an agreement. Thus, all of these previously

mentioned jobs strongly require language communication skills. Since English is the

business lingua franca, it implies that the employees then need these communication

skills in English.

As commonly happens with non-native English speakers, most Thai

employees have problems in English communication. The problems become more

severe for the staff with educational level lower than Bachelor degree. Since working

in the multinational company requires a certain level of English communication skills,

improvements of the English communication skills are of importance to these

employees, especially English for Occupational Purpose (EOP) and English for

Specific Purpose (ESP). In high vocational school and university, the employees

studied English language for academic purposes or general purposes such as

communication in daily life. After joining a multinational company, they are required

to have more knowledge concerning technical terms, which are related to parts,

products, production processes and transliterated words. For this reason, English

training courses related to each job description should be provided. Hence, English

communication skills development is one of Human Resource Development scopes in

order to fulfill the job assignment and working tasks of employees who work in a

multinational company and organizational policy.

From the previous mentioned, it has been observed that lacking of English

communication skills of the employees happens both before and after joining the

company. This characteristic eventually leads to several problems for the

multinational company, ranging from miscommunications, fewer opportunities to

obtain valuable ideas from the staff, waste of valuable resources such as cost and

time, etc.

5

The staff who cannot communicate well in English will have difficulties in

performing their tasks assigned from the foreign staff for several reasons, e.g. they

might not understand the assignments well enough to perform them, though they

would like to have better clarification for the tasks, they could not communicate, etc.

These would lead to poor results of the given assignments and affect the performance

of staff concerning their job ability apart from English communication skills. From

another viewpoint, the staff who lack English communication skills will not be able to

communicate, share, and express their opinions or ideas to their foreign bosses or co-

workers in critical events, e.g. the meeting or public speech. Thus, they will lose their

opportunities to present their capabilities that might affect their career growth.

Furthermore, the companies might also lose valuable opinions or ideas as well.

For these reasons, the top management team of a multinational company has

announced the policy to improve English communication skills of the employees

within 5 years starting from 2014. The aim of the policy is to improve English

communication skills of the staff. It is expected that the staff should be able to read

the related researches, patents and apply this knowledge for product improvement

according to their educational levels and job categories. Thus, to satisfy the vision of

the top management team it is essential to develop such an efficient English course

for target employees. Therefore, human resource development in English

Communication skills is needed in the perspective of organization development and

individual development.

In order to proceed, understanding the need for English communication

skills is of importance. The researcher has to know the current problems, situation of

usages and required support in English communication skills. This information will

be crucial for human resource development to set up an efficient English training

course in a multinational company. It is expected that the employees who have been

trained by this course will have better understanding in English and be able to

improve their English communication skills corresponding to their related job

categories.

6

Purposes of Study From the above problem statement, the researcher has proposed

1. Study needs for English communication skills regarding listening,

speaking, reading and writing in a multinational company from a management point

of view

2. Study the need for English communication skills and relationships

according to different job categories, gender, educational level, age, and service years

Research Questions This research aims to answer the following questions.

1. What are the needs for English communication skills regarding listening,

speaking, reading and writing of Thai employees in a multinational company from a

management point of view?

2. What are the needs for English communication skills of Thai employees

regarding the different factors, e.g. job categories, educational levels, and service

years of employee at a multinational company?

Significance of Study The study is performed to determine the problems in English

communication skills, which are required in different job categories, age, educational

level, service years in a multinational company and to suggest the required support for

English training courses. The result of this part would reveal the difficulties the staff

encounter in English communication. Furthermore, the findings can be used as a

guideline and knowledge base to improve the current English training program in

order to satisfy the needs of the different job categories, educational levels, and

service years.

Scope of Works The study focuses on the need for English communication skills of Thai

employees who are in supervisory level (middle management) positions in a

multinational company. It is aimed to find the problems of English communication

7

skills and in turn identify the needs. This is an important factor in developing an

efficient English training course. These factors or variables of interest are then

analyzed further to reveal their impacts on the English communication skills for

different job categories, educational levels, and service years.

There are two types of variables included in this study, namely independent

variables and dependent variables. In this work, the independent variables are set to

be gender, job category, educational level, and service year while the dependent

variables are set to be the need for English communication skills in listening,

speaking, reading and writing and the frequency of use.

Definition of Terms This research aims to study the need for English communication skills. The

definitions concerning this study are listed below:

1. Needs: refers to the problems and frequency of English usage for

communication in a multinational company. They consist of point of view of the

managerial level employees, which expect the employees to have required English

communication ability to work properly and the need for English communication

skills of supervisory level employees. The survey aims to assess the need for English

communication skills of the company through interviewing the managerial level

employees and assess needs of English Communication skills of supervisory level via

a questionnaire to know sufficiently required abilities of English communication

skills for working in each job category in a multinational company

2. (Thai) employee: refers to engineers or officers in the technical and

professional field, who are in charge of supervisory level (middle manager level).

3. English communication skills: refers to the ability of the employee in

using English for their work in a multinational company concerning speaking,

listening, writing and reading.

4. English Speaking skill: refers to the ability of the employee to generate

English words that are informative and can be understood clearly by the listener.

5. English Listening skill: refers to the ability of the employee to hear

English attentively and can comprehend the meaning of the conversation.

8

6. English Writing skill: refers to the ability of the employee to compose

meaningful texts or sentences and use them to express ideas, concepts, or information.

7. English Reading skill: refers to the ability of the employee to turn texts

or sentences into meaningful ideas, concepts or information.

8. Job category: refers to the content of work or job description, which

employee and employer agree upon from the beginning of employment.

9. English communication skills requirement on job category: refers to

the need for English communication capabilities of individual employees to match the

job function and support his/her work effectively.

10. Engineering position: refers to the job performing engineering works

related to the product itself and production process, contact part suppliers, machine

makers or provide technical support to customers. Those mentioned jobs are in

Technical Division and Production Division.

11. Marketing position: refers to the job performing sales activities in

domestic, export and administrative works.

12. Human Resource position: refers to the job supporting quality of life of

the employee. These include 5 functions; i) Human Resource Management ii) Human

Resource Development iii) General Affairs iv) Laws, and v) Recruit and Employee

Relations. For Human Resource Development function in a multinational company,

its scopes of responsibilities are Training & Development, Organization

Development, Competency Development, Career Development, Talent Management,

Facilitator for employee to work in foreign countries and foreign language

communication development. It is a framework for supporting individual employees

to develop their personal skills and knowledge to meet current and future job

demands, which align to organizational policy.

13. Accounting position: refers to the job performing financial

management, cost, tax and accounting system of the company.

14. Procurement position: refers to the job concerning purchasing raw

materials, accessories, consumable parts, and general purchasing to support

production and general operations of the company.

15. Multinational company: refers to a selected corporation that has its

facilities and other assets in at least one country other than its home country. Such

9

company has offices and/or factories in different countries and usually has a

centralized head office where it co-ordinates global management.

CHAPTER 2

LITERATURE REVIEW

Relevant Concept and Theories Nowadays, communication is not locally limited. It expands beyond the

countries’ borders along with the development of world economics. People from

different countries and cultural backgrounds are brought together and interact in one-

way or another. One of the obvious pieces of evidence is the investment by the

overseas companies. This results in the establishment of multinational companies

consisting of at least two nationalities of employees, i.e. the local staff and the host

countries staff. Thus, it is unavoidable to have a common language agreement to

communicate within the companies. It is found that multinational companies usually

issue the policy on the common language for their business operations. There are

many supported works, which show the language chosen to be lingua franca of

international business is English. Charles (2007) quoted as follows:

“In the past few decades, it has become widely accepted that the lingua

franca of international business is English.”

Another supported reason is because of the economic power of USA, and

that much professional management education was developed in USA, it is then easy

to see why English has become the business lingua franca (Swift &Wallace, 2011).

Harzing and Pudelko (2012) reported that an importance of language used in

multinational companies could not be overlooked. The multinational companies’

policies and practices concerning language competencies were various. The

researchers pointed out that the multinational companies from non-Asian countries

commonly used English for communications between expatriates and local managers

and between the companies’ headquarters and subsidiary managers while the

multinational companies from Asian countries used the host companies’ language or

local language more frequently compared to the former companies in addition to

English.

The work of Harzing and Pudelko (2012) is also supported by the research

results of Vaittinen (2012) and Nuolijärvi (n.d.). Vaittinen (2012) studied the presence

11

of English communication in Finnish firms. It was found that many respondents used

English almost daily. Many of the paper work in the companies was carried out in

English. Furthermore, the companies chose English as the choice of strategic

language to position themselves as international companies. Nuolijärvi (n.d.) reported

that globalization had an enormous effect on the advancement of English in the

workplace. It was found that English was used as the primary language of the

workplace in many company headquarters in Finland. In other words, much of the

internal communications such as company records and reporting were conducted in

English. English was also primarily used in written texts and documents produced by

the companies. This was for international expansion of the tasks in the future.

Moreover, the presence of employees with different native languages than that of

Finnish or Swedish would result in the use of English as the common language in the

workplace. In addition, Swift and Wallace (2011) also mentioned in their study,

which aimed to examine a German multinational company that used English as the

common corporate language (CCL). They found that 90 percent of the respondents

were required to have English communication skills.

The work of Ojanperä (2014) on examining the effects of using English in

Japanese-based multinational companies revealed that English had been introduced as

the official language of the Japanese corporations. It might not be used for

international operations solely but it was required in almost all functions. English

usage inevitably provided the competitive potential of the companies in the

international market. The research results of It-ngam and It-ngam (2013) also

supported Ojanperä’s findings. Their works aimed to investigate the reflection from

human resources officer’s perspective on foreign languages used in workplace. They

found that the Japanese-based companies located in Thailand used English and

Japanese in the workplace as well as the native language. Thus, for multinational

companies, the common language to be used in the companies depends on the

policies. However, English is usually chosen to be the commonly used one.

The previous works have shown that English communication is unavoidable

in multinational companies. However, not all the employees possess adequate English

communication skills required or expected by the companies. This situation, however,

might lead to crucial losses of the companies’ resources such as cost and time or even

12

prevent valuable ideas or concepts from emerging from the low English

communication skills employees.

Harzing and Pudelko (2012) mentioned in their work that different country

clusters would have different challenges in terms of language problems and need

subtle management. Nuolijärvi (n.d.) reported that using English was not problem-

free for Finnish employees. Low proficiency in English caused financial losses to the

companies. Usually, the English proficiency requirements for new employees were

put in the job advertisement. Swift and Wallace (2011) also mentioned in their works

that varying levels of fluency in English communication skills created problems in

meetings, and dissuaded some employees from contributing new valuable ideas.

There is no exception for multinational companies in Thailand. They also

encounter the same challenges and problems as do multinational companies overseas.

Rajprasit, Pratoomrat, Wang, Kulsiri, and Hemchua (2014) found that the level of

English communication skills of Thai employees were not likely to meet the

requirements of the multinational companies. Before the job recruitment, 60% of the

applicants took extra English courses. They also reported that about 40% of their

respondents used English every working day and almost half used it on most working

days. However, they also reported that about 45% of employees, who were working

in the multinational companies, were now taking English courses or planned to take

courses in the near future. This implies that Thai employees needed to improve their

English communication skills in their workplace in the multinational companies. In

other words, the companies themselves should be aware of this problem to be more

competitive in their business. Furthermore, Sriussadaporn (2006) showed that

communication between Thai employees and expatriates were sometimes

problematic. He pointed out that the communication problems at work in foreign

companies in Thailand were related to several sources, e.g. lack of mutual

understanding of language, attitude and prejudice problems due to receiving

inaccurate information about cultural and work-related values, different perceptions

and misinterpretation of verbal and nonverbal cues, and lack of trust and openness in

communication among each other. The author also provided some guidelines to solve

the problems as well. Though the discussed problems were related to cultural

background differences, the main cause was still language deficiency.

13

Ojanperä (2012) found that using English could make communication in the

Japanese-based multinational companies slow, cause misunderstanding, create

frustration and create barriers for employees with poor language skills. Wiriyachitra

(2002) reported that difficulties in communication in English for Thai employees had

its root cause in the Thai educational system. The author categorized the difficulties

into two viewpoints, i.e. teachers’ view and learners’ view. From the teachers’ point

of view, training English communication skills was difficult due to i) heavy teaching

loads, ii) too many students in a class (45-60 students) and iii) the teachers themselves

had insufficient English language skills and lack of knowledge in native speakers’

culture. From the learners’ point of view, mastering English communication skills

was difficult due to i) difficult inference from the mother tongue (Thai) in

pronunciation, syntax, and idiomatic usage, ii) lack of opportunities to use English in

their daily life, iii) unchallenging English lessons, iv) being passive learners, v) being

shy to speak English with classmates, and vi) lack of responsibility for their own

learning.

Moslehifar and Ibrahim (2012) studied specifically in oral communication in

Malaysia. The authors found that the staff often faced problems such as speaking

fluently and presenting in front of large audiences. It was reported in an investigation

of English Language Oral Communication (ELOC) needs of Human Resource

Development (HRD) undergraduates from a public university in the Southern part of

Malaysia. It can be seen from the aforementioned literature that lack of English

communication skills while working in the multinational companies leads to several

problems both in employees’ and companies’ point of view. It is then desirable to

improve these English communication skills to benefit both employees themselves

and the multinational companies. The work of Ojanperä (2012) and Global English

(2010) supported this need.

Ojanperä (2012) reported on the effect of using English in Japanese-based

companies concerning career advancement. The employees who can communicate

fluently in English were reported to be able to contribute to better job performance

and hence better opportunities to get promotion in the companies. Global English

(2010) published the study results of the need for business English communication

skills. It found that the need for business English communication accelerated by

14

globalization. The report mentioned that employees being skillful in business English

not only perform their current job effectively, but also related to their potential for

career advancement as well.

However, improving English communication skills for employees should

not be performed blindly. There are various employees with different characteristics

and backgrounds; hence, the need for English communication skills improvement

could be different. Furthermore, English training courses should be carefully designed

such that the outcomes are expected to fulfill the multinational companies’ needs.

Human Resource Development Concept It is obvious from the previous discussion that employees in multinational

companies are required to possess English communication skills at a certain level.

However, this might not be the case for most multinational companies in non-English

speaking countries. This is because most of the employees are, in general, local

workforce and hence do not communicate fluently in English. This situation would

result in lowering the companies’ performance in business competition. For this

reason, one of the important needs of the multinational companies is to improve

English communication skills of such employees. In order to fulfill this need of the

companies, various English communication skills improvement methods have been

developed under the concept of human resource development.

This section discusses about the concept of human resource development in

detail. Swanson (2001) mentioned in his work that the theory of human resource

development consists of three combinations, i.e. economic theory, psychological

theory, and system theory that are based on ethics. These theories support one another

in such a way that would improve the performance of the individual as well as the

organization. Figure 2.1 illustrates the structure of these theories.

Economic theory focuses on the efficiency and effectiveness of resource

utilization. The development should consider how to allocate the limited resources

in order to achieve the productive goal or optimum result. After that, the human

aspect is taken into account. This would include individual needs and motivations.

It should be noted that these needs and motivations are different depending on

personal qualifications, value and experiences. This part is dealing with the

15

psychological theory. The final system theory aims to manage the complexity and

interaction of the environment, organization, process, input, output or outcome.

The theory deals with the changes of these factors while trying to achieve the goals.

Figure 2.1 The Theoretical Foundation of Human Resource Development

Source: Swanson (2001, pp. 299-312)

1. Components of Human Resource Development in Practice

According to the human resource development concept discussed

previously, Singh (2012) proposed that a well-planned system is an important part of

human resource development. This has been widely accepted in many organizations.

In addition, it should be emphasized that the goals of human resource development

are to promote dignity of employment in an organization, and provide development

opportunities for both teams and individuals. It is then expected that the organization

would function better and hence increase their business competitive potential. In order

to achieve these goals many practical components in human resource development

have been proposed as in the following:

Training and Development: Khan, Khan, and Mahmood (2012) mentioned

the difference between training and development in his work as follows. He defined

training as an activity, which involves providing the employees with the knowledge

and skills needed to carry out a particular job or task while development is preparing

employees for future work responsibilities, increasing capacities and helping them to

16

perform their current job. Most of the time the process of recruiting, selecting, and

placing employees in jobs cannot guarantee the long success of that particular job

expected from the organization. This is because as time passes, there will always be a

gap between knowledge and skills possessed by the employees and that demanded by

the job. This gap will grow year-by-year or even faster. Training programs would be

one method to close this gap (Abdullah, 2009). Furthermore, the competitive success

of the organization depends greatly on the potential of the employees. Thus, skillful

and educated employees would be highly beneficial to the organization (Leimbach,

1999). Training can be done in two main different ways, i.e. internal and external.

Internal training could be achieved by on-the-job training at the workplace or off-the

job training through formal lectures and demonstrations. This kind of training would

be more specific to the in-house job descriptions. External training, on the other hand,

is performed by outside organizations, such as universities or expert organizations.

Thus, the employees’ knowledge and skills should be developed in depth expertise.

Career Development: This is another important aspect in human resource

development. Human resource development provides the opportunities for individual

employees to have career advancement. It is based on the basic needs of all the

employees, which aim to have advancement in their career. As a result, proper career

planning along with career development should be well implemented. Abdulahi

(2009) and Van Dijk (2004) similarly mentioned that career planning and

development are closely related. The career planning develops the career individually,

which results in adequate growth of the career of every employee in the organization.

Upton and Egan (2003) also gave a similar definition. They mentioned that career

development should be done to achieve best fit between individual and organization

needs as well as personal characteristics and career roles. In other words, career

planning and development should fulfill the needs of both the individual as well as the

organization.

Organization Development: This practical component of human resource

development aims for the performance of the organization as a whole as mentioned by

Singh (2012). French and Bell (1999) gave a more elaborate definition as it is a long-

term effort supervised and assisted by top managers, to improve an organization’s

vision, learning and problem-solving processes. The process of organization

17

development can be done through the collaborative management of the organization

involving two main types of task. The first task is concerned with the organization

variables (such as, structure and systems) the other concerns the employee variables

(such as, competence, skills, and attitudes). The goal is to enhance the effectiveness of

the organization and the wellbeing of the employees. (Singh, 2012).

Performance Appraisal: This part is an important component of human

resource development as it shows several aspects of the employees. The performance

appraisal would enable the organization to understand where their employees stand,

what is expected from them, what they actually do, where they lack capacity and how

they can be updated. Akuoko and Baffoe (2012) argued that performance appraisal is

very important because the organization can use it to review the effectiveness of their

employees according to the assigned duties and responsibilities and make further

management decisions.

2. Processes of Human Resource Development in Practice

Harris, Werner, and DeSimone (2006) reported that in the present day

working environment, employees at all levels seek opportunities for individual

improvement. Their needs should be supported from the organization through

development programmes provided by the organization. He also identified five human

resource development processes that can be practically implemented. These processes

include needs assessment, identify and design objectives, instructional method and

media, implementing actual programs, conducting evaluation and following up.

Explanations for these processes are given as follows:

Needs assessment: This is the first task for the organization to accomplish.

It is crucial that the organization can identify human resource development needs

(Charles, 2007). This is because the identified needs would affect many aspects of

management, for example, need-oriented effort, level, type and duration of training

and development program, etc. This will in turn give the framework for human

resource development of the organization. In order to assess the needs, there are many

activities concerned, e.g. organization analysis, task analysis and

Identify and design objectives: After the human resource development needs

are clearly identified, the next step is to set the objectives. Scarpello and Ledvinka

(1988) defined the objective to be a specific outcome that the employee capacity-

18

building program is intended to achieve. A clear object would allow the method and

media to be used in order to achieve the objectives in an effective and efficient way.

Instructional method and media: This is the step to provide the content in

order to fulfill the objectives. The method and media are then selected according to

the content. Werther and Davis (1996) mentioned that the instruction method and

media depend on the program content and in turn are developed by human resource

development needs identification and established objectives. It should be noted that

the selected method and media must match with the organization’s norm and learning

style, yet satisfy the specific skills concerned, necessary knowledge, and attitude

according to pre-determined objectives.

Implementation of human resource development program: At this stage, the

implementation is established according to objectives and selected methods and

media. In general, several questions must be answered. For examples, what skills are

going to be taught, what kind of employee development is sought, what long or short-

term objectives are proposed, etc. These answers would be used to determine the

design and the details of the developed program (Chatterjee, 1990).

Evaluation and follow up: After launching the program, the final step is to

verify the success of the program. This is an essential step in order to evaluate the

effectiveness and efficiency of the program in relation to the desired objectives. Ahuja

(1998) mentioned that human resource development is doing an investment in people

to update their competence. Hence, the major reason for the organization to invest in

human resource development is to elevate the employees’ competence to meet the

organizational objectives (Milkovich & Boudreau, 1991).

Needs Analysis for English Communication Skills in Multinational

Companies In 1943, Abraham Maslow published the paper “A Theory of Human

Motivation” (Maslow, 1954). The paper showed hierarchy needs of human

psychology. It was later extended to explain the human’s innate curiosity though

criticized by many researchers as being irrelevant in most parts of the world for its

19

western-based information. However, the theory remains relevant in the business

sector and is widely used by many organizations.

1. Maslow’s Theory of the Hierarchy Needs

Maslow’s theory of the hierarchy needs outlines five levels as shown in the

following figure.

Figure 2.2 Hierarchy of Needs

Source: Maslow (2009, p. 125)

The upward climb is made by satisfying one set of needs at a time. The most

basic level is physiological needs. These needs include body craves food, liquid,

sleep, air, sex, freedom of movement, and a moderate temperature. Humans feel

distress when any of these factors are in short supply, i.e. hunger, thirst, fatigue,

shortness of breath, sexual frustration, confinement, or discomfort of being too hot or

cold. Maslow suggested that there were no differences among people in this level of

needs. Once this level of needs is satisfied, the need for security kicks in.

Humans seek to establish stability and consistency once the primitive needs

at the physiological level are fulfilled. The needs of safety imply living consistently

with few surprises. Law and order are constructed to serve this level of human needs

to assure the security of society. Maslow also mentioned that religious inclination was

20

part of security assurance for humans as it somehow explained that the universe or

life was in order.

After satisfying the safety level, the love or belongingness needs come into

play. Maslow proposed the concept of belonging combines both giving and receiving

love. He mentioned that giving love was meant to seek to fulfil a void by

understanding and accepting certain selected others. Receiving love, on the other

hand, was a way of staving off the pangs of loneliness and rejection. This level of

needs only motivates people when they feel a deficit. The need for love is more

fragile than the needs that go before. Some people may seek esteem before their love.

However, as suggested by Maslow, it is depicted that people seek for love before

esteem.

The esteem needs suggested by Maslow are of two types, need for

achievement, and need for power. The former esteem is the result of competence or

mastery of tasks while the latter esteem refers to the attention and recognition that

comes from others. Maslow believed that motivation was possibly shifted dependent

upon a supportive environment.

The ultimate goal of needs according to Maslow is self-actualization, which

he described as “the desire to become more and more what one is, to become

everything that one is capable of becoming”. People tend to maximize their potential

only after they have satisfied their basic deficiency craving. Maslow suggested that

self-actualization varies individually.

2. Application of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs Theory in the

Organization

Jerome (2013) mentioned about the work of Greenberg and Baron (2003),

which applied Maslow’s theory of needs to organizational operation and employee

motivation. The theory was applied to the organization first and then later to the

employees using the following concepts:

1. Both organization and the employees must decide on the performance of

their organization

2. When the employees put in their best abilities to serve the organization,

the organization should ensure that their level of needs are reflected in the values the

organization holds in high esteem

21

Maslow suggested that if the needs were not culturally focused on, the

performance standard would not be met. As employees had a desire for social needs,

the organization should help employees attain their self-esteem and self-actualization

needs. Jerome (2013) suggested further that when employees discovered that their

organization cared so much about their developmental status, employees would offer

their best service to the organization.

The work of Jerome (2013) focused mainly on the importance of human

resource management. He reported the work of Storey (1992), which described the

five functional areas: i) staffing, ii) rewards, iii) employee development, iv) employee

maintenance, and v) employee relationships. This is significantly influenced by

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. At the esteem needs level, the author suggested that the

employees’ achievement should be recognized by the organization. Organizations

should set specific awards for achieving certain goals and tasks and make promotion

based on achievements rather than seniority. The employees should also feel valued

and appreciated. In addition, in cases where the organization could satisfy the

employees’ needs at the self-actualization level, their abilities and potential would be

fully utilized. This would lead to the overall productivity and effectiveness of the

business. It was mentioned in Maslow (1954) that he added, “needs to know and

understand” to the existing five levels of needs. It is obvious that the organization

should offer both pre-work training and on the job training.

3. Needs of English Communication Skills in Multinational Companies

It is clear from Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory that people seek these

needs in their life even when working in the organization. Knowing the needs of

employees and satisfying them would lead to the high competitive potential of the

company in the market.

As mentioned earlier, globalization changes the characteristics of investors

and overseas companies. In the future, more and more companies will become

multinational companies and English communication skills will be the language used

to communicate in the companies. However, the local employees who lack English

communication skills will certainly have problems concerning their work. This would

lead to needs’ deficiency according to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory, as the

22

employee’s ultimate needs, i.e. self-actualization would not be fulfilled. As a result,

the multinational companies could not utilize the best potential of their employees.

Petcharat (2012) reported that English communication skills were very

important especially in a joint venture business between a Thai company and foreign

company. The author focused on English communication skills for the oil drilling

business. In this business, there were overseas companies investing their business in

Thailand. Since the headquarters of these companies resided in Europe or USA, the

employees were bound to use English as an official language for communications

inside the companies. This was because the companies usually allocated the managers

or supervisors from the headquarters’ to look after the production. The local senior

crew and junior crew then had to use English to communicate both for work and their

daily life conversations.

As was mentioned earlier, the employees were forced both directly or

indirectly to use English as the communication language in the company, lack of

English communication skills might cause miscommunication and lead to errors or

waste of resources. As a result, a rig manager had a vision to improve the English

communication skills of all the employees. The author performed the survey of needs

of English communications in all four skills, i.e. listening, speaking, reading, and

writing. The survey was applied to 240 employees classified into 45 senior crews and

195 junior crews. The questionnaires were used in the survey asking about the

necessities of using English for career, necessities in learning English for target

situations, abilities in English communication, needs for English usage improvements,

activities that help in developing the abilities to use English in their careers, and

evaluation of currently used textbooks and exercises. The research results showed that

both junior crews and senior crews need all four English communication skills in their

careers. The senior crews possessed these skills in moderate level while the junior

crews had low level for all skills. The study showed that they were needed to improve

their English communication skills in order to work effectively. One of the

approaches to solve this problem is to provide an English training course to the local

employees.

23

In order to set up an efficient course, the survey of problems and

requirements of the staff is a very crucial step. The developed English course should

be able to improve English communication skills in all 4 parts, i.e. listening, speaking,

reading, and writing for communication in occupational work (English for

Occupational Purpose: EOP). EOP can be categorized further to English for Specific

Purpose: ESP and English for Academic Purposes: EAP (Khan, Ghulamullah,

Mohsin, Dogar, & Awan, 2011). The aims of this English training course are more

specific compared to general teaching English (English for General Purpose: EGP).

The relationship of English communication skills and the scope of occupational work

are of importance. Setting up the English courses in multinational companies that

does not contribute to the occupational work might fail the objectives of the course

expected from the companies.

Khan et al. (2011) studied needs analysis of English for occupational and

specific purposes. The authors suggested that needs analysis was a process undertaken

by trainers and course designers to identify the information necessary to develop

courses in order to satisfy the desired learning goals. They defined the definition of

“needs” concerning linguistics according to Hutchinson and Waters (1987) as the

ability to comprehend and or to produce the linguistic features of target situation.

In the point of view of a learner-centered approach “needs” referred to requirements

according to learners. It implied that the learners lacked some abilities concerning the

learning language. The authors mentioned the works of Chambers (1980), which

concluded that needs analysis did not mean the analysis of needs, but referred to

analyzing in order to establish needs.

4. Needs of English Communication Skills According to Job Categories

and Levels

Although English communication skills are required for the employees,

there are differences in required communication skills according to several factors, for

example, the education background, job position and categories.

Phetcharat (2012) reported in her investigation over the English needs that in

general, the most important English communication skills were listening and

speaking. It was found that middle-level employees had better skills compared to low-

level employees. The middle-level employees usually hold at least a bachelor degree

24

while the lower-level employees have an education level lower than bachelor degree

graduation. Though the former group has better English communication skills, both

groups still need improvement. It was reported that their need for English

communication skills were different and thus the goals of improvement were

different. The middle-level employees required improvement over reading and

writing skills while the lower-level employees preferred to improve their listening and

speaking skills. The author also reported that the training courses designed for these

two groups of employees were also different. The middle-level employees preferred

to have the training courses applicable to their real work situations concerning

working tools, working instructions, safety instructions, and daily reports.

They suggested using games, graphs, or diagrams for vocabulary, reading skill

improvement. The lower-level employees were satisfied with the training courses

involving conversation, practicing in listening, and reviewing.

Medlin (2009) developed the ESP to create a handbook on teaching

American Hospital English to nurses and other healthcare professionals who were not

native English speakers. The authors found that EGP courses were too broad and not

as applicable to the work situation as ESP. This was because the medical staff

communicated directly with patients so required colloquial and conversational

English skills, as well as the ability to translate medical and scientific jargon into lay

terms for the information to be more effective. Lin, Wu, and Huang (2013) examined

ESP for hospitality college students and hotel employees in Taiwan. The participants

in research were college students from two colleges and employees from five hotels in

Taiwan. It was found that the variances of students who learned English with a

hospitality college and the hotel employees differed significantly. The authors

concluded that ESP had become a core study subject for the hospitality-training

program in Taiwan.

Wiriyachitra (2002) mentioned in her research that English skills needed and

wanted in workplaces could not be obtained from the Thai university English

curriculum. The skills mostly required in the workplaces such as listening and

speaking skills were not focused on in Thai education English curriculum. Her study

emphasized that EGP had not been successfully taught to the students. Kaewpet

(2009) reported that three communicative events should be incorporated into the

25

English training courses in engineering fields, i.e. talking about daily tasks and duties,

reading textbooks or manuals, and writing periodic or progress reports. The issue

became more crucial as this was the qualification for multinational companies.

However, these needs can be achieved and more efficiently satisfied in the ESP

courses rather than EGP courses.

Khan et al. (2011) mentioned in their work that though the employees were

good in general English, they still needed to be trained for their specific fields using

ESP. Hence, designing an English course to satisfy the goals of multinational

companies should provide for the learners to have better understanding in the contents

related to their work experiences and result in English communication skills

improvement. It is expected that after finishing the course, the learner should be able

to communicate with the foreign staff in the company concerning their jobs and work

functions.

At this point, it can be seen from the aforementioned research results that

employees in the multinational companies require English communication skills

developed differently according to several factors, e.g. education level, job level and

categories. It is also found that ESP seems to be more efficient to be used for

developing the training courses. This is because the EGP is quite broad and hardly

applied to the working objectives or goals set by the companies. Furthermore, each

job category has its own technical terms and definitions, which could not be found in

EGP courses. The following sections discuss in details about ESP as well as the needs

for English communication in the multinational companies.

English for Specific Purpose (ESP) and Its Relationship with English

for General Purpose (EGP) Studying English as a foreign language is categorized into two main groups,

i.e., English for General English (GE) or General Purpose (EGP) and English for

Specific Purpose (ESP). Figure 2.3 shows this in details.

26

Figure 2.3 The Tree of English Language Teaching

Source: Hutchinson and Waters (1987, p. 17)

The study of Popescu (2010) showed that EGP referred to English normally

taught in school with general purposes. It provided a broad foundation rather than a

detailed and selective specification of goals. As a result, EGP often focuses on

education and there is no specific goal for the learner apart from learning the broad

foundation. The content for EGP is hard to decide since it would be broad and

general. In contrast, ESP normally focuses on training. It is intended to be used in a

specific vocational context. As a result, the content can be easily designed and the

goal can be set clearly.

27

Far (2008) mentioned that the meaning “general purposes” used in EGP is

vague. He mentioned a helpful interpretation suggested by Strevens (1988), who

prefers the term “English for Educational Purposes” (EEP) to account for a school-

based learning of a language as a subject element within the overall school

curriculum. He also mentioned the work of Strevens (1988), Dudley-Evans, and St.

John (1998) over the definition of ESP as follows:

ESP as suggested by Strevens (1988):

1. Designed to meet specified needs of learning

2. Related in content (i.e. themes and topics) to particular disciplines,

occupations and activities

3. Centered on the language appropriate to those activities in syntax,

lexis, discourse and semantics

4. In contrast with general English

ESP as suggested by Dudley-Evans and St. John (1998):

1. ESP may be related to or designed for specific disciplines

2. ESP may use, in specific teaching situations, a different methodology

from that of general English

3. ESP is likely to be designed for adult learners

4. ESP is generally designed for intermediate and advanced students

Dudley-Evans and St. John (1998) suggested more flexibility in ESP

definitions. The most important point to be emphasized is that the authors removed

the important characteristics suggested by Strevens (1988), i.e. “ESP is in contrast

with general English”. Table 2.1 summarizes the important characteristics of EGP and

ESP.

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Table 2.1 Summary of EGP and ESP Characteristics

EGP ESP

• The focus is often on

education

• As the future English needs

of the students are impossible

to predict, course content is

more difficult to select

• It is more usefully

considered as providing a

broad foundation on language

skills which are equally

stressed

• The focus is on training

• As the English is intended to

be used in specific vocational

contexts, selection of

appropriate content is easier

(but note not ‘easy’ in itself)

• It is needs analysis that

determines which language

skills are most needed by the

students, and the syllabus is

designed accordingly

Source: Far (2008, pp. 1-11)

Concepts of English for Specific Purpose (ESP)

Hutchinson and Waters (1987) mentioned the work of Widdowson

(Widdowson, 1978) in their work that traditionally English studying aims to describe

the grammar. However, the new English studying has a goal in which language is

actually used in real communications.

As a result, the usage of the language varies from one context to another.

It can be said that English of commerce is significantly different from that of

engineering.

This discovery affects the development of English courses for specific

groups of learners. The concept underlying this development is then focused on

determining the features of specific situations and using these features as the basis for

the learners’ course. This becomes the concept of English for Specific Purposes (ESP)

29

ESP emphasizes on the learners and their attitudes to learn. The learners’

interests influence greatly on their motivation to learn and success in the given

courses. For this reason, the courses are developed based on the learners’ needs and

interests. It is therefore assumed that the learners would learn better and faster if the

English courses were designed to fit their needs and thus improve their motivation to

learn.

It was mentioned in the work of Bracaj (2014) that English as a foreign

language is mainly used for instrumental purposes. People in these countries learn

English in order to fulfill particular purposes, such as for graduation, job application,

promotion or professional development at work.

As a result, it would be better to provide English courses for these groups of

people regarding their professional fields so that they could easily find a job

according to their profession or get promotion in their career. Therefore, the author

mentioned the definition of ESP as the teaching or studying English for a particular

career (like law, medicine) or for business in general.

ESP is then closely related to learners’ interest in various disciplines, e.g.

‘Law English’, ‘English for the Hotel Industry’, or ‘English for Tourist Management’,

‘English for Business’, ‘English for Medicine’ etc. The learners study English for

a specific purpose, represented by studying subject matter, to gain and develop

appropriate knowledge and skills through English.

The learners are forced to have good communication skills in English

because they need to fulfill the requirements in their specialist subject studies. It can

be implied that the study of ESP gives higher potential for the learners to adapt to

their work conditions and would be easily employed and promoted in their specialties.

1. Types of English for Specific Purpose (ESP)

Bracaj (2014) discussed about the learners’ expectation toward ESP.

The author suggested that the learners have at least three kinds of expectations:

1. Cultural-educational

2. Personal and individual

3. Academic/occupational

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The first two reflects the learners’ success in terms of what they expect to

learn. The last one represents a type of ESP, which is commonly expressed in

advance, when a needs analysis is carried out. The author mentioned two types of

ESP according to the motivation, position, and status of the learners, which becomes

a reason for learning English. These two types are English for Occupational Purpose

(EOP) and English for Academic Purpose (EAP). The author also added the other

type of ESP proposed by the work of Kennedy and Bolitho (1984). This type is called

English for Science and Technology (EST), which is needed for scientists and

technology concerned people.

EOP is offered in such a situation in which the learners are required to use

English as part of their work or profession (Kennedy & Bolitho, 1984) the courses

will be different from English courses the learners have taken before being trained for

their profession as it is job or profession oriented. While EOP is offered according to

occupation, EAP is normally offered within educational institutions. However, the

aims and methods provided in EAP courses may vary according to the requirements

of each faculty. In these situations, there is a need to see the role of English in terms

of its providing accessibility to knowledge contained in textbooks, proceedings,

journals, reports, and abstracts. In addition, the learners are expected to produce their

new knowledge involving presentations, papers, university thesis, and articles in

scientific journals using English. In cases where EAP is in the field of science and

technologies the border between EAP and EST is somehow indistinguishable.

In summary, analyzing the linguistic characteristics of a particular group of

learners’ specialist area of work or study could identify the English needed by them.

Thus, ESP has the principle as quoted in the following sentences “Tell me what you

need English for and I will tell you the English that you need” (Hutchinson & Waters,

1987, p. 8).

Designing English for Specific Purpose (ESP) Course Designing an ESP course is somehow different from the EGP course. Since

the learners of ESP courses have specific purposes, the course content is scoped down

to the learners’ needs while in EGP the content can be very broad.

31

Hutchinson and Waters (1987) proposed the three main factors that affect

the designing of an ESP course. This is illustrated in the following figure.

Figure 2.4 Factors Affecting ESP Course Design


These three main factors are Language descriptions, Learning Theories and

Needs analysis. Although they are related, each of them can be considered separately.

The language description is the way in which the language system is broken

down and described for the purpose of learning. It does not mention how to describe

the element of the language or how it should be taught. The commonly used words for

language descriptions are ‘structural’, ‘functional’ or ‘notional’. The language

description involves questions, e.g. “What topic areas will need to be covered?”,

“What does the student need to learn?”, “What aspects of language will be needed and

how will they be described”.

The way of learning is described in the learning theory. It provides the

theoretical basis for methodology and describes how the language can be learned. It is

natural that learning strategies vary and correspond with learners’ groups, ages, level

or reason for studying. The way one group of learners acquired language might be

quite different from the other groups. It should be noted that the learning theories

themselves could be referred in a broader sense to cover any kind of knowledge, for

32

example how to drive a car. The term ‘approach’ or ‘method’ is derived not from the

view of the language itself but from a view of learning. The relevant terms that should

be considered in learning theories are, for example, ‘cognitive’, ‘affective’.

The last factor, needs analysis, refers to the awareness of a target situation

that is a definable need to communicate in English. This relates to learners’

characteristics. The questions of who, why, where, and when connect the learners and

the learning situation. The author concluded that in organizing the ESP course

effectively and consequently achieving a satisfactory goal these three factors should

be taken into account.

Bracaj (2014) also reported that since the learners have clear goals, it gives a

great advantage to both learners and teachers sides and hence the designing of the

course. The ESP learners are then motivated by the same aim. This would make the

teacher satisfying the learners’ needs and expectations easier. In ESP, the learner and

the way of learning are considered the main factors in the process. This means that an

SP course should have different curriculum with different types of exercises and

materials according to the learners’ needs.

In general, course design is referred to a process that interprets the raw data

about a learning need in order to produce an integrated series of teaching-learning

experiences. The aim of the course is to lead the learners to a particular state of

knowledge. In practice, this implies developing a syllabus, selecting, adapting or

writing materials in accordance with the syllabus, developing a methodology for

teaching those materials and establishing evaluation procedures to measure the

progress towards the specific goals. Hutchinson and Waters (1987) proposed three

different approaches to course design in corresponding to ESP, which are language-

centered, skill-centered, and learning-centered.

1. Language-centered Approach

This approach is probably the most familiar one to English teachers. It has

been used extensively in ESP course design. Its aim is to establish a direct connection

between the analysis of the target situation and the context of the ESP courses. Figure

2.3 shows the process of course design using language-centered approach.

33

Figure 2.5 A language-centered approach to course design


The approach starts with the learners and their needs, proceeds to obtaining

the syllabus after some analysis, then to develop the corresponding materials to be

used in the course and finally performing evaluation of students’ mastery of the

syllabus items. This approach though it seems logically straightforward contains

several weaknesses. For example, the learners’ are considered only for locating the

restricted area of study and then disregarded. Thus, the learning needs of the students

are not accounted for at all. The course itself is not flexible since it has been planned

completely before being applied to the learners. Thus, the learners’ feedback is not

taken into account during the course.

2. Skill-centered Approach

The skills-centered approach is based on two fundamental principles, i.e.

34

a theoretical and a pragmatic approach. From the theoretical point of view, it is

hypothesized that underlying any language behavior are certain skills and strategies,

which the learner uses to produce or comprehend discourse. For this reason, a course

designed using a skill-centered approach sets the learning objectives in terms of both

performance and competence. From the pragmatic viewpoint, the skill-centered

approach results in an ESP course that does not focus on achieving a particular set of

goals, but rather encourages the learners to achieve what they can within the given

constraints

A course designed using the skill-centered approach then aims to help the

learners to develop skills and strategies, which will continue to develop after the ESP

course itself. It does not provide a specific achievement in linguistic knowledge but

makes the learners into better processors of information. Figure 2.6 shows the skill-

centered approach to course design.

Figure 2.6 A skills-centered Approach to Course Design


The skills-centered approach though considering the learners more than the

language-centered approach it still treats the learners as a user of language rather than

as a learner of language. This is reflected in the processes, which are of language use

not of language learning.

35

3. Learning-centered Approach

It was mentioned previously that a language-centered approach concerns the

target situation performance and uses it to design the ESP course. The skills-centered

approach suggests that the processes lying behind the target performance should be

considered such that these can be used to suggest the learners perform in the language

being studied. The learning-centered approach, however, looks beyond the

competence that enables the learners to perform. The aim is to discover how the

learners acquire the competence not the competence itself. The following diagram

shows this relationship.

Figure 2.7 A comparison of Approaches to Course Design


36

Figure 2.8 shows that a learning-centered approach in designing courses

considers the learners at every stage of the process. The characteristics of this

approach can be described as:

1. The approach possesses a negotiable process. The learning situation and

the target situation will both influence the nature of the syllabus, materials,

methodology and evaluation procedures.

2. The approach possesses a dynamic process. It has feedback channels to

enable the course to respond to developments.

The learning-centered course design process is shown in Figure 2.8.

Figure 2.8 A learning-centered Approach to Course Design

Source: Hutchinson and Waters (1987, p.74)

37

In the learning-centered approach, the authors concluded that the

effectiveness of learning process should employ many other skills apart from focusing

on mono-skill. This would enrich the knowledge gained by the learners. The author

also mentioned that mono-skill focus methodology would lead to lack of variety in the

lesson including contents and exercise types. However, learning includes repeating,

but frequent repetition would lead to learners’ boredom and the learning would fail.

Thus, integrated skills employment in the lessons seems to be a reasonable method.

Application of ESP Courses in Multinational Companies It has been shown that an ESP course is the course designed for specific

purposes of the learners. It is thus more appropriate to implement in the multinational

companies. This is because the ultimate goal of the multinational companies is to

have effective communication within the companies using English as a common

language. For this reason, the learners are not required to be experts in English;

however, they are required to use English communication skills effectively

concerning their job level and job categories.

Petcharat (2011) studied the English communication required in petroleum

companies. The authors mentioned that lacking English communication by

the employees caused operation failures or unnecessary work, which consumed

valuable resources. To solve this problem, a rig manager decided to train English

communication skills to the employees. However, the objective of the training was to

elevate the English communication skills concerning the employees’ work functions.

The English course thus aimed to be specific for petroleum business purposes.

However, there were little to no English teaching materials concerning the petroleum

business. For this reason, the author implemented a survey of English needs in terms

of formats and situations in all four English communication skills. This included

the teaching materials and activities for the offshore-oil rig employees. It was found

that the employees were satisfied with provided ESP courses and activities.

Furthermore, the author also showed that different job levels of the employees affects

the English capability as well as the development needs.

38

Kaur and Clarke (2009) studied the demands of English language for human

resource (HR) personnel in multinational companies. It was expected the HR

employees possessed good English communication skills. The study showed that HR

personnel are required to improve English language skills and abilities in order to

perform their daily tasks more effectively. The English language skills required for

the HR staff were more specific. They were required to use English language skills in

specific communicative events such as speaking in meetings, writing reports, and

editing written materials. Though the study did not discuss explicitly about the

English training course offered to the HR staff, it was clear that the requirements were

specific and thus fitted into ESP criterion.

Lin, Wu, and Huang (2013) mentioned the work of Hsu (2011) that ESP had

become a core study subject within the hospitality-training program in Taiwan.

The author reported that the employees of the hotel industry were required to

communicate efficiently with English-speaking hotel clients. To improve this

the authors suggested involvement of the students in the hospitality industry.

They also pointed out that ESP learning had a main effect in learning English

including spoken tasks, comprehension, interaction strategies, and writing tasks. From

their study, it was found that ESP should be involved in English training courses in

the hospitality business.

From all the studies mentioned above, it is obvious that in English required

environments, such as multinational companies, job categories that expected efficient

English communication skills, or businesses with multinational interaction English

communication skills are extremely important. All of them mention using ESP either

directly or indirectly to train the employees to achieve their companies’ objectives.

From the aforementioned research, it could be concluded that English

communication skills are of importance and very necessary in multinational

companies. These needs are also obvious according to job level and job categories in

every level of work and education. As a result, this research attempts to analyze the

needs of English communication skills by collecting data from the multinational

company via interview and questionnaire distribution. This information will be used

further to develop an efficient ESP course in order to improve English communication

39

skills of the employees in different job categories in the selected multinational

company

CHAPTER 3

METHODOLOGY AND TOOLS

In order to set up an effective English course, needs analysis concerning

English communication skills is required. This is because the requirement of English

communication skills improvement seems to vary according to several factors, for

example, educational level, job level, job categories, etc. This, therefore, becomes the

main focus of this research. The purposes of this research are restated here for

completion:

1. Study the need for English communication skills regarding listening,

speaking, reading and writing in a selected multinational company from a

management point of view,

2. Study the need for English communication skills and relationships

according to different job categories, gender, educational level, age, and service years

In order to achieve these goals, several concepts and tools have been

applied. Firstly, the population and sample size of interest is discussed. It is then

followed by explanations of the research tools, which are used to collect data. Finally,

the method of data analysis and the statistics concerned are discussed.

Population and Sample Size Determination of Sample Size Usually a review of literature only gives guidance and might not fit exactly

with the work at hand. The last two approaches are actually the same thing. While

using the formula can vary any parameters as desired to calculate the sample size, the

published tables provide only the frequently used parameters along with the sample

size. Table 3.1 shows the sample size for some fixed values of precision level and

confidence levels.

41

Table 3.1 Table for Determining Sample Size

Size of Population Sample Size (n) for Precision Level of:

+/-5 percent +/-7 percent +/-10 percent

100 81 67 51

125 96 78 56

150 110 86 61

175 122 94 64

200 134 101 67

. . . .

. . . .

Table 3.1 Table for determining sample size for +/-5 percent, +/-7 percent,

and +/-10 percent precision levels where confidence level is 95 percent and P=0.5

(G.D. Israel, 1992).

In this study, the total population is 180 employees who hold supervisory

level positions in the selected multinational company. They come from different

departments and hence possess different job categories. Their educational level and

service years also vary. Out of this population, a sample size determined according to

Table 3.1 should lie between 122 and 134 when the precision level and the confidence

level are selected to be +/-5 percent and 95 percent respectively.

The author also gave a simplified formula to calculate a sample size. This is

given as follows:

(3.1)

Where is the sample size, is the total population size, and is the

level of precision. Applying this formula to the total population of this study with the

precision level of +/-5 percent, yields 180

42

As a result, the sample size required for this study is 125. However, I

decided to increase the sample size number to 134 just in case of incomplete returned

questionnaires. The samples are selected with variation of several factors, for

example, educational level, job categories, service years, etc.

Research Tools There are two research tools involved in this proposed research work, i.e.

an interview guide for the management level employees and a set of questionnaires to

survey needs analysis for English communication skills, including listening skills,

speaking skills, reading skills, and writing skills.

A Set of Questions for Interview Questions for Management Level

Employees

A tool in this section is developed in order to survey the opinions of the

management level employees concerning the English communication skills. There are

five qualitative interview guides:

1. As you are management staff what do you think of the needs of English

communication ability of the employees in the multinational company as an

overview.

2. As you are management staff what do you think about the necessity for

English communication ability according to job description.

3. As you are management staff what do you think of the necessity for

English communication ability of the employees according to job description in

a multinational company.

4. As you are management staff what do you think of the level of English

communication skills for employees in a multinational company.

5. As you are management staff what do you think of onsite working

abilities of English communication skills for the employees in a multinational

company.

180 . 1 + 180(0.05)2

= 124.14 n =

43

This interview question guide has been distributed to the management level

employees in various departments in the selected multinational company.

The obtained results are concluded and suggestions made regarding policy

deployment concerning employees’ English communication skills development. The

questionnaire form can be found in appendix A.

A Set of Questions for Surveying Needs Analysis for English

Communication Skills

A questionnaire is developed to survey needs for English communication

skills of Thai employees in a selected company. The purpose of this questionnaire is

to survey the problems and needs of Thai employees who are in supervisory level in a

multinational company. The results would be used in designing training courses in

order to satisfy English communication requirements according to job category.

The questionnaire consists of five parts, i.e. i) personal information, ii)

English communication problems in four skills, including listening, speaking, reading

and writing, iii) English communication skills according to job category, iv)

preferable training style and urgently required improvement skills, v) comments and

suggestions.

Part I of the questionnaire collects data concerning personal information.

The data is collected on both fact and opinion. This includes the information about

respondent’s gender, age, service years, education, and working department. The

other section asks the opinions of the respondent towards English communication

skills. The questions include proficiency in English communication skills, the level of

English placement test of the company, reason for English studying and English

courses ever taken. This section will illustrate the respondents’ opinions about

English communication skills. This data can be further analyzed according to the

information known from the previous section, for example, gender, education level,

department, etc.

The second part collects the information concerning English communication

problems. The questions are categorized according to communication skills, i.e.

listening, speaking, reading, and writing. The respondents are required to answer in

five levels ranging from Least to Most. This part of the questionnaire aims to search

44

for English communication problems encountered by Thai employees in the selected

multinational company.

Frequency of English communication skills used depending on job

categories has been asked about in the third part. The questions divide all English

communication skills into two fields, i.e. internal communication and external

communication. The respondents shall respond in five level scores ranging from Least

to Most. This part assumes that each job category would have different needs and

problems. Some departments might have more concerns with internal English

communications while the others take the external communication to be more

important.

Part IV surveys merely the training style preferred by the respondents.

This includes training frequency, frequency of self-study and corresponding sources,

training style and areas for improvement, which are urgently required. This would

help in designing a training course with the data collected from other parts. Apart

from the aforementioned questions, the respondents are allowed to put comments and

suggestions in Part V. This part though very open might give some insight into ideas

or problems, which can be used in designing the training courses. The questionnaire

form can be found in appendix A.

Data Analysis and Statistics in Use Tools mentioned in the previous section are used to collect data. Once the

data has been collected, it is analyzed statistically in order to extract useful

information according to the objectives. This work uses a number of statistics for data

analysis.

1. Data Visualization

Once data has been collected, there are many promising tools to analyze it.

The first step in data analysis normally concerns data visualization. Healy and Moody

(2014) stated in their work that there are generally two purposes presented in data

visualization, i.e. visualization for exploration and presentation of a final finding. The

former is meant for the researchers as they try to figure out the characteristics of the

collected data. The latter, in contrast, is designed for audiences in order to convince

45

them about the research results. Both forms might somehow share their similarities in

certain aspects.

One of the basic visualization methods is to display the collected data in

a table. By using this approach, the raw data can be easier to visualize and some

statistics such as mean, variances, and standard deviation can be added to provide in

depth information about the data.

Another approach is to use graphical methods. The graphical methods are

the basic tools integrated into most of the commercial statistical software packages.

The following figure shows some example plots of an ordinary least square

regression. Figures 3.1- 3.3 provide basic analysis of the data such as trends,

correlation, distribution, outlier (not sure about this word is it a technical research

term or is it a spelling mistake) etc. The plot can be performed from two to many

variables. It is also possible to have multi-panel plots. These plots allow the reader to

have more information though it can become quite complex. However, the goal is not

to summarize what has been discovered but rather to demonstrate the data for further

exploration.

Figure 3.1 Example of Plots of Pie Chart Generated by Commercial Software/

MATLAB.

46

Figure 3.2 Example of Plots of Bar Chart Generated by Commercial Software

MATLAB.

Figure 3.3 Example of Scatter and Line Plot Provided by Statistical Software R.

Source: Healy and Moody (2014, p. 112)

47

In the case of many variables and large amounts of data, the previously

mentioned representation can be cumbersome and hard to obtain information from.

A correlation matrix is another useful tool to be considered. The tool can show the

correlation between pairs of variables and can add more visualization using color,

see the following figure for example.

Figure 3.4 A Correlation Matrix Represented in a Tile Heat Map

Source: Healy and Moody (2014, p. 115)

The color key in the correlation matrix helps visualize the correlation

strength according to its correlation color index displayed at the bottom of the matrix.

There are some other interesting methods such as parallel coordinate plots that shows

48

multiple variables side by side. The detail can be found in the work of Healy and

Moody (2014).

2. Measure of Center and Measure of Variation

For both population and sample data, it is possible to find frequency

distribution that lists the corresponding frequencies for each class. In case the data is

population it results in population distribution, however, for the sampling data case, it

is known as sample distribution. Thus, the sample distribution somehow represents

the population distribution. It should be noted that the sample distribution becomes

closer to the population distribution as the sample size increases. In the graphical

representation, the histogram, which is used to represent a sample distribution,

gradually approaches a smooth curve, which represents the population distribution as

the sample size increases. This is illustrated in Figure 3.5 and 3.6. The histogram

plotted in Figure 3.4 is based on the sample size of 100 while the one plotted in

Figure 3.5 is based on the sample size of 2000. It is clear that as the sample size

increases the shape of the histogram becomes closer to the population distribution

displayed with the line curve.

Figure 3.5 A Histogram Plot Illustrated Sample Distribution Based on Sample Size of

100.

49

Figure 3.6 A Histogram Plot Illustrated Sample Distribution Based on Sample Size of

2000.

Figure 3.7 Symmetric and Non-Symmetric Distribution.

One way to summarize a sample of population distribution is to describe its

shape. In general, the distribution is a bell-shape expected in cases of the population

being large enough. The bell-shaped curve is widely used in statistics. Its shape shows

symmetric property. On the contrary, a distribution is known as skewed distribution in

case of non-symmetric. There are two type of skewness, i.e. skewed to the right or

skewed to the left. The name is suggested according to the longer tail of the curve.

Figure 3.7 shows the non-symmetric distribution. The skewness of the distribution

affects the center measurement of the distribution.

CHAPTER 4

DATA ANALYSIS AND RESULTS

This chapter analyzes the collected data from sets of questionnaire. It aims to

answer the research problems and investigate the results statistically. Methods and tools

aforementioned in the previous chapter are applied to the collected data here.

Before dwelling into details, it is preferable to introduce the notations that will

be used in the following data analysis.

N Number of respondents

𝑋 Mean value

K Full marks in each category

S Standard deviation

SS Sum of squares

t Statistic used in consideration in t -distribution

F Statistic used in consideration in F -distribution

p Probability of the statistic

** Statistical significance at level of .01

Data Visualization and Basic Statistics This section visualizes the collected data and shows its basic statistics. There

are two sets of data collection. The first data set was collected from the management

level employees of the selected multinational company whereas the second data set

collected from 134 Thai employees in the selected multinational company who

responded to the questionnaire concerning the needs for English communication

skills. The following figures and tables visualize this collected data. Table 4.1 - 4.3 presents the data of management employees in terms of

gender, ages, service years and education level. It was found that the interviewed

management employees are 83 percent male, their average age is 50.5 years old, and

they serve the company for about 28 years on average. Two of the management

employees hold Master degree while the rest hold Bachelor degree.

51

Table 4.1 Gender of Management Employees

Gender Frequency Percentage

Male 5 83.33

Female 1 16.67

Total 6 100.00

Table 4.2 Ages and Service Years of Management Employees

No. Age Service Years

1 45 21

2 47 24

3 59 36

4 48 26

5 56 36

6 48 26

𝑿 50.50 28.17

𝑺 5.61 6.34

Table 4.3 Education Level of Management Employees

Education Level Frequency Percentage

Bachelor Degree 4 66.67

Master Degree 2 33.33

Total 6 100.00

There are 134 Thai employees in the multinational company who answered

the questionnaires concerning the need for English communication skills. The

following tables show the number of respondents categorized by gender, education

level, and departments.

52

Table 4.4 Gender of Respondents

Gender Frequency Percentage

Male 112 83.58

Female 22 16.42

Total 134 100.00

Table 4.4 shows that from 134 respondents who are Thai employees in the

multinational company there are 112 male (85.38 percent) and 22 female (16.42

percent). Thus, the ratio of male respondents to the female respondents can be roughly

said to be 5:1.

The number of respondents as categorized by education level was shown in

Table 4.5.

Table 4.5 Education Level of Respondents

Education Level Frequency Percentage

Diploma 28 20.90

Bachelor Degree 101 75.37

Master Degree 5 3.73

Total 134 100.00

It was found that 101 respondents (75.37 percent) hold bachelor degree,

which is the largest group of respondents. The second large group was the

respondents who hold diploma. There are 28 respondents (20.90 percent) in this group

while there are only 5 respondents (3.73 percent) who graduated at master degree

level.

The following table illustrates the number of respondents according to the

job category listed by department of the respondents.

53

Table 4.6 Job Categories of Respondents

Department Frequency Percentage

Production 24 17.91

Marketing 13 9.70

Procurement 12 8.96

Technical 45 33.58

HR and MD Office 9 6.72

Financial 3 2.24

Engineering 21 15.67

IT 3 2.24

TPM 4 2.99

Total 134 100.00

In the case of categorized by department, the largest group of respondents is

from Technical department. There are 45 respondents (33.58 percent) in this group.

The number of the respondents in the second and third large groups is approximately

the same. These are the 24 respondents (17.91 percent) from Production department

and 21 respondents (15.67 percent) from Engineering department.

These three groups make up approximately 70 percent of all the

respondents. The two smallest groups of respondents are from Financial department

and Information Technology department with 3 respondents (2.24 percent) from each

department.

Analysis of Need for English Communication Skills Analysis of needs of English communication skills has been done from both

the management level employees and the employees of selected multinational

company’s point of view. The interview method was applied to the former group in

order to obtain the information while the questionnaire has been given to the latter

group. The following sections give analysis of the obtained information.

54

1. Analysis of Need for English Communication Skills from

Management Level Employees Point of View

The interview was given to six employees in management level. These

employees are from different departments in the multinational company both

technical and supportive departments. The questions mainly focus on the needs of

English communication skills toward different factors in the multinational company.

Table 4.7 Analysis of Need for English Communication Skills from Management Level

Employees Point of View

Question Finding

1. As you are management staff what do you think of the need for English communication ability for the employees in the multinational company as an overview

- Employees have obvious problems in

listening and speaking skills. The

problems of these two skills vary with

nationalities and communication skills

of colloquists. The employees are found

to have skills deficiency according to

lack of opportunities of usage.

- Writing skill is also found to be

problematic. Though, it is

understandable but it is generally

grammatically wrong.

- Reading skills is found to be less

problematic. The employees have

sufficient skills to read and understand

the content of technical documents,

which fulfill the minimum expectations

of the management level employees.

55

Table 4.7 (Continued)

Question Finding 2. As you are management staff

what do you think about the

necessity for English

communication ability according to

job description

- English communication skills are found to

be essential in all job descriptions and all

education levels.

- It is also found that each job description

requires different levels of English

communication skills.

- Job descriptions, such as marketing,

procurement or research and development,

require high English communication skills

in listening and speaking. This is because

the employees are expected to be fluent in

English when they contact customers or

suppliers. It also reflects the image of the

company.

- Reading and writing skills are found to be

less important than listening and speaking.

This is because the employees do not have

to respond instantaneously and thus have

time for corrections. Furthermore, these two

skills have found more opportunities to be

used in most of the job descriptions, e.g.

reading articles, writing reports.

56


Question Finding

3. As you are management staff

what do you think of the

necessity for English

communication ability of the

employees according to job

description in the multinational

company

- It is very important that the employees in a

multinational company have sufficient

English communication skills.

- English communication skills are one of the

essential factors for career advancement. In

multinational companies, which have two or

more nationalities, English will be the

common language used. For this reason,

employees with lack of English

communication skills will be limited in

showing their abilities to perform the

assigned job or state valuable ideas to the

company. This eventually leads to lack of

career advancement opportunities


what do you think of the level

of English communication skills

for the employees in a

multinational company

- Most of the management level employees

agreed that the employees of the

multinational companies should have English

communication skills at intermediate level.

- They also mentioned that the ability to

communicate is more important than the

level. It is desirable that the employees can

communicate in all ways to get the job done

correctly.

57


Question Finding


what do you think about on site

working abilities of English

communication skills for the

employees in a multinational

company

- In general, the abilities of the employees in

English communication skills is lower than

standard.

- Employees, holding bachelor degree,

generally have adequate English

communication skills whereas employees with

diploma generally have lower skills. However,

both groups need continuous improvement in


The interview shows that the management level employees regard English

communication skills for Thai employees in a multinational company as one of the

important skills. The needs of each skill are different. From the management point of

view, it was found that the employees need to improve their listening and speaking

skills. Since these are the skills most employees lack. The level of needs in each skill

varies from department to department. In the departments with more opportunities to

contact outside organizations, the level of needs is higher. This is because it reflects

the image and reputation of the company.

It was also found that in general Thai employees in multinational companies

possess inadequate English communication skills. This is more obvious with the

employees holding a diploma. In summary, the employees at management level agree

that English communication skills are essential to Thai employees in a multinational

company. They pointed out that fluency in English communications in employees

would benefit both the company and the employees themselves concerning self-

development and career advancement.

58

2. Analysis of Need for English Communication Skills of Thai Employees

in a Multinational Company

In order to analyze the need for English communication skills for Thai

employees in a multinational company, a survey was carried out. The questionnaire in

five parts was given to a number of Thai employees in the multinational company.

The data was collected. This section gives analysis to the collected data.

The following tables show the information concerning English

communication skills requirement that arises from the problems encountered and the

frequency of English communication skills used according to each job category.

Table 4.8 Basic Statistics Concerning Problems of English Communication Skills for

Thai Employees in a Multinational Company

Communication

Skills

Descriptions 𝑿 𝑺 Level

Listening -Unable to catch a word 3.54 0.91 High

-Unable to understand the meaning 3.35 0.88 Moderate

-Lack of vocabulary knowledge 3.62 0.86 High

-Unfamiliar with intonation 3.87 0.84 High

-Panic when you are asked 3.30 1.05 Moderate

Problems in listening skills 3.54 0.70 High

Speaking -Lack of vocabulary knowledge 3.82 0.87 High

-Unable to make a sentence for

conversation

3.46 1.09 Moderate

59


Communication

Skills


-Understand the question but

unable to answer in English

3.34 0.98 Moderate

-Shy to talk 2.82 1.17 Moderate

Problems in speaking skills 3.36 0.80 Moderate

Reading -Lack of vocabulary knowledge in

general

3.18 0.93 Moderate

-Lack of vocabulary knowledge in

technical terms

3.00 1.00 Moderate

-Unable to understand the sentence

structure

3.24 0.96 Moderate

-Unable to understand the grammar 3.36 0.95 Moderate

-Unable to understand overall

paragraph

3.00 0.83 Moderate

Problems in reading skills 3.16 0.75 Moderate

Writing -Lack of vocabulary knowledge in

general

3.57 0.94 High

-Unable to understand the grammar 3.57 0.94 High

-Understand English but cannot

write

2.99 0.86 Moderate

Problems in writing skills 3.38 0.76 Moderate

On average 3.36 0.66 Moderate

Table 4.8 shows information concerning problems in English

communication skills including listening, speaking, reading, and writing. It was found

that, on average, Thai employees in multinational companies have problems in

English communication skills at the score of 3.36 with a standard deviation of 0.66.

The overall level of English communication skills was found to be at moderate level.

60

In consideration of each English communication skill individually, it was

found that the most problematic skill in English communication for Thai employees

in the multinational company is listening. The result shows the mean value at the

score of 3.54 with a standard deviation of 0.70. This indicated that Thai employees in

multinational company’s need listening skills or have a problem with listening skill at

a high level. The problem in writing and speaking skills is approximately at the same

level. For the problem concerning writing skills, the mean value is 3.38 with the

standard deviation of 0.76 while for speaking skill; the mean value is 3.36 with

standard deviation of 0.80. English reading skills appears the least problematic of all

English communication skills. It has the mean value of 3.16 with standard deviation

of 0.75.

The frequency of English communication skills usage according to job

category was shown in Table 4.9

Table 4.9 Frequency of Use for English Communication Skills of Thai Employees in

the Multinational Company

Communication Skills


1. Listening 1.1 Internal communication

-Listening to daily conversation or job assignment from boss

3.50 0.90 Moderate

-Listening in the meeting and discussion in department

3.48 0.94 Moderate

-Listening to a telephone conversation

3.87 0.94 High

Frequency of use 3.62 0.79 High

61


Communication

Skills

Descriptions 𝑿 𝑺 Leve

l

1.2 External

communication

-Meeting and discussion with

outsiders e.g. customers,

suppliers, foreign visitors

3.54 1.14

-Listening to the lecture or

training given by foreign

instructors

4.07 0.92

-Listening to telephone

conversations

3.99 1.02

Frequency of use 3.87 0.92

On average 3.74 0.78

2. Speaking 2.1 Internal

Communication

-Daily conversation or report

on progress of job assignment

3.78 0.88

-Report to the monthly

meeting and discussion

3.69 0.95

-Speaking on telephone 4.09 0.90


2.2 External

communication

-Meeting and discussion with

customers, suppliers, guests,

foreign visitors

3.84 1.13

-Presenting products or

technical information to

customers

4.18 1.00

-Speaking on telephone with

customers or suppliers

4.13 1.01

-Negotiating with customers

or suppliers

4.12 1.14


62

It was found from Table 4.8 that the frequency of English communication

skills used according to each job category has the total average of 3.61 with a

standard deviation of 0.77. It indicated that Thai employees in the multinational

company have frequency of English communication at a high level.

In consideration of each communication skill, the result shows that speaking

skill has the highest mean value at 3.97 with the standard deviation of 0.85. The

second highest skill frequently used is listening. It has a mean value of 3.62 with a

standard deviation of 0.79. Both skills are classified as the “Much” level for

frequently used English communication skills.

The writing skill has the mean value of frequency use at 3.51 with a standard

deviation of 0.89 while reading skill has its mean value at 3.24 with a standard

deviation of 0.85. Both skills are classified as the “Moderate” level for frequently

used English communication skills.

3. Analysis of Need for English Communication Skills of Thai

Employees in Multinational Company According to Various Factors

This section studied needs for English communication skills of Thai

employees in the multinational company according to various factors, i.e. gender,

education level, age, and working experiences.

a. Gender

This section shows the comparison of needs for English communication

skills including listening, speaking, reading, and writing as well as the frequency of

use in each gender

Table 4.10 Comparison of Needs for English Communication Skills Categorized by

Gender

Gender N 𝑿 𝑺 t df Sig. Male 112 3.38 0.65

1.168 132 0.245 Female 22 3.21 0.66

63

It was found that the needs for English communication skills including

listening, speaking, reading, and writing of both genders are different. However, this

difference is not statistically significant (t = 1.168, Sig = 0.245).

Table 4.11 Comparison of Frequency of Use of English Communication Skills

Categorized by Gender

Table 4.11 shows the comparison of frequency of use of English

communication skills categorized by gender. It is found that the difference of

frequency of use of English communication skills in both genders is not statistically

significant (t = 1.732, Sig = 0.086).

b. Education

This section analyzes the needs for English communication skills

including listening, speaking, reading, and writing of Thai employees in a

multinational company categorized by education level.

Table 4.12 Mean and Standard Deviation of Needs for English Communication Skills

Categorized by Education Level

Education N 𝑿 𝑺

Diploma 28 3.70 0.71

Bachelor degree 101 3.26 0.62

Master degree 5 3.33 0.58

Total 134 3.36 0.66

It was found that the mean value of English communication skills for all

education levels is at 3.36 with standard deviation of 0.66. The result showed that the

Gender N 𝑿 𝑺 t df Sig.

Male 112 3.66 0.78 1.732 132 0.086

Female 22 3.35 0.66

64

respondents with diploma degree had the highest mean value of 3.70 with the

standard deviation of 0.71 while the respondents with bachelor degree have the lowest

mean value of 3.26 with standard deviation of 0.62.

Table 4.13 Analysis of Variance of Needs for English Communication Skills of Thai

Employees in a Multinational Company Categorized by Education Level

Sources of variation SS df MS F Sig.

Between groups 4.117 2 2.058 5.061 0.008

Within groups 53.278 131 0.407

Total 57.395 133

The results from Table 4.13 shows that employees with different education

level have different needs in English communication skills. This difference is

statistically significant at level .01. For this reason, the comparison between groups

was conducted by using Scheffe method. The results are shown in Table 4.14.

Table 4.14 Mean Difference Comparisons of Needs for English Communication

Skills of Thai Employees of the Selected Multinational Company Categorized by

Education Level

Education 𝑿 Diploma Bachelor Master

3.70 3.26 3.33

Diploma 3.70 - 0.43* 0.37

Bachelor 3.26 - 0.007

Master 3.33 -

Remark: * Statistical significant level at 0.05

It was found that needs of English communication skills of Thai employees

with education level in Diploma and Bachelor degree differ significantly at the

statistical significant level of 0.05 whereas there is no difference in other education

levels.

65

The frequency of use of English for communication skills categorized by

education level was shown in Table 4.15

Table 4.15 Mean and Standard Deviation of Frequency of Use of English

Communication Skills Categorized by Education Level

Education N 𝑿 S

Diploma 28 4.12 0.70

Bachelor degree 101 3.44 0.74

Master degree 5 3.99 0.23

Total 134 3.61 0.77

The overall mean value for frequency of use of English communication

skills is 3.61 with standard deviation of 0.77. It can be seen that the respondents with

diploma degree have the highest mean, which implies that this group of respondents

rarely use English communication skills compared to the other groups. The group that

used English communication skills the most frequently is the group of respondents

who held bachelor degree. The mean value of this group is of the lowest value at 3.44

with standard deviation of 0.74. The analysis of variance for the frequency of use of

English communication skills categorized by education level was illustrated in Table

4.16.

Table 4.16 Analysis of Variance for Frequency of Use of English Communication

Skills of Thai Employees of a Multinational Company Categorized by

Education Level

Sources of

variation SS df MS F Sig.

Between groups 10.744 2 5.372 10.352 0.000


Total 78.723 133

66

It was found that employees with different education levels have different

frequency of use of English communication skills. This difference is statistically

significant at level .01. For this reason, the comparison between groups was

conducted by using Scheffe method. The results were shown in Table 4.17

Table 4.17 Mean Difference Comparisons of Frequency of Use of English


Company Categorized by Education Level

Education 𝑿 Diploma Bachelor Master

4.12 3.44 3.99

Diploma 4.12 - 0.67* 0.13

Bachelor 3.44 - 0.55

Master 3.99 -

Remark: * Statistical significant level at 0.05

It was found that frequency of use of English communication skills of Thai

employees with education level in Diploma and Bachelor degree differ significantly at

the statistical significant level of 0.05 whereas there is no difference in other

education levels.

c. Age

This section shows the result of age variation for Thai employees in the

selected multinational company in needs and frequency of use of English


67

Table 4.18 Mean and Standard Deviation of Needs for English Communication Skills

Categorized by Age

Age (years) N 𝑿 S

< 30 49 3.25 0.65

30 - 39 44 3.31 0.57

40 - 49 37 3.52 0.75

> 50 4 3.69 0.51

Total 134 3.36 0.66

Table 4.18 shows the mean and standard deviation of the respondents

categorized by age. It can be seen that the highest mean value is 3.69 with standard

deviation of 0.51, which indicates that the employees of the age of greater than 50

years old need English communication skills more than employees of younger age.

The employees of age less than 30 years old have the lowest mean value of 3.25 with

standard deviation of 0.65.

Table 4.19 Analysis of Variance of Needs for English Communication Skills of Thai

Employees of a Multinational Company Categorized by Age

Sources of


Between groups 2.083 3 0.694 1.632 0.185


Total 57.395 133

From Table 4.19, it was found that the employees with different range of

ages need different English communication skills. This difference is statistically

significant.

68


Communication Skills Categorized by Age

Age (years) N 𝑿 S

< 30 49 3.35 0.71

30 - 39 44 3.55 0.73

40 - 49 37 3.96 0.77

> 50 4 4.18 0.34

Total 134 3.61 0.77

Table 4.20 shows that the average of frequency of use of English

communication skills for the employees with different ranges of age is 3.61 with

standard deviation of 0.77.

Considering each range of ages, it was found that the employees of ages

greater than 50 years old have the highest mean of 4.18. This signifies that they have

high frequency of use of English communication skills. The employees of age below

30 and 30-39 years old were found to use English communication skills less often.


Skills of Thai Employees of the Selected Multinational Company

Categorized by Age


Between groups 9.406 3 3.135 5.880 0.001


Total 78.723 133

It was found that the employees with different ranges of age have different

frequency of use of English communication skills. This difference is statistically

significant at level 0.1. For this reason, the comparison between groups was

conducted by using Scheffe method. The results were shown in Table 4.22

69


Communication Skills of Thai Employees of a Multinational Company

Categorized by Age

Ages 𝑿 20-29 30-39 40-49 50-59

3.35 3.55 3.96 4.18

20-29 3.35 - 0.2 0.61** 0.83*

30-39 3.55 - 0.41** 0.63

40-49 3.96 - 0.22

50-59 4.18 -

Remark: **Statistical significant level at 0.01, *Statistical significant level at 0.05

It was found that there are three statistical significances found at level 0.01

and 0.05. The employees of ages 20-29 have different frequencies of use of English

communication skills compared to the employees of ages 40-49 and 50-59.

Furthermore, the employees of ages 30-39 were also found to have different

frequency use of English communication skills compared to the employees of ages

40-49. The other pairs of ranges of age were not found to be different.

d. Working experience

This section shows the result of working experience for Thai employees

in the selected multinational company in needs and frequency of use of English


70

Table 4.23 Mean and Standard Deviation of Need for English Communication Skills

Categorized by Working Experiences

It was found that the mean value of need for English communication skills

of the employees with different working experience is 3.36 with a standard deviation

of 0.66.

Considering each range of working experience, it was found that the

employees of working experience greater than 20 years have the highest mean of 3.67

with standard deviation of 0.69. This signifies that they have need for English

communication skills. The employees of working experience in the range of 11-15

years were found to have the lowest mean in the group with value of 2.98. The

standard deviation of this group is 0.61. This result shows that this group of

employees need less English communication skills.

Table 4.24 Analysis of Variance of Need for English Communication Skills of Thai

Employees of the Selected Multinational Company Categorized by

Working Experience


Between groups 5.819 4 1.455 3.639 0.008


Total 57.395 133

Working Experience (years) N 𝑿 S

< 5 41 3.20 0.67

5 - 10 37 3.37 0.56

11 - 15 10 2.98 0.61

16 - 20 13 3.31 0.54

> 20 33 3.67 0.69

Total 134 3.36 0.66

71

It was found that the employees with different ranges of working experience

have different need for use of English communication skills. This difference is

statistically significant at level 0.1. For this reason, the comparison between groups

was conducted by using the Scheffe method. The results were shown in Table 4.25.

Table 4.25 Mean Difference Comparisons of Need for English Communication Skills


Working Experience

Working 𝑿 <5 5-10 11-15 16-20 >20

Experience 3.20 3.37 2.98 3.31 3.67

<5 3.20 - 0.17 0.22 0.11 0.48**

5-10 3.37 - 0.39 0.06 0.30*

11-15 2.98 - 0.22 0.69**

16-20 3.31 - 0.36

>20 3.67 -



and 0.05. The employees of working experience greater than 20 years have different

need for English communication skills compared to the employees of working

experience less than 5 years, 5-10 years, and 11-15 years. The other pairs of ranges of

working experiences were not found to be different.

72


Communication Skills Categorized by Working Experience

Working Experience (years) N 𝑿 S

< 5 41 3.37 0.69

5 - 10 37 3.41 0.79

11 - 15 10 3.46 0.60

16 - 20 13 3.71 0.83

> 20 33 4.13 0.63

Total 134 3.61 0.77

It was found that the mean value of frequency of use of English

communication skills of the employees with different working experience is 3.61 with

a standard deviation of 0.77.

Considering each range of working experience, it was found that the

employees with working experience greater than 20 years have the highest mean of

4.13 with standard deviation of 0.63. This signifies that they rarely use English

communication skills. The employees with working experience less than 5 years were

found to have the lowest mean in the group with value of 3.37. The standard deviation

of this group is 0.69. This result showed that this group of employees frequently use



Skills of Thai Employees of a Multinational Company Categorized by

Working Experience

Sources of


Between groups 13.332 4 3.333 6.575 0.000


Total 78.723 133

73

It was found that the employees with different ranges of working experience

have different frequency of use of English communication skills. This difference is

statistically significant at level 0.1. For this reason, the comparison between groups

was conducted by using Scheffe method. The results were shown in Table 4.28


Communication Skills of Thai Employees of a Multinational Company

Categorized by Working Experience

Working 𝑿 <5 5-10 11-15 16-20 >20

Experience 3.37 3.41 3.46 3.71 4.13

<5 3.37 - 0.04 0.09 0.34 0.77**

5-10 3.41 - 0.05 0.30 0.73**

11-15 3.46 - 0.25 0.67*

16-20 3.71 - 0.42

>20 4.13 -



and 0.05. The employees with working experience greater than 20 years have

different frequency of use of English communication skills compared to the

employees with working experience less than 5 years, 5-10 years, and 11-15 years.

The other pairs of ranges of working experience were not found to be different.

Correlation of Need for English Communication Skills This section studies correlation between the need for English

communication skills and job category, education level, and working experience of

Thai employees in the selected multinational company. The following table showed

the study result of Pearson correlation. The items of rows and columns of the table

were represented by the letters A to F. These letters have the following implications,

i.e.

74

A: Department

B: Education level

C: Age

D: Working experiences

E: Needs for English communication skills

F: Frequency of use of English communication skills

Table 4.29 The Study of Pearson Correlation

Items A B C D E F

A 1 0.09 0.15 0.14 0.08 0.18*

B 1 0.44** 0.49** 0.24** 0.26**

C 1 0.97** 0.19* 0.38**

D 1 0.22* 0.39**

E 1 0.26**

F 1

Remark: **Statistical significant level at 0.01, *Statistical significant level at 0.05 It was found that there are many correlations with statistical significance of

the studied factors. For example, the need of English communication skills (E) have

statistical significant correlation with education level (B), age (C) and working

experience (D). Furthermore, the frequency of use of English communication skills has

statistical significant correlation with department (A), education level (B), age (C) and

working experience (D).

CHAPTER 5

CONCLUSION DISCUSSION AND RECOMMENDATION

This chapter concludes the results found in the previous chapter. It also

summarizes the objectives of the study, methodology used in this work as well as the

tools applied to analyze the data. After that the discussion concerning the findings

was given. This part explains the reasons behind the findings according to the

hypothesis and supporting literature review. Finally, the recommendation part

suggests the application of findings and future study.

Conclusion The study proposed in this thesis aims to answer the following research

questions:

1. What are the needs for English communication skills regarding listening,

speaking, reading and writing of Thai employees in a selected multinational company

from a management point of view?

2. What are the needs for English communication skills of Thai employees

regarding the different factors, e.g. job categories, educational levels, and service

years of employees at a multinational company?

The researcher used an interview and questionnaire as the tools to collect the

data. Thai employees are sampled with the number suggested by G.D. Israel, 1992.

By using this approach, 134 Thai employees from various departments, ages,

educational levels and working experience were selected. The collected data was then

analyzed using various statistical tools, e.g. mean, standard deviation, t-test, F-test,

and Pearson correlation.

It was found that in the selected multinational company, English

communication skills is of great importance. This was concluded from both the

management point of view and employee point of view. In the management point of

view, English is the language for business, thus it is unavoidable to use it in doing

business. The employees who possess English communication skills would have

higher opportunities in completing the tasks in contact with foreigners and thus are

76

important to the company. Furthermore, the multinational company usually has a

foreigner in the management team. This implies that Thai employees who have higher

English communication skills would have higher opportunities for being promoted in

their career path compared to the ones who possess poor English communication

skills.

From Thai employees’ point of view, English communication becomes more

and more necessary as they advance through their career path. The need for English

communication skills increases along with their position and service years. In the

beginning they might encounter the need for English communication skills only to

fulfill their jobs, for example, reading English articles or technical manuals. However,

as they were promoted to higher positions, the need for English communication skills

were more obvious. For example, they might need to contact the customers, vendors

or business partners. Thus, from the employees’ point of view, they were also aware

that English communication skills is of importance in working in a multinational

company.

It was found that from the management point of view, English

communication skills were inadequate, particularly, listening and speaking skills.

This was obvious with Thai employees holding Diploma degree. One of the reasons

the management pointed out was that these two skills require more instantaneous

responses compared to writing and reading skills. This implied that the employees

should possess high levels of these skills in order to interact with the foreign

customers, suppliers and visitors. This would reflect a high image of the company as

well as the business performance and relationship. The management also pointed out

that though different departments need different levels of English communication

skills, listening and speaking skills should be improved overall.

Thai employees also specified their need for English communication skills.

It was found that all English communication skills are of moderate level or higher

with listening skills in the high level. This was consistent with the findings from the

management point of view. Concerning listening skills, Thai employees pointed out

that their problems come from unfamiliar intonation, lack of vocabulary knowledge

and inability to catch all words.

77

Though the listening skills were found to be the highest need for

improvement for Thai employees, another two skills, i.e. speaking and writing, were

also found to be essential needs for improvement among them. It was found that lack

of vocabulary knowledge was the highest factor for speaking skills. This was also true

for writing skills. In addition to this, being unable to understand the grammar was

another factor found for improvement in writing skills. These problems in listening,

speaking and writing skills should be focused on when developing a training course

for the Thai employees English communication skills improvement.

In terms of frequency of use, it was found that speaking skills was the

highest need followed by listening skills. It was also found that Thai employees

frequently use these skills in telephone communications both internal and external.

Other situations in which Thai employees frequently use these two skills were in

training from foreign instructors, presenting the products, customer service and

negotiation, and discussions in meetings.

From the study, it was also found that English communication skills differ

significantly for Thai employees holding Diploma and Bachelor degrees. The

employees’ age also affects the needs and frequency of use for English

communication skills. Elder employees were found to have higher needs and use

English communication skills more frequently. Service years also affected the need

for English communication skills. It was found that employees with more service

years have more needs and frequency of use for English communication skills

compared to new employees. The correlation study also suggested that need for

English communication skills were related to various factors, e.g. education level,

age, and working experience. This was also true for frequency of use with additional

factors for certain departments.

Discussion The research results show that English is of importance for Thai employees

in a multinational company. It was shown that Thai employees realize the importance

and expressed their need for English communication skills improvement. This is

consistent with hierarchy of needs (Maslow, 1954, p. 35) which stated that the

78

ultimate goal of humans is to seek for “the desire to become more and more what one

is, to become everything that one is capable of becoming”. In Thai employees’ case,

they seek to improve their knowledge of English communication skills because they

are aware that these skills help improve their capabilities and maximize their

potential. This improvement actually drives them towards the self-actualization level

mentioned in Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.

In general, it was found that English communication skills of Thai

employees in the multinational company are inadequate, especially listening and

speaking skills. This was also felt from the employee’s point of view. Hence, the

multinational company should support the English communication skills

improvement of the employees. In support, the company may take the human

resource development approach to implement a training program. As mentioned by

Harris et al. (2006) practical human resource development should begin with needs

assessment. Therefore, in order to implement a training program, needs must be

clearly identified.

The research result showed that the need for English communication skills

varied according to several factors, i.e. education background, and working

experience. This finding was supported by the study of Verapornvanichkul (2011) in

the topic of “survey of problem in oral communication skills when dealing with

English client: a case study of employees at one of the big four audit firms in

Thailand”. The results of the study showed that inadequate English skills and

communication apprehensions were the main problem to the employees. The

problems were caused by infrequent usage in daily life, and feeling nervous when

using an unfamiliar language. Speaking skills were found to be a problem in

communication because of other inadequate English communication skills. Another

cause was lack of practice that in turn comes from inadequate abilities in vocabulary

and pronunciation. The frequency of use of English communication skills was also

found to vary with several factors, i.e. department, and working experience. It should

be noted that the results obtained stated the findings in general. The work of

Sursattayawong (2006) also stated similar findings. The author performed a research

in the topic of “a survey of English speaking problems of nurses at Rajavithi

hospital”. It was found that most of the nurses sometimes used English or rarely used

79

English. They had to speak English in cases of them having to deal with foreign

patients, and discussions with doctors and other nurses. The respondents in the

research were selected such that they had different working experience and were from

different departments. Though, the study did not show the factors of working

experience and department directly, the author showed the frequency of English usage

in different contact situations. This suggested that nurses with different working

experience and department might have different frequency in English usage, e.g.

Giving instructions and health education about the disease the patients have when

taking care of foreign patients seemed to be the practitioner jobs instead of

management while this situation rarely came from the Accident and Emergency

department.

Though this research focuses on examining the needs of English

communication skills, the first step according to practical human resource

development proposed by Harris et al. (2006), the author also mentioned a guideline

in order to implement the training program as well. It was found that the content as

well as instructional method and media should be aimed towards English for special

purpose. Because this approach is more likely to satisfy the multinational companies’

objectives concerning employees’ competence improvement as required by specific

job functionality rather than general English communication skills. The

implementation step, evaluation and follow up step can then be done respectively.

Recommendation Recommendation for Application

The findings of this research suggest the following applications for

multinational companies

1. Thai employees realize the importance of English communication skills,

English communication skills for their needs, and English communication skills in

terms of frequency of use. This information could be used to design English training

courses in order to improve English communication skills of Thai employees.

2. As stated earlier, the English for special purposes courses are claimed to

be more effective compared to the English for general purposes. This study showed in

even more depth what skills for English communication and the corresponding

80

subtopics should be the focus of the course. However, this would be a general

guideline. In order to design English training courses to serve Thai employees

according to specific groups, e.g. Marketing department, employees with working

experience of 11-15 years more study should be undertaken. This would require more

samples from each of these interested groups for analysis.

3. According to the survey of need for English communication skills, the

inadequate skills are speaking and listening which was caused by lack of vocabulary,

unable to catch words and unfamiliarity with intonation. Those mentioned problems

should be considered when designing an English training course.

Recommendation for Further Study

1. The study has indicated that English is very important for Thai

employees, however those employees have to work during weekdays, therefore, the

researcher suggests finding the best appropriate way to enhance their English ability

while working.

2. Apart from teaching all communication skills in the training class, what

kind of additional materials or English communication environment creations would

encourage Thai employees to speak English more and better?

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APPENDICES

APPENDIX A

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Management Level Employees ’s Interview Questions

APPENDIX B

91

Questionnaire Form

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