A survey of language needs for communication by Thai engineers

Abstract

This study investigated the language needs for communication by Thai engineers. The major purpose of this study is to reveal the actual usage of English in engineering companies, which will serve as useful information for course designers, English teachers (educators), including those involved in training engineers within private organisations or state enterprises, producing, revising, or developing effective and efficient communicative English courses, activities, and materials. The subjects of the study were twenty-one operational engineers and twenty-one managerial engineers of 21 sampled companies selected from the directory of 1,000 top companies. The instrument used was an interview schedule. The results of the study can be summarised as follows: 1. From the operational engineers and managerial engineers views, English is an important tool for communication. English in all four skills is very useful for them because the role of English is viewed as an additional factor in doing the job well and in the career advancement. 2. The operational engineers and managerial engineers in the sampled companies have engaged some of the time to most of the time in a number of English language-related activities which can be categorised according to listening, speaking, reading, and writing. 3. Most operational engineers and managerial engineers in the sampled companies perceive that their reading skills are better than listening, speaking, and writing respectively. 4. The operational and managerial engineers in the sampled companies perceive that they are in need of English training. The operational engineers need listening and speaking courses the most whereas the managerial engineers need writing and speaking the most. The major suggestion made on the basis of this study is that English syllabuses for undergraduate engineering students should be made upon all four skills with the language learning activities that are similar to those actually conducted in the engineering companies.;