Needs analysis of English skills for professional nurse : the context of ASEAN economic community

Abstract

The theories of Needs Analysis and English for Specific Purposes were applied for this study to explore the English language skills problems and needs of professional nurses and to investigate their wants regarding English courses for nursing with a view of AEC. This study was a mixed methods research. The research participants were 346 professional nurses who work at public hospitals in Bangkok under the Ministry of Education and the Thai Red Cross Society, three administrators of nursing administration offices, and six foreign patients from the research area. Questionnaire and interviews were adopted as the instruments to gather data for this study. The questionnaire was analyzed by descriptive statistics. The findings of this study revealed that: (1) nurses confronted English language problems with general English and ESP for listening, speaking, writing, and pronunciation (2) nurses recognized the needs for English proficiency with a view to AEC. All English skills were strongly needed and (3) English courses for nursing were insufficient. Finally, the results of this study were essential for curriculum planners and course designers to design content for nursing English courses with a view of AEC.;