Local Innovation for Promoting English Use of Local Vendors at Khao Kradong Volcano Forest park in Buriram Province

Abstract

The research purposes were 1) to develop a local innovation approach for promoting English use for the local vendors at Khao Kradong Volcano Forest Park in Buriram province, and 2) to develop English signs and product list. The samples comprised 27 informants including 15 vendors of the souvenir shops, 7 vendors of the restaurants, and 5foreign tourists. In addition, 5 representatives of 22 Thai samples including 3 vendors of the souvenir shops, and 2 vendors of the restaurants were purposively selected for a focus group discussion. The research instruments consisted of questionnaire, focus group discussion form, innovation for English communication, innovation assessment form and SL-TL form. The descriptive statistics for analyzing the quantitative data were percentage, mean and standard deviation while the content analysis was conducted for analyzing the qualitative data. The research results revealed that: 1. For development of the local innovation for promoting the samples’ English use, they shared the same agreement that two local innovations i.e. booklet and CD were most appropriate for practicing English. For the English topics, they needed 19 out of 29 topics.2. For their needs of English signs and product list, the Thai samples most needed bilingual signs while the foreign samples most needed English signs for tourism and directional signs. Moreover, the focus group discussion participants most needed the following signs: welcome sign, directional sign, and shop’s name sign, etc. 3. The local innovations evaluated by the experts were overall found at the highest level. Upon considering each aspect, it was found that the booklet design was ranked first at the average highest level, and was followed by contents and English CD, respectively. Moreover, development of the English signs and product list evaluated by the experts was overall found at the highest level.