Needs Analysis of Tourism Personnel for English Communicative Innovation in Sai Yao Community Silk Village, Thalunglek Subdistrict, Muang District, Buriram Province

Abstract

The objective of this research was to analyze the needs of tourism personnel for English communicative innovation in Sai Yao Community silk village, Thalunglek sub-district, Muang district, Buriram province.The sample group included 34 tourism personnel of the silk village in 2017. They were asked to complete a questionnaire, and 11 from the sample group were asked to participate in a focus group discussion. They were selected by using a purposive sampling method. A questionnaire and focus group discussion form were utilized in data collection.The statistics used in data analysis were percentage, mean, Standard Deviation, and content analysis. The results showed that among the four skills, the questionnaire respondents thought that listening was needed at the highest level (4.91). The samples viewed that English for Specific Purposes (ESP) covering both vocabulary and conversations were needed at the highest level (4.82). They needed the English communicative innovation in the form of a booklet for practicing their English at the highest level (4.73). The topics they needed at the highest level (5.00) included greeting and welcoming, telling history of the community, describing the community’s products details and bargaining. The results obtained from focus group discussion revealed that the topics they needed were telling the history of the community, talking about community’s products, talking about thecommunity’s learning stations (silk, organic rice, and cane sugar processing), and talking about the tourist attractions near the community. The suitable innovation they needed included a booklet and sound clips as well as products vocabulary with phonetics and translations. Moreover, they suggested that the youth in the community should be able to join the workshop for using the innovation and the topics in the booklet should be arranged from the general topics to the specific topics.