Sumeth Munchinda. An evaluation of contents and their objectives in the English for business communication courses at the University of the Thai Chamber of Commerce. Master's Degree(Applied Linguistics). Mahidol University. Mahidol University Library and Knowledge Center. : Mahidol University, 1996.
An evaluation of contents and their objectives in the English for business communication courses at the University of the Thai Chamber of Commerce
Abstract:
This present study was conducted to evaluate the English for Business Communication courses offered at Faculty of Humanities, the University of the Thai Chamber of Commerce. The evaluators, the subjects of the study, were categorized into three groups: 100 fourth-year students in the academic year 1995, 10 multi-national business firms representatives, and 5 English for Business Communication specialists. A questionnaire was administered to the students in order to investigate the needs and problems in learning Business English, and a semi-structured interview was conducted with the representatives and the specialists in order to evaluate the course contents and objectives. The reliability of the questionnaire was computed by using the SPSS sub-program (Cronbach Alpha) which was .917. The findings in the study are summarized as follows: 1. The students evaluated the whole picture of course contents and objectives of the two courses. The needs identified were in the range of "quite needed" up to "extremely needed." All of the students realized that they would have advantages in their future career if they were taught Fe contents and reached the objectives of the program provided. 2. The students also identified the extent of the problems or difficulties of the course contents and their objectives. The problems caused by teaching and learning ranged from "nit really problematical" to "moderately problematical." 3. The results of the evaluation of ten different business firms representatives indicated that the percentage of agreement among the interviewees was from 70% to 100% which were relatively high. Nevertheless, half of the evaluators in this group disagreed about including the lessons, "News Release" and "Telexes" in the course. 4. The English for Business Communication specialists approved of the majority of the course contents and their objectives. Their approval rating was 80% to 100%. However, most of them disagreed about having the lessons: Acknowledgement Letters, Credit Letters, News Release, and Telexes in the courses, since these lessons were considered too specialized for the students.