NEEDS ANALYSIS OF ENGLISH ORAL COMMUNICATION FOR THE AUTOMOTIVE MAINTENANCE AND REPAIR PROFESSION

Abstract

This study aims to investigate the needs of English oral communication for the automotive maintenance and repair profession based on perspectives of automotive mechanical students and stakeholders in the automotive industry in the Bangkok Metropolitan Area, and to propose an English oral communication course syllabus for automotive mechanical students’ profession. The study is a survey research consisting of two phases: needs analysis and course syllabus development. The needs analysis process was based on the framework ESP needs analysis of Brown (2016). Data were collected by means of questionnaires with one hundred and nineteen automotive mechanical students and five stakeholders, and semi-structured interview questions were used to collect in-depth information on needs of English oral communication for the automotive maintenance and repair profession. The findings revealed the needs across three language areas: linguistic aspects, functional aspects, and sociocultural aspects. The quantitative data indicated that grammatical structures were least required from both participant groups. The automotive mechanical students and stakeholders had different views on language functions that were required in their profession. Regarding the sociocultural aspects, knowledge of social etiquettes was viewed as keys to prevent communication breakdowns. Finally, the most important contents were proposed for an English oral communication course syllabus for the automotive maintenance and repair profession in 12 units based on Content-Based Instruction (CBI).