A DEVELOPMENT OF AN ENGLISH ORAL COMMUNICATION COURSE FOR UNDERGRADUATE ADVERTISING STUDENTS

Abstract

The study was aimed at developing an English oral communication course for undergraduate advertising students. The objectives of the study were as follows: (1) to investigate the needs for oral communication skills of the undergraduate communication arts students, majoring in advertising (2) to assess the effectiveness of the English oral communication course for advertising students (3) to explore the attitudes of the students towards the developed course. The study employed a mixed-method research, comprising three phases: needs analysis, course development/course implementation and course evaluation. The needs analysis was conducted using a questionnaire survey with 91 third-year advertising students and semi-structure interviews with a group of stakeholders, consisting of three ESP teachers, three advertising teachers, and three advertising personnel. The results revealed that students lacked necessary communication skills required to work effectively and to apply for the work in the advertising field. In the second phase, the information from the needs analysis was translated into learning objectives and instructional materials of the course. The instruments used in the implementation of the course and data collection consisted of pretests, posttests, teacher’s logs, students’ logs. After the course had been implemented for 14 weeks, the findings indicated that the posttest scores of the students were significantly higher than the pretest scores. In the final phase, the attitudes of the students toward the course were examined using the-end-of-the-course attitude questionnaire and a semi-structured interview. The results indicated that all of the students had positive attitude toward the developed course. The findings from qualitative data showed that the course was related to their future careers in the advertising field and they were able to strengthen their oral performance considered essential in the workplace. Based on the findings, it is recommended that the English oral communication course developed in this study can be implemented to promote students’ communication skills. Finally, the paper discusses important issues regarding the teaching and learning including recommendations for future research.