Needs of the thai teachers in the english language

The Thai people recognize English as their foreign language. And many Thai teachers find it difficult to communicate in English especially in speaking, listening, reading and even writing. Hence, this study was conducted in order to explore the English language needs of teachers at Phadungpanya School, Tak City, Thailand. Moreover, it correlated the teachers’ language needs to their profile and proposed intervention activities in order to address the English language needs of the respondents.

The Needs Analysis (NA) was used in analyzing the data gathered from a survey distributed to the teachers with frequency count, percentage, rank, mean and correlation measures as statistical tools.

Based from the findings of the study, it was discovered that the teachers are handling Vocational Education, Science, Mathematics, Thai Language, Foreign Languages (English, French, Chinese, Japanese and Myanmar), MAPE and Social Studies. Most of them are females. The respondents are dominated by teachers who are new in the profession but they almost have equal number to that of teachers who have been in the profession for long years. Most of the respondents have 0–2 number of trainings in English attended.

Their so much need on Listening, Reading, and Computer-assisted Language Learning (CALL) skills are likewise revealed. The respondents also indicated that they have needs on Speaking and Writing skills. Thus, intervention activities along these areas will be provided to address their identified needs. Remarkably, the teachers’ Writing, and CALL needs have significant relationship with the number of trainings in English they attended.