English Skill Development and Expectation of English Use in the Workplace: Case Study of Supporting Staff and Project-based Researchers, Institute for Population and Social Research, Mahidol University

Abstract

Background and Aims: Supporting staff normally experience a lack of ability to use English in the workplace when communicating with foreign faculties/experts/students. Capacity building that meets these supporting staff’s jobs means that their enhanced capacity can meet the university’s vision. This paper examined knowledge, skills, experiences and expectation of English language use in the workplace in multiple aspects among supporting staff before and after their participation in the English class program. The paper also assessed the satisfaction with the program’s content in each aspect and overall. The program’s intention was that supporting staff would gradually change their behaviors and expectation of English use.

Methodology: The quantitative technique was applied into the study and through the sampled who were supporting staff participating in the program. Totally, 19 people were selected by the purposive sample. The data were analyzed through means and standard deviation.

Results: Major findings presented that the sample group had the moderate level of English use in the workplace in listening, speaking, reading and writing similarly. When looking into each aspect, participants had quite a low level of listening and writing. In speaking and reading, some participants experienced these frequently while some did not. Similar to expectation, some expected to use English in the workplace and some did not. However, participants showed satisfaction towards the class’s content.

Conclusion: Skill development and expectation of English use in the workplace were not achieved as written in the objectives. Two recommendations arose. First, the English class for workplace context should be organized in a continuous manner so that staff could change their behaviors regarding English use. This could bring forth the organization’s achievement. Second, the organizers should evaluate the target group’s level of knowledge, skills, experiences and expectation of English use in the workplace beforehand. This evaluation could help planning, categorizing and designing contents to match the participants’ needs.