THE DEVELOPMENT OF AN ENRICHMENT CURRICULUM TO ENHANCE ENGLISH COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE FOR GRADE 6 STUDENTS IN EDUCATIONAL SANDBOX SCHOOLS OF UBON RATCHATHANI PROVINCE

Abstract

This research aimed to 1) Study the problems and needs in developing a curriculum to enhance English communicative competence; and 2) Develop a curriculum to enhance English communicative competence in schools within the Educational Innovation Area of Ubon Ratchathani Province.
The study employed a Research and Development (R&D) methodology, divided into two phases: 1) The study of foundational data, in which the population consisted of 1,786 English teachers in schools within the Educational Innovation Area of Ubon Ratchathani Province, and the sample consisted of 314 English teachers obtained through simple random sampling; and 2) Curriculum development, in which the quality and appropriateness of the curriculum were examined and evaluated by 10 experts, and the curriculum was piloted with a sample of 12 Grade 6 students obtained through multistage random sampling. The research findings revealed that 1) The main problem was that the content currently in use was not aligned with the real-life contexts of the learners, resulting in a lack of motivation and low English communication ability among learners, and the area of highest need was that of curriculum content. 2) The developed curriculum comprised six components: principles, objectives, content, learning activities, media and learning resources, and measurement and evaluation, which experts rated as appropriate at the highest level ( = 4.78). The results of the pilot study revealed that students' post-learning knowledge scores were significantly higher than their pre-learning scores at the .001 level; their English communicative competence passed the 80 percent criterion with statistical significance at the .01 level; and their satisfaction with the curriculum was at a high level ( = 4.47). In conclusion, the developed curriculum was appropriate and demonstrated the potential to concretely enhance learners' English communicative competence.