The Development of an English for Communication Course for Tourist-Boat Paddlers at Damnoen Saduak Floating Market, Ratchaburi Province

Abstract

          The purposes of this research were to: 1) develop an English for communication course for tourist-boat paddlers at Damnoen Saduak Floating Market, 2) investigate communicative English ability, 3) examine English speaking ability and, 4) explore confidence in the level of English speaking of the participants. The participants were 24 tourist-boat paddlers at Damnoen Saduak Floating Market selected by purposive sampling based on determined criteria. The research instruments used in this research were a course book with audio files, English for communication test, English speaking ability assessment form, confidence in English speaking self-evaluation form, and satisfaction in English training course evaluation form.      The statistics used in the study were mean, standard deviation, t-test, frequency, and percentage.

               The research findings were as follows:

1. The participants were very satisfied with the training course and “Applicability of knowledge in the real situation” was the topic that the participants were most satisfied in.


2. Communicative English ability of participants after the post-test was higher than that of the pre-test at a significant level of 0.05. Moreover, the most increased average score was found in unit 2 whereas the least increased was in unit 3.


3. English speaking ability of the participants in terms of answer and response, and grammar and structure were averagely rated at 2.90 and 2.50 respectively after the post-test, both were higher than that of the pre-test.


4. Confidence in English speaking after the English training course was higher than before the training course, and their confidence increased from a moderate to a high level.