A Needs Analysis of English for Meeting Lessons for Thai Undergraduate Engineering Students
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Abstract
The present study explores the needs for English meeting lessons for Thai undergraduate engineering students. The participants consisted of 5 groups: 443 engineering students, 150 novice engineers, 224 experienced engineers, 4 ESP teachers, and 5 engineering teachers. Data were collected using 3 sets of questionnaires and semi-interview. Data analysis was conducted using percentage, means, standard deviation, and thematic analysis. The findings revealed that both novice engineers and engineering students have a high degree of difficulty when conducting meetings in English. In addition, it was found that there are three stages of the meeting process: preparation, participation, and post-meeting. Regarding types of meetings, the most common regular type of meeting was the problem-solving meeting. Furthermore, the results imparted the language details for the meeting participation stage that were identified based on each language function. The study discusses the main issues concerning the difficulties that Thai engineering students encounter, how the target language is used, as well as practical implications for solving issues, and proposes suggestions for developing English for meeting lessons and teaching materials. Finally, analyzing meeting discourse is recommended for further research.
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