An Evaluation of Fundamental English Course: Everyday English Reading and Writing Course
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Abstract
In English Language Teaching (ELT), it is necessary procedure to offer students demanding, suitable, and updated courses that help develop their English potential. Therefore, English teachers should evaluate the course quality continually. The primary purpose of this study was to investigate students' perceptions of the foundation English course at Prince of Songkla University, Surat Thani Campus. The participants were 134 first- and second-year students who enrolled in the Everyday English Reading and Writing course during the second semester in the academic year 2020. The researchers used a questionnaire and a semi-structured interview to collect data on students' perceptions of six aspects of course evaluation: Course Objectives, Textbook and Supplementary Materials, Teacher and Teaching Methods, Assessment and Evaluation, Learning Environment, and Course Benefits. The study also examined the problems that the students encountered in the course. The quantitative data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and the qualitative data were analyzed with content analysis. The findings show that the students were satisfied with all aspects at a high level except the Learning Environment, with which they were satisfied at a moderate level. The results from the interviews indicate that the classroom learning materials were insufficient, and the class size was large, making it easy to be distracted from the lessons. Furthermore, the students had different levels of English proficiency. Therefore, it would be advisable for the university to provide appropriate courses for each level of competence.
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