English Business Email Writing Problems of 4th Year Logistics and Supply Chain Management Students of the Faculty of Business Administration at Huachiew Chalermprakiet University

Abstract

Email writing is one of the basic routine activities in business organization as writing business correspondent is a process that every department and function in the organization must undertake. The purposes of this study were to find out the point of view of students of Logistics and Supply Chain Management at Huachiew Chalermprakiet University as well as their perceived difficulty concerning email writing in English at their workplaces during their internship. The sample was 67 fourth-year students with all the students taking, EG 5243 English Reading Writing for Professional Purposes, a compulsory course for Business Administration students. The research instruments used in collecting data were a five-point Likert scale questionnaire divided into 4 categories: (1) ability in email writing; (2) ordering ideas; (3) vocabulary and grammatical usage; and (4) capital letter and punctuation usage. Major research findings indicated that the most common significant problems students encountered in email writing were choosing appropriate technical words, followed by being unable to use correct grammar in business English emails. The study also suggested that vocabulary and grammatical usage were the most difficult for them in writing English emails. Based on these major findings, students should be prepared with sufficient writing skills before they enter the workplace and engage in Business writing. In addition, teachers may reinforce vocabulary, especially technical words, and grammar drills for students to prepare them to be able to work efficiently.