The barriers in English speaking and listening of Thai registered nurses at a university-affiliated hospital in Bangkok

English communication skills are a challenge for nurses who use Thai as their mother tongue, especially in an era when Thailand has become medical hub and English is used as a world language. The objectives of this study were twofold: 1) to identify the barriers in English speaking and listening of Thai registered nurses at the operational level and administrative level when confronting foreign patients while providing nursing care and 2) to explore the differences in the barriers in the English speaking and listening of the operational level and administrative level nurses when using English with foreign patients. The study was quantitative research using a questionnaire distributed through Google Forms. The data were analyzed using the descriptive statistics namely frequency, percentage, mean, and standard deviation. The participants were selected by purposive sampling. They were Thai registered nurses at two different levels, the operational and administrative levels, working in the Obstetric-Gynecological Nursing Division in a university-affiliated hospital. The findings revealed that both groups of nurses felt that they have moderate barriers to English speaking in all aspects, including lexicon, pronunciation, syntax, speaking fluency, and emotional interference. Among these aspects, lexicon barriers were perceived as the highest obstacle to speaking, and they usually translate Thai sentences into English, which was the highest barrier. Regarding listening, both groups reported that they had moderate barriers in five aspects: lexicon, listening comprehension, accent, listening proficiency, and emotional interference. The research results may benefit the Nursing Department in terms of planning appropriate training course for their personnel to improve the English language ability. Further study should investigate the strategies nurses use to overcome English language barriers.