English oral communication needs analysis of Thai vendors on Khaosan Road

This objectives of this study were to explore what English oral communication skills are needed and analyze English oral communication difficulties for Thai vendors. The participants were 50 Thai vendors who were working on Khaosan Road and data was collected using the adapted questionnaire consisting of close-ended questions, a 5-point Likert scale and open-ended questions. The finding showed that although the participants had moderate level of English oral communication abilities, they needed to improve pronunciation abilities, listening abilities, appropriate abilities and speaking abilities respectively. Regarding difficulties that Thai vendors faced when communicating in English on Khaosan Road, the result found that they had difficulties describing, informing about their products fluently, understanding what foreign customers were saying were their specific requirements, pronouncing some consonants, having less confidence to communicate face to face, negotiating the product price and giving other advice and suggestions to foreign customers due to lack of related vocabularies.