Needs analysis of English oral communication: a study of service providers in an electrical appliance retail store

The objectives of this study were to explore the English oral communication needs, identify challenges in English oral communication, and gather suggestions for additional English training courses for Thai service providers working at an electrical appliance retail store in a mall in Bangkok. The participants were 60 Thai electrical appliance retail store workers. The data were collected using an adapted questionnaire comprising a five-point Likert scale and an open-ended question. The data were analyzed in Microsoft Excel using frequency, percentage, mean, and standard deviation. The findings of the study indicate that respondents who work as service providers at an electrical appliance retail store in Bangkok need to learn how to explain how to use products and how to convince customers to buy products in English. In terms of English oral communication problems, the findings also show that the respondents have limited vocabulary, which is insufficient for effective customer interaction. Additionally, the respondents do not know how to pronounce words correctly with the correct use of stress and intonation. Therefore, it is suggested that training courses provided by the company would be beneficial in helping the respondents excel at their jobs.