A study of English listening problems of employees in a Japanese automotive company

The study aimed to investigate the English listening problems faced by Thai employees when communicating with Japanese employees in a Japanese automotive company and obtain suggestions regarding ways to improve their English listening skills. The participants of this study were 100 Thai employees from various departments who used English in routine work to communicate with Japanese employees. The data collection was conducted in the form of a questionnaire, including close-ended statements and an open-ended question. The data were analyzed and described by descriptive statistics and thematic content analysis. The findings of the study revealed that the main English listening problems of the Thai employees in the Japanese automotive company were a lack of background knowledge of the topic being discussed, incorrect pronunciation by the speaker, and the use of technical terms or unfamiliar words. Regarding listening comprehension improvement, the participants strongly agreed that watching English movies or listening to music was an effective way to improve their listening skills. They gave additional suggestions for improving listening comprehension by self-learning through the media and stories, communicating with foreigners, and doing more listening practice.