Development of a Communicative English Speaking Training Curriculum for Tourism in Nawatwithi Communities of Phatthalung Province, Thailand

Abstract

This research aimed to: 1) investigate the needs for developing a communicative English speaking training curriculum for tourism in Nawatwithi communities, Phatthalung Province; 2) design and evaluate the efficiency; and 3) evaluate the effectiveness of the curriculum, using a Research and Development (R&D) approach in three phases. Phase 1: needs analysis was conducted with three English teachers, three tourism entrepreneurs, and five tourism students using interviews and questionnaires. Phase 2: curriculum design and efficiency evaluation — the curriculum was developed based on the findings from Phase 1 and evaluated for quality by three experts, followed by a tryout with 30 participants using a curriculum evaluation form and a communicative English speaking assessment. Phase 3: implementation and effectiveness evaluation — the curriculum was implemented with 30 tourism students using a communicative English speaking assessment form. Qualitative data were analyzed using content analysis, while quantitative data were analyzed using mean, standard deviation, and t-test. The results were as follows: 1) the needs analysis revealed that the key informants required content related to real tourism situations in Nawatwithi communities, Phatthalung Province, including greeting, welcoming tourists, and providing information about attractions, accommodations, local food, and souvenirs. Learning activities should emphasize speaking practice, supported by varied learning materials and appropriate assessment methods covering pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary, fluency, and comprehensibility. 2) the developed curriculum consisted of 6 components and 5 learning units with a total of 30 hours. The appropriateness was rated at the highest level with a mean of 4.78, and the curriculum efficiency was 82.03/81.17, which was higher than the criterion of 80/80; and 3) the implementation and effectiveness evaluation showed that the students' communicative English speaking was at a good level with a mean of 16.23, and their post-training scores were significantly higher than the 60% criterion at the .05 level of statistical significance.