A Development of an ESP Course Using the Performance-based Instruction for Sales Staff in Logistics Business Tanisaya Jiriyasin

Background of the study Logistics, the management of the flow of resources which involve the integration of information, transportation, inventory, warehousing, material handling, packaging, and security between the origin point to the destination for the customers or corporations, has now become one of the necessary tools for a business to be competitive over its rivals.

Effective logistics systems can reduce business cost in the supply chains while increasing the business margins. As a result, there has been an increasingly rapid growth in logistics business.

The future of logistics business is forecasted to be more prosperous particularly when ten different countries including Thailand are united to become one as members of ASEAN community.

Since English will probably be used as a language of communication among people in AEC community, the problem of English communication may arise with Thai business professionals working in logistics business.

The interviews conducted with the Dean of the Logistics Department, UTCC, and a business owner of a logistics company revealed that: - Thai undergrads needs more English improvement besides incoterms knowledge, - Thai employees needed to be more proficient in English, esp., speaking and business writing

With regard to the success and growth of any business, sales personnel is considered to be one of the crucial work force. Therefore, there is a demand for an ESP course that is especially tailored to help them improve their work performance when using English.

Additionally, there is no study in English language teaching and learning that focuses on Thai professionals who are working or want to work in sales departments in the logistics business.

This ESP course will be beneficial for the sales staff and their employers. Their confidence in using English can lead to an excellent work performance, customers’ satisfaction, and finally successful business of their organizations.

Objectives of the study 1. To investigate the needs of English for business communication of the sales staff working in logistics business. 2. To develop an ESP course of English for business communication using Performance-based Instruction (PBI) for the sales staff in the logistics business.

3. To investigate the effect size of this ESP course. 4. To investigate the opinions of the subjects towards the PBI instruction.

Research questions 1. What are the needs of English for business communication of the sales staff working in logistics business? 2. To what extent does the ESP course of English for business communication using Performance-based Instruction (PBI) can improve the sales staff’s English proficiency?

3. What is the effect size of this ESP course? 4. What are the opinions of the subjects towards the Performance-based instruction?

Statements of hypotheses 1. The means of the English posttest scores of the subjects are significantly higher than those of the pretest after the subjects had been exposed to the Performance-based instruction. 2. The effect size of the difference between the means of English posttest scores and those of the pretest is large.

Scopes of the study Population – Thai and English non-natives males and females working as sales in logistics companies Samples – volunteered Thai sales staff working in logistics companies

Independent variable – ESP course using PBI Dependent variables – means of pretest and posttest scores and subjects’ opinions

Definitions of terms ESP course – Business English writing course focusing on the language use of sales staff in the logistics business. The number of studying hours is 30 hours excluding hours for the pre- and post- tests.

PBI – instruction which aims at improving English on-the-job business writing of sales staff in logistics business. Its method are to demonstrate examples of English performance and the process of generating the performance with guided practice and feedback until the learners can best perform on their own.

Research design and scope of the study Research design = the One-Group Pretest-Posttest Design due to the nature of PBI process which deals with demonstrations and provisions of practice and feedback. Therefore, a close attention will be placed on the subjects before, during, and after their performance.

Stages of the study Stage 1: Conducting needs analyses with Logistics business owners, their staff, and other stakeholders to find the jobs’ criteria and benchmarks for sales staff, content analysis and observation of staff’s language use in their real work place

Stage 2 : Interpret the data from the needs analysis to develop an ESP course materials using PBI and the business English performance test including its rubrics to evaluate the learners’ English writing proficiency.

Stage 3 : Pilot some of the course materials and test Stage 4 : Implement the course materials and test

Stage 5 : Conduct the main study Stage 6 : Investigate the learners’ opinions towards PBI course

Instruments 2 sets of questionnaires and semi- structured interviews for a logistics company’s owner and sales staff in logistics company course materials English performance test including its rubrics Interview questionnaires Teacher’s observation log

Data analysis Question 1 and 4: Qualitative method using “Theorizing” method (LeCompte and Preissle, 1993) Question 2 and 3: Quantitative using t-test for dependent means and Cohen’s d to check the effect size

(Tentative Research Proposal) The Establishment of Business Word-List for Thai Students in Higher Education Researchers: Aj. Poonchai Poonwathu Dr. Tanisaya Jiriyasin

Vocabulary knowledge has been regarded as a vital part in language learning. According to Laufer (1997 cited in Min, 2008), it has long been deemed a major determinant influencing ESL/EFL reading comprehension.

Meara (1996) also supported that learners with big vocabularies are more proficient in a wide range of language skills than learners with small vocabularies.

Concerning the vocabulary study, there were two well-known studies which were British National Corpus (BNC) and Academic Word List (AWL) (British National Corpus [Online]; Coxhead, 2000) which dealt with word corpus in commercial and academic contexts.

These word lists have been used and studied extensively in other areas such as engineering and medicine (Zeng and Tse, 2006) just to name a few in order to find the word corpus that is significant in its field.

The underlying principle of the studies was mainly based on the belief that if the ESL/EFL learners have been equipped with the vocabulary knowledge specifically required for their study, it can facilitate their learning.

To decide which genre of word lists the language learners need to learn is also based on the visions of their educational institutes and the demands of other stakeholders.

The vision of UTCC focuses on business- oriented context since it was founded by the Chamber of Commerce of Thailand. As a result, most of the English courses for the students studying in every faculty will deal with the use of English language in working and business contexts.

Therefore, the purpose of this study is to set up a word list of 2,000 important business vocabulary to equip Thai undergraduate students with business vocabulary knowledge when reading any business news section from local English newspapers.

Objectives of the study To establish a word list of necessary 2,000 business vocabulary for Thai undergraduate students extracted by Log Likelihood. To establish a word list of necessary 2,000 business vocabulary for Thai undergraduate students extracted by Chi Square.

To compare the differences and similarities of the business word lists created by the two measures.

Research questions 1. What is a word list of necessary 2,000 business vocabulary for Thai undergraduate students extracted by Log Likelihood? 2. What is a word list of necessary 2,000 business vocabulary for Thai undergraduate students extracted by Chi Square?

3. What are the differences and similarities of the business word lists created by the two measures?

Scope of the study Independent variables = vocabulary used in various business sections in the Bangkok Post and Nation newspapers Dependent variables = a word list of necessary 2,000 business vocabulary

Definitions of terms Business words or vocabulary are content words that are found in all sub-sections under the business sections of the two local English newspapers which are Bangkok Post and Nation.

Data collection procedure Data will be collected from the business section and other sections of 2 online local English newspapers which are Bangkok Post and the Nation for a period of 4 months.

Data analysis Data from the business section of each local newspaper will be analyzed against data collected from other sections using a concordance program. Select the necessary 2,000 business vocabulary

Thank you for your attention.