Improving English for tourism and hospitality by teaching communication strategies to describe Thai culture-specific concepts

Main Article Content

Supornphan Konchiab

Abstract

Describing Thai culture-specific concepts is a compulsory task in tourism and hospitality context. However, with no equivalent English words and terms, these concepts are difficult to describe, particularly to people from different cultural and language backgrounds. The objective of this research is to explain the value of teaching communication strategies to help Thai students solve their communication problems and enhance oral communication performances when describing Thai culture-specific concepts to Chinese students. The study was conducted with 10 Thai undergraduates who volunteered to be partners of Chinese students in an academic exchange program in Thailand. The data were collected in four phases: Phase 1 Pre-assessment, Phase 2 Direct teaching of communication strategy, Phase 3 Independent learning, and Phase 4 Post-assessment. In each phase, the participants were asked to complete the self-reflection questionnaires. The results showed that the participants’ scores for describing Thai culture-specific concepts in the post-assessment were higher than those in the pre-assessment, particularly in terms of fluency and vocabulary. Based on students’ self-reflection, they appeared to have more difficulties in describing abstract concepts than concreate concepts. They tended to use the taught communication strategies more frequently, particularly describing characteristics and properties. They also found these CSs useful and wanted to take risk using more CSs. The study suggests that the combination of direct teaching and independent learning enabled students to be more aware of the use of communication strategies and therefore improve their oral communication performances in describing Thai culture-specific concepts.

Article Details

How to Cite
Konchiab, S. (2018). Improving English for tourism and hospitality by teaching communication strategies to describe Thai culture-specific concepts. RMUTL Journal of Business Administration and Liberal Arts, 6(2), 21–28. Retrieved from https://so05.tci-thaijo.org/index.php/balajhss/article/view/164117
Section
Research article

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