The Development of a Self-Instructional Package to Enhance English Communicative Competence of Primary School Teachers in an EFL Context

Abstract

   In the Thai context in which English is used as a foreign language (EFL), those primary school teachers, who are required to teach English, often rely heavily on self-instructional learning materials. However, it is often challenging to find materials that fully responding to their needs and wants. This research aimed to develop a self-instructional package to improve primary school teachers’ English communicative competence, to study the effects of the aforementioned package, and to explore teachers’ opinions pertaining to the package. This study consisted of two phases, namely, the preliminary study and the main study. The population of this study was 1,499 primary school teachers under a primary educational service area office in northern Thailand. The sample group obtained by multistage sampling consisted of 157 teachers; 118 teachers participated in the preliminary study, and 39 were involved in the main study. The instruments used for collecting data included questionnaires, questions for interviews, the pre-test, the post-test as well as a learning record sheet. Data analysis was conducted using descriptive statistical methods and content analysis. The results were that a obtained self-instructional package consisted of a small-sized course book and an audio file relating to English speaking and listening for daily use and for classroom communication; that the teachers’ post-test scores were significantly higher than the pre-test scores at the significant level of 0.05, indicating that the package helped bettering the teachers’ targeted English skills; and that the teachers exhibited very positive views towards the package. The results of this study can be useful for establishing other self-instructional materials which can be used in the context of “new normal” where digital technology plays a vital role.