Development a Model for Effective Business English Curriculum in an International University in Thailand

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to develop a model for effective Business English curriculum in Thailand. This research focuses on Business English curriculum of Assumption University. The subjects of the research includes BE graduates of Assumption University batch thirty-eight, graduate users of BE graduates in Thai employment market, and the Commission of Higher Education’s five domains of learning from the Thailand Qualifications Framework for Thailand’s higher education. This research used Business English curriculum of Assumption University as major data source since it is the biggest producer of Business English graduates in Thailand employment market. The data was collected by means of questionnaires and interviews which were reviewed by three Business English experts for content validity and reliability. The data collected from the questionnaires was descriptive statistically analyzed by Mean and Standard Deviation method. The mean from the analysis indicated the average level of the respondents’ satisfactions towards the current BE curriculum. Standard deviation is used as a measure for analyzing variation or dispersion of the scores around the mean. Content analysis was employed to analyze the interview data. Finally, the results was thoroughly interpreted and analyzed by employing the method of content analysis to reveal the essential elements for developing an effective model for BE curriculum based upon the satisfaction of BE graduates and BE graduate users, the needs of BE graduates and BE graduate users, and TQF’s five domains. The finding revealed that the graduates rated the high level in all four Business English effectiveness criteria. The criteria which received the highest effectiveness is ‘Degree of learning’ (Mean = 3.87), followed by ‘Usefulness of Skills’ (Mean = 3.76), ‘Continuance’ (Mean = 3.73), and ‘Relevance’ (Mean = 3.66), respectively. In addition, the graduate users are highly satisfied with graduates’ ability and core character traits with reference to the TQF’s five domains of learning (Mean = 4.29, SD = 0.70).