A Study of Problems and Needs on Japanese Speaking of Thai-Nichi Institute of Technology Students
Thai-Nichi Institute of Technology
ABSTRACT
The purposes of this research were 1) to study problems and needs in Japanese speaking of Thai-Nichi Institute of Technology students in two aspects: problems and needs 2) to compare students’ problems and needs according to students’ gender, academic year and faculty, and 3) to gather supplemental suggestions. Research samples were 351 TNI students in the second semester of 2015 academic year, derived through simple random sampling technique. The instruments used for gathering the data were the rating-scale and open-ended questionnaire. The statistics used for analyzing the data were frequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation, t-test, F-test, and content analysis. The research findings were as follows: 1. Problems in Japanese speaking of Thai-Nichi Institute of Technology students as a whole was at moderate level (x ̅ = 3.29). When considered in each aspect, it was found that their problems were at moderate level on anxiety (x ̅ = 3.16) and Japanese speaking skill (x ̅ = 3.42) respectively. Furthermore, needs in Japanese speaking were at high level (x ̅ = 3.94).When considered in each aspect, it was found that their needs were at high level on instructional contents(x ̅ = 4.09), teaching materials(x ̅= 3.84), teaching-learning process(x ̅= 4.02), learning activities(x ̅ = 3.84), teaching methods(x ̅= 4.00) and instructors (x ̅= 3.83) respectively. 2. The students with different gender showed no significant differences in overall and each aspect. 3. The students with different academic year showed statistically significant differences in overall at .05. When considered in each aspect, it was found that there were statistically significant differences at .05 level on problems. For needs area, it was found that there were no significant differences. 4. The students with different faculty showed statistically significant differences in overall at .05. When considered in each aspect, it was found that there were statistically significant differences at .05 level on needs of these aspects; instructional contents, teaching materials, teaching-learning process, learning activities.5. TNI students had supplemental suggestions: role play should be provided in Japanese classroom to enhance listening and speaking abilities, and teacher should give feedback to students in order to improve their speaking.
KEYWORDS
Problems in Japanese speaking, needs in Japanese speaking