Development of Self-learning Materials to Enhance English Communication Skills for Tourism Entrepreneurs in Kudi Jeen Community

Abstract

This purposes of the  research were: (1) To construct English self-learning materials to enhance communication skills for tourism  entrepreneurs in the KudiJeen community. (2) To develop English communication skills for self-learning materials for tourism entrepreneurs in the KudiJeencommunity, and and to  study opinions on the use of English self-learning materials  for tourism entrepreneurs in KudiJeen community. The sample groups included: tourism entrepreneurs who had business in the Kudi Jeen community, Wat Kanlaya Subdistrict, Thonburi District, Bangkok. The researcher used the purposive sampling method by specifying the qualifications to have at least completed a junior high school education, numbering 30 people. The tools used in the research were: Survey of needs for developing English communication skills A training package containing lessons on developing English communication skills for tourism for entrepreneurs in the Kudi Jeen community and an evaluation form for using English self-learning media to enhance English communication skills for tourism entrepreneurs in the Kudi Jeen community, Pre and Post test of  English communication skills.    The results of the research found that (1) tourism entrepreneurs in the Kudi Jeen community needed to use English for communication in their careers. The majority of respondents were female, had education at the junior high school level to postgraduate level, had English communication skills at a moderate level and should be improve. The training set was created from the needs of tourism entrepreneurs in the Kudi Jeen community  by compiling a set of self-study materials to develop English language skills for communication of tourism entrepreneurs in the Kudi Jeen community. The set of self-learning media was 5 units. The training set were five units. 1. Hospitality and providing basic information about the community 2. Introducing and providing information about Kudi Jeen Cup Cake 3. Topic: Introducing and providing information about Rice Noodles with Chicken Curry. 4. Recommending tourist attractions. Santa Cruz Church 5. Essential vocabulary and expressions / English vocabulary / Special vocabulary / Essential expressions for creating media for becoming a local storyteller. The result of using the English self-learning materials to enhance English communication skills for tourism for entrepreneurs in the Kudi Jeen community found that the sample group had scores before studying at the average 11.60 and the score after studying was 25.83 (average) which higher than before studying. When testing the hypothesis with the t-test statistic, the value was 21.39, which was significantly different at the .05 level. (2) The research results could be concluded that entrepreneurs in the Kudi Jeen community had their opinions on the training materials. “Development of self-learning materials to enhance English communication skills for tourism entrepreneurs in the Kudi Jeen community” which was divided into 5 areas: content, language,  language practice activities, design and utilization. The sample group had a high level of opinion on the overall learning media set with an average score (= 4.30).