A Study on the Needs of English Skills of Airline Ground Staff

Abstract

        This study examines the needs of English skills of Air Asia ground staff at Phuket International Airport base. The study focuses on the needs of English four skills: listening, speaking, reading, and writing, which the ground staff use in their job areas. A total of 30 ground staff were randomly asked to complete the questionnaires. After completed questionnaires, they were interviewed on attitudes towards English. This study aims to investigate the level of the needs of English skills from the questionnaire and explore the ground staff’s attitudes towards studying English from the interviews. Interestingly, the results show that, among four English skills, the ground staff needed the speaking skills most at ‘extremely’ level followed by listening skills at the same level. Reading and writing skills were reported at ‘mostly’ level. The findings from the interviews reveal that most ground staff agreed that English was important for their current and future careers. In addition, they mentioned that speaking was the skill they could perform best.