Persuasive Speaking Abilities: A Needs Analysis of Thai Business English Undergraduates

Nopparat Panyadilokpong; Ruedeerath Chusanachoti

Authors

Nopparat Panyadilokpong
Ruedeerath Chusanachoti

Keywords:

Persuasive speaking Needs analysis Business English

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate the needs and desirable learning preferences of undergraduate students regarding persuasive speaking. The participants were 66 second-to fourth-year undergraduate students majoring in Business English at Dhonburi Rajabhat University during the 2025 academic year, studying the entire population. The research instrument was a validated questionnaire with reliability coefficients of 0.87 for ‘current ability’ and 0.93 for ‘expected ability’. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, including frequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation, and the Modified Priority Needs Index (PNI_modified ). The results indicated that: 1) students demonstrated a high overall need for developing persuasive speaking abilities (PNI_modified = 0.96), with the highest need observed in the Content Element (PNI_modified = 1.57), particularly in logical reasoning (PNI_modified= 1.77), followed by the Language Element
( PNI_modified = 0.93) and the Delivery Element (PNI_modified = 0.60), respectively; and 2) regarding learning preferences, students prioritized the work-related context ( $\bar{x}$ = 1.59) and income-oriented objectives ( $\bar{x}$ = 1.85), with the most preferred scenarios being short-form video product reviews (80.30%) and live – stream e-commerce selling (78.79%). Additionally, lack of motivation was identified as the primary barrier to online learning (59.09%), whereas a lack of technical confidence was the least reported concern (6.06%).

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