Development of Self-access Learning Package to Enhance Communicative English Skills of Community Tourism Entrepreneurs: A Case Study of Doi Saket District, Chiangmai Province

Abstract

          The research has its objectives: 1) to construct a self- access learning package of community tourism entrepreneurs; 2) to develop communicative English skills of community tourism entrepreneurs; and 3) to evaluate the results of using self-access learning package of community tourism entrepreneurs. This is a quasi-experimental research. The populations are 30 community tourism entrepreneurs which are processed in a purposive sampling. The research instruments consist of 1) the questionnaire for surveying needs in developing community tourism entrepreneurs’ communicative English skills; 2) the self- access learning package; 3) pretest and posttest; and 4) the form for evaluating community tourism entrepreneurs’ opinion towards self- access learning package. Descriptive statistical methods are used in analyzing data: percentage, mean, standard deviation, and t-test.

          The research results of the study reveal that 1) the self- access learning package designed according to community tourism entrepreneurs’ needs with content validity at 0.89 and entire reliability coefficient at 0.79; 2) the pretest and posttest results show that the community tourism entrepreneurs have higher scores of communicative English skills after learning with t-test at 24.20 and significant level at 0.01; 3) the results concerning the opinion of community tourism entrepreneurs towards the self-access learning package are at good level ( =4.40). The new body of knowledge is as follows: 1) the construction of a self-access learning package to develop English communication skills is designed from the needs of community tourism and can be used in daily life; 2) the self-access learning package is designed for the study of a specific community context. This allows the populations to learn quickly and efficiently and can learn by themselves; and 3) the populations are developed with their own needs.