August 2011 Volume 7 Issue 3
Autumn Edition
PDF Full Version


Title
Learning Needs of Thai Civil Engineering Students

Author
Chamnong Kaewpet
Rajamangala University of Technology Krungthep

Biodata
Chamnong Kaewpet is working at the Department of Western Languages, Faculty of Liberal Arts, Rajamangala University of Technology Krungthep. Her research areas are in curriculum development and English for specific purposes. Email: chamnong.k@rmutk.ac.th

Abstract 
The purpose of this study was to identify the learning needs of Thai civil engineering students who were preparing to attend an ESP course. Fifteen stakeholders who observed the teaching and learning process helped identify the needs of the students by participating in individual interviews. The participants included civil engineering lecturers, former civil engineering students of the course and ESP teachers. The learning needs were identified along the the following lines: Who were the learners? What would be their favoroable teaching and learning methods? What would make suitable teachers, instructional materials, study location and time of study? What would be their rationale for taking the ESP course? The interview findings reveal a variety of learner needs. The study highlights  the usefulness of understanding the learners’ needs before taking classes. The findings suggest that this is an effective way in which ESP lessons could be prepared, with the option of designing an ESP course based on learners’ background knowledge of specialised content. Such options are discussed in this paper for the benefit of ESP course design in the general Thai context.

Keywords: needs analysis, learning needs, engineering students, ESP, Thailand