Attitudes And Needs of Learning of Thai Merchants Towards the Importance of learning English and Chinese

Abstract

The purposes of this study were: 1) to investigate the attitudes towards the
importance of the English and Chinese, and 2) to investigate the needs of
learning of Thai merchants towards English and Chinese. The samples were
100 merchants, selling different goods in Pattaya received from convenience
and availability sampling method. The questionnaire was used as research
instrument to collect the perceived importance of English and Chinese for
their work and needs of learning English and Chinese. The statistics
employed for analyzing data were: percentages, means, and standard
deviations through the statistical package.

The results revealed that the needs for learning English and Chinese were
especially high industries such as Accessories, where the complexity of
communication is particularly high. English is obviously more frequently
used and perceived as more important by the merchants. However, the
desires of the merchants to learn Chinese were greater, indicating a high
motivation to learn Chinese, presumably due to the current lack of Chinese
skills. Overall, the results highlighted the increased needs regarding Chinese
skills for Thai merchants, supposedly due to the fast-growing importance of
the Chinese language. Because the required English and Chinese skills are
very different depending on the industry (or types goods sold), specific
measures are recommended which take these industry-specific differences
into account.