TITLE:
An Assessment of the English Proficiency of the Thai Workforce and Its Implication for the ASEAN Economic Community: An Empirical Inquiry
AUTHORS:
Alexander Franco, Scott S. Roach
KEYWORDS:
AEC, ASEAN, Business English, English Proficiency, Lingua franca, Thailand, Workforce Preparedness
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Business and Management,
Vol.6 No.3,
July
6,
2018
ABSTRACT: The ten nation members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations
(ASEAN) utilize English as the official working language for the organization.
This study focused on the nation of Thailand to examine the assessed level of
English proficiency of its workforce in relation to its ability to interact within
ASEAN’s economic community (AEC). This is the first academic study to
utilize a sample population consisting of human resources personnel from the
top 100 private companies in Thailand who are in charge of employee training
for learning English. Self-administered questionnaires were used to obtain
self-assessments on the issues of level of English proficiency, language training,
resource allocation for communication preparedness in AEC, and overall
perceptions of the importance of mastering English within their respective
companies. The results indicate that the acquisition of English as an economic lingua franca was considered important regardless of the demographic factors
of the company examined. A majority of the respondents expressed the belief
that their businesses had provided adequate resource allocation for English
preparedness and a majority also indicated that their respective workforces
possessed adequate English skills. However, a majority also expressed assessments
that the employees in their companies did not find it easy to learn English
and that Thais in general, and their employees in particular, did not like
learning the language.