A Development of an ESP Course Using the Performance-based Instruction for Sales Staff in Logistics Business

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A Development of an ESP Course Using the
Performance-based Instruction for Sales Staff in
Logistics Business

• Tanisaya Jiriyasin

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Background of the study

• Logistics, the management of the flow of
  resources which involve the integration of
  information, transportation, inventory,
  warehousing, material handling, packaging, and
  security between the origin point to the
  destination for the customers or corporations,
  has now become one of the necessary tools for a
  business to be competitive over its rivals.

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• Effective logistics systems can reduce business
  cost in the supply chains while increasing the
  business margins.
• As a result, there has been an increasingly rapid
  growth in logistics business.

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• The future of logistics business is forecasted to
  be more prosperous particularly when ten
  different countries including Thailand are united
  to become one as members of ASEAN community.

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• Since English will probably be used as a language
  of communication among people in AEC community,
  the problem of English communication may arise
  with Thai business professionals working in
  logistics business.

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• The interviews conducted with the Dean of the
  Logistics Department, UTCC, and a business owner
  of a logistics company revealed that
• - Thai undergrads needs more English improvement
  besides incoterms knowledge,
• - Thai employees needed to be more proficient in
  English, esp., speaking and business writing

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• With regard to the success and growth of any
  business, sales personnel is considered to be one
  of the crucial work force.
• Therefore, there is a demand for an ESP course
  that is especially tailored to help them improve
  their work performance when using English.

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• Additionally, there is no study in English
  language teaching and learning that focuses on
  Thai professionals who are working or want to
  work in sales departments in the logistics
  business.

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• This ESP course will be beneficial for the sales
  staff and their employers. Their confidence in
  using English can lead to an excellent work
  performance, customers satisfaction, and finally
  successful business of their organizations.

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Objectives of the study

• 1. To investigate the needs of English for
  business communication of the sales staff
  working in logistics business.
• 2. To develop an ESP course of English for
  business communication using Performance-based
  Instruction (PBI) for the sales staff in the
  logistics business.

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• 3. To investigate the effect size of this ESP
  course.
• 4. To investigate the opinions of the subjects
  towards the PBI instruction.

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Research questions

• 1. What are the needs of English for business
  communication of the sales staff working in
  logistics business?
• 2. To what extent does the ESP course
• of English for business communication using
  Performance-based Instruction (PBI) can improve
  the sales staffs English proficiency?

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• 3. What is the effect size of this ESP course?
• 4. What are the opinions of the subjects towards
  the Performance-based instruction?

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Statements of hypotheses

• 1. The means of the English posttest scores of
  the subjects are significantly higher than those
  of the pretest after the subjects had been
  exposed to the Performance-based instruction.
• 2. The effect size of the difference between the
  means of English posttest scores and those of the
  pretest is large.

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Scopes of the study

• Population Thai and English non-natives males
  and females working as sales in logistics
  companies
• Samples volunteered Thai sales staff working in
  logistics companies

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• Independent variable ESP course using PBI
• Dependent variables means of pretest and
  posttest scores and subjects opinions

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Definitions of terms

• ESP course Business English writing course
  focusing on the language use of sales staff in
  the logistics business. The number of studying
  hours is 30 hours excluding hours for the pre-
  and post-tests.

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• PBI instruction which aims at improving English
  on-the-job business writing of sales staff in
  logistics business. Its method are to
  demonstrate examples of English performance and
  the process of generating the performance with
  guided practice and feedback until the learners
  can best perform on their own.

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Research design and scope of the study

• Research design the One-Group Pretest-Posttest
  Design due to the nature of PBI process which
  deals with demonstrations and provisions of
  practice and feedback. Therefore, a close
  attention will be placed on the subjects before,
  during, and after their performance.

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Stages of the study

• Stage 1 Conducting needs analyses with Logistics
  business owners, their staff, and other
  stakeholders to find the jobs criteria and
  benchmarks for sales staff, content analysis and
  observation of staffs language use in their real
  work place

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• Stage 2 Interpret the data from the needs
  analysis to develop an ESP course materials using
  PBI and the business English performance test
  including its rubrics to evaluate the learners
  English writing proficiency.

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• Stage 3 Pilot some of the course materials and
  test
• Stage 4 Implement the course materials and test

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• Stage 5 Conduct the main study
• Stage 6 Investigate the learners opinions
  towards PBI course

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Instruments

• 2 sets of questionnaires and semi-structured
  interviews for a logistics companys owner and
  sales staff in logistics company
• course materials
• English performance test including its rubrics
• Interview questionnaires
• Teachers observation log

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Data analysis

• Question 1 and 4 Qualitative method using
  Theorizing method (LeCompte and Preissle, 1993)
• Question 2 and 3 Quantitative using t-test for
  dependent means and Cohens d to check the effect
  size

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(Tentative Research Proposal)The Establishment
of Business Word-List for Thai Students in Higher
Education
Researchers Aj. Poonchai Poonwathu Dr. Tanisaya
Jiriyasin
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• Vocabulary knowledge has been regarded as a vital
  part in language learning. According to Laufer
  (1997 cited in Min, 2008), it has long been
  deemed a major determinant influencing ESL/EFL
  reading comprehension.

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• Meara (1996) also supported that learners with
  big vocabularies are more proficient in a wide
  range of language skills than learners with small
  vocabularies.

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• Concerning the vocabulary study, there were two
  well-known studies which were British National
  Corpus (BNC) and Academic Word List (AWL)
  (British National Corpus Online Coxhead, 2000)
  which dealt with word corpus in commercial and
  academic contexts.

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• These word lists have been used and studied
  extensively in other areas such as engineering
  and medicine (Zeng and Tse, 2006) just to name a
  few in order to find the word corpus that is
  significant in its field.

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• The underlying principle of the studies was
  mainly based on the belief that if the ESL/EFL
  learners have been equipped with the vocabulary
  knowledge specifically required for their study,
  it can facilitate their learning.

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• To decide which genre of word lists the language
  learners need to learn is also based on the
  visions of their educational institutes and the
  demands of other stakeholders.

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• The vision of UTCC focuses on business-oriented
  context since it was founded by the Chamber of
  Commerce of Thailand. As a result, most of the
  English courses for the students studying in
  every faculty will deal with the use of English
  language in working and business contexts.

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• Therefore, the purpose of this study is to set up
  a word list of 2,000 important business
  vocabulary to equip Thai undergraduate students
  with business vocabulary knowledge when reading
  any business news section from local English
  newspapers.

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Objectives of the study

• To establish a word list of necessary 2,000
  business vocabulary for Thai undergraduate
  students extracted by Log Likelihood.
• To establish a word list of necessary 2,000
  business vocabulary for Thai undergraduate
  students extracted by Chi Square.

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• To compare the differences and similarities of
  the business word lists created by the two
  measures.

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Research questions

• 1. What is a word list of necessary 2,000
  business vocabulary for Thai undergraduate
  students extracted by Log Likelihood?
• 2. What is a word list of necessary 2,000
  business vocabulary for Thai undergraduate
  students extracted by Chi Square?

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• 3. What are the differences and similarities of
  the business word lists created by the two
  measures?

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Scope of the study

• Independent variables vocabulary used in
  various business sections in the Bangkok Post and
  Nation newspapers
• Dependent variables a word list of necessary
  2,000 business vocabulary

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Definitions of terms

• Business words or vocabulary are content words
  that are found in all sub-sections under the
  business sections of the two local English
  newspapers which are Bangkok Post and Nation.

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Data collection procedure

• Data will be collected from the business section
  and other sections of 2 online local English
  newspapers which are Bangkok Post and the Nation
  for a period of 4 months.

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Data analysis

• Data from the business section of each local
  newspaper will be analyzed against data collected
  from other sections using a concordance program.
• Select the necessary 2,000 business vocabulary

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• Thank you for your attention.