Foundation English Course Development for Thai Tertiary Education: Learners’ Perceived Needs and Factor Analysis

Abstract

A challenge to curriculum designers is what to adapt and include in Foundation English (FE) courses for tertiary education. In Thailand, it is important to explore how Thai EFL university students perceive their own needs in terms of English language learning. The present study aims to explore their perceived needs and to make use of the needs to design appropriate components of FE in a public university in Thailand. An online questionnaire comprising self-rated items on English language skills and written responses was used to capture data from 145 randomly selected university students enrolled in an FE course at the university in the second semester of academic year 2022. The results revealed that speaking was the most wanted-to-learn skill for communication. Moreover, seven other factors were found for the design of FE surrounding English for Academic Purposes (EAP) and English for Specific Purposes (ESP). The components of EAP for FE included Academic English Skills, Advanced Reading Skills, and Paragraph Writing. The elements of ESP for FE included Content-based Language Learning and Career English. These findings have implications for the design of FE curriculum and course component development.