A Case Study of Communication Strategies Used by Thai Business Students in an English Online Job Interview Test

Abstract

Developing speaking skills for foreign language learners is challenging. Whenever they speak foreign languages, they often encounter communication problems because of their limited grammatical and discourse competence. To overcome the problems, language learners need to employ communication strategies. Previous studies stated that these strategies were valuable for learners in speaking a target language; however, they mainly examined the students’ use of communication strategies in general speaking situations. Thus, the present study aims to explore types and levels of communication strategies used by Thai business students majoring in accounting and to investigate their communication problems during an English online job interview test. The participants were 35 Thai undergraduates. The 35-item self-report communication strategy questionnaire and a semi-structured interview were used to collect the data. The data was analyzed through the IBM SPSS statistical analysis software and the content analysis. The findings indicated that the participants were strategic users. The overall mean of the participants’ communication strategy use was at a high level ( = 3.59). The most frequently used communication strategies were strategies for understanding interlocutor’s messages (UIM) which was at a high level ( = 3.84). The participants selected to use nonverbal language the most such as body language ( = 4.45). The main problems which they experienced during the English online job interview test were unknown vocabulary and listening problems. Furthermore, most participants preferred attending an online interview test to an onsite interview test.