Report on a Classroom Project to Investigate Problems and Characteristics of English Language as Used by Thai Taxi Drivers

บทคัดย่อ(มีเฉพาะภาษาอังกฤษ)

This research was conducted to investigate the salient characteristics of the English language communicated by Thai taxi drivers as well as the problems they experience, as a result of their limitations in English.  The setting and scope of the study were limited to a single course and conducted during  a single academic year. The data were collected from 42 Thai taxi drivers by 85 Thai undergraduates from Dhurakij Pundit University during the first semester of the academic year 2013. All of the students involved in the study were those who were undertaking a course on cross-cultural communication (EN 238) which was offered as a major subject of the English Major Program. The interviews took place within Bangkok and Nonthaburi.

 

The students were instructed to work in pairs and to interview a taxi cab driver. The students asked cross-cultural communication questions, communication barriers, and attitudinal questions. After the interview process, they transcribed and translated the audio files. They then analyzed the verbal data using the skills and knowledge from the course. The findings reported here are the results of the teacher's research analysis of those many reports submitted by the students.

 

The teacher asked the students permission to further analyze their reports and they granted their permission. The teacher analyzed the interview scripts using simple content analysis to identify the common characteristics of the English language used by the taxi cab drivers as well as their problems, attitudes, and how they  have reportedly dealt with the challenges and the greater demands upon them to have and use English skills and abilities.

 

The results showed that all of the taxi drivers faced two challenges: language and cultural barriers. The majority of the drivers relied on simple words, short sentences, and Thai-style pronunciation. It is noted that the English they used exhibits salient elements of organic grammar.

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