Analysis of Thai EFL University Students’ Needs in Learning English Paragraph Writing

บทคัดย่อ

          This quantitative study investigated needs in learning English paragraph writing of 320 students of the Management Sciences Faculty at a Thai public university. A questionnaire was used to collect data about students’ learning of English, ability in English paragraph writing, needs in learning English paragraph writing, and preferred styles of learning English paragraph writing. The overall findings revealed that the students were less proficient in writing. Most students had never taken English writing courses. They thought that English paragraph writing was difficult but necessary. Their writing skills were at the moderate level such as using right punctuation and spelling. They had fair understanding of English paragraph writing such as what a paragraph is, how to write an illustration, and components of a paragraph. They would learn English paragraph writing for future work. In learning English paragraph writing, most students preferred to learn to write a description, to be assessed as passed or unpassed, to have 30 students in a class, and to have vocabulary drills. They wanted a three-hour class to be divided into a 90-minute lecture and a 90-minute writing practice. The study suggested that Thai students must learn to write in English since elementary schools. The assessment needs to be revised to motivate Thai students to learn English writing.