English proficiency tests

There were two different English language proficiency tests used in this research, the Test of English for International Communication (TOEIC) and the Scientific English Grammatical Structures Test by Chaiyai (1982). Using these two English proficiency tests helped the researcher to get an understanding of the students’ needs and to elucidate the gap between the students’ needs and their present abilities or the present situations of the students, which related to English language information about the learners (C), the learners’ lacks (D), and the factors

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in the needs analysis model of this study. As mentioned in the literature review, a needs analysis for an ESP course is usually carried out to determine which individual language skills are needed and the ESP course will be developed afterwards to fit the learners’ needs. The proficiency tests used in this study were skill-based tests that determined the particular English language skills that the students needed and had difficulty with, in keeping with the Dudley- Evans and St. John’s (1998) needs analysis framework. Also, the results of these tests were used to triangulate the results of the questionnaires and interviews and to create a more accurate understanding of the needs of the students and their perceptions of their needs for the various English language skills during the different phases in the ESP programme at Agriculture University.

3.7.1.1.1 Test of English for International Communication (TOEIC)

As indicated in the Test of English for International Communication (TOEIC) test guideline, the total time for the test is two hours 45 minutes for the listening part and 75 minutes for the reading part. However, the study period of the ESP class was approximately 100 minutes, which is not a sufficient amount of time for the students to take the test. Accordingly, the researcher arranged a time for the students to take the TOEIC test in the evening in both phases of the study. The TOEIC test was administered to the 45 students in week 3 of each semester. In phase one, the test was administered on November 15, 2011, and in phase two on June 12, 2012.

The researcher met ESP Teacher1 about one half an hour before the administration of the test. The instructions for administering the test were explained (see Appendix 1). Before the students entered the exam rooms, a test booklet and an answer sheet were placed on their desks. The students were told to do the listening part and then the reading part. The test administration during phase two was similar to that in phase one but was administered by ESP

87 Teacher2 and the researcher. There were two reasons why the ESP teachers helped the researcher to administer the tests. First, they offered to do so, and it is polite in the Thai culture not to reject their offer. Secondly, it was difficult to administer the tests alone as there were 45 students in the class, so it was essential to have two administrators to make sure that the students were not cheating on the tests.

The TOEIC was conducted during the first period of the third week of the semester in phase one and phase two. The TOEIC is a 200-item multiple choice English proficiency test developed by the Educational Testing Service (ETS). It directly measures listening and reading skills, indirectly measures speaking and written English, and correlates well with other measures of language proficiency (J. Liu & Costanzo, 2013; Schmitt, 2005; Woodford, 1982). The 200 TOEIC multiple-choice items are equally divided between 100 listening items and 100 reading items. The 100 items of the listening part includes ten photographs, 30 question- responses, 30 conversations, and 30 talks. The 100 items in the reading part include 40 incomplete sentences, 20 error recognition, 40 reading comprehensions using a single text, and double texts. The speaking and writing skills can be indirectly assessed in the incomplete sentences and error recognition sections.

The TOEIC was adopted in this study because it is one of the international standardized tests designed to be a direct measure of the everyday workplace English language skills for people that work in an international environment. The test is focused on the four English language skills (listening, reading, speaking, and writing) used in the workplace, which matched one of the purposes of this study—to investigate the students’ competence and difficulties in English skills in the occupational context.

The TOEIC test is widely used in Thailand to measure the abilities of Thai learners in various occupational contexts (Oranpattanachai, 2010) and has become an increasingly popular test for many international companies in Thailand as a criterion for recruiting personnel or

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promoting them to higher positions (Khamkhien, 2010a; Prapphal, 2008; Puengpipattrakul, Chiramanee, & Sripetpun, 2007). Therefore, it is worth giving the students experience in taking the TOEIC test before they graduate, as the test is considered a gateway to work in the international food industry and they may have to take it in the future. The results of the TOEIC tests were expected to predict the students’ English competency in the occupational context. From a discussion with the ESP teachers and the subject teachers prior to the data-collection process, it was evident that the students of this study had never taken the TOEIC test.

3.7.1.1.2 Scientific English Grammatical Structures Test

The Scientific English Grammatical Structures Test was administered to the 45 students in the two phases of the study. The test was administered during week 3 of each phase. In phase one, the test was administered in the second period of ESP1 class on November 19, 2011, and in phase two in the second period of ESP2 class on June 14, 2012. As before, the researcher met with the ESP teachers half an hour before the administration of the test. The instructions for the test were explained. Then, the students were told to complete the test within two hours. After they had finished the test, they were asked to hand their test booklet, answer sheet, and the vocabulary list to the ESP teacher. The instructions for administering the test can be seen in Appendix 2.

The Scientific English Grammatical Structures Test is a 45 item-multiple choice format designed to measure five complex sentence structures that EFL students have difficulty with. It was designed by a Thai academic, Chaiyai (1982). The test measures five comparatives and five relative structures that were selected from biology, physics, and organic chemistry textbooks. A closer examination of the 45 questions on the Scientific English Grammatical Structures Test indicated that the three main English grammatical structures encompass five sub-structures. Each sub-structure comprises three questions. The test aims to test fifteen sub- structures in English grammar (Table 3.1).

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Table 3.1 Fifteen English grammatical structures

Grammatical Structures

Complementation

1. Finite object complement which is declarative in form 2. Finite subject complement which is declarative in form 3. To-infinitive complement functioning as an object (Type 2) 4. To-infinitive complement functioning as an object (Type 5) 5. Participial -ing object complement following the preposition ‘by'

Relativization

6. Non-finite (restrictive) participial -ing relative construction 7. Non-finite (restrictive) participial ed/en relative construction

8. Finite (restrictive) relative construction with the relative element ‘that’ as a subject 9. Finite (restrictive) relative construction with the relative element ‘which’ as a subject 10. Finite (restrictive) relative construction ‘which’ functioning as a complement

Comparison

11. Comparison of difference with the comparative element ‘other’ used 12. Comparison of ‘as’ showing relative-like characteristics

13. Comparison of similarity with the comparative element ‘same’ used reciprocally 14. Comparison of inequality used anaphorically with the absence of ‘than’

15. Comparison of inequality bound ‘than’

This research adopted the Scientific English Grammatical Structures Test because it is the only test designed that investigates science students’ abilities with English grammatical structures within a Thai tertiary context. These structures have been seen to be the most used in scientific disciplines, such as engineering (Adewusi, 2012), and so they were considered to be relevant to the food science and technology area. Using this test matched the purpose of this study literature, as previous literature has found that Thai students in science contexts have problems with many similar types of sentence structures, which can affect their reading and

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writing competencies (Sattayatham & Honsa, 2007). As the students in the food science and technology programme in this study are assigned to read textbooks and research articles written in English, it is important to assess their competency with the English grammatical structures for science in order to understand their knowledge and needs when using these structures in academic and occupational contexts.