Email Writing Problems and Strategies Used to Solve the Problems by Thai Employees Communicating with Native and Non-Native English Speakers in an International Workplace

Abstract

Abstract This study was conducted to investigate the English email writing problems and strategies used to solve the problems by Thai employees in communication with native and non-native English speakers in an international workplace in Bangkok, Thailand.  It was also conducted to see whether or not there were any significant differences between the problems encountered and strategies used by both groups.  The participants were 100 Thai employees working in an international company based in Bangkok, Thailand.  This part aimed to address a descriptive analysis of the research findings according to the five research questions.  The researchers analyzed and calculated data using Mean Score (M), Standard Deviation (SD), and a t-test analysis.  The results of the analysis of both groups of Thai employees were displayed in terms of their responses to each of the research questions.  They were randomly selected from departments that their employees exchanged e-mail messages with both native and non-native speakers of English.  A questionnaire was used as an instrument to collect the data.  The results revealed that Thais employees communicating with non-native speakers of English had variety of problems than those who communicated with native speakers of English but level of strategies used were difference between both groups.  This study provides guidance for Thai employees to improving their performance in terms of using email communication in the business context by reducing the time wasted by non-effective email writing.  These findings may benefit Thai employees in both private and public organization to improve their level of English proficiency for both the ASEAN community and global labor market Keywords : email,  email writing problems, email writing strategies, Thai employees, native speakers of English, non-native speakers of English, international company