ENGLISH USED IN SOUVENIR SHOPS: A NEEDS ANALYSIS APPROACH

Abstract

Due to a greater number of tourists visiting Thailand each year, one important business
that helps boost the tourism industry is souvenir shops because people like to be reminded of special
moments in their lives and to hold evidence of those special moments, so they keep their memory by
collecting something that remind them to think about those places again. The main purpose of this
study is twofold: to examine English language needs, problems, and functions that salespersons need
in to order to communicate with foreign customers, and to examine how the souvenir employees
solve problems when encountering communication problems. The data were collected with 20
souvenir sellers through semi-structured interviews and the data were analyzed adopting content
analysis. The results reveal that employees in the souvenir shops needed English skills to help them
better perform their professional works. The English language functions that they needed to better
serve their customers included thanking and gratitude, giving product information, and taking
money and giving changes. The findings of the study can be used as guidelines for teachers, course
and material developers, as well as any lay people who are interested to learn about English
language functions used in souvenir shops.