The Effects of Learning and Communication Strategies Instruction on Economics Undergraduates’ Oral Communication Ability in Thailand

Abstract

This study investigates the effects of learning and communication strategies (LACS) instruction on economics students’ oral communication ability in Thailand and explores their perceptions toward the instruction. The study involved 23 third-year economics undergraduates at a public university in Thailand who were explicitly taught 13 learning and communication strategies in class. The impacts of the LACS instruction on oral communication ability were assessed by the participants’ pre- and post- oral presentation tests, and the perceptions of the participants as well as their strategy use were obtained from students’ reflective journals (SRJ), semi-structured focus group interviews, and the teacher’s observation notes. The findings reveal that all students’ oral presentation test scores significantly improved and confirm that teaching a combination of different LACS could enhance oral communication ability. The qualitative results indicate that all 23 students had positive perceptions of the strategies instruction. Furthermore, it is revealed that strong students used a combination of all three types (cognitive, metacognitive, and affective) of learning strategies (LS) and a communication strategy (CS) of self-repair, while moderate and weak students employed a combination of two types (cognitive and affective) of LS and self-repair. Nonetheless, this study would argue that strong, moderate, and weak students did apply metacognitive strategies, as evidenced by their reflections on their strategy use in the journals and the self-assessment form, but some students were not aware of it. Consequently, future studies should emphasize raising students’ awareness of their metacognitive strategy use.