Needs Analysis on the Importance of English Communication Skills for Government Officials in Myanmar

Abstract

Abstratct Government officials in Myanmar are the official gatekeepers in the country. This study was carried out to examine the communication needs of government officials so as to address this gap. A quantitative methodology was adopted to gauge the language skills needed at the workplace. 99 government officials from the Ministry of Investment and Foreign Economic participated in this study. The results signaled that the government officials had a high level of needs in learning English language with the mean value of 4.41 (SD= .535). The result also indicated a dire need of mastery in the English language (M= 4.48, SD= .522). The higher ranked government officials shared that they needed English language skills to communicate effectively with the mean value of 4.37, (SD= .679) while the lower ranked officials (M= 4.33, SD= .655) to enable government officials to understand and communicate with foreign investors. In conclusion, the results anchored that English language is essential for government officials to execute their duties and responsibilities regardless of their ranks. Recommendations for ESP course-design are further discussed.