The purposes of this research were 1) to study English speaking ability of Thai-Nichi Institute of Technology students according to English instructional model based on communicative approach theory; 2) to compare TNI students’ English speaking ability before and after speaking class; and 3) to investigate TNI students’ satisfaction with the speaking class. The subjects were 55 undergraduate students at Thai-Nichi Institute of Technology during second semester of 2016 academic year which derived through simple random sampling technique. The instruments used in this experiment were the pre-post English speaking test, the lesson plans, the English speaking ability evaluation form, and the questionnaire on students’ satisfaction towards the speaking class. speakinenglish.in The experimental process and data collection were conducted as follows: The subjects were given an English speaking ability pretest. Then, the four speaking lesson plans were used in second semester. After the completion of each lesson, the English speaking ability evaluation form, and the satisfaction questionnaire were used for surveying the subjects’ satisfaction on speaking class. The data were statistically analyzed by mean scores, standard deviation, percentage and t-test for dependent samples. The results were as follows; 1. English speaking ability of Thai-Nichi Institute of Technology students was at high level. 2. The students’ speaking ability after the speaking class was significantly higher than before, with instruction constructed at 0.05 level. 3. The students’ satisfaction towards speaking class was at high level.
Teaching speaking English has a crucial role in English instruction as a foreign language. That’s because teaching English based on communicative approach theory is worldwide. Therefore, Thai-Nichi Institute of Technology emphasizes communicative approach teaching. Thus the students need to have competence in listening and speaking. [9] stated that the principle of communicative training involves the use of complex communicative situations, aimed at developing the pupil’s speech that promotes “overcoming a sharp transition from education to the natural conditions of communication due to the formation of students’ strong associative links”. The teacher becomes free to choose a variety of instructional techniques and incentives that can maintain motivation and mental activity of students during the entire study period. The researcher is aware of development of learners’ competency in speaking English. Furthermore, English speaking activities were created to investigate and prove the learners’ ability. The result of the research will be guideline to improve and develop teaching and learning in next occasion.