Expectation and Anxiety of Internships of Japanese Major Students: A Case of Sripatum University

Abstract

The purpose of this paper was to clarify their interests, expectations, and anxieties about internship program of students enrolled in the Department of Japanese for Business Communication at Sripatum University. They were fourth-year students (19 students) who are scheduled to participate in the internship program, and the attitude survey was conducted by a three-part questionnaire. There were 18 valid responses (response rate = 94.74%). The reliability coefficient indicating internal consistency (Cronbach α) was 0.88 (round off the number to two decimal places, the same hereinafter) in Question 2 and 0.87 in Question 3, except for Question 1. The results of 18 valid respondents were analyzed and discussed by descriptive statistics. In conclusion, interest in the internship was very high. Many of the expectations for internship were related to skills and self-understanding, while the most uncertainty was that they were more concerned about their ability to use Japanese communication than whether they could perform their duties or tasks in working place. Based on the discussions of the research results, it was an opportunity to consider guidance contents and methods that meet expectations and minimize anxiety in order to improve and enhance the quality of internship program and Co-operative Education including Work Integrated Learning (WIL) in the future, while strengthening the cooperation system between university (Department), host companies, and participating students.