A STUDY OF ADULTS’ BASIC SOCIAL SKILLS OF FOURTH-YEAR STUDENTS, DEPARTMENT OF JAPANESE FOR BUSINESS COMMUNICATION, SRIPATUM UNIVERSITY

Abstract

The purpose of this paper was to clarify the basic social skills of working adults in the fourth-year students of Japanese for Business Communication Department, Sripatum University. A questionnaire survey on the basic social skills of working adults was conducted for 13 fourth-year students who had practical work experience in the second semester of academic year 2020. The basic social skills of working adults were based on three main skills (Action, Thinking and Teamwork) and 12 skill elements proposed by the Ministry of International Trade and Industry in 2006. The questionnaire was closed-ended questions, and divided into two parts: Part 1 was a self-diagnosis by students for 12 skills, and Part 2 was a multiple-choice question that asked which skills were required for practical training. Cronbach’s coefficient alpha was 0.79 for Part 1 and Part 2. In Part 1, there were seven negative evaluations for 12 skills, however, positive evaluations were significantly higher in all the skills. In Part 2, one skill was not chosen, however, two skills were relatively high. Practical training is the best opportunity to acquire basic social skills for working adults, therefore, further practical research is expected in the future from the perspective of human resources education.