1. Students’ Perception of Learning College Tourism English and a Needs Analysis of English for the Hotel Industry Presenter: Wei-Ting Chien Instructor: Dr. Pi-Ying Teresa Hsu Date: May 18, 2010

2. Content Introduction Literature Review Methodology Results Conclusion

4. Background International travel is a rapidly growing activity entailing cross-cultural communication between hosts and guests from different linguistic backgrounds. ( Blue & Harum, 2003)

5. Background Fluent use of English is the key to assuring the success of the hotel service to international visitors. (Shieh, 2009)

6. Motivation Most college students in tourism departments take professional tourism-related English courses before graduation. It is questionable whether college courses about professional use of English adequately prepare students to use English in the workplace.

7. Statement of the Problems Little research addresses how students perceive their professional English learning in colleges and how employers perceive students’ English performance in the workplace.

8. Purposes of the Study 1. to examine the students’ perception of tourism English learning in college 2. to explore English needs of the hotel industry , as perceived by supervisors

9. 1. What is the level of English competence required to serve at hotels ? 2. How do college students perceive their tourism English learning? 3. How do college students perceive their satisfaction with the tourism English they learned in their programs? 4. What factors motivate college students to learn tourism English? Research Questions

10. LITERATURE REVIEW 1. Importance of Tourism English in Taiwan 4. Satisfaction with the Environmental Support 2. Acquired English Competency for Future Jobs 5. Learning Motivation in Tourism English 3. Internship Programs

11. English is often used by business people and visitors to interlink people who have different mother tongues because of the nature of globalization. (Lazaro & Medalla, 2004) Importance of Tourism English in Taiwan

12. Acquired English Competency for Future Job Fluency in communication in English with foreign customers is a basic required skill for employees working at international hotels. (Lehtonen & Karjalainen, 2008)

13. Acquired English competency for Future Job Lack of effective communication between the front-line staff and the visitors may cause misunderstandings and complaints to arise. (Master & Prideaux, 2000)

14. Essential training in internship programs at colleges Good working relationships with the local industry will be beneficial to the students, making them greatly competitive for the local workforce. (Lazaro & Medalla, 2004)

15. There is a comparative lack of attention given to the value of English language training in the tourism sector. (Leslie & Russell, 2006) Satisfactions with the Environment Support

16. Employees should benefit when they are immersed in English training as part of their practical work experience. (Schiffrin, 1994) Satisfactions with the Environment Support

17. Students stand a better chance of securing good jobs at hotels if they are fluent in use of tourism English. (Farooqui, 2007) Learning Motivation in Tourism English

18. Tourism English proficiency is a basic requirement in the workplace because the tourism industry often sets high demands on language skills. (Lehtonen & Karjalainen, 2008) Learning Motivation in Tourism English

20. Research Design Questionnaire Supervisor interviews Students interviews

21. Questionnaire distributed to 157 senior students in Tourism Departments Student interviews 2 : interned, private university 2: non-interned private technology university 2: non-interned national technology university Supervisor interviews 4 managers who are in charge of HR departments at international hotels Participants

24. Instrument 4. satisfaction with the environmental support ( Ex: I am well prepared with English speaking because of my school’s curriculum training. 5: motivation for learning tourism English ( Ex: Get higher English ability that will benefit my promotion in a company). Students’ perceptions of their tourism-related English courses

26. Data Collection Questionnaire  Student interviews  Hotel supervisor interviews How visiting students’ classrooms semi-structured interview semi-structured interview Time 50 minutes 20-30 minutes 40-50 minutes Data SPSS recorded & transcribed recorded & transcribed Sample Ex: Please describe your experience and satisfied level of tourism English curriculum including learning contents, materials, and teaching methods. Ex: Please describe the importance of students’ English competence for recruiting.

38. 1. Importance of tourism English Proficient tourism English skill is very important for tourism development in Taiwan. Results of interviews Tourism English capability has been important since the hotel industry is booming. [Female interned student, private university]

39. The teacher usually asked us to memorize professional terms and vocabulary, so I thought it was rigid. [Female non-interned student, national technology university] 2. Satisfaction with tourism English courses in college The learning content of the tourism English course was practical since the teacher provided plenty of English menus as material. I liked that since I would use them when going abroad for travelling or studying. [Female interned student, private university] Results of interviews

40. 3. Satisfaction with English learning environment in Taiwan I think that the English learning environment in Taiwan is quite sufficient. But the learning attitude of students is also imperative. [Female interned student, private university] I don’t have chance to practice English with native speakers at school. So I am not satisfied with the English learning environment. [Female non-interned student, private technology university] Results of interviews

41. 4. Motivation for learning tourism English Students expressed that they learned tourism English mainly for meeting job requirements. English is applied to any field of the workplace. Therefore I need to improve my English capability immediately to meet the job requirement. [Female interned student, private university] I would like to be a tour guide in the future; therefore I think I should learn more about tourism English. [Female non-interned student, national technology university] Results of interviews

42. 5. Expectations for internship program I hope my school can offer opportunities of taking internship abroad for us. [Female interned student, private university] I prefer to intern as a front-line staff at hotels since there would be more chances for contacting with foreign visitors. [Female non-interned student, private technology university] Results of interviews

48. Thank You!