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Students’ Perception of Learning College Tourism English and a

Needs Analysis of English for the Hotel Industry

Presenter: Wei-Ting ChienInstructor: Dr. Pi-Ying Teresa Hsu

Date: May 18, 2010

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Content Introductio

nLiterature Review

Methodology

Results

Conclusion

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•Background and Motivation

•Statement of the Problems

•Purposes of the Study

•Research Questions

Introduction

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Background

International travel is a rapidly growing activity entailing cross-cultural communication between hosts and guests from different linguistic backgrounds.

( Blue & Harum, 2003)

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Background

Fluent use of English is the key to assuring the success of the hotel service to international visitors.

(Shieh, 2009)

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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.

It is questionable whether college courses about professional use of English adequately prepare

students to use English in the workplace.

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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.

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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)

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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)

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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)

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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

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Employees should benefit when they are immersed in English training as part of their practical work experience. (Schiffrin,

1994)

Satisfactions with the Environment Support

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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

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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

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Research Design

Participants

Instrument

Data Collection

Data Analysis

Methodology

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Research Design

Questionnaire

Supervisorinterviews

Students interviews

QuestionnaireQuestionnairedistributed to 157 senior students in Tourism Departments

Student

interviews

2 : interned, private university2: non-interned private technology

university2: non-interned national technology

university

Supervisorinterviews

4 managers who are in charge of HR departments at international hotels

Participants

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Instrument

Questionnaire

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

7-Point Likert Scale

corresponds not at all corresponds exactly

Demographic information

1.gender2.age 3.years of studying English4.experiences of internship

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Instrument

1.importance of tourism English

(Ex: A staff member’s English ability is important to his or her career.)

2. satisfaction with tourism English learning at school

(Ex: I am satisfied with the learning materials.)

3. acquired English competency for their future job

(Ex: My school provides sufficient training of tourism English speaking for me to communicate with foreigners through telephone.)

Students’ perceptions of their tourism-related English

courses

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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

Reliability

Validity

Instrument

Cronbach’s alpha

Confirmatory Factor

Analysis (CFA)

1. .8252. .9243. .924. .8345. .907

Structural Equation Modeling

QuestionnaQuestionnaire ire

Student Student interviewsinterviews

Hotel Hotel supervisor supervisor interviewsinterviews

How How

visiting students’

classrooms

semi-structured interview

semi-structured interview

Time Time 50 minutes 20-30 minutes40-50

minutes

DataData SPSSrecorded & transcribed

recorded & transcribed

Sample 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.

Data Collection

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Data Analysis

Descriptive Analysis

Perceptions of Tourism English

(TE)

•Mean•SD

1. importance of TE 2. satisfaction with TE

learning in college3. acquired English

competency for future jobs

4. satisfaction with the environmental support

5. motivation for learning TE

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Data Analysis

•School types

One-way ANOVA

Perceptions of tourism English

based on

Tukey Post Hoc

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ResultsTable 1 Results of students’ perception toward the importance of tourism English learning and course satisfaction

Importance Course satisfaction

n Mean SD Mean SD

Private university 68 5.42 .93 4.68 1.18

Private technology university 36 5.39 1.49 4.15 1.58

National technology university 53 5.53 .90 4.03 1.25

Students of national technology university expressed the highest importance of tourism English learning.

Students of private university expressed the highest satisfaction of their tourism English courses.

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Acquired EnglishCompetence

Environmental Satisfaction

n Mean SD Mean SD

Private university 68 4.24 1.09 4.07 1.09

Private technology universityNational technology university

36

53

4.76

3.66

1.51

1.48

3.99

3.23

1.421.08

Table 2 Results of students’ perception toward tourism English learning related to acquired English competence and learning environment

Students of private technology universities expressed the highest satisfaction with their acquired English competence.

Results

Students of private universities expressed the highest satisfaction with their English learning environment.

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Table 3 Results of students’ perception toward tourism English learning related to learning motivation

Motivation n Mean SD

Private university 68 5.10 .91

Private technology university 36 4.96 1.47

National technology university 53 5.21 .91

Students of national technology university expressed the highest motivation of tourism English learning.

Results

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Table 4 Results of Analysis of Variance of students’ satisfaction toward tourism English course

Course Satisfaction Sum of Squares df Mean Square F p

Between subject 13.96 2 6.98 4.11 .018

Within subject 261.30 154 1.70

There is a significant difference in the perceptions of students about their satisfaction with the tourism English courses based on school types.

Results

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Table 5 Results of Tukey Post Hoc analysis of students’ satisfaction with tourism English course

School name Mean Difference

Private university .64

National technology university

Results

There is a significant difference between private university and national technology university students in their satisfactions with the tourism English courses.

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Table 6Results of Analysis of Variance of students’ perception of acquired English competence

Acquired EnglishCompetence

Sum of Squares df Mean Square F p

Between subject 26.65 2 13.33 7.55 .001

Within subject 271.73 154 1.76

Results

There is a significant difference in the perceptions of students about their acquired English competence based on school types.

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Table7 Results of Tukey Post Hoc analysis of students’ perception of acquired English competence

School name Mean Difference

Private university vs. National technology university .58

Private technology university vs. National technology university

1.10

Results

There is a significant difference between private university and national technology university students in their satisfaction with the acquired English competence.

There is a significant difference between private technology university and national technology university students in their satisfaction with the acquired English competence.

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Table 8Results of Analysis of Variance of students’ satisfaction with English learning environment

EnvironmentSatisfaction

Sum of Squares df Mean Square F P

Between subject 23.05 2 11.53 8.42 .000

Within subject 210.90 154 1.37

Results

There is a significant difference in the perceptions of students about their satisfaction with the learning environment in Taiwan based on school types.

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Table 9 Results of Tukey Post Hoc analysis of students’ satisfaction with English learning environment

School name Mean Difference

Private technology university vs. National technology university .75

Private university vs. National technology university .84

Results

There is a significant difference between private technology university and national technology university students in their satisfaction with the learning environment in Taiwan.

There is a significant difference between private university and national technology university students in their satisfaction with the learning environment in Taiwan.

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]

Tourism English capability has been important since the hotel industry is booming.

[Female interned student, private university]

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]

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

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 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

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]

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

5. Expectations for internship program

I hope my school can offer opportunities of taking internship abroad for us.

[Female interned student, private university]

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

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Tourism English skill is especially important for employees working at international hotels, including, listening, speaking, reading and writing skills.

Students should be given more authentic learning activities to practice English skills.

• English competence at workplace

• Suggestions for tourism English course at schools

Results of supervisor interviews

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Conclusions

• Capable tourism English skills are highly emphasized by students and employers of hotel industries.

• Tourism English learning at universities should be more authentic to fit in with the needs of the workplace.

• English learning environments could be improved.

• Meeting job requirements is the main

factor for students to learn tourism English.

• Students prefer to take internships in foreign countries.

• Students’ English performance at work was expected to be advanced

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Conclusions

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Suggestions

• Students should improve their English speaking and listening abilities to meet the job requirements of the workplace.

• Curriculum in tourism English at universities should be adjusted in order to prepare students to succeed in the workplace.

• Universities could arrange more overseas internship programs to allow students to have more chances to practice their English skills.

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Limitations

• Sample size was insufficient

• Conducting more student interviews

• Further study could investigate the required knowledge for serving at hotels

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