TEACHING ENGLISH TO TOURISM
STUDENTS
Maria Anca MAICAN
Diagram created by Sabiya Nuridinova

THE IMPORTANCE OF ENGLISH IN TOURISM

FOUR CATEGORIES OF COMPETENCIES THAT SHOULD BE EMPHASIZED WITHIN LANGUAGE CLASSES

TEACHING MATERIALS

CHALLENGES

Requirement in Occupational Standarts

Travel Agent

Receptionist

Manager in Tourism Activities

Mountain Guide

Hotel or Restaurant Manager

Concierge

Employment and Career Advancement

Customer Satisfaction

The curriculum and syllabus for English
classes for students in tourism

May be different in various Universities

Learners should be at least B2 level According to the CEFR

  1. Generic competences

Knowledge

Skills

Attitudes

It comprises: teamwork, problem solving and decision-makingskills, willingness to succeed, assertiveness

It concerns for quality, active listening skills, diplomacy persuasion skills

Generally Taught Inductively

  1. The Linguistic Competence
  1. The intercultural competence

It refers to:
Attitudes, Behaviour,
Believes,
Values

Reading and Listening Activities

Subject-specific

Activities to enhance the
linguistic competence,

focuses on the basic elements
that together form a language

Phonology Grammar Vocabulary

Necessary grammar structure for letters, proposals, and reports

word-formation,
verbs in brackets, multiple matching, translations,
find words
phrases for explanations given, open cloze,
error correction, information
transfer,
multiple choice

  1. The Discourse Competence

involves people's ability to generate
appropriate language in different contexts corresponding to professional
communication

involves receptive and productive skills

To enable students to deal with several real-life situations successfully.

Authentic

Encourage students' cooperation and critical thinking

Meet Students' Needs

Integrate Language Skills

The best-known textbooks:
English for International Tourism series (Pearson Education Longman),
the Oxford
English for Careers: Tourism series, (Garnet
Education)
Test Your Professional
English: Hotel and Catering (Pearson
Education),
English for the Travel and Tourism Industry (CUP).

Internet Resources: 1.alison.com/learn/English-for-Tourism,
2.learnenglishfeelgood.com, 3.esl-lab.com,
4.englishformyjob.com, 5.englishclub.com, 6. business-english.com, 7. bbcenglish.com,
onestopenglish.com

ESP classes should involve

Textbooks

Internet resouces

Tourism Magazines

Official Sites

AFAR,
The Travel Magazine,
Today’s Traveller,
The Sunday Times Travel Magazine,
Euro Travel Magazine

TV documentaries from
well known TV channels

the need for improvement at institutional level

The lack of the genuine needs analysis among students

The size of the groups

Teachers' willingnes to be a lifelong trainee