MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES, HUE UNIVERSITY ----------------- LE XUAN THONG ENGLISH LANGUAGE NEEDS FOR TOUR GUIDING FROM THE PERSPECTIVES OF TOUR GUIDING PROFESSIONALS AND ENGLISH- FOR -TOURISM STUDENTS FROM UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES, HUE UNIVERSITY MA THESIS IN THEORY AND METHODOLOGY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts, Hue University of Foreign Languages HUE, 2019 MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES, HUE UNIVERSITY ----------------- LE XUAN THONG ENGLISH LANGUAGE NEEDS FOR TOUR GUIDING FROM THE PERSPECTIVES OF TOUR GUIDING PROFESSIONALS AND ENGLISH –FOR- TOURISM STUDENTS FROM UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES, HUE UNIVERSITY MA THESIS IN THEORY AND METHODOLOGY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING CODE: 8140111 SUPERVISOR: ASSOC.DR TRAN VAN PHUOC HUE, 2019 i BỘ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO ĐẠI HỌC HUẾ TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ ----------------- LÊ XUÂN THÔNG NHU CẦU TIẾNG ANH ĐỐI VỚI NGÀNH HƯỚNG DẪN DU LỊCH TỪ NHẬN THỨC CỦA HƯỚNG DẪN VIÊN DU LỊCH CHUYÊN NGHIỆP VÀ SINH VIÊN TIẾNG ANH CHUYÊN NGÀNH DU LỊCH TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ, ĐẠI HỌC HUẾ LUẬN VĂN THẠC SĨ LÝ LUẬN VÀ PHƯƠNG PHÁP DẠY HỌC BỘ MÔN TIẾNG ANH MÃ SỐ: 8140111 NGƯỜI HƯỚNG DẪN KHOA HỌC: PGS. TRẦN VĂN PHƯỚC HUẾ, 2019 ii STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY This work has not previously been submitted for a degree or diploma in any university. To the best of my knowledge and belief, the thesis contains no material previously published or written by another person except where due reference is made in the thesis itself. Date: 23/11/2019 Signature Le Xuan Thong iii ABSTRACT Needs of Vietnamese and foreigners for cultural understanding, international exchange through tourism and tour guides are growing day-by-day and are realized by means of foreign languages ,especially English in Viet Nam .While practicing as tour guides ,many students of English for Tour Guiding (ETG) from University of foreign languages ,Hue University (HUFL) encountered many difficulties in their internships.
The main reason may come from the designing of the current ETG syllabus neglecting the needs required by Tour Guiding companies .The research analyzed ETG needs raised by twenty five tour guides professionals (TGPs) from their international travel companies in Hue city and thirty one English-for- tourism students from University of foreign languages, Hue University clarified tour guides and students’ difficulties and presented measures to overcome these difficulties from the perspectives of TGPs .And my research questions are 1,what are the English language needs for tour guiding from the perspectives of tour guiding professionals and ETG students from HUFL, Hue University ? Basically, over 80% tour guiding professionals and 100% ETG students shared similar perspectives on normal activities of tour guides such as explaining the values of cultural and natural heritage that tour guides master with issued degrees and leading tourists to visit monuments and landscapes according to the prescribed time (Q1); 100% of TGPs and ETG students agreed on the great necessity (much and very much) of knowledge outside language to tour guiding (Q2) as 100% culture, 100% history, over 93.5% geography and over 90.3% psychology (Q3); 52% of TGPs and 77.4% of ETG students agreed on the equal importance between GE and ETG (Q4); 44% of TGPs 35.5% of ETG students agreed on the great importance of pronunciation and 20% of TGPs and 25.8% of ETG students agreed on specialized vocabulary in their workplace (Q5), 100% of TGPs and ETG students agreed on the equal importance among 4 communication skills and sub-skills in training and 24% of TGPs and 32.3% of ETG students agreed on the great importance of listening and speaking skills and sub-skills in actual situation (Q6-Q10).2,What difficulties did iv tour guiding professionals and ETG students encounter when using English in reality?3,How should these difficulties be overcome to satisfy English language needs for tour guiding from the perspectives of tour guiding professionals and ETG students from HUFL, Hue University? The quantitative analysis was based on written feedbacks twenty five items in the questionnaire for TGPs and on thirty one ETG students’ feedbacks to the relevant questionnaire .The results of the analysis can help HUFL to modify its syllabus content relating to language-supported knowledge ,balance between General English and ETG, aspects of English linguistic knowledge ,especially pronunciation and specialized vocabulary and four English language skills ,sub-skills especially listening and speaking skills and their sub-skills. A research of English language needs from the perspectives of tour guide professionals in Hue city has not been until now .That is the reason the research namely: English language needs for tour guiding from the perspectives of tour guiding professionals and English-for-tourism students from University of foreign languages ,Hue University comes into being. v ACKNOWLEDGEMENT This paper could not have been completed without the encouragement and support from a number of people who all deserve my sincerest gratitude and appreciation. First and foremost, I would like to thank my supervisor Assoc.
Tran Van Phuoc for his continual encouragement, careful reading, critical comments and patient guidance that made my paper better and more professional. My warm thanks go to all my colleagues at Diethelm travel Viet Nam and Trails of Indochina ,Viet Nam who always encourage and support me during the time I was busy with this research. Finally, I would like to show my deepest gratitude and appreciation to my family, my colleagues, my close friends and my classmates who always by my side and give me great mental and physical support. Their love, support and constant encouragement gave me a great deal of strength and determination that help me during the stressful time of writing this thesis.
vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Contents Pages Sub cover page. i Statement of originality. v Table of contents .vii List of abbreviations. xi List of Tables.xii Contents of thesis CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION .2 Aims of the research.4 Scope of the research .5 Definitions of key terms .6 Significance of the research .7 Structure of the research.
2 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW .1 Tourism and Tour Guide .2 English for Specific Purposes (ESP) and English for Tourism and Hospitality Purposes (ET) specializing in English for Tour Guiding (ETG) .3 Needs Analysis in ETG .3 Needs Analysis in English for Tour Guiding .4 Teaching ESP and Teaching ETG .5 English Syllabus for English for Tourism (specializing in English for Tour Guiding) from University of Foreign Languages, Hue University………….2 Review of previous studies .1 Previous studies abroad .2 Previous studies in the context of Vietnam. 13 CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY .2 Data Collection Method .1 Participants/Subjects of the research.2 Instrument: The questionnaire .3 Data Collection procedure .3 Data Analysis Method. 20 CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS .1 Tour Guiding Professionals’ and ETG Students’ Perspectives about English Language Needs on Tour Guiding .2 Tour Guiding Professionals’ and ETG Students’ Perspectives on Actual Situation and Difficulties in Tour Guiding ……………………………………….3 Tour Guiding Professionals’ and ETG Students’ Suggestions to Overcome Difficulties to Satisfy English Language Needs in Tour Guiding. 81 viii CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSIONS, IMPLICATIONS, LIMITATIONS AND FURTHER STUDY .1 Conclusions - Summary of the key findings .1 Perspectives on English language needs for Tour Guiding .2 Perspectives on actual situation and difficulties in Tour Guiding .3 Suggestions to overcome difficulties to satisfy English language needs .1 For English Department from HUFL, Hue University .2 For ETG students .3 Limitations and Further Research.
90 ix LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS BA : Bachelor of Arts COL : Commonwealth of Learning EAP : English for Academic Purposes EGP : English for General Purposes EOP : English for Occupational Purposes ESP : English for Specific Purposes ET : English for Tourism and Hospitality Purposes ETG : English for Tourism specializing in English for Tour Guiding GE : General English HUFL : Hue University of Foreign Languages MA : Master of Arts Q : Question TSA : Target Situation Analysis WTO : World Trade Organization x LIST OF TABLES Table 3.1 Tour guides and students by age Table 3.2 Tour guides and students by gender Table 3.3 Tour guides by English level Table 3.4 Tour guides by working experience using English Table 4.1 Normal Activities of Tour Guides Table 4.2 Necessity of knowledge outside the language Table 4.3 Knowledge supporting Tour guiding Table 4.4 Importance between ET and EGP/GE Table 4.5 Importance among aspects of English linguistic knowledge Table 4.6 Importance among English language skills Table 4.7 Degrees of listening sub-skills has been needed Table 4.8 Degrees of speaking sub-skills has been needed Table 4.9 Degrees of reading sub-skills has been needed Table 4.10 Degrees of writing sub-skills has been needed Table 4.11 Degree of knowledge outside language has been required Table 4.12 Degree of English linguistic knowledge has been required Table 4.13 Degree of English language skills has been needed Table 4.14 Degree of listening sub-skills has been needed Table 4.15 Degree of speaking sub-skills has been required Table 4.16 Degree of reading sub-skills has been needed Table 4.17 Degree of writing sub-skills has been required Table 4.18 Degrees of Cultural difficulties Table 4.19 Degrees of Sub-listening difficulties Table 4.20 Degrees of Sub-speaking difficulties Table 4.21 Degrees of Sub-reading difficulties Table 4.22 Degrees of Sub-writing difficulties xi CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale The need of Vietnamese and foreigners for cultural understanding, international exchange through tourism and through tour guides is growing in the process of globalization in general and the integration process in particular. The satisfaction of this need is often done by means of foreign languages. English is both an international language and also a means to help Vietnamese tour guides introduce the country's culture, Vietnamese people to the world. Therefore, learning English plays an important role to fulfill this duty.
Learning always goes together with practice and requires accurate and fluent practice for a future career using English as a bridge to foreign tourists. However, in the process of working as tour guides in Viet Nam, many fourth year students of English for Tourism (ET) specializing in Tour Guides (ETG) who have been trained to become tour guides from Hue University of Foreign Languages (HUFL) and tour guides have met a lot of difficulties in the implementation of their jobs. The main reason may come from the procedure of designing the syllabus of ETG at HUFL without referring to real needs from labor market, especially Travel Agencies, Tour Guiding Companies. The researcher decided to do a research to investigate difficulties raised by ETG students and young tour guides and the title of the research is English Language Needs for Tour Guiding from the Perspectives of Tour Guiding Professionals and English- for -Tourism Students from University of Foreign Languages, Hue University.2 Aims of the research The research aims to understand English language needs for tour guiding from the perspectives of tour guiding professionals and ETG students and find out possible measures to overcome the students‟ and young tour guides‟ difficulties due to ETG syllabus prepared for their career without any reference from labor market, namely tour guiding companies in Hue city.3 Research questions 1 What are the English language needs for tour guiding from the perspectives of tour guiding professionals and ETG students from HUFL, Hue University? 2 What difficulties did tour guiding professionals and ETG students encounter when using English in reality? 3 How should these difficulties be overcome to satisfy English language needs for tour guiding from the perspectives of tour guiding professionals and ETG students from HUFL, Hue University? 1.4 Scope of the research The research just focuses on exploring the needs related chiefly to knowledge outside language and language knowledge and skills related chiefly to General English (GE) integrated into English for Tourism specializing in Tour Guiding (ETG) from the perspectives (basically points of view on the situation and problems) of tour guiding professionals and fourth year students of ETG from HUFL, Hue University.5 Definitions of key terms 1.