Use of Corpora and IT in Evaluating Oral Task Competence for Tourism English

Abstract

This paper describes a method in oral fluency evaluation for Tourism English according to a corpus-based lexical approach. Our main research focus is placed on measuring oral skill competence among Tourism English (TE) learners by contrasting their word use and linguistic fluency, achieved in two types of oral tasks, with corpus data frequencies. Information Technology (IT) resources and electronic corpora are two integrated tools in the evaluative approach to identify significant performance changes between learners who have managed such electronic resources and learners who have not.

English for Tourism and Hospitality Purposes (ETP)

“…Some studies on tourism and hospitality English have dealt with subjects such as checking out the effectiveness of courses and interventions in developing and expanding tourism students' language competence (Akyel &Yalcin, 1991;Fuentes, 2004;Haggag, 2008;Lo & Sheu, 2008;Luka, 2009;Watts & Trim, 1999;Zayed, 2009). Moreover, there are some other studies investigating the language needs of students and employees (Afzali & Fakharzadeh, 2009;Choi, 2010, Al-Khatib, 2005Martin & Davies, 2006;Stapa, 2005;Tipmontree, 2007).…”

English language preparation of tourism and hospitality undergraduates in Egypt: Does it meet their future workplace requirements?

“…Researching tourism English in Egypt is no exception. Few previous studies on tourism English have dealt with issues such as testing the effectiveness of courses and interventions in developing tourism students' language competence (Akyel & Yalcin, 1991;Fuentes, 2004;Haggag, 2008;Lo & Sheu, 2008;Luka, 2009;Watts and Trim, 1999;Zayed, 2009), and investigating the language needs of students (Afzali & Fakharzadeh, 2009;Choi, 2010) and employees (Al-Khatib, 2005;Martin & Davies, 2006;Stapa, 2005;Tipmontree, 2007). These studies have also addressed the evaluation of language materials/coursebooks from the perspectives of trainee employees (Brunton, 2009), students (Laborda, 2005) or students and teachers (Kirkness & Neill, 2009), and the incorporation of computer-based activities in English courses for tourism students (Laborda, 2003(Laborda, , 2009).…”

“…English for tourism is viewed as an area of business English (Cho, 2005), and integrates business English and English for academic purposes by bridging workplace communication and classroom use (Fuentes, 2004). That is, it deals with teaching the language needed for communication and interaction between people of different cultures in airports, tourism and travel firms, markets and hospitality (Afzali & Fakharzadeh, 2009;Jacob & Strutt, 1997;Seong, 2005).…”

Identifying English Communication Competence for Front Office of Hotel Industries

“…Several previous studies investigated the language needs of students and employees [4], [5], [6], while others focused on analyzing the effectiveness of language learning in the tourism and hospitality sector and the interventions provided on a person's language competence [ 7], [8], [9]. The findings of the study show that there is a compelling need for English mastery in the sectors of tourism and hospitality, not just oral communication skills, but also the ability to read and write.…”