A Study Of Tourism English Course Based On Needs Analysis

With the expansion of tourism market at home and abroad, the talent in TourismEnglish is urgently needed. In order to satisfy the social needs better, more and morecolleges open Tourism English course to foster those versatile talents with solidprofessional knowledge and fluent ability of applying English. Therefore, the qualityof Tourism English teaching influences the quality of tourism employees to a certainextent. Tourism English, as a branch of English for Specific purposes, is distinguishedfrom general English for its specialty and practicality. This research takes Hutchinson&Waters and Dudley-Evans&St John’s models for needs analysis as a basis to makea comprehensive study of present condition of Tourism English course. In order toexplore the existing problems of Tourism English teaching and provide somesuggestions to promote the development of Tourism English teaching, the author takesthe students who have selected the Tourism English course in a University as researchsubject. While the purpose of this research is to survey present problems of TourismEnglish course and learners’ target needs and learning needs of Tourism Englishthrough surveying the present teaching condition of Tourism English and learners’expectations of this course.The investigation invited125student respondents for questionnaires, eight ofwhich, together with one teacher, have been interviewed. After the survey, theinvestigation finds that there are some shortages in teachers’ quality, teachingmethodology, teaching material and teaching assessment. Although most studentsrealize the connection between EGP and ESP, students require their teacher shouldteach in English to create an atmosphere and provide them more opportunity topractice, students appreciate more opportunities for them to improve their practicalability, students expect their teaching material to be more practical and interesting andstudents favor the evaluating way of written test plus oral test. In terms of learners’learning needs and expectations of this course, the author puts forward somesuggestions to improve the teaching quality of Tourism English, such as improvingteachers’ compound ability, changing traditional teaching method, choosingappropriate teaching material and setting comprehensive teaching assessment. Theauthor hopes to provide a beneficial reference for Tourism English teaching in theresearched University and other schools to promote its further development. Considering the limitation of sample size and the shortage of research experience,there are some limitations existing in this research, and the biggest limitation is theresearch methodology. For example, questionnaire survey can be limited in revealingstudents’ real learning needs. Besides, only students’ views are investigated inquestionnaire survey. Teachers, administrator and other members of the interest groupmight be able to provide information about needs of TE, whose opinions has not beeninvestigated. The author expects the relevant researches in the future will make up forthe deficiency and continue to impel the Tourism English teaching.