An Investigation Of Culture Introduction In Vocational Technical College Tourism English Vocabulary Teaching

With the fast development of tourist industry, the employees are highly required for International tourism, who should master not only the professional knowledge but also the communication ability. Therefore, Tourism English should focus on training students' communication ability and practical ability. The appropriate tourism English can build the bridge between visitors and traveling destinations with knowledge in culture difference successfully. Since vocabulary is the basis of language, it is an integral part of tourism English and is also the basis for student to learn and use the tourism English. But quite a number of teachers fail to realize the particularity of ESP (English for Specific Purposes), and often ignore the close relationship between vocabulary and cultural meaning. The lack of basic culture knowledge results in the misunderstanding and misuse of those culturally significant words, which contributes to the failure of cross-cultural communication. So the introduction of culture in the tourism English vocabulary teaching is very important.This thesis first elaborates on the necessity of instruction of the cultural meaning of tourism English vocabulary. Then, a survey study is conducted among the second-year Tourism Management majors and the teachers by means of a vocabulary test, two questionnaires, and an interview. The survey aims at examining the student's acquisition of cultural implications of vocabulary and revealing the present situation of vocabulary instruction and cultural embedment in vocational college. A correlation analysis is conducted to the result of vocabulary test. Based on the research, some conclusions are drawn as follows:(1) The acquisition of cultural implications of English vocabulary of the second-year tourism management majors is inadequate and unsatisfactory. (2)The limited teaching time in the English class keeps the teachers from fully exploring the cultural elements of vocabulary and they teach cultural knowledge of vocabulary sporadically, rather than systematically. (3) Most of the teachers and students believe that the acquisition of cultural implications of English vocabulary should largely depend on efforts of students after class, and the guiding role of teachers in :his respect is very important. Finally, some pedagogical implications are drawn and some suggestions on culture introduction of tourism English vocabulary teaching are given, mainly involving teaching principles, teaching nethods, teachers'role, the compilation of the textbook and the college English evaluating system, etc.