The Application Of ESP Theory In Vocational Colleges Tourism English Teaching

In recent years, tourism industry has played an important role in Chinese economy. With its rapid development, the quality of tourism employees has become a significant concern. Vocational colleges have been shouldering the mission for training the highly-qualified tourism employees. Tourism English is one of the main courses for the students who major in Tourism Service. Since the quality of Tourism English teaching is closely related to the quality of tourism employees to some degree, how to improve Tourism English teaching has become a key issue for the teachers who are working at it. As a Tourism English teacher, the author is especially concerned with application of ESP (English for Special Purposes) theories to Tourism English teaching in vocational colleges.Tourism English teaching in vocational colleges is different from general higher education because it is vocation-oriented and its objective is to cultivate practical talents working in tourism industry, such as tour guides and hotel staff. Thus, application and practicality are the distinguishing features of Tourism English teaching. However, Tourism English teaching in vocational colleges has followed the teaching model of three-year undergraduate education for a long time. This EGP (English for General Purposes) approach leads to unsatisfactory teaching effects. ESP, as an approach to language teaching that the contents and methods courses are determined by functional and practical English requirements of the learner, can help learners acquire the specific abilities within the limited time. ESP is not only in accordance with the training goal of Tourism English teaching in vocational colleges, but also can meet the social needs for practical talents of Tourism English. Therefore it is reasonable and feasible to apply ESP approach into Tourism English teaching in vocational colleges.To improve the teaching quality of the Tourism English teaching, the author analyzes the implications obtained from the ESP related theories, and then displays the applications of them in Tourism English teaching. This thesis tries to discuss the feasibility, advantages and operability of applying ESP Approach to Tourism English teaching supported by a quasi-empirical research. Two classes involve in the experiment with one as the experimental class, and the other being the control class. ESP Approach is adopted in the experimental class while EGP Approach is adopted in the control class. In addition, a survey with questionnaire and an interview are introduced to help the empirical research. Through the comparison between the two classes, we can see that students of the experimental class have more evident improvement than those of the control class. This thesis got the conclusion mainly from the comparison of the two classes in students'marks and their performances in the post-test. The improvement is more evident seen from marks. Seen from the language ability, vocational competence of students'versions, students in experimental class did better than those in control class too. Based on the results of the research, some effective suggestions for improving Tourism English teaching and meet students'needs are proposed.At the end of the thesis, the limitations of the current study due to the limited space and time were pointed out, and inspiration for further teaching was also suggested.