NEEDS OF ENGLISH FOR TOUR GUIDING FROM THE PERSPECTIVES OF TOUR-GUIDE PROFESSIONALS

Abstract

While practicing as tour guides, many students of English for Tour Guiding (ETG) at Hue University of Foreign Languages (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 study analyzed the ETG needs raised by 25 tour-guide professionals (TGPs) from their companiesin Hue City, clarified students’ difficulties and presented measures to overcome these difficulties from the perspectives of TGPs. The qualitative and quantitative analyseswere based on written feedbacks to 15 items in the questionnaire for TGPs and on 15 ETG students’ feedbacks to 10 questions in the interview for ETG students. 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 linguistic knowledge especially pronunciation and specialized vocabulary, 4 skills and sub-skills especially listening and speaking skills and their sub-skills.