ESP FOR TOURISM AND HOSPITALITY IN ALGERIA

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the way English is taught in Algerian schools, universities and foreign companies. Another aim was to find out what English for Tourism and Hospitality entails in terms of specific English. Finally the aim was to design a BA professionalizing curriculum for Tourism and Hospitality Management in the LMD framework.

This piece of research lied on an Empirical study. The study focused on a synthesis of the jobs description in order to best understand the main professional skills, knowledge and competencies required to work in both industries. A questionnaire was administered to the hotel staff under investigation in order to examine the employee’s needs, lacks and wants in terms of Specific English. The results of the study were that English taught in the Hotel ‘X’ is not tailored to the workers’ professional needs. It was also found out that both methodology and programme content are inappropriate. One conclusion was that teaching English for Hotel and Tourism should be based on a Competency-based programme. One conclusion was that being communicatively competent in English for Hotel and Tourism implies developing linguistic competence, pragmatic awareness, cross-cultural competence and professional skills