CALL FOR HOTEL CAREERS: AN INNOVATION IN EFL SPOKEN LANGUAGE TEACHING METHODOLOGY

The White Paper on Tourism (2008) published by the Japanese Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism claims that the benefits to the tourism industry generated by the increasing number of tourists who visit Japan from other countries is a key to providing a greater number of job opportunities and revitalizing the Japanese economy. Government plans to reach a target of 10,000,000 foreign visitors per year by 2010 currently appear to be successful. In response to an expected continuing increase in the number of employment opportunities in tourism businesses, a number of universities and junior colleges in Japan have established new faculties and departments that aim to produce work-ready graduates in the sector of the service industry which caters to foreign tourists. Among Japanese cities, the culturally-rich city of Kyoto, in which Kyoto Junior College of Foreign Languages (KJCFL) is located, is the single most popular tourist destination for foreign visitors. Thus, KJCFL students have greater access to part-time employment at hotels while they are studying English and other foreign languages. It is essential for Kyoto hotel staff to be able to communicate efficiently in English with tourists from a wide variety of countries; that is to say, ‘hospitality’ language skills are required. KJCFL initiated Hospitality English, a new first-year English course in April 2008. Hospitality English, is a one-and-half-hour per week one-year course aimed at strengthening English spoken language skills in order to help students successfully apply for, and complete, a highly competitive hotel internship program at hotels in Kyoto. Participation in the internship program appears to be more helpful than the usually available part-time jobs if students choose to apply for career positions in the hotel industry after graduation. The Hospitality English course design included three learning task components: (a) Self-directed outside-of-class learning with the use of a CALL teaching aid which included video scenes of all the main communication events between hotel employees and hotel guests, and also related grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation learning tasks. (b) Conventional classroom EFL learning tasks were used by teachers to teach relevant features of language, to allow students opportunities for practice, and to provide students with instructive feedback following practice. (c) Simulations of hotel communication situations were conducted in the classroom during visits by speakers of English in an attempt to bridge the CALL and the conventional classroom learning tasks with actual work situations. It was anticipated that the integration of CALL materials with conventional EFL teaching methods and with live simulations of work experiences would generate sustainable motivation because of the credibility of the links between the course components and successful work performance skills. In this paper, we describe the first stages of the development and implementation of the course. A detailed overview of the course design, and a quantitative analysis of students’ progress will be reported. In addition, a post-course evaluation which included interviews with students will be discussed in order to assess the effectiveness of the course design.