Needs analysis report

Participants

The participants were 15 students that study their second year in a College of Tourism, 20 employees

from the hotel “Welcome” and 14 staff members from the hotel “Rosewood”.

Moreover, the course book “Oxford English Career for Tourism” that is used for students’ instruction

was evaluated to identify if it meets the target learners’ needs.

Procedures

In order to ascertain lacks, needs and wants, we have conducted our research in various ways:

1) Present Situation analysis: We have taken language proficiency tests to check the development of

four skills, vocabulary tests and grammar tests. As the majority of students answered that their level is B1,

we used the B1-preliminary test to identify the level of students.

The results showed that students’ level of reading and listening are intermediate, however, speaking

and writing are pre-intermediate or intermediate.

Skills Level Number of students

Reading Intermediate 13
Pre-intermediate 2
Listening Intermediate 15
Speaking Pre-intermediate 6
Intermediate 9
Writing Pre-intermediate 8
Intermediate 7
Grammar Intermediate 4
Upper-Intermediate 1
It appears that differentiation will be needed for writing and speaking activities.

In terms of grammar, students have good range of grammar and is equal to Intermediate or Upper-

Intermediate, however, with some mistakes. Students need to work on phrasal verbs, articles, modals and

building complex sentences using conjunctions.

We also used vocabulary checklist for words related to hotel and hospitality and gap-filling visual

activity (Appendix 1).

2) Learning situation analysis: In addition, we also used questionnaires to identify students’ lacks,

needs and wants (Appendix 2).

 According to the results, students’ motivation lies in being engaged in real-life communication

(43%), travelling and tourism (16%), watching films (14%), reading books, texts (15%), personal hobbies

(11%). Other answers were not mentioned because they comprised only 1 %.

According to the questionnaire, the majority of students want to work as hotel managers or

receptionists. What is more, 8 students are willing to go abroad and work in international hotels. Some

students have chosen both reception and hotel management options.

Occupation Number of students

Reception 6
Booking 3
Hotel management 9

Aims take the course:

Besides, students want to raise their fluency (35%), learn content knowledge related to their

occupational needs (24%), obtain at least B2 level certificate because it is required at the workplace (28 %),

being able to write and speak formally (10 %) and learning about jobs at hotels (3%).

Learning preferences:

Students are mainly visual learners, some students are both visual and auditory learners. There are no

kinesthetic learners in the group.

Type Number of students

Auditory 5
Visual 6
Kinesthetic 0
Audio-visual 4

Exposure to the target language:

58% of students are exposed to the target language only in the classroom, 30% encounter the

language in language courses, doing additional self-study by the use of other course books, while others

(22%) watch English movies, listen to podcasts several times a week or write emails to pen pals and are

exposed to authentic English listening and writing.

Preferred activities:

Students like to do case studies related to their occupational field, they want to have more

interactional activities that will include communication with each other. Moreover, they want to encounter

authentic reading and listening materials during lessons.

 Preferred interaction:

Students’ answers about the interaction they want to have during lessons are as follows:

Type Number of students

Group work 6
Pair work 3
Individual work 4
Group and individual work 2

3) Target situation analysis (interview)

We have conducted interviews for 2 hotels in order to identify the needs of the target context

(Appendix 3).

In a hotel, the occupations are divided according to the service they provide and according to the

hotel’s rating.

We have interviewed hotel staff from a 3-star hotel and 5-star hotel. As the participants would like to

stay anonymous, we are going to replace the names of hotels. Consequently, in a 5-star hotel “Welcome” all

services are provided, including the concierge service and shuttle service. In a 3-star hotel “Rosewood” there

is no shuttle service and concierge service is usually performed by receptionist.

The services that use language most frequently include:

1) Staff that are involved in booking service

2) Receptionists

3) Hotel managers

4) Concierge service

5) Catering service

6) Shuttle service

7) Laundry service

8) Housekeeping service

Below we provide the information about the responsibilities of hotel staff and the skills that are

involved. We have divided the responsibilities in accordance with skills.

Skills Booking service Reception Concierge Hotel manager Catering

service service service,
 (only 5-star Shuttle
hotels) service (5-star
hotel),
Laundry
service,
Housekeepin
g service
(language is
not widely
used)
Writing  Answering  Answerin - Writing emails -
And to emails, fax g to emails
reading (formal and Online
academic) tourism (insert
 Subskill: information
taking notes about clients into
the tax service
database)
 Cashier
service
 Submit a
report to an
accountant about
the payments
 Check
in/out
 Fill the
register journal
Speakin  Answering  Check  Food  Holding Answering to
g and to phone calls in/out ordering Interviews the questions
Listenin  Suggestion  Work  Taxi  Holding of clients
g s about services in with clients, full service meetings
a hotel responsibility,  Going  Checking
 Explain  Talk to to the shop the work of hotel
about the hotel guests and  Bookin staff,
facilities answer their g tables for housekeeping
questions clients service, catering
 Good  Deliver service and so on.
communication things the  Control the
skills and fluency forgotten staff
 Use of things to the  Explain to
formal and polite client the staff about
language dress-code,
 Explain responsibilities,
about the hotel giving feedback
facilities  Responsibl
e for customer
satisfaction

Due to the fact that our students are going to work in a hospitality sphere in booking service,

reception or work as a hotel manager, we are going to focus on these occupations. What is more, they will
have their practicum at the hotels in their 3rd course and will need to be able to perform the activities that are

mentioned in the table. Hotel staff answered that they do not receive occupational training at the hotel before

starting to work. What is more, the requirement is having at least B2 certificate that will be necessary to be

competitive at the job market.

Additionally, three days of listening to hotel employees talk were observed, and we can identify the

common language structures, workplace-related subjects, and English accents that hotel employees hear

most frequently.

Potential topics that can be encountered:

 Tourism

 Food and beverages

 Different places

 Hotel services

 Asking directions

 Entertainment and recreation

 Amenities at the hotel

Content knowledge of hotel staff (obligatory)

Know about

 the amenities

 food and beverages, menu of the restaurant

 pricelist

Grammar:

 Present simple

 Present Continuous

 Modal verbs and modality

 Complex sentence structures

 Phrasal verbs

 Passive voice
 Certificate: B2

Clients: China, Italy (most), India, America, Iran, Great Britain.

Accents that are hard to understand: India, Italy, Iran, South Korea, Turkey (speak too fast)

4) Analysis of a course book

To improve students' content knowledge and widen their vocabulary, the course book offers a variety

of contexts. The scope is broader and extends beyond hospitality to other areas of tourism.

Additionally, it provides a variety of chances to practice grammar and speaking. At the same time,

there is not much opportunity for reading and especially for writing activities.

5) Means analysis of learning context

The classroom provides the necessary equipment such as a projector, a computer, speakers and a

magnet board. The college provides free use of printer for college teachers. All the facilities are given to

conduct interactional, varied lessons that will engage students and facilitate the teaching-learning process.

Conclusion and further considerations

It can be seen that students will need to develop all 4 skills, including grammar and vocabulary.

Meanwhile, speaking and listening will be the main focus in teaching. When it comes to grammar and

vocabulary, we will focus on the list of grammar structures that we have discovered during observations

and build the content of the course according to the topics that are used in hospitality. At the same time,

we also take into consideration that there can be unexpected situations and the language that we will

teach may be insufficient. Moreover, students need to obtain a language proficiency certificate, and we

will balance the two objectives: teaching ESP for hospitality and hotel management and preparing to

language proficiency test. At the same time teaching will be more weighted towards occupational needs.

The objectives of the course will be:

 Answer to phone calls

 Use formal language

 Explaining about the dress-code (for hotel managers)

 Taking orders

 Receiving guests at the restaurant

 Writing formal academic emails

  Improve problem-solving skills

 Develop formal speaking skills

 Explain about hotel facilities

 Booking a hotel room

 Booking tables

 Explain about food and beverages to the customers

 Holding interviews and formal meetings (for hotel managers)

 Dealing with customer complaints

Regarding course books, we will use both the course book that can help to learn English for

tourism and hotel management as well, and additional materials that will help to meet the needs of the

target context, build vocabulary, grammar, communication skills and develop writing skills.

Additionally, various activities and methods will be used according to learner’s preferences,

interests and motivation in order to engage and motivate students’ to learn. Specifically, as the

productive skills emphasized and students want to raise content knowledge about the target context, we

will use Communicative Language Teaching, Content Based Instruction, Task-based learning.

Moreover, in terms of activities, the interaction mode will be mainly group in order to create

opportunities for developing speaking skills and we will include case-studies and role-plays according to

students’ preference; then pair and individual work will be emphasized. Besides, students will be

improving their writing of academic emails and raise their knowledge about formal written and spoken

discourse. Finally, due to the fact that many guests come from all over the world and hotel staff points

out that some English varieties are difficult to understand, we also want to include some listening

activities that will entail exposing students to English accents such as Indian, Turkish, Korean, Chinese.

With regards to assessment, we will use materials from different sources and teacher-made

assessment as well as portfolios in order to track students’ progress and adjust teaching. The needs

analysis will be held in the middle of the course in order to evaluate the course and improve it according

to the needs of students.

References:
https://www.examenglish.com/PET/pet_reading1.htm
https://www.englishformyjob.com/english-hotel-visual1.html
https://www.englishclub.com/english-for-work/hotel-vocabulary.php

Appendix 1
Vocabulary checklist
luggage cart
noun
maximum capacity
noun

motels
noun

Gap-filling
Appendix 2
Needs analysis sample for students
First name: Izabella
Last name: Queen
Gender: female
Age: 15
How do you rate your knowledge in 3
English from 5 to 1?
How much time can you spend daily to 2-3 hours
work on your English?
How often do you use English every day? During English classes
Have you ever been English speaking no
countries?
Do you have English speaking Some online friends
friends/relatives/family members?
What languages do you know other than Russian, turkish
English?
What language do you speak at home? uzbek
What do you want to learn in English Speaking fluently
most?
What kind of certificates do you have in Cefr b1
terms of English language?
What specific skill related to English is Speaking with customers, giving instructions
required in your future job?
Do your parents or siblings know the
language or support you in language Only my brother knows and sometimes helps
learning process?
What is your greatest benefit from learning Going abroad for paid-internship in hotels of
this very language? US/Dubai

How often do you watch English 2-3 times a week

movies/cartoons?
How often do you listen English 3-4 times a week
podcasts/news/audios/lectures?
How often do you write something in Almost every day
English?
What kind of learner do you consider visual
yourself as? (Kinesthetic, auditory, visual)
How do you learn new words? By repeating and writing my own example
sentences
What motivates you to learn? Reading, watching videos
Why do you want to take this course? To work abroad
You want to work as….at the hotel Manager
What else will you need at the workplace? Certificate B2