ESTABLISHING ENGLISH COMPETENCIES FOR STUDENTS OF TOURISM

DEPARTMENT UNIVERSITY OF MATARAM:

A Proposal1

By:
Drs. I Made Sujana, M.A.
UPT Pusat Bahasa UNRAM
Jalan Pendidikan 37 Mataram 83125 LOMBOK NTB
Phone 0370 622503; e-mail:PUBAH@mataram.wasantara.net.id

The purpose of learning English in ESP contexts is to achieve the certain

English proficiency level for a situation where the language is going to be
used (target needs). For students of Tourism Department, the target needs
of leaning English have been well-defined since they have had definite job
markets. Thus, in designing curriculum for this target audience, these
target needs must further be translated into descriptions of competencies
needed in the tourism area so that the students are capable of performing
the language needed in the target situation. This article will bring about
the application of competency-based approach in designing second
language syllabus/curriculum. There are two points to be discussed: (1)
general descriptions of competency-based approach in designing
second/foreign language curriculum; and (2) a proposal in establishing
English competencies in ESP contexts with reference to English
competencies needed by students of Tourism Department (University of
Mataram)

Keywords: English proficiency, competency, competency-based

curriculum, tourism, syllabus.

A. INTRODUCTION
Preparing school-leavers to enter workplaces or apprenticeship becomes main
concerns in education and training programs. Training institutions compete to
promote that the training they run produces school-leavers ready to enter workplaces
or apprenticeship by specifying competencies needed in a particular workplace. In
addition, to promote programs for prospective students, the institutions include
competencies they will impart their students in their syllabus design. It seems the
inclusion of competencies needed in workplaces becomes the selling points in
designing curriculum/syllabus. Thus, competency-based approaches in curriculum
design are preferable in current language training; let alone in designing
curriculum/syllabus in ESP contexts whose purpose of learning English is to impart
language specific needed in a particular workplace.
The competency-based approaches (CBAs) have long been adopted in vocational
and professional areas. The adoption of these approaches is generated by two
1
A paper prsented at NUESP National Conference, at Universitas Jember Jawa Timur, 4-5 August 2003

1
 developmental lines: educational and economic. In the educational developmental
line, the application of CBAs is based on the idea of fulfilling learners' needs in
curriculum design and of applying criterion-Reference Testing (CRT) in language
evaluation. In economic developmental line, their application is generated by how to
"sell" curriculum or programs by the inclusion of competencies needed in a particular
workplace and by the idea of how to learn language function in efficient and effective
way.
In designing English syllabus in Tourism area, a course designer should consider
the developmental lines mentioned above. The adoption of CBAs in designing
English curriculum is urgently needed in this area. This paper will further discuss the
Competency-Based Approaches in syllabus design with reference to English for
Tourism. First, it will discuss competency-based approaches in designing syllabus for
ESP context and second, a proposal for finding out competencies needed in Tourism
area with reference to competencies needed by students of Tourism Department (the
University of Mataram).

B. COMPETENCY-BASED APPROACH IN SYLLABUS DESIGN

Hagan (1994) defines competency-based training as an approach to vocational
education and training which focuses on outcomes or what a learner can do at the end
of a course of study. This approach differs from previous approaches which focused
on time spent in training and teacher input. The evolution of competency-based
approaches can be traced along two main developmental lines: educational and
economic (Docking, 1994). In the educational line, the application of CBAs is based
on the importance of considering learner's needs in designing English
curriculum/syllabus and on the movement in testing procedures, especially dealing
with the application of Criterion-Referenced Testing (CRT).
Considering the learner's needs to learn English is the central issue in designing
syllabus in an ESP context. According to Hutchinson & Waters (1993), the learner's
needs can be interpreted into several categories: needs as necessities (i.e. the demand
of the target situations -- where the language to be used), needs as lacks (i.e. what
knowledge the learner has already known in order to master the language functions
needed in the target situation), and needs as wants (i.e. what the learner would like to
gain from the language training (personal aims)). In establishing the competencies
needed in certain workplace, the needs as necessities (i.e. what the learner has to
know in order to function effectively in the target (real) situation) must be used as the
starting point in curriculum design in order to know what learners need to acquire at
the end of the course. This can be achieved by tracing the responsibilities or duties or
job description of the professional workers in the real situation (see the following
section for steps in establishing competencies).
The second idea generating the application of the CBAs in the educational
developmental line is the movement in testing procedures, especially dealing with the
application of criterion-referenced testing (CRT). The CRT is usually produced to
measure well-defined and fairly specific objectives (Brown, 1996). The purpose of
the CRT is to measure the amount of learning that a learner has established on each
objective. In other words, the CRT is objective-based language points. The
interpretation of results in a CRT is considered absolute in the sense that each

2
student's result is meaningful without reference to the other learner's results. In
addition, using CRT allows for variety of assessment forms such as role play and
unstructured observation. It also allows for modular and self paced learning,
emphasizes flexibility to meet individual learner needs and recognizes prior learning
or current competencies in relation to training (Hagan, 1994). Applying the CRT in
language teaching will force the learner to achieve the established objectives; the
objectives of which are taken from the aspects of language needed in the target
situation where the language is going to be used.
In the economic developmental line, the CBAs are adopted to give added value
(selling point) to the trainees (graduates) in the job market. Trainees graduated from
institutions having well-defined and explicit competencies in their course description
will have more chances to be considered to get job. Besides, the establishment of
competencies will make the training program more effective and efficient. It is in line
with Hutchinson and Waters' (1993) claim that time and money constraints created a
need for cost-effective courses with clearly defined goals.
Regarding the influence of CBAs in today's educational and employment
contexts, Docking (1994) comments that in education context, the competencies
(learning outcomes) underpin curriculum design, teaching strategies, assessment,
reporting, accreditation, program evaluation, and certification. In
employment/economic context, on the other hand, the CBAs are being adopted as the
basis of work design, industrial awards, recruitment and selection, performance
appraisal, training need analysis and training design, etc. Furthermore Docking
suggests that it is important to consider the application of CBAs in training programs

 a means of promoting or rewarding excellence, by writing competencies that

since the CBAs can be:

 a means of justifying certification decisions, not on a normative basis but based

demand sophisticated and high level performance.

 a means of ensuring consistency in standards between lecturers across time,

on real standard.

 a means of raising standards to meet competency profile requirements and not just
across campuses and between internal and external modes of delivery;

 a means of ensuring the credibility and continued resourcing of education and

pass marks;

 a means of avoiding cultural bias and facilitating equity.

training providers;

 a means of meeting the need for flexibility and diversity and consistent

 a means of interfacing and integrating different forms of learning and including

comparable standards;

 a means of communicating curriculum expectations to students and colleagues

different education and training sectors, and different levels of education;

 a means of empowering learners to take more responsibility for their learning, to

and providing a shared language of outcomes for education, training and works;

increase their options, and to take advantage of opportunities for learning as they
arise.

3
C. ESTABLISHING ENGLISH COMPETENCY IN ESP CONTEXT: TOURISM
It is claimed that any decision made in designing language teaching programs in
ESP contexts must be based on the learners' reasons (learners' needs) for learning
English (Strevens, 1998; Robinson, 1991; Dudley-Evans & St. John, 1998). However,
knowing learners' needs is not a simple task due to the multi-interpretations of the
needs. Needs can be interpreted into necessities, wants, and lacks (Hutchinson and
Waters, 1993). Necessities (target needs) deal with the demand of the target situations
(i.e. what the learner needs to know in order to function effectively in the target
situation). Lacks refer to the learner's existing language proficiency in order to help
determination of the starting point of the teaching and learning process. Wants relate
to what the learner would like to gain from the language course (personal aims). In
addition, Dudley-Evans & St. John (1998) see needs from various points of view such
as from personal information about learners, language information about target
situation, professional information about learners, how to communicate in the target
situation, language learning needs, learner's needs from the course, learner's lack, and
environmental situation. However, both Hutchinson & Waters and Dudley-Evans &
St. John agree that the main purposes of doing needs analysis are first to find out
language needs in the target situation (i.e. what the learner needs to know in order to
function effectively in the target situation) and second to formulate the learning needs
(i.e. how to achieve the target needs in teaching and learning process). (In Dudley-
Evans & St. John's terms, they are called Target Situation Analysis (TSA) and
Learning Situation Analysis (LSA)).
In establishing English competencies needed in a particular workplace, a course
designer can start from target needs (TSA) by analyzing responsibilities/duties/tasks
of professional workers in the target situation where the language is going to be used.
The responsibilities are then translated into competencies (skills and sub-skills)
needed in workplaces in order to be able to master the language needed in the
particular workplace. The following are suggested steps in finding out English
competencies needed in a particular workplace.

Identification of Target Group

▼
Identification of Duties of Professional Workers
▼
Assessment of Communicative Needs
▼
Translation of Needs into Competencies
▼
Translation of Competencies into linguistic and
other specifications
▼
Teaching/Learning Activities to develop
competencies

The process of analysis starts from the identification of learners of the language
teaching program. The target group in this step can be categorized into two groups:

4
the identification of learners who want to study the language in terms of personal,
socio-culture, education, expectation, interest, real language needs, etc.; and the
identification of professional workers in the target situation, who have used the
language in the target situation. The identification of responsibilities of professional
workers of the target situation will be a useful guideline in the next steps in designing
syllabus since the responsibilities of the professional workers in the target situation
are used as a basis in course design. In this steps, it is necessary to (a) study in-depth
each of the situations in which they would need to use English; (b) clarify the
learners' communicative purposes by analyzing the activities and roles they would be
performing in English; and (c) determine the level of performance they expected to
attain. From the responsibilities of the professional workers, the communicative needs
can further be elaborated in order to find out the focus of language skills needed in
the particular workplace. The following step is the translation of the communicative
into language competencies that need to be developed in in order to be able to do the
job professionally in the target situations. The language competencies are then
translated into teaching materials from functional and structural point of view and
strategies to master the language competencies.
Referring to the main purposes of doing need analysis mentioned in previous
section, steps 1 - 4 aim at finding out the target needs (what learners needs to do in
the target situations) while steps 5 and 6 aim at finding out learning needs (what
learners need to do in class in order to master the language needed in the target
situations).
The following are a summary and a sample of how these steps work with
reference to English for Tourism for Front Office Department (the analysis of
complete analysis of competencies needed by students of Tourism Department is in
progress).

5
NO. STEPS DESCRITIONS EXAMPLES
1. Identification of Who are the participants of the Front Office (FO) receptionist
Target Group course we design?
2. Identification of What are responsibilities of the Responsibilities of FO
Duties of professional workers in the 1. Welcoming and registering guests
Professional target situation (in terms of the 2. Helping guests with queries and
Workers use of language)? problems
3. Answering the telephone in a quick
and efficient manner
4. Taking reservations, cancellations, and
revision.
5. Receiving and distributing telexes and
facsimiles.
6. etc.
3. Assessment of What kinds of communicative In order to be able to do these
Communicative needs do professional workers responsibilities the FO receptionist must
Needs need to be able to do the have language ability on:
responsibilities? 1. how to welcome and register guests
appropriately.
2. how to help guests with queries and
problems clearly
3. how to answer the telephone quickly
and efficiently.
4. how to take reservations, cancellations,
and revision correctly.
5. how to read letters, fax and the like in
effective and efficient way.
6. etc.
4. Translation of What English competencies do One communicative needs can be
Communicative they need to have in order to be translated into several English
Needs into able to function effectively? competencies:
English 1. how to welcome and register guests

 can use greeting and leave-taking

Competencies appropriately.

 can enquiry guests' identity

 can check room availability
 can turn away people without

 etc.
reservation when hotel is full.

2. how to help guests with queries and

 can deal with enquiries about hotel

problems clearly

facilities, local places and local

 can deal with minor complaints.

events, transportation

 can take verbal messages and pass

 etc.
them in oral and spoken form

6
 3. how to answer the telephone quickly

 can deal with telephone enquiries

and efficiently.

 can can take messages and pass

them to guests

4. how to take reservations, cancellations,

 can take with reservation,

and revision correctly.

 can read and pass letters and faxes

cancellation, and revision orally

to Advance Reservation

5. how to read letters, fax and the like in

effective and efficient way.

5. Translation of What language input should be To find out the learning needs (language
English included in the syllabus in order input for class activities), the competencies
Competencies into to achieve the language needed can further be translated into detailed
linguistic and in the target situation? linguistic and other specifications. For

 can use greeting and leave-taking

other specification examples:

 expressions for greeting and leave-

taking; selecting correct form of
address; etc.

 can enquiry guests' identity

 questions (yes/no and informative
questions/ direct and indirect
questions); spelling; numbers, etc.
The results of the analysis will form
teaching materials (learning needs), which
can be in the form of language skills
(speaking, listening, reading and writing)
and supporting skills (grammar,
vocabulary, etc.)
6. Teaching and How to impart the language From the materials listed above, it can then
Learning activities input in teaching and learning selected appropriate strategies to impart
to develop process? the language input. The strategies and
competencies methods must be adjusted with the
materials. Therefore, in the teaching and
learning process more than one method
should be applied depending on the focus.

7
D. CONCLUDING REMARKS

The CBAs are preferable in current language teaching since they have a number of
advantages such as fulfilling learners' needs (especially learners' target needs
(necessities)), applying objective-based learning (with the application of criterion
reference assessment), learning in effective and efficient ways since objectives and
materials based on learners' need, having good selling point because well-defined
objectives in course descriptions.
In tracing English competencies for a particular target group, a course designer
can start by analyzing responsibilities of professional workers in the particular target
situation. These responsibilities are then translated into communicative needs and English
competencies. These competencies are then translated into learning needs.

REFERENCE

Brindley, G., 1989. "The Role of Needs Analysis in Adult ESL Program Design." in R.K.
Johnson (ed). The Second Language Curriculum. Cambridge: CUP. pp. 63-78.
Brown, J.D., 1996. Testing in Language Programs. New Jersey: Prentice Hall Regents.
Crook, T., 1991. “A Skill-Bases Approach to Language Need Analysis for Hotel
Personnel – A Case Study.” A Paper presented at TEFLIN Seminar 37 at
FKIP Unram Mataram Lombok.
Docking, R., 1994. "Competency-Based Curricula: A Literature Review", Prospect: A
Journal of Australian TESOL. Vol. 9, No. 2, pp.8-17.
Dubin, F. & E. Olshtain, 1988. Course Design: Developing programs and materials for
language learning. Cambridge: CUP
Dudley-Evans, T. and M. J. St John, 1998. Developments in English for Specific Purpose.
Cambridge: CUP.
Hagan, P., 1994. "Competency-Based Curriculum: The NWS AMES Experience",
Prospect: A Journal of Australian TESOL. Vol. 9, No. 2, pp. 30 - 40.
Harvey, A., 1984. “Designing an ESP Course: A Case Study” dalam English Teaching
Forum. Vol. XXII, No. 1, January.
Hutchinson, T and A. Walters. 1993. English for Specific Purpose. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
Krahnke, K, 1987. Approaches to Syllabus Design for Foreign Language Teaching.
Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall Regents.
Nunan, D. 1990. The Learner-Centered Curriculum. Cambridge : CUP
Robinson, P C. 1991. ESP Today: A practitioner's Guide. New York. Prentice Hall.
Sheerin, S., 1991. Self Access. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Strevens, P., 1988. “ESP after 20 Years” dalam Tickoo, ML. (ed.) ESP: State of Art.
Anthology Series 21. Singapore : RELC
Sukarno, 1991. “Teaching English at Non-English Department”. A Paper presented at
TEFLIN Seminar 37 at FKIP Unram Mataram Lombok.