A COMPARISON OF EXPECTATIONS OF TOURISM STUDENTS AND SECTOR EXECUTIVES ON THE VOCATIONAL ENGLISH COURSE

Abstract

Today, a quarter of the world's population uses English for different reasons, and the tourism sector is one of the major areas where English is widely used. English language education takes place as a compulsory course in tourism programs in junior colleges and faculties. Vocational English courses are also part of language training. Although English is a common subject, the vocational English courses taught at universities do not have a common curriculum. The purpose of this study is to find out what the students expect from the vocational English course and what those who hold managerial positions expect from an employee to be recruited in the sector in terms of English, to compare whether their expectations overlap and to discuss the role of the school if there is a conflict between expectations. In this context, a questionnaire was applied to a group of high school students and the managers of a leading hotel in resort tourism were interviewed. According to the results the expectations of the students and managers are mostly overlapping, the managers also give importance to the general English skills; they seem to be insistent on the fluency in speaking. Therefore, it is probable to reach the conclusion that general English subjects should be included in the preparation of the vocational English curriculum. Recommendations include increasing the hours of compulsory English hours in colleges.