English language learning and usage of the students of tourism and hospitality industry: expectations and reality

Abstract

English language skill has become a basic need for all types of sectors but in the tourism and hospitality industry, it is crucial for socio- economic development. The purpose of this study was to explore how the students are preparing themselves for their career and to examine the true scenario of a manager’s expectation from an employee in terms of English language proficiency. This research is interpretive and descriptive in nature. I also investigated the challenges students face while learning and using English. The research design for this study is qualitative in nature. The data were collected by taking semi-structured interviews of four managers from international hotels of Bangladesh and four students of Tourism and Hospitality Management of a renowned public university, Dhaka. I obtained data from deductive and inductive data analysis. Then the transcriptions were coded and categorized according to qualitative data analysis. The prominent categories were sorted out to find major themes from the data and are arranged by me. It has been found that the English language is being used to do any type of work in the tourism industry like listening to customers’ questions, delivering information, reading several documents, and writing emails etc. The findings reflect that there is a mismatch between the English education which is being delivered to the tourism and hospitality students and the needed practical English knowledge for the industry. Only English writing skill is being delivered to the hospitality students whereas they need to have the practical knowledge of using all English language skills. It sheds light on the gap between the managers’ expectations and students’ preparation in terms of English language. The study highlights the attempts need to be taken by the Education analysts to make the hospitality students better prepared in terms of English language learning to pursue their dream career in this industry. The study concluded with some recommendations that will help the students to achieve their desired English communication skills.