ESP - The language of tourism
 

Hello...
I'm an italian student of foreign languages...i would like to prepare my degree thesis on the English for tourism...

do you have any suggestions ...about the theme to chose...what kind of analysis i should do...which book study....some nice ideas for the title...

I'm going to London for a week ... and i think i will find a lot of ideas...brochures, guidebooks...

...i have also thought to do an interview to some tourism employer (for example...a guide) to understand if they use a particulary language technique..

What do you think about???

Re: ESP - The language of tourism
 

HI! I'm doing my graduation paper in this theme(ESP), so I'm reading "English for Spacific purpose" (Tom Hutchinson ans Alan Water)by Cambridge That is a nice book, easy vocabulary.
For prepar my classes I'm working with "My I help you?" by Longman and "At you service" by Oxford. That is not easy, do the syllabus and choose the methodology it is the worse part. Teach is my favorite one...

Re: ESP - The language of tourism
 

Hi. I'm currently teaching English for tourism classes at a college in China. For my students, one of the biggest issues is actually be able to use the language they already know. Thus, we concentrate a lot on activities aimed at building fluency in addition to teaching language (ie roleplays). I'm also starting to work with them on sentence-level intonation and expressing emotions. Pragmatics (politeness, etc.) also seem relevant to them.

I'm taking more of a task-based approach than a content-based one. I'm trying to have my students practice situations and language that they will encounter in their jobs as tour guides, hotel / restaurant managers, etc.

I just started teaching here a few weeks ago, so I'm sure as the semester goes on I'll have more ideas about what English for tourism specifically entails. If you're interested, I've started doing a podcast in which I talk about my teaching (available here: ESL etc.).

As far as books go, our textbook is completely irrelevant, and I don't have any academic background in English for tourism. I've been teaching for over 7 years, though, so I'm hoping to figure it out pretty quickly.

I hope this helps! Feel free to ask if you have any more specific questions.

Take care,
Dave

ESL etc. - Bringing global issues and activism into language teaching.

Re: ESP - The language of tourism
 

thanks for your suggestions!