Language needs for hôtel receptionists: The case of Gourara hôtel in TIMIMOUN.

Abstract

English for Specific Purposes (Henceforth, ESP) is widely used in English language programmes, yet in Algeria few studies have been conducted to improve ESP courses so that they suit the Algerian context. Hotel Management field represents this challenge for English is the most used language when hotel receptionists interact with their clients at the front office. Receptionists graduate from training centres after having a two-year training. When they join the workplace, they encounter some communicative difficulties for tourists are from different backgrounds. The purpose of this study is to investigate the English language needs of Gourara Hotel-Timimoun receptionists in the workplace. This investigation was based on the hotel clients‟ expectations, perceptions, satisfaction and opinions about the front desk staff communicative performance in listening, speaking, hospitality, intercultural communication and speech-acts. The findings might provide empirical data serving the Algerian context. The Needs Analysis framework was used to explore the hotel clients‟ satisfaction with receptionists‟ performance. The sample group was sixty English-speaking tourists who stayed at Gourara Hotel in Timimoun from December 25th, 2010 to January 2nd, 2011. About sixty five-Likert Scale questionnaires were distributed and sixty structured interviews were conducted using probability sampling. Collected Data were analysed using percentages, descriptive statistics of means and standard deviations and gap analysis. The results were represented in tables and figures.