HANOI national university
university of languages and International STUDIES
Department of Post-graduate studies





VƢƠNG THỊ KIM MINH


DEVELOPING TEACHING MATERIALS
OF ENGLISH FOR TOURGUIDING PROGRAM
AT HA LONG COLLEGE OF ART,
CULTURE AND TOURISM


XÂY DỰNG GIÁO TRÌNH TIẾNG ANH CHUYÊN NGÀNH
DU LỊCH CHO KHOA DU LỊCH, TRƢỜNG CAO ĐẲNG VĂN HÓA
NGHỆ THUẬT VÀ DU LỊCH HẠ LONG

M.A. MINOR THESIS



Field: Methodology
Code: 60 14 10

Hanoi, 2009


HANOI national university
university of languages and International STUDIES
Department of Post-graduate studies





VƢƠNG THỊ KIM MINH


DEVELOPING TEACHING MATERIALS
OF ENGLISH FOR TOURGUIDING PROGRAM
AT HA LONG COLLEGE OF ART,
CULTURE AND TOURISM


XÂY DỰNG GIÁO TRÌNH TIẾNG ANH CHUYÊN NGÀNH
DU LỊCH CHO KHOA DU LỊCH, TRƢỜNG CAO ĐẲNG VĂN HÓA
NGHỆ THUẬT VÀ DU LỊCH HẠ LONG

M.A. MINOR THESIS




Field: Methodology
Code: 60 14 10
Supervisor: T ô Thị Thu Hƣơng, PhD






Hanoi, 2009



iv
TABLE OF CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS i
ABSTRACT ii
TABLE OF CONTENTS iii
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS v
LIST OF TABLES v

INTRODUCTION 1
1. Rationale 1
2. Aims of the study 2
3. Research questions. 2
4. Methodology 2
5. Scope of the study 3
6. Design of the study 3


CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 4
1.1 An overview on ESP 4
1.2 An overview on meterial development 4
1.2.1 Notion on material 4
1.2.2 Types of materials 5
1.2.3 Basic principles for the material development 5
1.3 Framework for materials development 7
1.3.1 Material design model 7
1.3.2 Process of materials writing 8

CHAPTER 2: NEED ANALYSIS 10
Introduction 10
2.1 Situation analysis 10
2.1.1 Training situation 10


v
2.1.2 Teaching staff and methodology 11
2.1.3 Facilities 11
2.1.4 Existing curriculum and syllabuses 11
2.1.5 Students 12
2.2 Analysis on Tour guides’ opinion 12
2.2.1 The survey 12
2.2.2 Tour guides' opinions on the topics 13
2.2.3 Tour guides’ opinions about the task in a city tour 14
2.3 Analysis on teachers and students’ opinion 16
2.3.1 The survey 16
2.3.2 Opinions on skills which need improvement 17
2.3.3 Opinions on ways of skill practice 18


CHAPTER 3: COURSE BOOK CONTENT 21
3.1 General content 21
3.1.1 Topics 21
3.1.2 Tasks 22
3.1.3 Activities 22
3.2 The detail syllabus 23
3.3 A sample unit 30

CONCLUSION 38
REFERENCES
APPENDIXES






vi
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
ESP: English for Specific Purposes
EFL: English as Foreign Language
EGP: English for General Purposes
FOT: Faculty of Tourism
HLC: Ha Long College of Art, Culture and Tourism.

LIST IF FIGURES AND TABLES
Table 1.1: A materials design model 8
Table 1.2: The process of materials writing 8
Table 2.2: Favorable topics 13

Table 2.2: Tasks needed improvement 15
Table 2.3: Favorable information 15
Table 2.4: Places for lunch 16
Table 2.5: Teacher participants 17
Table 2.6: Student participants 17
Table 2.7: Skills needed improvement 17
Table 2.8: Teacher participants – skill practices 18
Table 2.9: Student participants – skill practices 19
Table 2.10: Practices of the task 20
Table 3.1: Material Topics 21
Table 3.2: Material Activities 22



1

INTRODUCTION
1. Significance of the study
Ha Long City appeals thousands of tourists, each year, to explore the typical and unique
features of the Bay and some other landscapes with a rich cultural life and diverse tropical
elements. Ha Long, Quang Ninh is becoming a must-choose destination among lots of
interesting locations in Vietnam because it promises a remarkebale tour with true experience
of simple daily life of friendly local people. Many strategic policies and planning have been
developed to tap its tourism potential, as a result, tourism in Quang Ninh province is blooming
to become an important national economic branch with the appearance of a wide range of
hotels, resorts, types of entertainment and transportation. Tourism facilities have been
upgraded with a wide range of services including tour guiding, catering and accommodation
services
Developing at such a rapid speed, the tourism industry in the region requires a good working
staff which is not only professional but also fluent in foreign language skills, especially

English. As an international language, English is becoming more and more popular and
communicative in the world. In the global integration, English is essential for all fields of
economy, including tourism. Tourism training is also paid much attention to English so as to
provide an abundant resource of skilled, professional and well-English-speaking tourism-
related staff, especially tour guides. Students of tourism faculties in all colleges and
universities have to take English in their graduation exams.
However, the Ministry of Education and Training and Vietnam Administration of Tourism
have not had a common curriculum of English for Tour Guiding to apply in all colleges and
universities nationwide. Some existing English curriculums for tourism are too general and not
suitable for the tourism environment in Quang Ninth and the English level of students in Ha
Long College of Arts, Culture and Tourism.
The Tourism Faculty of the College was established two years ago and had 20 students in the
first year and 23 in the second year. In order to enlarge the training scale and to meet the
demand of the province, the Faculty of Tourism of Ha Long College of Arts, Culture and
Tourism, sooner or later, must design an appropriate ESP curriculum for the college’s tourism
students with some distinctive features to meet the needs of the province.
At present, students in Tourism faculty of Ha Long College are required to learn 150 periods
(45-minute/period) of English at intermediate level in the first year. Then they take three


2

courses of professional English for Tourism (ET) 1, 2 and 3. The syllabuses/materials for ET1
and ET2 have been written and in the process of evaluation. These ET1 and ET2 are
conducted in 300 periods and focus on tour guiding and tourism potentials in history, culture,
regions, education and socio-economy of Vietnam and Quang Ninh. However, to date, no
research has been carried out to develop the syllabus/ materials for the ET3 course which is
expected to last 100 periods and to contain necessary information on most popular sites in Ha
Long city and its surroundings with suitable tasks to improve students’ skill in tour guiding. It
is really an urgent need to do a research to put these ET3 ideas into practice.

2. Aims of the study
The study aims at:
 investigating and analyzing the Faculty of Tourism students' needs for the course ET3;
 providing criteria and principles for the course design and material development;
 designing an appropriate framework for developing materials for the course CT3 and
 developing a sample unit with appropriate materials.
3. Research questions
The study answers two questions:
1. How to design ESP materials for the course ET3?
2. What should be the ESP materials for the course ET3?
In order to answer these questions, the study deals with the following sub-questions:
For Research Question 1:
 What is the framework for ET3 material design?
 What are fundamental steps to follow?
For Research Question 2:
 What is the situation of English teaching and learning at the Faculty of Tourism (FT)?
 What are the needs and the learning strategies of FT learners?
 What are the topics on which the materials should focus?
 What are suitable practice activities attached to the topics?
4. Methodology
The study used mixed methods. Both quantitative and qualitative methods are used in this
study. This includes questionnaire survey, interviews, observation, and document analysis.


3

 A questionnaire survey was carried out to obtain ideas on knowledge areas needed for
tour guides from students, teachers and some local travel agencies of good reputation.
 Interviews were used during break times, in or after the lessons to obtain various useful
suggestions on how to effectively design the syllabus.

 Observations were made to find out the real current situation of teaching and learning
English for Tourism at Ha Long College of Art, Culture and Tourism.
 Analysis of related documents was done to verify the obtained information.
5. Scope of the study
Due to the limitation of time and resources, the study is limited to design a new syllabus and
the development of materials for the course ET3 which concentrates on "a city tour of Ha
Long and its surroundings". This material is used specifically for the students of Tourism
Faculty at Ha Long College of Arts, Culture and Tourism.
6. Design of the study
The study includes an introduction, three chapters, a conclusion, a bibliography and
appendices.
The Introduction part provides some general information about the study, consisting of the
rationales, significance, aims, methodology, scope and structure of the study.
The three chapters present the main body of the study. They are:
Chapter 1, Literature Review provides an overview of ESP course design and material
development.
Chapter 2, Need Analysis, deals with the current situation of ESP teaching and learning at
HLC. The needs of students are also analyzed.
Chapter 3, Material Development, discusses the design and content of the proposed materials
for English for Tourism for the course ET3.
The Conclusion summarizes the main points of the study and provides some pedagogical
implications for development of materials for an ESP syllabus and offers some
recommendations for further studies.






4


CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

1.1. AN OVERVIEW ON ESP
ESP is a term standing for English for Special Purposes. It is, however, not easy for most
teachers and students of English to give out an appropriate definition of ESP. Even great
scholars of language field define ESP from various approaches.
Hutchison and Waters (1987:18-19): "English is not a particular kind of language or
methodology, nor does it consist of a particular type of teaching material". They show that
ESP is rooted from the need of learners identified in the question: "Why does the learner need
to learn a foreign language?" Likewise, a learner will expose his "specific purpose " of his
language learning, such as tourism, business, literature,
As a result, ESP definition rises from the need analysis of the learner. Robinson (1991:3)
supports the idea that ESP is normally goal-directed and that English's courses develop from a
need analysis, which aims to specify as closely as possible what exactly that students have to
do through the medium of English.
ESP should be put in comparison with GPE (General Purpose English). Widdowson (1983:6)
highlights the distinction that "ESP has a training function which is aimed at the development
of a "restricted competence", whereas GPE fulfils an educative function and is aimed at the
development of "general capacity". This study will use these authors conception of ESP as
they appropriately capture the essence of what it means in the specific context of English
teaching and learning at Ha Long College.
1.2. AN OVERVIEW ON DEVELOPMENT MATERIALS
1.2.1 Notions of material
Brian Tomlison (1998:11) defines material in language learning as "anything which is used to
help to teach language learners. Material can be in the form of a textbook, a workbook, a
cassette, a CD-ROM, a video, a photocopied handout, a newspaper, a paragraph written on the
board: anything which presents or informs about the language being learned." In that vein,
materials do not conventionally limit to only textbooks and workbooks but they takes various
types. They can be printed or not, authentic or non-authentic, original or diversified, But in



5

whatever form they are, the most important function of the materials is instructing language
learners.
Tomlinson (1998:2) also suggests that material development "refers to anything which is done
by writers, teachers or learners to provide sources of language input and to exploit those
sources in ways which maximize the likelihood of intake: in other words the supplying of
information about and/or experience of the language in ways designed to promote language
learning". In detail, material developers can do such things as writing textbooks, telling
stories, creating a handout or imitating an advertisements, ect. which provide comprehensible
input for an effective language acquisition.
1. 2. 2 Criteria for good written materials
Tom Hutchinson (1989:107) concentrates on seven “musts” as criteria to evaluate whether
some written materials are good or not, some of which should be paid much attention as
follows:
- Materials must stimulate students to learn: in other words, it is in students’ interest so that it
can boost their motivation in learning.
- Materials must contribute to organize the teaching and learning process: It must consist of a
coherent string of units, in which a huge amount of knowledge is arranged in a scientific
system.
- Materials must function in widening the basis of teacher training by introduce teachers to
new techniques.
- Materials must provide correct and appropriate language use
1.2.3 Basic principles for material development
According to Brian Tomlinson (1998:7-21), there are many principles for developing
materials, among which the most basic are:
- Materials should achieve impact through: novelty, variety, attractive presentation and
appealing content.

- Materials should help learners to feel at ease to stimulate the learners' studying spirit.
- What is being taught should be perceived by the learners as relevant and useful.
- Materials should expose learners to language in authentic use.
- Materials should not rely too much on controlled practice.


6

Bell and Gower (1998:122-5) started by articulating the following principles which they
wanted to guide their writing on the process of materials development:
- Flexibility
- From text to language
- Engaging content
- Natural language
- Analytic approaches
- Emphasis on review
- Personalized practice
- Integrated skills
- Balance of approaches
- Learner development
- Professional respect
The author is in favor with the four principles collected by Nhai Nguyen (2006:21) to adopt
approaches and to design activities for ESP materials as followed:
1- Language acquisition is most effectively facilitated if it is embedded within the learners'
field of study or work. (Cohen &Cooper, 1986; Widdowson, 1998). The learners always pay
much attention to the knowledge related to their present study or workplace. Therefore, the
language learning will become useful and interesting when the subject matters, linguistic input
and practice activities are embedded in the learners’ areas of interest. The activities designed
in my materials are to promote language acquisition through the content of Tourism topics.
2- The main role of the English for Specific Purposes instructor is to manage learning.

(Robinson, 1991; Hutchinson, 1989, Cohen, 1986; Dudley & Even, 1986)
This role is understood as setting up a favorable condition to promote language acquisition.
Managing learning includes designing suitable learning materials, setting up relevant tasks and
acting as resource expert to the learners on the matter related to language. According to Nhai
Nguyen, any validation of the subject matters related to Tourism should be referred to four
possible sources: students of Tourism who themselves have certain knowledge on Tourism,
authentic texts on Tourism, Tourism lecturers and practitioners in the field".
3- Input that is comprehensible and authentic promotes language acquisition.
Comprehensible input means that students should be able to understand the essence of what is
being said or presented to them. This does not mean, however, that teachers must use only


7

words students understand. In fact, instruction can be incomprehensible even when students
know all of the words. Students learn a new language best when they receive input that is just
a bit more difficult than they can easily understand like the famous formula i+1 given by
Krashen.
Teachers can ensure that material is sufficiently comprehensible to provide relevant
background knowledge and content, provide instruction that draws on the experiences of their
students, ask many questions, and encourage students to express their ideas and thoughts in the
new language.
4- Language training is part of human resource training. That is, language training not only
develops linguistic competence but also improve confidence, independence, initiative,
negotiation and creativeness as well as responsibility for the job, competitiveness and
cooperation in the group.
1.3 FRAMEWORK FOR MATERIAL DEVELOPMENT
1.3.1 Material design model
A number of writers have focused on the need of establish a unit outlines. For example, Flores
(1995:60-2) outlines a lesson format with the following basic stages:

- Listening with Understanding
- Using Grammar in Oral Interaction
- Reading for Understanding
- Writing
- Literature
Rozul (1995:213) suggests a lesson format (based on Hutchinson and Waters, 1984) which
includes the following key components:
- Starter
- Input
- General information
- Language focus
- Tasks
Whilst I agree with the original establishment of Tom Hutchinson and Alan Waters
(1986:109), which consists of four outstanding elements:



8









Table 1.1: A materials design model
1.3.2 Process of materials writing
The process of materials writing contains various steps which are inevitable to the success of

the new proposed materials. Jolly and Bolitho (1998:97) focus on a framework for developing
materials which involves the following procedures illustrated in the form of a diagram:














Table 1.2: The process of materials writing
The first step Identification is done by learners or teacher to find out a need to fulfill or a
problem to solve by the creation of materials. The next step is Exploration of the area of need
INPUT

TASK
CONTENT
LANGUAGE
IDENTIFICATION
EXPLORATION
CONTEXTUAL
REALISATION
PEDAGOGICAL
REALISATION

PRODUCTION
EVALUATION
STUDENT USE


9

or problem in terms of what language, what meanings, what functions, what skills. Contextual
realization engages in suitable ideas, contexts or texts with which to work. Pedagogical
realization of materials is to find proper exercises, activities and appropriate instructions with
learners' interest and language level. The four steps will decide the form of Production of
materials: tape, workbook, textbook, handout However it is pointed out that if the diagram
consists of only these 5 steps, it really exposes itself to one-directional simplicity which may
lead the materials to the lack of "the final touch to the teacher and students". Therefore, they
also appreciate the importance of the student use of materials and the step of material
evaluation against expected and unexpected objectives. It is Evaluation step that turns the
process into a dynamic one for it forces the materials developer to examine whether the
materials meet and overcome objectives.
In summary, this chapter has discussed about the notion of ESP and the two aspects: material
development and framework for material development. This background knowledge will be
very important bright light to lead the study on the right way to the next steps.


















10

CHAPTER 2: NEEDS ANALYSIS
INTRODUCTION
Needs analysis is a major step which decides the success of course/material development,
including selecting/grading content as well as learning tasks. It is supposed to obtain all
needed reflective information from various stakeholders, who are, in this study, learners,
teachers and tour guides from selected travel agencies. The chapter discusses the learning and
teaching situation at the HLC and the opinions of its teachers, students and tour guides on the
course materials.
2.1 SITUATION ANALYSIS
2.1.1 Training Situation
Ha Long College of Arts, Culture and Tourism was established under Decision No 4384/QĐ
of Ministry of Education and Training on the 3
rd
, August 2004, which operates in the system
of provincial universities and colleges under the management of Provincial Office of Culture
and Information. It was upgraded from Quang Ninh Arts and Culture School which was
established in 1971. As the name has suggested, the College has three main training aspects:
Arts, Culture which have made a great contribution to many successful festivals and cultural
events held in Quang Ninh, and Tourism.
Faculty of Tourism is one of the 9 training faculties in HLC. It, however, was newly born in

2004 when the College was upgraded from an Arts and Culture school; therefore it has faced
many obstacles: lacking of experiences, financial difficulties… Nevertheless the faculty has
also received great help and support from the college leaders. For that reason, just after 5 years
of foundation, the faculty has earned a good reputation for its training quality. Thousands of
graduates are doing the jobs of their professional specialty such as hotel manager, receptionist,
room attendant, hotel cashier, tour guide, waiter, and waitress or working staff in tourism-
related offices. The faculty provides the tourism market mostly in Quang Ninh and
surroundings with labors and cadres with broad and intensive knowledge in tour guiding, hotel
management and travel organizations.



11

2.1.2 Teaching staff and methodology
There are currently 10 teachers in the English groups – a large number compared with this of
other subjects. However, due to a large number of students, the faculty is still looking for
some new teachers to stop the current over-working situation for its lecturers.
Among those teachers, 3 are on long-term contract and the remaining are official government
servants. 3 out of 10 graduated from Hanoi University of Foreign Studies (Hanoi University
now) and 7 graduated from working training course. The English group is very good at
working in team. They have just cooperatively written a book named “English for Tour
Guiding” for ET1 and ET2 courses. ET3 is still in the conception stage.
All teaching and learning activities are under the light of student-centered approach. Every
two weeks, the teachers of English have a meeting to discuss all emerged questions.
2.1.3 Facilities
As a newly founded faculty, FT has got poor facility. There are 3 radio cassettes which are
used every day in almost every lesson. It has a lab room with 25 computers which, however,
are also used for the first year students to learn office computer science. There is a video room
used not only for English but also for Arts, Music and other subjects. Both teachers and

learners can access Internet with 20 computers and thousand of books including English ones
in a small library. Generally, poor facility is a barrier for FT lecturers to improve their
teaching quality.
2.1.4 The current curriculum and syllabuses
At HLC, the English program for students can be divided into two components: general
English and English for Tourism. Since English is chosen as a subject in the entrance exam,
teaching General English starts from Intermediate Lifeline which is supposed to focus on
communication. The textbook is assumed to be compatible to the target of consolidating the
English foundation, enlarging the vocabulary and having students involved in communicative
activities. Special attention is paid to enhance students’ pronunciation by teaching “The
sounds of English” – a small textbook in 20 periods of 45 minutes. This textbook is being
taught to the first-year students of English Faculty in Hanoi University and is introduced to the
college by lecturer Nguyen Tam.



12

2.1.5 Students
English is one of the three compulsory subjects for the entrance exam, thus students in FT can
meet some certain requirements of English, especially English grammar. However, their
speaking skill is really limited because this skill is not tested in the exam. One more important
reason is that, English training condition in areas like Quang Ninh province is not adequate.
Students can interpret a complex sentence from Vietnamese to English but they find it too
hard to speak fluently because of their bad pronunciation and in bad confidence. Their bad
pronunciation is also resulted from the local accent. If you know the difficulty of Nghe An, Ha
Tinh students in speaking English at the beginning stage, you know the same happening to FT
students from rural and mountainous areas such as Quang Ha, Tien Yen, Ba Che, Ha Nam…
In the first year, students are taught Basic English including pronunciation. They have chances
to practice speaking before many people by giving short or medium-length presentation on a

given topic. In the second year, with the help of situation-based textbook, they are appointed
to play role in dialogues. Accordingly, students are required to imitate not only the sound and
the sentence intonation but also gestures of people in the textbook. The students are exposed to
situation related to the target topics, e.g. receiving a booking, dealing with a complaint,
managing checking in and checking out… In the third year, students are provided information
about some typical sights and landscapes nationwide and in Quang Ninh. At the same time,
they are asked to do assignments, projects and small research to search information on their
work which will improve their knowledge as well as help them become more confident and
dynamic.
2.2 ANALYSIS OF TOURGUIDES’ OPINIONS
2.2.1 The survey
As a famous destination for domestic and international tourists, Ha Long city has got over
twenty travel agencies such as Bai Tho Junks-Delux Cruises, Ha Long Cruises, Entity Tourist
and Trading Company, Hong Gai Tourist and Services Company… where hundreds of tour
guides are working to welcome over three million arrivals of tourists per year. It is widely
believed that nobody understands the easy and the hard parts of this job better than these tour
guides, and nobody knows the common needs, likes and dislikes of tourists as clearly as they
do. The survey, for that reason, was conducted in to have them recommended Topics, Tasks
and Skills considered necessary for a tour guide. The questionnaire which consists of 6


13

questions was piloted on 50 tour guides 9 travel agencies and 40 completed ones were
returned. The data from the survey were collected, analyzed and described in the next part.
2.2.2 Tour guides' opinions on the topics

Table 2.1: Favorable Topics
The first question in the questionnaire was about attractive stops to tourists. Ten famous
stops were listed from which seven are expected to be the topics for the supposed materials.

The tour guides were asked to rearrange the given stops in the order of their popularity to
foreign tourists. They were asked to optionally add more well-known topics if any. However,
only one stop named Van Don Island Resort was recommended by four tour guides,
Stops
No 1
No 2
No 3
No 4
No 5
No 6
No 7
No 8
No 9
No 10
Ha Long Bay

40
100%
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
International Resort
of Tuan Chau
0

26
65%
10
25%
4
10%
0
0
0
0
0
0
Royal International
Park
0
5
12.5%
1
2.5%
6
15%
6
15%
14
35%
3
7.5%
2
5%
1

2.5%
2
5%
Bai Chay Beach

0
8
20%
17
42.5%
5
12.5%
4
10%
3
7.5%
3
7.5%
0
0
0
Relics on Bai Tho
mountain
0
0
0
0
1
2.5%
6

15%
2
5%
12
30%
12
30%
7
17.5%
Cai Lan Port

0
0
0
0
3
7.5%
1
2.5%
2
5%
15
37.5%
10
25%
9
22.5%
Trade Center of
Ha Long
0

0
3
7.5%
15
37.5%
8
20%
7
17.5%
5
12.5%
0
0
2
5%
Cua Ong Temple

0
0
0
0
3
7.5%
5
12.5%
3
7.5%
4
10%
13

32.5%
12
30%
Cat Ba resort

0
0
4
10%
6
15%
12
30%
3
7.5%
4
10%
5
12.5%
3
7.5%
3
7.5%
Yen Tu Cultural and
Historical relics
0
1
2.5%
5
12.5%

4
10%
3
7.5%
1
2.5%
18
45%
2
5%
1
2.5%
5
12.5%


14

accounting for 10%. Due to this small proportion, this proposal was not typical, then, was paid
not much attention.
All tour guides chose Ha Long Bay as the most irrefutably attractive destination to tourists.
International Resort of Tuan Chau Island and Bai Chay Beach definitely get a high rank.
Amazingly, Cultural and Historical Relics of Yen Tu was considered a gorgeous landscape.
Obviously, Buddhism and magnificent view of Truc Lam Yen Tu have been a magnet for
foreign tourists.
This result has suggested 7 stops for the topics of ET3 syllabus. They are: Ha Long Bay,
International Resort of Tuan Chau, Bai Chay Beach, Trade Center of Ha Long, Cat Ba resort,
Royal International Park and Yen Tu Cultural and Historical relics. The eighth topic is
expected to be the favorable foods of Ha Long.
2.2.3 Tour guides’ opinions about the task in a city tour

The second question in the questionnaire asked tour guides about the ordinal tasks in a city
tour. Out of 40 tour guides, 32 (80%) were in agreement to this following occurrence order of
tasks:
1. Welcoming tourists
2. Introducing (about the tour guide himself and the tour)
3. Announcing ground rules
4. Giving information
5. Answering tourists’ questions
6. Arranging lunch for tourists
7. Solving problems
The third question asked tour guides which task mostly and frequently caused difficulty or
embarrassment for a tour guide, and their choices are as in table 2.2. The data recommended
that information or understanding about the landscapes, which is originally very large, can
cause predictable difficulties for tour guides if they are not well trained. Therefore,
information related to the topics chosen should be the focus of the materials under
development. Dealing with tourists’ questions also requires considerable attention. Many
tourists ask many unexpected questions, including both interesting and unintersting ones,
fortunately the latter accounts for just a small proportion. Anyway, a good answer requires



15

No
Tasks
Number/ Percentage of tour guide
1
Welcoming tourists
0
2

Introducing
0
3
Announcing ground rules
2 (5%)
4
Giving information
17 (42.5%)
5
Answering tourists’ questions
15 (37.5%)
6
Arranging lunch for tourists
0
7
Taking care of tourists’ security
6 (15%)

Table 2.2: Tasks needed improvement
good listening skill, thus, good speaking skill and exact information should be the tasks of this
training course. Taking care of tourists’ security and announcing rules are mostly based on
each tour guide’s experiences and agencies’ regulation.
The question number fourth aims to elicit which kind of information is commonly given to
tourists or tourists are often interested in. The result is displayed in the table below.

Ha Long Bay and
Bai Chay Beach
Parks and Resorts
Historical sites
Other places of

interest
Famous islands
Main sites
Characters
Activities
Legends
Construction
Events
Construction
UNESCO recognition
Entertainments
Time
Investment

Table 2.3: Favored information
A city tour often includes a lunch for tourists arranged in advance by the travel agencies.
Question five made clear about the places where the tourists would have lunch so that the
materials would be filled up with information, situations and questions related to the appointed
places. Six stops for lunch were suggested and four of them would be chosen and their
relevant knowledge would be added in the parts of reading, listening or writing in each unit.
Table 2.4 shows that the most popular place for lunch in Ha Long city tour was food stalls on
boats. It is reasonable because most international tourists never skip a 5-hour trip to Ha Long
Bay by boat, and what is more romantic than having meals on boat, seeing fantastic sight of


16

green islands and blue sky inclining into the water. The remaining choices were local food
restaurants, food stalls on street and Western restaurants.
Local food is always of a great interest for every tourist, therefore tour guide should have

some certain knowledge on ingredients, process of making… of some famous local foods in
Quang Ninh. So question five asked tour guides about their recommended kinds of local food.


Table 2.4: Places for lunch
Thereafter, tour guides were asked about favored information on food that tourists often
wanted to know. The answer was the ingredients, way of making and way of eating the food.
2.3 ANALYSIS OF TEACHERS AND STUDENTS’ OPINIONS
2.3.1 The survey
The questionnaires for tour guides focused on the topic, tasks and skills, while the
questionnaire for teachers and students aimed to know their favored sub-topic, favored ways
for task training, and favored activities for class practice. 10 copies of teacher questionnaire
and 93 copies of student questionnaires were handed out to teachers and students in Faculty of
Tourism, Ha Long College. Only 90 were returned, of which 63 students were from CDHDK4
and CDHDK3 who were going to take the course using this proposed material and 30 ones
were from class CDHDK5 who had nearly completed the professional English of Tourism –
No
Stops for lunch
No 1
No 2
No 3
No 4
No 5
No 6
1
A local food restaurant
12
30%
20
50%

1
2.5%
3
7.5%
2
5%
2
5%
2
A fast food restaurant
2
5%
4
10%
4
10%
4
10%
13
32.5%
13
32.5%
3
Restaurant in hotels
4
10%
1
2.5%
6
15%

5
12.5%
5
12.5%
19
47.5%
4
A food stall on street
2
5%
2
5%
18
45%
8
20%
7
17.5%
3
7.5%
5
A Western restaurant
3
7.5%
3
7.5%
8
20%
15
37.5%

8
20%
3
7.5%
6
A food stall on a boat
17
42.5%
10
25%
3
7.5%
5
12.5%
5
12.5%
0


17

though they did not have chance to approach this syllabus but their needs and suggestion as
that of a tour guide trainee were really precious. The two following tables describe the
teachers and students participated in the survey.

Gender
Years of English teaching experience
Male
Female
4 years

6 years
10 years
0
10 (100%)
4 (40%)
1 (10%)
5 (50%)

Table 2.5: Teacher participants

Gender
Years of English learning experience
Male
Female
5 years
7 years
9 years
23 (26%)
67 (74%)
7 (8%)
68 (76%)
15 (12%)

Table 2.6: Student participants

2.3.2 Opinions on skills which need improvement
Both teachers and students were asked to rate five given skills consisting listening, speaking,
reading, writing and interpreting due to their effects on their confidence. Amazingly, both
teachers and students shared the same idea in rating the skills as in the table below.


Table 2.7: Skills needed improvement
Interpreting and listening, surprisingly, were at their utmost anxiety. Many students have the
same opinion that interpreting was students’ most considerable obstacle in exams in the

Skills
Proportion of teachers
Proportion of students
1
Interpreting
10 (100%)
71 (79%)
2
Listening
8 (80%)
63 (70%)
3
Speaking
6 (60%)
52 (58%)
4
Reading
6 (60%)
47 (52%)
5
Writing
5 (50%)
42 (47%)


18


college, and in their works in the future because this bothered them a lot when talking to
foreign people. Besides, the majority of students found listening and speaking difficult.
2.3.3 Opinions on ways of skill practice
In order to know the favored method of learning and teaching English of the students and
teachers, some popular ways for practicing each skills were provided and teachers and
students were asked to choose their two (at least) favorite ways that they frequently engaged
in. In this question, the idea of the teachers and students were dissimilar to each other.
As seen in the table, teachers were perfect agreement in the first rank for listening, reading,
speaking and interpreting. It was noted that interpreting some sentences was supposed to be
more suitable for students in tourism field, which would make students get more familiar to
the working condition in which they have to understand and reply or answer questions,
wonders or some comments given by tourists.

Rate
Listening
Speaking
Reading
Interpreting
1
Multiple choice
10 (100%)
Presenting with
visual aids
9 (90%)
Skimming to
answer questions
10 (100%)
Interpreting some
sentences

10 (100%)
2
Answering
questions
7 (70%)
Playing role
8 (80%)
True- false stating
9 (90%)
Interpreting sentence
to sentence
6 (60%)
3
Gap filling
6 (60%)
Discussing in
groups
7 (70%)
Practice words or
phrases appearing in
the text
6 (60%)
Interpreting
simultaneously
3 (40%)
4
Note taking
5 (50%)
Playing game
6 (60%)

Finding synonyms
and antonyms
6 (60%)

5


Re-arranging
paragraph
21 (23%)


Table 2.8: Teacher participants – skill practices


19


However, students find it not easy to interpret several sentences and they would like to
practice interpreting sentence by sentence. Both teachers and students assume that interpreting
simultaneously is too intricate for the students in the College. All the chosen ways of practice
will be taken into the materials with the low or high appearance frequency depending on the
rate and the proportion. Preferences by all teachers and students suggest that multiple choice,
sentences and interpreting sentence by sentence should be popular practices or exercises for
students.

Rate
Listening
Speaking
Reading

Interpreting
1
Multiple choice
67 (74%)
Playing game
53 (59%)
True- false stating
87 (97%)
Interpreting sentence
to sentence
75 (83%)
2
Gap filling
31 (34%)
Playing role
45 (50%)
Skimming to
answer questions
37 (41%)
Interpreting some
sentences
42 (47%)
3
Matching pictures
or letters
16 (18%)
Presenting with
visual aids
13 (14%)
Finding synonyms

and antonyms
25 (28%)

4
Answering
questions
15 (%)
Discussing in
groups
13 (14%)
Re-arranging
paragraph
21 (23%)

5


Finding synonyms
and antonyms
13 (14%)


Table 2.9: Student participants – skill practices

The table in the next page investigates the teaching and learning methods of both teachers
ands students and it brings to a close that practice was the first priority in training tasks. Only
giving information was suggested to be taught by reading because texts were supposed to be
the most suitable to provide a large amount of information on sights. It is noted that giving



20

information, announcing ground rules and solving problem would be learnt by reading;
welcoming the tourists by watching model and introducing the tour, answering tourists'
questions and arranging lunch for the tourists by practicing.


Table 2.10: Practices of the tasks

In conclusion, this chapter has described the process of data collection and displayed the
analysis results. The next chapter will sum up the content of the proposed materials developed
from these analysis results.

Tasks
Participants
Teaching and learning method
By reading
by watching model
by practicing
Welcome the
tourists
Teachers
0
4 (40%)
6 (60%)
Students
3 (3%)
50 (56%)
37 (41%)
Introduce the tour

Teachers
0
2 (20%)
8 (80%)
Students
7 (8%)
32 (35%)
51 (57%)
Announce ground
rules
Teachers
10 (100%)
0
0
Students
38 (42%)
16 (18%)
36 (40%)
Give information
Teachers
10 (100%)
0
0
Students
83 (92%)
1 (1%)
6 (7%)
Answer the
tourists' questions
Teachers

0
3 (30%)
7 (70%)
Students
37 (41%)
2 (2%)
51 (57%)
Arrange lunch for
the tourists
Teachers
1 (10%)
1 (10%)
8 (80%)
Students
5 (6%)
13 (14%)
72 (80%)
Solve problems
Teachers
4 (40%)
3 (30%)
3 (30%)
Students
50 (56%)
17 (19%)
23 (25%)