APPLIED LINGUISTICS PROJECT

I AM A TEACHER OF ENGLISH OF TOURISM

1. Point out the purpose of education that will guide the curriculum design of this
English course. Explain the reasons of your choice.

The purpose of this English course will be Progressivism since our goal is to instruct and
help our students achieve self-fulfillment and natural growth in the field of Tourism so that
they perform professionally and effectively in their jobs.

2. Indicate the type of curriculum that will be used in this course. Give reason for your
choice.

The type of curriculum will be Process-based Curriculum since our aim will be language
growth. The Syllabus will emphasize the acquisition of communication skills and the
exchange of meaning thorugh functional task and topics. Communication will be our
principal focus, not the learning of structures.

3. Explain the theories of language that will guide this English course. Give reasons.

The theory of language will be Interactional since we believe that students are to learn
English not about English. This will be achieved by having our students experience
situational-based dynamics so that they acquire the communicative competence in their
field of work, tourism.

4. Explain the theories of second language learning on which the curriculum design
will be based.

The theory of language that this present course is based on is primarily Community
Language Learning CLL. We chose this theory mainly because, as stated before,

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interaction by means of communication among the students will be key in acquiring the
target language. However, it is important to recover certain important aspect from other
theories that will help complement the process of teaching English in a Tourism class. We
may mention Community Language Learning whose focus is on group work and pair
work; all this to co-monitor and help one another. Another theory is Sugesstopedia since
we can make use of the environment as a means to convey meaning. We could even set our
class in a field trip so that we are at a specific place to talk about its characteristics; this
because it is important for students to know touristic places in depth. This makes us state
that our approach will be eclectic since we use different turning points of a set of second
language learning theories.

5. Write the main goals or general objectives of the English course.

Main Objective: - To stimulate the natural growth of English in students of Tourism by
using tasks and activities in order to achieve communicative
competence in their field of work.

6. Write the specific objectives of the course.

Specific Objectives: - To know how to, verbally or in written form, address financial,
administrative and economic issues in English based upon the
information gather in the touristic institution.
- To know the jargon related to Tourism, mastering the lexicon one
may encounter when describing specific touristic places inside
or outside our county.

7. Select and organize the content of the syllabus of the English course. The form in which
content is presented in the syllabus.
UNITS FUNCTIONAL FOCUS LANGUAGE FOCUS
1. AT WORK Exchange personal Simple present
information
2. HOLIDAYS Plan a holiday Present Continuous
Take a booking
Hire a car

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3. TABLE FOR TWO Describing a traditional dish Countable and non-
Deal with a complaint countable nouns
4. CITY TOURS Give a guided tour Past Simple
Describe a building
5. CHOOSING A HOTEL Describing hotel facilities Comparative and
Superlatives.
CONSOLIDATION - MID-TERM TEST
6. CRUISE SHIPS Describing cruise facilities Present Perfect
Describing cabins
7. SERVICE AND Health and safety Modal verbs (Request and
SAFETY On safari Offer)
8. BUSINESS OR Places to visit Modal verbs (Can, could,
PLEASURE Describing places to stay and might)
Attending Conferences
9. THE GREAT Geographical features Present Tenses as future
OUTDOORS Excursions
10. ENJOY YOUR STAY Checking In/Out First Conditional
Currency
CONSOLIDATION - FINAL TEST

The form in which the content will be presented goes as follows: (Lets take Unit 1 as our
example)

UNIT 1
AT WORK
FUNCTIONAL FOCUS: Exchange personal information
LANGUAGE FOCUS: Simple present

Warm Up. Speaking 1. Picture of a hotel.

What are the advantages and disadvantages of working in a
hotel? Sts answer individually then compare in groups.
Main Reading 2. Working at a Tourist Agency.
Activity. Sts answer questions
Vocabulary 3. Vocabulary
Sts read the article again the find the meaning of a list of words

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 and possible meanings.
Speaking 4. What do you like about the tourist industry?
In groups, Sts write things they like.
Listening 5. Daily duties
Sts listen to the owner of a Tourist Agency talk about a normal
day.
Sts answer questions.
Grammar 6. Language focus.
Simple Present
Follow Up. Writing 7. Interview
Sts complete an interview to a Tourist Agency with the simple
present tense of the verbs in parentheses.

As you can see in the description of the activities within the unit, the Communicative
Language Teaching theory is used since we do NOT focus on form primarily; on the
contrary, we emphasize interaction and communication. Structures are touched on at the
end of the unit, thus teaching grammar inductively, prioritizing communicative
competence.

8. Specification of the role of the teacher:

8.1. The types of functions the teacher will fulfill.
In Communicative Language Teaching, two important particular roles:
The teacher has two main roles: the first role is to facilitate the
communication process between all participants in the classroom, and
between these participants and the various activities and texts. The
second role is to act as an independent participant within the learning-
teaching group. This allows the teacher to organize the resources as
well as the activities after careful observation of students performance.
(Breen and Candlin, 1980:99)

Other roles are:

Needs Analyst

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Formally is done through administering assessment tests. Informally is done through
one-to-one sessions talking about learning styles, assets, and goals.
Counselor
The teacher is expected to maximize hearer interpretation through paraphrase,
confirmation, and feedback.
Group Process Manager
The teacher should provide the appropriate setting for communication reducing Teacher
Talking Time as much as possible. Corrections such as grammar or lexis will be given
at the end of the lesson. The focus will be on fluency and comprehensibility.

8.2. The degree of the teachers control over learning.

The teachers responsibility over learning is key when modeling the exercises or
conversations given the fact that if ineffective modeling is provided, students will not
practice appropriately. Some teacher might feel anxious at a certain point since error
suppression and correction is not a major instructional responsibility; instead
communication is since as the main objective. The teacher regains control when
debriefing the activity at the end; then, he can point out alternatives for extensions as
well as correction of mistakes.

8.3. The degree to which the teacher determines linguistic content.

As stated before, the teacher is an independent participant in the process of teaching-
learning in the classroom. After some observation, the teacher may choose to vary,
modify, adapt, or even change the linguistic contents of a curriculum for the sake of
satisfying students needs.

8.4. The types of interaction between teacher and learners.

The interaction between teacher and learner will involve personal one-to-one talks in
order to analyze the students strengths and weaknesses in order to scheme a way to
overcome them as a team. Teacher and student will work together to effectively acquire
the target language, English.

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9. Specification of the role of the learner.
9.1. The types of learning tasks set for learners.
The emphasis of the learning tasks in Communities Language Teaching is on the
processes of communication, rather than on the mastery of language forms. The tasks
will then be mostly interactive and contextualized so that tourism students acquire the
tools necessary to commune in any kind of context.

9.2. The degree of control learners have over the content of learning
Students do not have a direct control over the content of learning since they do not
decide whether to change or not what to covert. However, indirectly, after the teacher
has analyzed the students needs, the teacher may have to adapt, enrich or change
certain things in the content so that students needs are met. So, students have an
indirect control over the content of learning.

9.3. The patterns of learner grouping which are recommended or implied.

A prime goal is interaction, so learner grouping in set of four students is necessary for
communication within the group. This seating arrangement will smooth the process of
internalizing the target language.

9.4. The degree to which learners influence the learning of others.

The implication for the learner is that he should contribute as much as
he gains(Breen and Candlin, 1980:110)

This cite shows that students within the group have the responsibility to co-
teach one another. The teacher is an independent silent participant; he
should let students develop communication skills. Students will then
reinforce one another. It is best to place weak students with strong ones so
that we level students to the higher standards we have in the classrooms.

9.5. The role of the learner as a processor, performer, initiator, and problem solver.

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 The role of the learner as negotiator between the self, the learning
process, and the object of learning emerges from and interacts with
the role of joint negotiator within the group and within the classroom
procedures and activities which the group undertakes. (Breen and
Candlin, 1980:110)

The learner as a processor will take part in the development of the lesson by processing
the information given and showing understanding of what was intended to be taught. As
a performer, the student will have to describe touristic places, write repots on touristic,
advantages disadvantages, etc. As an initiator, students will suggest new places to study
or visit so that we materialize the object of our study throughout the lessons. As a
problem solver, students will be given touristic problems to solve in out country for
which they will have to meet in groups and find possible way to overcome these
problems. All these activities and tasks will the single goal the promote communication.

10. Specification of the role of materials

10.1. The goal of materials to be used.
The main goal materials have is to influence the quality of classroom interaction and
language use. The materials then will have to at all times foster communication among
students so that materials help achieve communicative competence.

10.2. The form materials take.

We are going to classify the material as follows:
Text-based materials
- The textbook. The textbook and the units of this Tourism Course were designed
specifically to match the objectives and procedures in the Communicative
Language Teaching theory.
Task-based materials
- Video segments. A collection of video segments of touristic places in Bolivia have
been gathered so that students can place hands on authentic material.

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 - Newspapers and Magazines. Different literature in English has been downloaded
from the internet regarding tourism in Bolivia. This reading material will be
enriched with complementing questions so that students can profit from this from-
life material
- Audio recordings. A set of interviews have been recorded from visitors to our
country and their opinion of the touristic places they visited in Bolivia. This genuine
material as well will be supplemented with focus questions so as to make it
educational material.

All these materials have the common aspect of being from-life materials; this
feature gives them the term Realia. This realia will facilitate the association and
internalization of English in students of Tourism.

10.3. The assumptions the materials make about teachers and learners.
The materials are designed to have mostly passive teachers and active students.
Students will then be doing most of the work; they will be experiencing the language
since the Communicative Language Teaching theory states that teachers are
independent participants and students are the ones internalizing English through
communicative language use.

11. Description of techniques and Practices to be developed.

The techniques and practices to be develop goes as follows:
a) Presentation of a brief dialog
b) Oral practice of each utterance
c) Questions and answer based on the dialog.
d) Similar questions and answer based on students personal information
e) Study of an expression in the dialog so that students discover the structure meant to
be learnt.
f) Learners discovery of generalizations or rules of the structure.
g) Interpretative activities.
h) Oral production activities

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i) Sampling homework.
(Finocchiaro and Brumfit 1983:107)

Some of these aspects are shown in the outline of unit 1 given before. These aspects do
not need to be present in each unit; instead the teacher can intercalate them so as to
have some balance and variety in the lessons.

The procedures within each activity in the units have to reflect a given sequence:
- Pre-communicative activities: (Structural and quasi-communicative activities)
- Communicative activities: (Functional communication and social interaction
activities)
(Littlewood, 1981:86)