English communication needs of tourism faculty undergraduates: a comparative stakeholder analysis

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to identify the needs of tourism faculty undergraduates to develop their English communication skills with a comprehensive needs analysis and to investigate if the stakeholders’ views about the students’ needs differ from one another. The study is considered to be important because it included all the stakeholders of tourism faculties in Turkey to provide a basis for a well-tailored vocational English curriculum and to increase the qualifications of tourism faculty graduates. In this study, graduates and undergraduates of tourism faculties, tourism lecturers and English language instructors at tourism faculties and executive representatives of the tourism sector were taken as the stakeholders. The population of the study covered all tourism faculties in Turkey. The sample was taken from six different tourism faculties using the simple random sampling method with a questionnaire. The sampling of the graduates and executive sector representatives was taken from an Antalya-based association using the simple random sampling method again. Analysis of the research data helped identify which stakeholders differed from one another in the needs of tourism undergraduates for the development of tourism undergraduates’ English communication skills, especially tourism lecturers were found to have differed from almost all other stakeholders. Relevant suggestions are offered to manage the differences to increase the effectiveness of the English courses currently given at tourism faculties and possible reasons for such differences among stakeholders are discussed in the study.