Yossiri

Yossatorn SID: 5437515

Reflection Paper: An ESP Course Design for Airport Information Desk Staff
Yossiri Yossatorn SID: 5437515

Yossiri Yossatorn SID: 5437515

Reflection Paper: An ESP Course Design for Airport Information Desk Staff

In year 2008, Beijing Capital International Airport, China, was considered the 9th busiest airport. It means staffs working in this area are required to have potentiality and flexibility to serve customers needs effectively. Nevertheless, there are some staffs at information desk have lower-intermediate English level. The policy maker of the airport has explored these problems and decided to set up a course for these staffs. HR department took responsibility on management part and goal setting. The goal is the enable the staffs to communicate to international passengers in English efficiently. Most studies about language course design for airline crews mostly focus on flight crews. There are very few for information desk staff. It rarely could be found as well. To design a language course, many factors are taken into account. In this study, examining the context, analyzing the needs and determining the objectives, designing syllabus and materials, and planning and evaluating learners are included in the process of language course designing. This research employs questionnaire, interview, observation and information from website to collect the data. Questionnaire was piloted to amend some flaws and ambiguous statements. After piloting, the updated questionnaire was carried out at different information desk of Beijing Capital International Airport and left there for 3 weeks to collect the data from both day and night shift staffs. There was the questionnaire in Chinese version also, to avoid misinterpret the questions. Some information was derived from three airports websites and two job-searching websites to increase the reliability of the data. According to findings of needs analysis, listening and speaking skills are what respondents require the most to have in English course. Language competence is

Yossiri Yossatorn SID: 5437515

essential for information desk staff. This position has to communicate to passengers verbally. The course content was chosen based on two focuses which are language and learning. These two categorizes cover both macro and micro-skills. Materials used in the course include texts for reading and videos for helping learners communicate and get familiar with real-world situations. Assessment and evaluation were made based on specific rubric and criteria.

Discussion As in the context section, this training project is a non-assessed, one-week English course. This course is for lower-intermediate English level staffs. The goal is to enable the information desk staff to communicate effectively with international passengers in English. As well as making those passengers feel like home during staying in the airport. According to information derived from Avjobs.com (1988), the airline staffs are required to have excellent language and communication skills. Using good grammar and speaking clearly with a pleasant voice are options. Airline company also provide staffs with a training course before they were selected to work. It could be assumed that staffs must be well-trained in both language and performance skills. From my point of view, there might be an unstable standard in terms of applicant screening of Beijing Capital International Airport. As mentioned above, information desk staffs have to deal with international passengers by using English. It can be supposed that staffs English proficiency must to be at high level. International airport represents as the gate of the country. Staffs who work in that environment must be equipped with at least intermediate English proficiency level to accommodate every passenger.

Yossiri Yossatorn SID: 5437515

This project offered non-assessed course for different airport information desks. Based on Dudley-Evans & St. John (1998), learners needs analysis should be conducted before the course and teaching begin. Needs analysis will help course planner design a course which suitable and meet the learners expectations. The methods for conducting needs analysis are various. There could be observation, interviews, questionnaire, testing and so forth. As provided information, the staffs came from varied sections. This course was taken place without testing and assessing participants. In my opinion, there should be a pre-test in order to measure the language level of participants. Course designer could draw some essentials information from the test and devise an appropriate course for the learners. Assessment should be concluded as well to benchmark whether participants language proficiency improves or not. Assessment is the ultimate proof for how well the learner fare when using English in their target situation (Dudley-Evans & St. John, 1998) Regarding course duration, it is a non-assessed, one-week course. As previously mentioned, Dudley-Evans & St. John (1998) proposed nine factors which should be taken into account when designing a course. Those nine elements are 1. Intensive or extensive course 2. Assess or non-assess learners performance 3. Course deal with immediate needs or delayed needs 4. Teacher is a provider or facilitator 5. Focus of the course is broad or narrow 6. Pre-experience or in parallel with learners experience course 7. Common-core or specific materials 8. Learners are homogeneous or heterogeneous and, 9. Course design is worked out by the language teacher or subject to a process of negotiation with the learners. From my point of view, a language course for English for Occupational Purposes (in this case is for airline staffs) should be an intensive, assess, immediate needs, narrow focus, in parallel with learners experience, and repeated course. As airline staffs already work

Yossiri Yossatorn SID: 5437515

in the real situation, time constrain would be one of limitations for them. Hence, an intensive course would be suitable for them. There are fewer distractions and the staffs can practice and take great advantages from the course. Assessment should be concluded in the course, both at the beginning and the end. This would help teacher see how the learners make progress and use the results to develop the course. The course should also concentrate on learners immediate needs and have a narrow focus. Learners could use the knowledge from the class instantly after they finish the course. By parallel with experience, learners do have some information from working. They could merge new knowledge with their present knowledge. Somehow, they get familiar with some specific terms. This would facilitate learners in learning as well. For language learning, a course should be repeated. As stated earlier, this is an intensive course. Repeating would help refresh learners language knowledge and stimulate them to learn new things. In light of needs analysis which was conducted in this course, the information was collected from the target learners (insider). This is most direct source. Besides of this, airport department managers and passengers (outsider) are beneficial source as well. Dudley-Evans & St. John (1998) stated that needs analysis should cover these aspects as follow; 1. Personal information about the learners 2. English language information about the learners 3. The learners lacks 4. Language learning information 5. Professional communication information 6. What is wanted from the course and 7. Information about the environment in which the course will be run. I personally agree with how the researcher collected the data from both insider and outsider. Different people have different views. In general, learners always think and demand what they wanted to learn in case of completing the course. It seems like they focus on only few dimensions such as being learner or server. Information from

Yossiri Yossatorn SID: 5437515

outsider is also considered as a useful one. It could provide some details which learners could not realize from their own views, for instance, some skills which could be beneficial in workplace, passengers demand and requirements. Piloting test to diagnose information in questionnaire was conducted before the final version was carried out. Questionnaire was left at the airport for three weeks in case of collect the data both from day shift and night shift. The response rate was reached at the end of the survey. Also questionnaire in Chinese version was attached along with the English version to assure that all respondents fully understand every question. Kirklees Council (2008) suggested that piloting the questionnaire would help researcher point out some ambiguous statements or questions. It would declare some errors and estimate the average time to complete the questionnaire as well. The length of the questionnaire, ease of completion and the relevance/interest of the subject matter to respondents have an effect to response rate. To improve a survey response rate, follow up the questionnaire and provide the respondent with second copy are advised (Kirklees Council, 2008). As the steps and methods of questionnaire administration were stated clearly, I assumed that the results from survey implemented the objectives. I concur with questionnaire administration employed in this study. Questionnaire mostly suffers from low rate response. In contrast, the response rate in this study was touched the criteria. Moreover, the respondents were provided a questionnaire in their first language as well. This could help researcher obtain right answers from the respondents. Due to the confidential and security reasons of the airport, interviews and observation methods were not employed in this study. Sharp and Tustin (2003) pointed out that observation assists researcher to explore, identify, and understand customers behavior patterns and any reasons underlie the behaviors. Additionally,

Yossiri Yossatorn SID: 5437515

observation could elicit information from what people actually do, rather than say. In my own conceit, observation would be a useful method for designing a course. People always include and conceal their feeling when they are asked face to face. Generally, they do not express them publically. Observation could gather those unveil data from respondents. Video camera is widely used as a tool for investigating. Similar to observation, interview face to face has some advantages in terms of drawing out information in-depth. Interview involves social cues such as body language, turn-taking and so forth. Extra information could be given to the interviewer from interviewee spontaneously during discussion. Surrounding would cause interviewee unease situation and affect to the responses. Therefore, it is important to create a good interview atmosphere (Opdenakker, 2006). In findings, most respondents expressed dissatisfaction and frustration through the explanation of flight delays and very specific needs of passengers. This would show that the information desk staffs lack of competence in terms of expressing words and feeling in English. Shen (2008) stated that information has to be delivered to the audiences with minimum of mistakes and errors. The message should be clear and concise especially, when communicating though telephone or any public speakers. In case of flight delays, there might be some technical problems, terms and, ambiguous reasons which could cause some difficulties to most information desk staffs to clarify to passengers. These reasons could demotivate the staffs to speak English. In my point of view, teacher and peers could help stimulate and facilitate the staffs to express themselves in English, not in flight delays or specific situations only. Dudley-Evans & St. John (1998) mentioned that teacher should manage rather than control the class. Leaving the teacher-centered behind and introducing learner-

Yossiri Yossatorn SID: 5437515

centered to students. The role of teacher could be considered as a consultant or facilitator. Sample of material in this course was distributed on the first day of the course to examine the balance and complete the rest material production work. DudleyEvans & St. John (1998) propositioned two processes for preparing materials. The first process is having some good carrier content then, determine its real content and merge the real with carrier content and put into the course framer work. Another process is specific course objectives need specific material. This meant there is no suitable material available then, searching for appropriate one. In my estimation, material should be planned beforehand. The sample version also should be piloted to diagnose some errors and flaws. Additionally, employ the result from needs analysis to select appropriate material and content for learners. Then, combine, amend and develop the final version from this information. Hence, I disagree with how this study prepare and distribute the material. Content of the material in this study was derived or composed from situations which learners will or likely to encounter in work place. Hutchinson and Water (1986) revealed some principles for selecting and creating materials; 1. Materials stimulate learning of learners 2. Materials provide clear and consistent structure which can maximize the learning 3. Materials embody a view of the nature of language and learning 4. Materials create balance between difficulty and learners proficiency 5. Materials contain useful information and could broaden knowledge 6. Materials provide appropriate and authentic language use. As all participants are information desk staffs, this course could be considered as an EOP. The content in the material would be drawn from real situation. This could help learners get accustomed

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and can use the information promptly once then finish from the course. The selections of the content in this study are appropriate for learners.

Conclusion To sum up, this course was designed appropriately for information desk staff in airline business in terms of materials content and information gathering. Data was collected from target learners, airport department managers, and passengers. This could be considered as beneficial information. If the data was collected from the learners only, it will limit the vision and somehow, the course and objectives might not reach to the expectation. Concerning about data collection methodology, questionnaire was merely used and it might make this study is not stable enough in terms of reliable information. Researcher stated about employing observation and interview as well. Unfortunately, these two methods could not be used in this situation due to security issues. The researcher derived information from some trustful airline related sources to increase the reliability. As I mentioned in discussion part, observation and interview could give and elicit some valuable information which questionnaire could not provide. Respecting course duration and assessment, it is one-off, non-assessed, oneweek course. This course should be repeated, assessed, and intensive course. Language course should not be one-off. Language could be considered as skill which has to be used regularly. It could be forgot when it is not employ for a while. According to participants joined in this study, they came from different information desks. It could be estimated that English proficiency level of the participants would be varied. The English proficiency assessment should be conducted at the outset to differentiate level among learners. Pre-test and post-test would be beneficial for

Yossiri Yossatorn SID: 5437515

teacher or course designer to devise, improve the course and materials which could provide learners with great advantages. In order to eliminate frustration and dissatisfaction in flight delays and specific requirements explanation, teacher should support and stimulate learners to speak. Additionally, the duty of information desk staff is to impart and give information to passengers. Therefore, speaking must be clear and avoid using any slangs, jargons. If the conversation or announcement is unclear, it might cause problems and trouble to both staffs themselves and the airport. Besides speaking skill, listening skill should also be concerned because it would help another skills improve as well. When passengers come to desk for complaining or requesting, staffs are required to listen and solve the problems. As this study came across some limitation, there are some issues which could be useful for future research. First, English proficiency test should be taken into account to measure the level of learners before carry out the course. This would help categorize learners and devise an appropriate course as well as teaching method for them. Second, piloting materials to the target group before the course begins, not at the outset of the course. This would give time for teacher to amend and develop suitable materials for learners. Third, the course should be conducted as repeated and assessed process. Including these factors would explore the progress of learners from the beginning to the end. Learners motivation is also important. It would encourage and stimulate learners in order to use English more frequently and confidentially.

 References

Yossiri Yossatorn SID: 5437515

Dudley-Evans, I., St. John, M. (1998). Developments in English for Specific Purposes. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Shen, Q. (2008). A Study Of An ESP Curriculum For Airline Agents in China. English Language Teaching, 1(1), 54-60. Sharp, A., Tustin, M. (2003). Benefits Of Observational Research. ANZMAC 2003 Conference Proceedings Adelaide. 1590-1595. Opdenakker, R. (2006). Advantages and Disadvantages of Four Interview Techniques in Qualitative Research. Forum: Qualitative Social Research. 7(4), 1-13. Avjobs.com. (1988). Airline Flight Attendant Jobs. Retrieved from http://www.avjobs.com/careers/detail.asp?RecID=96