Comparative Determination of Communicative Competence of Saudi Students of English for Tourism and Hospitality (SSETH) to Develop ESP Course Content

Abstract

Development of tailor-made indigenous teaching content, after assessing the target learners’ needs and proficiency, is necessary to address to specific needs of specific learners, ensure optimum learning and motivation. This quantitative investigation attempted to determine the communicative competence of SSETH in English language skills to develop indigenous teaching content. A Likert-scale questionnaire was developed and administered to 289 participants to record their perceived proficiency in English language skills and sub-skills. Independent-samples T-test was run to generate descriptive statistics and determine whether any significant differences exited in their perceived proficiency level. The results revealed medium low English language proficiency by the participants. SSETH reported comparatively higher proficiency in the productive skills of writing and speaking as compared to the receptive skills of listening and writing. The cohort form College of Tourism and Hospitality, Taif (CTHT) reported slightly higher competence as compared to their counterparts from College of Tourism and Hospitality, Madinah (CTHM). Comparative results generated by Independent-samples T-test rejected the null hypotheses as no statistically significant differences were found in the perceived communicative competence of both groups. It is recommended that various stake holders should work in close coordination to develop and implement indigenous teaching content which should be periodically assessed and modified to suit the changing ESP needs of SSETH. This procedure may be followed as a model for other disciplines to develop indigenous teaching material.