Designing a Needs-Based English Syllabus for Tour Guides in Saudi Arabia

Abstract

English for Specific Purposes (ESP) syllabuses based on students’ needs are assumed to be interesting and motivating to students as they maximise language learning. This is because they contribute to preparing students for specific targets in their prospective profession or academic study. This study aimed at revealing Saudi tour guides target needs for English language, determining whether an existing ESP syllabus taught to tourism students in a public Saudi university meets these needs, and proposing an English for Tour Guides (ETG) to address those needs. The study adopted the qualitative approach by using an interview with four tourism companies’ managers and document analysis. It draws on the results of the needs analysis (NA) reported by Aldosari et al. (2023) who investigated the target needs of about 50 Saudi tour guides for English. Results showed that the tour guides need speaking, listening, vocabulary, pronunciation, and grammar. Introducing oneself and others, greeting, giving directions/instructions, and informing are the most recurrent language functions. In addition, we found that the syllabus that is taught to tour guides in a Saudi university does not meet their needs for English language. The study concluded by proposing an ETG syllabus based on the reported needs.