Análise de necessidades para recepção de hotel: primeiro passo para uma sugestão de curso

Abstract

This study aims at presenting the results of the needs analysis in its two perspectives: the target situation of the English language usage in the context of front desk work in hotels and the learning situation of in service employees and pre-service ones who are attending training courses for hotel staff. These results were obtained through the use of four kinds of research instruments: semi-structured interviews, observation, analysis of authentic material and questionnaires. The target situation context of front desk in hotels was identified from the recruiting demands of the hotel organizations, tasks that were forecasted by the managers of accommodation and the performed ones by the hotel clerks as well as lhe skills used to perform them. The learning context was analysed in relation to the identification of the in-service employees' motivation to improve their knowledge of the English Language and the identification of he student in hotel work training courses in relation to his/her age, previous knowledge of the English language and leaning styles. The findings of the needs analysis in its both aspects, the target and learning situations contribute to a suggestion of one possible classroom activity, the first step towards the design of a course of English for Specific Purposes. As the theoretical support for the English for Specific Purposes approach, this study is based on Hutchinson and Waters (1987),Dudley-Evans and St. John (1998) and Robinson (1991). The theoretical concepts of needs analysis and the definition of needs proposed by the authors mentioned above are complemented with those of Brindley (1989) and Berwick (1989). The definitions of course design are based on the concepts of Hutchinson and Waters (1987) and Graves (2000), and the ones about types of syllabus are based on Breen (1987) and Nunan (1988). Halliday and Hasan (1989) contribute with the theoretical concepts of the systemic-functional perspective of language. The suggestion of the classroom activity that links the notion of task and geme is based on Swales (1990), Bathia (1993), Nunan (1989/1991), Long (1987) and Willis (1996) and on Ramos' pedagogic proposal of geme usage in classrooms. This study intends to have contributed to a suggestion of course design, meeting the specific needs of the occupation and the job market needs as it indicates the results of the needs analysis and an alternative way to reach these results. This study is justified by the job openings offer for this operational sector of the hotel industry, as a result of the investments made mainly in the city of São Paulo