CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 BAKCGROUND

Tourism in Indonesia is an important component of the Indonesian economy as well as

a significant source of its foreign exchange revenues. Indonesia was ranked at 20th in the world
tourist Industry in 2017, also ranked as the ninth-fastest growing tourist sector in the world,
the third-fastest growing in Asia and fastest-growing in Southeast Asia.The country has
planned to achieve 8 percent of GDP from tourism sector and targeted to attract about 20
million of visitors by 2019. The tourism sector ranked as the 4th largest among goods and
services export sectors.

Indonesia possesses rich and colourful culture, such as Barong dance performance in
Bali. During 2016 about 12.02 million foreign tourists visited Indonesia, which was 15.5%
higher than that of 2015.[4] In year 2015, 9.73 million international visitors entered Indonesia,
staying in hotels for an average of 7.5 nights and spending an average of US$1,142 per person
during their visit, or US$152.22 per person per day. Singapore, Malaysia, China, Australia,
and Japan are the top five sources of visitors to Indonesia.

The Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Report 2017 ranks Indonesia 42nd out of 136
countries overall with Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Index score of 4.2. The 2015 report
ranks the price competitiveness of Indonesia's tourism sector the 3rd out of 141 countries. It
mentions that Indonesia has quite good travel and tourism policy and enabling conditions
(ranked 9th). The country also scores quite good on natural and cultural resources (ranked
17th). However, the country scored rather low in infrastructure sub-index (ranked 75th), as
some aspect of tourist service infrastructure are underdeveloped.

In 2016, the government was reported to be investing more in tourism development by

attracting more foreign investors. The government has given priority to 10 destinations as
follows: Borobudur, Central Java; Mandalika, West Nusa Tenggara; Labuan Bajo, East Nusa
Tenggara; Bromo-Tengger-Semeru, East Java; Thousand Islands, Jakarta; Toba, North
Sumatra; Wakatobi, Southeast Sulawesi; Tanjung Lesung, Banten; Morotai, North Maluku;
and Tanjung Kelayang, Belitung. As quoted in The Jakarta Post, the government is aiming for
275 million trips by domestic tourists by end of 2019.The government has also secured
commitments from potential investors, totalling US$70 million in the areas of building
accommodation, marina and ecotourism facilities in 3 of the 10 areas. Indonesia is ranked at
seventh place in the list of Lonely Planet's top 10 countries to visit in 2019. The country ranks
fourth out of the top 25 destinations in the world in 2018 by travel site TripAdvisor.

With tourist arrivals up by over 15% in 2016 and ambitious sector development plans
under way, Indonesia’s hotel segment is widely expected to see healthy expansion in the

1
coming years. This follows on from strong performance across the hospitality industry over
the past half decade. Indeed, according to HVS Research, a global hospitality research firm,
from 2011 to 2015 the total supply of branded hotel rooms in 12 key Indonesian markets more
than doubled, posting a compound annual growth rate of 19%. During this period the total
number of branded rooms jumped from around 35,000 to upwards of 71,000.

Today more than half of this supply is composed of midscale and budget offerings,
while the upscale segment accounts for 33% and luxury properties make up the remaining
12%. Indonesia’s hotels, like the nation’s tourism industry more generally, are concentrated in
Bali and Jakarta, though a number of smaller markets – including Medan, Lombok, Surabaya,
Bandung, Mandalika and Palembang – have seen an influx of visitors as well in recent years.

Despite the generally encouraging economic situation and rising tourist arrivals, the
hotel segment faces a number of challenges. As mentioned above, the industry relies to a large
extent on the importance of Bali and Jakarta. While these centres remain relatively buoyant,
many local and international players alike are working to diversify their business into new
areas, which presents a wide range of challenges related to the public relations, advertising,
investor sentiment and the provision of infrastructure.

The hotel and restaurant industry, which is an integral part of the tourism industry, is
very diverse in nature as it accommodates employees and guests, with different language,
ethnic and cultural backgrounds. As English is the language of the globalized business world,
effective and excellent communication and adequate English language competency is essential
for better guest experience and hence better efficiency, productivity and , in the long run,
profitability of the industry.

Not only does the staff need to communicate successfully with the guests but also with
other department employees. Few of the staff members might be able to speak in manageable
English but those who don’t have English as their first language suffer due to their inability
and fail to understand simple instructions and information.Being the most widely spoken
language in the world, it makes sense that English is vital within the hospitality sector. Learn
more here. The world of hospitality involves travel and tourism and so having a main language
across the world that’s spoken by all employees in this field is important.

Whether a person is employed by a hotel, restaurant or travel agents in a non-English

speaking country, you can expect them to have a good level of English. Although many
countries around the world have their own unique tourism treasures, they share a common
language and this puts workers as well as travellers at ease. As a mantioned above, English
language skills are the major tool for effective commucincation in the tourim industry. Not
only do those in the tourism industry communicate with native speakers, but also with order
non-natiwve speakers. This study focused on the needs and problems in English skill in term
of listening, speaking, reading, writing, grammar and vocabulary for front officwe staff. The

2
 finding will provide information to improve satt’s English skills to meet the purpose of
providing good services, and avoiding communication problems. In addition, the result of the
study can led to conducting English training for staff on the future.

1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEMS

This study aimed to answer the following questions:

What are the three activities that front office staff need to use the most and the least regarding
each particular English language skills in their work?

1.2.1 What are the activities that front office staff have the problems the most when
communicating in English in terms of each particular skill?
1.2.2 Which skill do the front office staff mostly need for using English language skills in their
work?
1.2.3 Which skill do the front office staff have the problems when communicating in English
laguage?

1.3 STUDY OBJECTIVES

1.3.1 To investigate the front office staff’s needs for using the English skills of listening,
speaking, reading, writing, grammar and vocabulary in their work.
1.3.2 To investigate the problems the front office staff encountered when using the English skills
of of listening, speaking, reading, writing, grammar and vocabulary in their work.
1.3.3 To find out the skill that front office staff mostly need and the skill that is the most
problematic.

1.4 DEFINITION OF TERMS

Definition of terms in this study are:
1.4.1 Needs refer to reqwuirements that the front office staff in the hotels in Central Lombok
have in terms of English communication.
1.4.2 Problems refer to difficulties faced in using English
1.4.3 English skills refert to performance in English listening, speaking, reading, writing,
grammar as well as vocabularry.
1.4.4 Front office staff refers to the staff who work in the front office department in the hotel at
Central Lombok, West Nusa Tenggara.
1.4.5 Customer refers to the non- Indonesian speaking tourist who temporarily use the hotel’s
service or stay in hotels at Central Lombok for various purposes, such as travelling and
business.

3
1.5 SCOPE OF THE STUDY
This study concentrated on front office staff in the hotels at Central Lombok who had
to use English language skills in communicating with foreign tourists. Sixty copies of the
questionaires were returened to provide the information for this reasearch. The study will
emphasize the front office stafdf’;s needs and problems for using the English skills of listening,
speaking, reading, writing, grammar, and vocabulary in their work.

1.6 SIGNIFICATION OF THE STUDY

The research findings express the needs and problems in using the English skills of
listening, speaking, reading, writing, grammar and vocabulary of the front office in hotel at
Central Lombok. In addition, the information could provide the possible consequences of the
front office staff’ineffective communication. Therefore, it will be benefecial for hotel
managaemnet to analyzwe thsese findings and organize specific plans to improve the staff’
English Language skills in the future. Moreover, the results of the study can be applied by
others in the samae business such as travel agancies, resorts, etc.

4
 CHAPTER TWO
REVIEW OF LITERATURE
2.1 NEEDS

Definition of Needs, the requirements of the target situation Enable the learner to
communicate effectively in the target situation Levels of language knowledge of the learners.
This means that there are different types of needs (Dudley-Evans and St Johns 1998).
Professional information about the learners: the tasks and activities learners are/will be using
English for Professional information about the learners: factors which may affect the way
which they learn English language information about the learners , Learners lacks , Language
learning information: effective ways of learning the skills and language. Professional
communication information, What is wanted from the course Information about the
environment in which the course will be run (means analysis). Hutchinson and Waters (1987,
Robinson1991, West 1993) Needs Learning Needs Target Needs; 1) Target Needs Target
Needs Necessit ies Lacks Wants. 2) Necessities, The requirements of the target situation, 3)
The needed level of language proficiency of the students to achieve their academic or
occupational purposes, 4) Activities Language skills Target activities Lectures Listening and
understandig of content, listening to key words and phrases, note taking, asking questions
Presentation s Seminars Asking and answering questions , understanding and expressing
different points of view, reporting on Practices Understanding instructions, asking questions,
understanding informal language, interacting,recording results Fieldwork Reading
Books/article s Understanding the overall content, distinguishing main points from supporting
detail Reading reports Writing Essays, Dissertation Construction of reasonably accurate
sentences and paragraphs, good organisation of ideas Writing reports, letters, etc 5) Lacks,
The course designer has to analyse the learners’ present backgound in order to be able to
identify what the language lacks are when compared, 6) Wants Refer to the learners’ own
feelings toward his most important needs They may have personal aims in addition to the
needs of the target situation, 7) The learners have a clear idea about the necessities They
may also be aware of their lacks The views of the students may conflict with the perception of
the other parties involved in the ESP situation.

Constraints (WEST 1993) It involves the non- pedagogic limits that control a course
planning process such as the role of the national policy and the financial restrictions; 1)
Learning Needs They involve an answer to the question: How are we going to the destination,
2) The aims of the course Type of the course Time Load, 3) Type of Learners Their learning
Styles, 4) The available materials Setting, 5) A set of questions can be put forward when
determining the learning needs: Should the course be extensive or intensive? Should the
learners performance be assessed or non assessed? Should the course deal with immediate
needs or delayed needs? Should the course have a broad focus or a narrow focus? Should the

5
 course be ‘pre-study’ or ‘pre- experience’ or run parallel with the study experience? Should
the materials be common core or, 6). Should the group taking the course be homogeneous or
heterogeneous? Should the course be worked out by language teacher after consultation with
learners and the institution, or shoud it be subject to a process of negociation with learners?.

According to Dudley udley-Evans and St Johns 1998, The balance of parameters

mentioned in the above questions allows the researcher to link the different expectations and
learning needs of the learners. Learning needs analysis which takes into consideration the
pedagogical requirements that allow the learners to get to the destination. (learners attitudes
can also be included within this step) The learning environment is an important resource for
teaching aids including the institution, the type of classroom and the time load for the ESP
training.

2.2 PROBLEM IN USING ENGLISH LANGUAGE

Different students can have different difficulties and problems in learning English.
They can make different mistakes in English pronunciation, grammar, orthography and
vocabulary usage. According to Maini (2015) The most common cause of the problems
faced by a learner of the English language as a second language is existence of the inherent
structure of their first language or mother tongue that they are exposed to since the first
day. As such the problems that are faced by the students trying to learn the language are,
1) Understanding the grammar structure of the new language, 2) Pronounciations or the
inability to understand or comprehend new words. 3) Most often students use the
translation method to understand the second language, in this case English, 4). Again they
think of the reply in their mother tongue first and then form a reply by translating, 5).
Vocabulary becomes a huge problem. The above mentioned problems are just a few of
other problems but in my opinion these are the major ones faced by students. the hardest
for a teacher in this case is to actually create a new structure of the English grammar while
trying not to dismantle the exisiting language structure of their mothertongue. The student
should be able to use both the langauges with ease. Again it is fairly easier in the case of
children.

Each learner has his own issues but the most common that I felt in my students are
the following, 1) Lack of vocabulary, 2) Grammar, 3) Correct pronunciation, 4) Hesitation
in speaking. If we come to solution it will be easy to discuss it in the same sequence, 1) To
improve vocabulary read an English language Newspaper. Reading habit will improve not
only your vocabulary but also the sense of making sentences, 2) Grammar is not essential
to learn a language but it is very basic to correct your language. Therefore, a Grammar
book will be very helpful during the learning process, 3) Listening an English channel will
improve pronunciation skills. Some English cartoons are very helpful due to pace of
speaking in them. Different characters speak very slow and you can understand every word
they speak and it makes easy for you to correct your pronunciation, 4) speak is the rule to

6
 address this issue. Whether you speak wrong or right but don't give up speaking will end
shyness which is a big hurdle in learning any language (Anayat:2014)

2.3 ENGLISH LANGUAGE SKILLS

Here an attempt has been made to review the related studies conducted in the field. The
review is not exhaustive.Young (1992) has been quoted by KhairiIzwan Abdullahin his research
study, appeared in Journal of Language and Learning stated that speaking can cause high anxiety
level and the reason for this is that teachers often expect beginners to perform beyond their acquire
competence. This level of anxiety is observed in the classroom. Even a vast majority of ELP
students at BCC in different levels cannot break the silent period. As result students portray the
picture of poor performance in Fluency is a flow in which words are joined together while speaking
quickly. (wikipedia2013). It is a characteristic of the speaker. To Hartmann and Stork, a person is
a fluent speaker when he is capable of using the language structure accurately (1976).Fillmore
(1979) familiarizes fluency by attaching it to the creative and imaginative use of the language.
Brumfit (1984) binds it to the natural use of language spoken English. J.D Brown (2003)quotes
Richards, Platt and Weber (1985, ) who define fluency that the features which give speech the
qualities of being of being natural and normal, including native- like use of pausing, rhythm,
intonation, stress, rate of speaking, and use of interjections and interruptions.

Dyson (1986) observed in her research with young children that there are distinct
differences in how students use the symbol systems of drawing, speech, and writing. Children vary
in their dependence upon these symbol systems due to individual differences in how they use these
media. Dyson theorizes that the development of symbol systems is supported by student drawing
and leads to higher-order thinking and success with writing tasks. While much of educational
research has focused on particular methods or approaches, Pressley, Rankin, and Yokoi (1996)
recommend studying teachers from the perspective of their expertise. Consistent with expert theory
(Chi, 2006), Pressley et al. assume that effective teachers have an understanding of the nuances of
their instruction based on the decisions they make and their beliefs about student learning. This
understanding is able to be related to others just as professionals in other fields relate their
expertise. They claim that this unique perspective allows effective teachers’ tolerate their
knowledge, theories, and beliefs in response to specific questions. (Stevenson & Dunn, 2001).
Studies that learning styles are distinct ways that individuals concentrate on, process, absorb,and
recall new information or skills Students often master new material most efficiently when they
make the most of the strengths of their preferred learning-style. According to Multiple Intelligence
(MI) theory, as posed by Gardner (1983),everyone has at least eight types of intelligence, but no
two people have the same combination of intelligences. These forms of intelligence include
linguistic, logical mathematical, musical, spatial, bodily-kinesthetic, naturalist, interpersonal, and
intrapersonal intelligences. Hoban, Hoban, and Zisman (1937). They claimed that visuals were not
achieving their full potential value in the learning process because educators failed to use them

7
wisely. Weaver and Bollinger (1949) state that the most effective visual aids are those specifically
designed to satisfy special needs Timothy Gangwer (2009) attributes the rising importance of
visual literacy in the classroom to the availability of technologies for accessing information and
entertainment. He challenges educators to prepare students for

2.4 RELATED RESEARCH

Several Provious studied have been conducted to survey the needs and problems using English.

Chistision & Krankhe (2004) Studiend non-natives English speaking sudents studying in U.S.
collogeas and universities. The result were that listening and reading were found to have greater
importance than skills in speaking and reading, the most difficult skill in English were speaking
and listening.

Chakrit Paisuwan (2006) surveyed and the needs and problems of Seagate planners in using
English. Listening and speaking were the most needed English language skill. Twhe most serious
problem in English were listening and speaking, but reading and writing were not as serious.

Thawacai Tangniam (2006) investigated the English language needs for Thai Airways ground
staff. As for English needs, listening and speaking were much needed skill for Thai Airways
ground staff. Moreover, listening skill has concidered the most difficult.

As can be seen the related research reveald the job needs for wthe use of English in various aspects
according to differences in job field.

8
 CHAPTER THREE

METHODOLOGY

3.1 SUBJECTS

According to objectives of the study which was to survey the English language needsd and
problems of front office staff, the subject of the study were staf who worked in front office
deppartment in hotel in central Lombok. They were chosen as the subject they more often use
English skill at work than other staff the hotel business. Sixty questionaire were distributed to these
staff members.

3.2 MATERIALS

The research instrument was questionaire adatpted use by a researcher. The questionaire
consisted of three parts as follows:

Part I : The general information of the respondents

This section contained the respondents’ information about sex, age, educational
background, duration of work in their position, the necessity of English in their job area, as well
as their opinions about using English language skills.

Part II. The needs of problems of the English language functions for front office staff.

In this part of questionaire, the question were divide into seven main sections. In each
section, the question covered various English language function for front office staff . A five point
likert scale was used for respondents to rate as follows:

Table.1

Rates of opinion Interpretation of the scale

5 Very high
4 high
3 Moderate
2 low
1 Very low

Table.2

Mean Level of need/problem

4.21-5.00 Very high
3.41-4.20 high

9
 2.61-3.40 Modarate
1.81-2.60 low
1.00-1.80 Very low

Part III Open-ended questions were used to obtain the respondents’ probelm and suggestions at
the end.

To ensure the wording in the questionaire was understandable and did not contain any
ambiguity. Its content validity were reviewed by qualified consultants. Moreover 20 front office
staff were asked to complete the questionaire and evaluate the content to identify unclear terms
and to give suggestions. Then, the irrelevant items were revised for the study. According to pilot
study. It’s Cronbach Alpha coefecient equaled 0.95, endicating good reliability.

3.3 PROCEDURES

Firstly, a request letter were sent to front office managers for permision and assistance in gaining
information from the staff. After getting permission, sixty copies sopies of questionaire were
distributed to the staff. The subjects were asked to answer general information, the needs of
English skills for the staff, the difficulties with using English skills and their suggestions. After
that, the questionaires were sent back to the researcher within a week. In total, 50 copies (83, 3%)
copies were completed and turned to the researcher.

3.4 DATA ANALYSIS

The data obtained from the returned questionairs was analyzed using the statistical Package
for Social Seciences (SPSS) as follows:

- Percentege and frequency count were used in the analysis of the answers in the first part of
personal information.
- Arithmatic mean (x̅) and standard deviation (S.D), scale and rank were used to present the
outcomes of front office staff’ opinions are wthe needs and problems of using English language
skills at work.

10
 REFERENCES

Goodman, Stacey. 2015. The Importance of Teaching Through Relationships.

(Online). (http://www.edutopia.org/blog/importa nce-teaching-through-relationships-
stacey-goodman).

Kencanawati, Dewi. 2014. Designing Communication Strategy in the English

Speaking Class at University. Makalah disajikan dalam the 61st TEFLIN International
Conference, Surakarta 7-9 Oktober 2014.

Oxford, Rebecca L. 2011. Teaching and Researching Language Learning

Strategies. Great Britain: Pearson Education Limited.

Rusdiyanti, Irene T. 2015. Cultural Studies Technique to Raise the Students’

Speaking Ability. Makalah disajikan dalam the 61st TEFLIN International Conference,
Surakarta 7-9 Oktober2014.

Spradley, James P. 1980. Participant Observation. Orlando, Florida: Harcourt

College Publishers.

Samiati, Sri, Nurkamto, Joko, dan Purnomo, Budi. 2010. English for Tourism
Based on Local Needs. Surakarta: Sebelas Maret University Press.

Veck, Wayne. 2013. “Martin Buber's concept of inclusion as a critique of

special e Yabarmase, Dominicus. 2015. Fishbowl Strategy: An Effective Way to Improve
Students’ Speaking Ability. Makalahdisajikan dalam the 61st TEFLIN International
Conference, Surakarta 7-9 Oktober 2014.

Yin, R. K. 2009. ‘Case study research design and method’. Applied Social Research
Methods Series 6. Newbury Park: Sage.ducation” dalan International

11