Developing a Model of Esp Listening Materials for Students of Tourism Program at Indonesian Vocational High Schools Through Skill-Centered Approach

Abstract

The recent phenomenon which happens in Indonesia based on data of Ministry of Culture and Tourism of Bali shows that 4.002 million foreign tourists visited Indonesia especially Bali in the last decades. They are mostly from English speaking countries such as Australia and England. Tourism becomes one of the reasons why this phenomenon occurs and increases steadily. This situation puts English as an important language to learn. To face this phenomenon, vocational schools particularly the tourism program become one of the efforts and institutions promising in preparing Indonesia. The students who are prepared to work in tourism sector need to learn English based on their needs to support their vocation, thus the English should be specified. They also need to master oral communication skills: listening and speaking. To prevent miscommunication, make a message more understandable and help to reduce the amount of frustration for the speaker, mastering listening skill is essential for tourism program students especially on the topics related to tourism. This research was intended to develop the suitable model of ESP listening materials for tourism program students through skill centered approach to prepare them with enough knowledge of tourism and listening skill. The research which was done in one of the vocational schools in Jember through the questionnaire containing students’ needs analysis found that tourism program students’ purposes in learning English was to master English for their future work. Furthermore they expected to have topics/themes relevant to the real situation that they might face in their workplace. In the ESP listening materials development, the materials were designed in consideration of the results of the needs analysis in relation to the syllabus provided by the school. The materials were taken from the internet and related videos about tourism in order that the materials developed were suitable with the target situation. The materials are provided from the easier to the more difficult tasks. Based on the validation process with three validators that were the lecturer of English Education Department Jember University, the English teacher of tourism program at vocational school, and the tourism expert, the materials developed were categorized as appropriate for tourism program since it covered the tourism program students’ needs and the syllabus.