Sessions /
From Linguistic Challenges to Classroom Activities: Preparing EIL Hosts for Visitors #1051

Through the lens of English as an international language (EIL), this study investigates linguistic challenges university students and tour guides in Thailand have when hosting foreign visitors, and how those challenges can be addressed in classroom activities. A questionnaire was distributed to 113 university students and 70 tour guides. Additionally, interviews with 7 students and 2 tour guides were employed for data triangulation. It was found that the participants had problems with specialized vocabulary, especially those related to architecture and Thai culture. Visitors’ accents and low language ability also hindered the success in hosting visitors. A two-hour session incorporating EIL tenets of communication strategies and inter-cultural sensitivity that addressed those linguistic challenges was implemented with 30 students. This study hopes to provide insights into commonly found linguistic problems for visitor hosts. These can be considerations for English for Tourism course designers and teachers.