Applying Role-Play Activities in English for Hotel Business: Enhancing Speaking Skills and Professional Role Awareness among Thai Undergraduate Students
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Abstract
Confusion often arises regarding the distinct responsibilities of a concierge and a front desk agent within hotel operations. It seems that the students are confused whether they have the same job descriptions, job responsibilities, and language use. To clarify this, this study applied role-play activities two times as a concierge and front desk agent and then investigated Thai undergraduate students’ perceptions toward differences of the two positions in different aspects. The research proposal was considered at a board of ethical consideration. This study used qualitative case study. The sampling in the study was purposive. The participants were 11 sophomores enrolled in the subject of English for Hotel Business at a Thai public university. The instruments were role-play activities, close-ended questionnaires, and semi-structured interviews, validated by three experts. The data analysis was a five-Likert scale and thematic analysis. The results showed that role-play activities helped the participants perceived their own development of speaking and analytical thinking skills in the context of hospitality. They could distinguish that the concierge and front desk agent had both similarities and differences in terms of language use, communication skills, characteristics and cultural knowledge. This study shows the new pedagogical implications in that role-play activity is an effective communicative language teaching (CLT) that can enhance a learner’s speaking and analytical skills.
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