Target and Language Learning Needs by Students

CHAPTER FIVE SUMMARY OF FINDINGS, CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

5.1 Introduction

This study sought to investigate the language learning and target needs of tour guiding students in Kenya as perceived by the students, teachers and managers in tour guiding firms. This has been done under the Munbian 1978 approach and Learning Centred Approach. This chapter summarises the findings of the present study, conclusions and recommendations.

5.2 Summary of Findings

This section will present the summary of the findings in chapter four by revisiting the research objectives in section 1.4.

5.2.1 Target and Language Learning Needs by Students

On the background information, the results obtained show that all the respondents in this study had studied English in Kenya and their performance could generally be described as average. There was unanimity on the necessity of learning English at the college level in that the majority of the students felt that it was very necessary. The students chose more than one reason on why they were learning English but majority of them settled on being able to work as tour guides and speak with English speaking colleagues as the main reasons. The students had no problem whatsoever with learning the English course at that level since they were willing to choose it even if it was optional. The usefulness of the English course for graduating as a well qualified professional could not be overemphasised because the respondents described it as necessary. The speaking tasks categorised as learning needs which were regarded as most important and exhibited a need through self rating were asking questions, answering questions, expressing yourself and reacting to speech and lecture. These tasks exhibited a need possibly because of the role that they play towards helping the learner to internalise the target needs. Those that were considered to be the least important included solving problems, comparing and contrasting and describing. The listening tasks categorised as learning needs that were regarded as important and exhibited a need through the self rating include obtaining gist and listening for taking notes. These tasks play an integral role in learning particularly in understanding the content as put forth by the teachers. The learners have to understand the content and take notes. On the other hand, the tasks considered less important and did not reveal any need included: recognizing the speaker‟s attitude, listening for discriminating intonation and stress patterns and listening for translating. The reading tasks categorised as learning needs that were regarded as important and exhibited a need through self rating were predicting, scanning, skimming, reading for note taking, identifying main ideas and summarising. On the contrary, the tasks of referencing, guessing the meaning of unknown words from context and synthesizing were not considered important and did not reveal any need. The writing tasks categorised as learning needs that were regarded as important and exhibited a need through self rating were structuring sentences, developing ideas, grouping ideas, linking ideas, using appropriate vocabulary, using correct punctuation, spelling correctly and adapting appropriate style and tone. The tasks of spelling correctly and using correct pronunciation were not considered important and did not exhibit any need. On the importance accorded to the language skills of writing, speaking, listening, reading, writing, translation and specialist vocabulary, the students considered speaking as the most important skill. Other skills were listening, reading, writing, translation and specialist vocabulary respectively. The students also indicated that translation is ignored in the ESP courses and only a small fraction felt that specialist vocabulary though covered was not fully incorporated in the syllabus. The speaking tasks categorised as target needs regarded as important and exhibited a need through self rating included speaking: with native speakers, with customers, in the office, in hotels, at the airport, in travel agencies, in tour operations, in transportation contexts, in social settings, in my own country and abroad. The other tasks of speaking with colleagues and in banks for money matters were not regarded as important and did not reveal any need. The listening tasks categorised as target needs that were regarded as important and exhibited a need through self rating included understanding: native speakers, non native speakers, announcements at different places, presentations, meetings, conferences, seminars, discussions, conversation on phone and face to face conversations. Listening to radio and television were not considered important. The reading tasks categorised as target needs that were regarded as most important and exhibited a need through self rating included: business letters, fax messages, maps, e-mail messages, brochures, instruction booklets, minutes of a meeting, tickets, vouchers and invoices. On the contrary, reading manuals, magazines, dictionary entries, newsletters and catalogues were not regarded important by the students. The writing tasks categorised as target needs that were regarded as most important and exhibited a need included: business letters, memos, agendas, notices, e-mail messages, fax messages, reports, itineraries, tour commentaries, legal documents, user manuals, brochures, complaint letter, complimentary letter and filling reservation forms. The writing of notes task was not considered important.

5.2.2 Learning and Target Needs by Teachers