offer general English with the indeterminate flag of ESP. It is relatively easy to adapt materials for a programme that was defined in terms of needs analysis.
Indeed, materials are integral to any given course and failure to carry out needs analysis means the selection of materials that may not fully meet the learners‟
expectations.
This study was necessitated by the importance of the tourism sector and hence the need to have competent staff that can communicate effectively. Similarly,
the desire to use the results to recommend changes to the existing ESP knowledge with an aim of improving the quality of the Tour guide ESP course
offered in the Kenyan context and the competence of those who work in the hotel industry also motivated this study.
1.7 Scope and Limitations
Needs analysis is a complex process which is usually followed by syllabus design, selection of course materials, learning a course and evaluation, but this
study confined itself to needs analysis because all the aforementioned processes subsequent to needs analysis were beyond the scope of this study.
This is because the aim of the study was just to carry out a needs analysis that can be used to do the other processes.
We limited our study to the Tour Guide course in the tertiary level in spite of the knowledge that other courses in the tourism industry also make use of ESP.
This is due to the fact that target needs of those others may not correspond wholesomely to Tour Guide needs.
The researchers only collected data from learners pursuing the Tour Guide course, ESP instructors and employers of the tour guides and this is because
Robinson 1991 believes that needs analysts should be cautious in collecting information from various sources due to the multiplicity and diversity of the
views on prerequisites for an ESP course.
The study was based in Nairobi County because it is a cosmopolitan town that has learners from all over the country Ochieng, 2003, has the tertiary level
colleges that offer the course in question and the firms that have businesses in the Hotel industry that provided the required data.
In conclusion, this chapter has presented information on: background to the study, statement of the problem, the research objectives, research questions,
and research assumptions, rationale of the study and the scope and limitations of the study. The succeeding chapter will present the literature review and
theoretical framework of the study.
CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
2.1 Introduction
This chapter will put the present study into perspective in relation to other works. Our literature review will discuss briefly the development of ESP,
characteristics of ESP, types of ESP and needs analysis. Lastly, the theoretical framework of the study is discussed.
2.2 The Development of ESP Course
