PROS A Task Based Need Analysis to Empower Teacher Full text
A TASK BASED NEED ANALYSIS TO EMPOWER TEACHER IN TEACHING
ENGLISH
FOR TRAVEL ARRANGEMENT IN INDONESIAN INDUSTRIES
Dra. Lina Sinatra Wijaya. ,MA
Satya Wacana Christian University
Sa)atiga - Indonesia
Abstract
Recent needs for English competence at workplaces encourage Indonesian collc_;ges or
universities to train students to achieve such competence. For this reason, the current
study addresses what kind of English is needed tor travel an·angement communication in
Indonesian industries which use English in their working environment. The purpose of
this research is to examine how English for Travel An·angement is commonly practiced
in Indonesian industries through a task-based needs analysis: The need-s analysis data
were collected through semi structured interviews and questionnaires. The target
participants of the needs analysis included 12 practitioners who are involved in traveloriented English communication. A qualitative approach was used to analyze the data.
The findings of this study show that most of the language functions needed in the
workplaces emphasize speaking skills in the situations of hotel and flight booking and
writing skills, particularly in memo and email writing tasks. The findings provide a
sound basis and valuable implications for making creative teaching material on English
for travel arrangement and empowering teacher in teaching English for travel
arrangement used by Indonesian lndushies.
ｾ
BACKGROUND
Since the early 1980s, research on English for business purposes has flourished as
English has become widely accepted as the primary language for international business (
Byod, 1990; Esteban & Canadom 2004 ). A considerable amount of research has been
｣ｯｮ､ｵｴ･＠
on business including the analysis of business writings, conversation,
communication skills and strategies. Also many language institutions have offered
business English course. In line with the increased interest in business English, beginning
in 2005 , a lot of Indonesian industries need to know a certain business English which
concentrate in one typical topic, that is an English for special purposes. There are many
kinds of English for special purposes that are developed in the business world. After
conducting some visits to Indonesian ind ustries, it shows that most of the professionals
have some difficulties in communicating in English, especially English for special
purposes. In this paper the writer wants to limit the research on the use of English for
special purposes which relates to making travel arrangement . Due to this reasons, A
research was conducted on 12 practitioners in Indonesian industries, who are involved in
English communication in their work. The writer wants to know the use of English
96
language especially when the practitioner has to make a travel anangement. The tinding
of this research will provide a sound basis and valuable implication for material design
on English for travel anangec:;ent.
RESEARCH AIMS
The purpose of the current study are
• To examine how English for Travel Arrangement is commonly practiced in
Indonesian industries
• To conduct a task-based needs analysis to identify target tasks that the students
need to perfonn when they have to make a travel anangement in their work.
• To design the materials focussing on English for travel anangement which is
ｾ＠
suitable for the practitioners in the Indonesian industries.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Beginning in summer 2005, there was a move to change the entire focus of the
program from skill-based to content based instruction ( Brinton. Snow, & Wesche, 1989;
Crandal &Tucker, 1990; Kasper,2000 ). The rationale for the change was that, although
skill-based courses such as listening or writing intensive courses were offered, inevitably
all of the courses had to incoqJorate other skills as well. Therefore, it was thought to be
better to focus on content areas in which students might ｢ｾ＠
interested, while
encompassing all four skills in each course. Accordingly, content-based courses were
developed in five different areas : (a) business and travel, (b) academic preparation, (c)
language in literature, (d) media studies, and (e) TOEFLITOEIC ( Huh Sorin,2006) .
Business and travel was a newly created content area in which courses were offered.
English for travel arrangement courses were designed to develop students' knowledge of
business practices and to improve their communication skills in various business
situations especially in making travel arrangement. For this purposes, matetials are
developed in this content area: making a reservation, booking a hotel, asking for
inforn1ation , writing memo, telephone messages, email etc. This materials are taught as a
two-hour teaching class, for eighteen weeks.
The needs analysis unde11aken here was designed for the English for special
purpose class, the focus of which is to improve learners· English skills especially for
making travel anangement . Target students for this class are those who plan to work in a
multinational or national companies in Indonesia, and need to be _able to use English in
the work place.
Considering that the material is content bas·ed and focussed on business
communication skills especially in the field of travel anangement, a task-based approach.
to material design was adopted. Although the content based and task-based approaches
were regarded as different approaches to material design, these two seemed to coincide
well for the targeted material from theoretical and practical perspectives.
The task-based syllabus seemed to satisfy at least four of the rationales. First, it
promotes the eventual uses of the target language by emphasizing the real world
resemblance of the tasks with the purpose of preparing the students for the real world
tasks. Second, tasks derived from the analysis of learners' needs increases learners'
interest and motivation ( Robinson, 2001 ). Third, while performing tasks, learners can
97
Jearn the target language through contextualized and meaningful use of the language
rather than learning sentence-level usage of the language. Forth, tasks presented with
gradually increasing complexity provide rich, elaborated, and comprehensible input for
the language acquisition to occur ( Doughty & Long, 2003 )
Task-based Needs Analysis
According to the task-based syllabus proposed by Long and Crooks ( 1992 ),
Task-Based Language Teaching (TBLT) adopts tasks as the analytic unit of the syllabus
and organizes a material around different types of tasks. Principle underlying TBLT also
emphasize the importance of developing pedagogic tasks based on real-world tasks that
learners need to perfonn using the target language after or during the course. As a result,
to develop a TBLT program, it is necessary to conduct a task-based need analysis to
identify real-world target tasks and to develop pedagogic tasks based on these. Taskbased needs analysis is assumed to enhance the real-world relevance of the material and
increase student interest and motivation.
The importance of task-based needs analysis is well manifested in the six steps to
develop a TBL T program suggested by Long and NoiTis ( 2000 ) :
I. Conduct task-based needs analysis to identify target tasks
2. Classify target tasks into target task types
3. Derive pedagogic tasks
4. Sequence pedagogic tasks
5. Implement syllabus with appropriate methodology and pedagogy
6. Assess student achievement using task-based, criterion-referenced performance
tests.
Teacher empowerment:
T·e acher empowerment is the degree to which a teacher feels he has the ability to
affect change in his professional setting. In addition, empowerment is the degree to
which teachers feel they have control the ability to make those changes. Components of
empowerment have been identified to include self-reflection, control, collegial
relationships, confidence and instructional strategies. Teacher empowerment is one
aspect of teacher professionalism. To be recognized as a professional, teachers should
also be recognized as having some power in their professional settings (Johnston Carl
ｇｲ｡
ｾ ［ ･ｳ＠
II, 2002)
According to Maeroff ( 1988), teacher empowerment consists of i-1:1proved status,
increased knowledge and access to decision making. Short and Rinehart ( 1992 ) identify
six dimensions of teacher empowerment : Decision making, professional growth, status,
self-efficiency, autonomy, and impact. In a study devoted to the concept of teacher
empowem1ent, Short ( 1994) describes the six dimensions in detail. Decision making
refers to teachers ' participation in critical decisions that directly affect their work,
involYing issues related to budgets, teacher selection, scheduling, and cmTiculum. To be
effective, teachers ' participation in decision making must be genuine, and the teachers
need to be confident that their decisions actually impact real outcomes. Self-efficacy
refers to the teachers ' perception that they are equipped with the skills and ability to help
students learn and are competent to develop curricula for students.
98
Ｍ
Ｍｾ
Ｍ
Ｍ
DATA COLLECTION METHODS
For this purpose, semi-structured interviews and a questionnaire survey were
adopted as the bases for the needs analysis. Prior to collecting data, the literature on
business English especially English for travel arrangement was reviewed. Some of the
representative people in 12 Indonesian industries I foundations who use English in their
work are Kevit, Fonnula Trix, Kayu Arum, International School , Nusantara Tour and
Travel, Nayati, Kemasindo, Grand Candi Hotel, Alfa Link , Tyfountex , Satya Wacana
Chri stian University, and Forwarding Company. They were then interviewed and
ad mini stered the questionnaires.
This paper presents the findings of the study star1ing with the semi-structured
interviews and the questionnaires survey. The target English for travel aiTangement tasks
identified through the interviews and the questionnaire will be repor1ed in terms of their
frequencies , and the experiences and attitudes of some professionals in Indonesian
industries ,and also the common difficulties they have found when they have to perfonn
the language. ·
FINDINGS
English for Travel Arrangement Tasks pe1:f'or111ed by the 12 business ｰｎｾｦＧ･ｳｩｯｮ｡ｬ＠
in
Indonesian industries
Through the interviews, a variety of tasks were identified and classified into
per1inent target task types as shown in Table 1. The target tasks that each interviewee
listed were somewhat different from one another, depending on their company types and
job responsibilities. All the tasks that the interviewees listed were taken into
consideration for the purpose of developing a questionnaire that captured various target
business tasks as much as possible. It should be noted that although the identified tasks
were classified into the most pertinent target task types, many tasks were in fact
integrated and occurred simultaneously with the tasks from other target task types. For
instance, when a company wants to make a travel arrangement for the business, it did not
In addition, we need to
involve just looking at the brochure of a hotel I a travel ｡ｧｾｮ｣ｹＮ＠
call and ask about the things we need for the travel arrangement such as booking a hotel
by phone, and also confinning their booking by writing email, etc.
Table 1:
Target Task Types
CoiTespondence
Writing document
Business trips
Target Tasks
Writing Memos, Telephone Messages, Emails
Business letter - booking a room, booking a flight,
booking a flight, Writing itinerary , making a report
!>or the an·angement
Making a reservation, finding suitable flights, finding
suitable hotels.
In addition to asking about English for travel arrangement tasks, a question was asked
about how important the interviewees thought English was in performing their jobs. The
answers to this question is nearly the same from one company to the others. They think
that English is being absolutely important in performing job. For instance, the
99
interviewees mentioned that a good command of English was very important to obtain
new career opportunities such as getting promoted to higher position.
Throughout the interviews, the importance of the ability in speaking and writing
in English was addressed. Most of the professionals in Indonesian company were lack of
English language especiaJiy in writing and speaking. They are not really confident to
speak and write in English during their work.
A Jl!aterial design mddel
A task-based syllabus is concerned with purposeful actJvJtJes which learners
might be expected to engage in real-life situations. As Ellis ( 2003 ) points out, this type
of syllabus also puts emphasis on meaning and communication, where students are
primarily "users"' rather than "learners" of the language.
Based on the interviews now we can present a model which we have used for
\\'riting our own materials. The aim of this pmiicular model is to provide a coherent
framework for the integration of the various aspects of learning, while at the same time
allO\\·ing enough room for creativity and variety to flourish . The model consist of five
elements:
a. Challenging questions, -where the - students are motivated to answer questions
which are related to the topic discuss.
b . Warm up I review activities, is a review of the previous lessons
c. Presentation activities, is language focus, which aims to enable learners to learn
and use language, correctly.
d. Practice activities, is a time where students can practice what they have learnt
orally and also improve their writing skill.
e. Reflection Activities, is an evaluation to see whether the materials are suitable ,
well-made and can be understood by students or not.
DISCUSSION :
Through the semi-structured interviews and the questionnaires survey, various
target tasks were identified and classified into more abstract and super-ordinate target
task types. The tasks identified in this partieular study shows more comprehensive result
and at the same time, gives an idea of specified business English tasks focussing on
English for travel arrangement.
According to the survey results, most of the respondents seemed to acknowledge
the importance of English in performing their work, especially in speaking ability and
also writing ability. The credibility of the target tasks identified in the study was
triangulated using various sources and methods
From the findings, it can be identified that the most commonly use of the
language especially in English for making travel arrangement is writing memos,
telephone messages, booking hotels, making reports and also writing emails. Both in the
skills of speaking and writing are really important here. Even though reading
comprehension skill is also important especially in understanding travel brochures and
also hotel accommodation, but they realized that speaking and writing is more important
for their work.
100
By having the new model in designing the materials , the teachers should he
creative in transferring their knowledge and emphasizing in speaking and writing. The
materials should be taken from the real condition, so that it is easy to understand and
absorb the idea what is being taught by the teachers. In this case Empowering teachers is
very important , because by empowering the teacher, it will change the classroom and
change the teacher·s instructional practice drastically. Teachers can provide
differentiated instruction. ln the class the students can work independently ( at the level
at which they can ) to convey what they know and understand about the materials gi vcn.
At the same time the aims to teach business English communication skills
especially English for travel atTangemcnt, should be comprehensive enough, in terms of
business English tasks, in order to meet the needs and wants of the students.
As Hutchinson and Waters ( 1987) pointed out in their distinction among
necessities ( what learner has to know in order to function effectively in · the target
situation ), lacks ( the gap between vvhat the Ieamer knows already and the attainment
goals that the Ieamer needs to acquire), and wants (what the Ieamer wants to leam in the
course ), considerable discrepancies were found between the target tasks that the
professionals in the Indonesian industries performed at work using English and the task s
that they wanted to leam.
CONCLUSION
From this study, it shows that a teacher must leam new ideas and strategies
throughout his/her career. It is part of his /her professional development. Professional
development is always a never ending process. A teacher is always expected to empower
himself /herself with the new concepts in tune with the changing times. There is always
scope for further developments. One method may be suitable for one teacher but it may
not work for others. The English teacher is responsible to decide on his/her own
empowerment. Based on the material design model found in this research, It is hoped that
the instruction perfonned by the empowered teacher will give a better result for the
professionals who work in Indonesian companies where English is used in their working
environment.
REFERENCES
Boyd,F ( 1990 )
Quarterly, 25,
Business English and the case method : A reassessment . TESOL
729-734
Brinton, D.,Snow.M & Wesche, M (1980). Content-based second language instruction,
Boston,
Heinle & Heinle.
Crandall, J & Tucker,R, (1990 ). Content-based language instruction in second and
foreign
language, Washington, DC : National Centre for Educational Statistic. ERIC
Document
Reproduction Service No. ED. 366 187
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Doughty, C & Long, M (2003 ). Optimal psycholinguistic environments for distance
foreign
language learning. Language learning and Technology, 7, 50-80
Ellis, R. (2003). Task-based language learning and teaching. Oxford: Oxford University
Press
Huh Sorin ( 2006) A task based Needs Analysis for a business course . Second language
studies
( pp. 1-64) from www.hawaii.edu/sls/uhwpesl/24(2)/Huh,Sorin.doc
Hutchinson Tom and Waters Alan, 1987 ··English For Special Purposes ··Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press
Johnston Carl Graves II, 2002. Determining Teachers' Perceptions Of Self Empowem1ent
Through Professional Development Facilitated By Asynchronous Distance
Delivery
Instruction In Classroom based Action Research. A dissertation submitted in
part ia I
Fulfillment O{the requirements/or the degree,
Kasper, L (2000 ). Content-based college ESL instruction. NJ, Lawrence Erlbaum
Associates
Long.M, & Crookes,G ( 1992) Three approaches to task based syllabus design, TESOL
Quarterly, 26, 27-56
Long.M & Norris,J ( 2000). Task-based teaching and assessment. In Byram,M(Ed),
Routledge
encyclopedia of language teaching and learning ( pp. 597-603) London:
Routledge.
Maeroff, G.I, 1988, The Empowerment of teachers: Overcoming the crisis of
confidence, New
York, N.Y: Teachers College Press.
Robinson,P (200 I). Task complexity, cognitive resources, and syllabus design : A triadic
framework for examining task influences on SLA,. In Robinson, P (Ed),
Cognition and
Second Language lnstntction ( pp. 287 -318), Cambridge : Cambridge
University.
Short. P.M & Rinehart, J.S, 1992, School participant empowerment scale Assessment of
level of
empowennent within the school environment, Educational and Psychological
Measurement, 52 (6), 951 -960
Short.P.M ( 1994) Defining teacher empowerment, Education 114 (4), 488-492
102
ENGLISH
FOR TRAVEL ARRANGEMENT IN INDONESIAN INDUSTRIES
Dra. Lina Sinatra Wijaya. ,MA
Satya Wacana Christian University
Sa)atiga - Indonesia
Abstract
Recent needs for English competence at workplaces encourage Indonesian collc_;ges or
universities to train students to achieve such competence. For this reason, the current
study addresses what kind of English is needed tor travel an·angement communication in
Indonesian industries which use English in their working environment. The purpose of
this research is to examine how English for Travel An·angement is commonly practiced
in Indonesian industries through a task-based needs analysis: The need-s analysis data
were collected through semi structured interviews and questionnaires. The target
participants of the needs analysis included 12 practitioners who are involved in traveloriented English communication. A qualitative approach was used to analyze the data.
The findings of this study show that most of the language functions needed in the
workplaces emphasize speaking skills in the situations of hotel and flight booking and
writing skills, particularly in memo and email writing tasks. The findings provide a
sound basis and valuable implications for making creative teaching material on English
for travel arrangement and empowering teacher in teaching English for travel
arrangement used by Indonesian lndushies.
ｾ
BACKGROUND
Since the early 1980s, research on English for business purposes has flourished as
English has become widely accepted as the primary language for international business (
Byod, 1990; Esteban & Canadom 2004 ). A considerable amount of research has been
｣ｯｮ､ｵｴ･＠
on business including the analysis of business writings, conversation,
communication skills and strategies. Also many language institutions have offered
business English course. In line with the increased interest in business English, beginning
in 2005 , a lot of Indonesian industries need to know a certain business English which
concentrate in one typical topic, that is an English for special purposes. There are many
kinds of English for special purposes that are developed in the business world. After
conducting some visits to Indonesian ind ustries, it shows that most of the professionals
have some difficulties in communicating in English, especially English for special
purposes. In this paper the writer wants to limit the research on the use of English for
special purposes which relates to making travel arrangement . Due to this reasons, A
research was conducted on 12 practitioners in Indonesian industries, who are involved in
English communication in their work. The writer wants to know the use of English
96
language especially when the practitioner has to make a travel anangement. The tinding
of this research will provide a sound basis and valuable implication for material design
on English for travel anangec:;ent.
RESEARCH AIMS
The purpose of the current study are
• To examine how English for Travel Arrangement is commonly practiced in
Indonesian industries
• To conduct a task-based needs analysis to identify target tasks that the students
need to perfonn when they have to make a travel anangement in their work.
• To design the materials focussing on English for travel anangement which is
ｾ＠
suitable for the practitioners in the Indonesian industries.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Beginning in summer 2005, there was a move to change the entire focus of the
program from skill-based to content based instruction ( Brinton. Snow, & Wesche, 1989;
Crandal &Tucker, 1990; Kasper,2000 ). The rationale for the change was that, although
skill-based courses such as listening or writing intensive courses were offered, inevitably
all of the courses had to incoqJorate other skills as well. Therefore, it was thought to be
better to focus on content areas in which students might ｢ｾ＠
interested, while
encompassing all four skills in each course. Accordingly, content-based courses were
developed in five different areas : (a) business and travel, (b) academic preparation, (c)
language in literature, (d) media studies, and (e) TOEFLITOEIC ( Huh Sorin,2006) .
Business and travel was a newly created content area in which courses were offered.
English for travel arrangement courses were designed to develop students' knowledge of
business practices and to improve their communication skills in various business
situations especially in making travel arrangement. For this purposes, matetials are
developed in this content area: making a reservation, booking a hotel, asking for
inforn1ation , writing memo, telephone messages, email etc. This materials are taught as a
two-hour teaching class, for eighteen weeks.
The needs analysis unde11aken here was designed for the English for special
purpose class, the focus of which is to improve learners· English skills especially for
making travel anangement . Target students for this class are those who plan to work in a
multinational or national companies in Indonesia, and need to be _able to use English in
the work place.
Considering that the material is content bas·ed and focussed on business
communication skills especially in the field of travel anangement, a task-based approach.
to material design was adopted. Although the content based and task-based approaches
were regarded as different approaches to material design, these two seemed to coincide
well for the targeted material from theoretical and practical perspectives.
The task-based syllabus seemed to satisfy at least four of the rationales. First, it
promotes the eventual uses of the target language by emphasizing the real world
resemblance of the tasks with the purpose of preparing the students for the real world
tasks. Second, tasks derived from the analysis of learners' needs increases learners'
interest and motivation ( Robinson, 2001 ). Third, while performing tasks, learners can
97
Jearn the target language through contextualized and meaningful use of the language
rather than learning sentence-level usage of the language. Forth, tasks presented with
gradually increasing complexity provide rich, elaborated, and comprehensible input for
the language acquisition to occur ( Doughty & Long, 2003 )
Task-based Needs Analysis
According to the task-based syllabus proposed by Long and Crooks ( 1992 ),
Task-Based Language Teaching (TBLT) adopts tasks as the analytic unit of the syllabus
and organizes a material around different types of tasks. Principle underlying TBLT also
emphasize the importance of developing pedagogic tasks based on real-world tasks that
learners need to perfonn using the target language after or during the course. As a result,
to develop a TBLT program, it is necessary to conduct a task-based need analysis to
identify real-world target tasks and to develop pedagogic tasks based on these. Taskbased needs analysis is assumed to enhance the real-world relevance of the material and
increase student interest and motivation.
The importance of task-based needs analysis is well manifested in the six steps to
develop a TBL T program suggested by Long and NoiTis ( 2000 ) :
I. Conduct task-based needs analysis to identify target tasks
2. Classify target tasks into target task types
3. Derive pedagogic tasks
4. Sequence pedagogic tasks
5. Implement syllabus with appropriate methodology and pedagogy
6. Assess student achievement using task-based, criterion-referenced performance
tests.
Teacher empowerment:
T·e acher empowerment is the degree to which a teacher feels he has the ability to
affect change in his professional setting. In addition, empowerment is the degree to
which teachers feel they have control the ability to make those changes. Components of
empowerment have been identified to include self-reflection, control, collegial
relationships, confidence and instructional strategies. Teacher empowerment is one
aspect of teacher professionalism. To be recognized as a professional, teachers should
also be recognized as having some power in their professional settings (Johnston Carl
ｇｲ｡
ｾ ［ ･ｳ＠
II, 2002)
According to Maeroff ( 1988), teacher empowerment consists of i-1:1proved status,
increased knowledge and access to decision making. Short and Rinehart ( 1992 ) identify
six dimensions of teacher empowerment : Decision making, professional growth, status,
self-efficiency, autonomy, and impact. In a study devoted to the concept of teacher
empowem1ent, Short ( 1994) describes the six dimensions in detail. Decision making
refers to teachers ' participation in critical decisions that directly affect their work,
involYing issues related to budgets, teacher selection, scheduling, and cmTiculum. To be
effective, teachers ' participation in decision making must be genuine, and the teachers
need to be confident that their decisions actually impact real outcomes. Self-efficacy
refers to the teachers ' perception that they are equipped with the skills and ability to help
students learn and are competent to develop curricula for students.
98
Ｍ
Ｍｾ
Ｍ
Ｍ
DATA COLLECTION METHODS
For this purpose, semi-structured interviews and a questionnaire survey were
adopted as the bases for the needs analysis. Prior to collecting data, the literature on
business English especially English for travel arrangement was reviewed. Some of the
representative people in 12 Indonesian industries I foundations who use English in their
work are Kevit, Fonnula Trix, Kayu Arum, International School , Nusantara Tour and
Travel, Nayati, Kemasindo, Grand Candi Hotel, Alfa Link , Tyfountex , Satya Wacana
Chri stian University, and Forwarding Company. They were then interviewed and
ad mini stered the questionnaires.
This paper presents the findings of the study star1ing with the semi-structured
interviews and the questionnaires survey. The target English for travel aiTangement tasks
identified through the interviews and the questionnaire will be repor1ed in terms of their
frequencies , and the experiences and attitudes of some professionals in Indonesian
industries ,and also the common difficulties they have found when they have to perfonn
the language. ·
FINDINGS
English for Travel Arrangement Tasks pe1:f'or111ed by the 12 business ｰｎｾｦＧ･ｳｩｯｮ｡ｬ＠
in
Indonesian industries
Through the interviews, a variety of tasks were identified and classified into
per1inent target task types as shown in Table 1. The target tasks that each interviewee
listed were somewhat different from one another, depending on their company types and
job responsibilities. All the tasks that the interviewees listed were taken into
consideration for the purpose of developing a questionnaire that captured various target
business tasks as much as possible. It should be noted that although the identified tasks
were classified into the most pertinent target task types, many tasks were in fact
integrated and occurred simultaneously with the tasks from other target task types. For
instance, when a company wants to make a travel arrangement for the business, it did not
In addition, we need to
involve just looking at the brochure of a hotel I a travel ｡ｧｾｮ｣ｹＮ＠
call and ask about the things we need for the travel arrangement such as booking a hotel
by phone, and also confinning their booking by writing email, etc.
Table 1:
Target Task Types
CoiTespondence
Writing document
Business trips
Target Tasks
Writing Memos, Telephone Messages, Emails
Business letter - booking a room, booking a flight,
booking a flight, Writing itinerary , making a report
!>or the an·angement
Making a reservation, finding suitable flights, finding
suitable hotels.
In addition to asking about English for travel arrangement tasks, a question was asked
about how important the interviewees thought English was in performing their jobs. The
answers to this question is nearly the same from one company to the others. They think
that English is being absolutely important in performing job. For instance, the
99
interviewees mentioned that a good command of English was very important to obtain
new career opportunities such as getting promoted to higher position.
Throughout the interviews, the importance of the ability in speaking and writing
in English was addressed. Most of the professionals in Indonesian company were lack of
English language especiaJiy in writing and speaking. They are not really confident to
speak and write in English during their work.
A Jl!aterial design mddel
A task-based syllabus is concerned with purposeful actJvJtJes which learners
might be expected to engage in real-life situations. As Ellis ( 2003 ) points out, this type
of syllabus also puts emphasis on meaning and communication, where students are
primarily "users"' rather than "learners" of the language.
Based on the interviews now we can present a model which we have used for
\\'riting our own materials. The aim of this pmiicular model is to provide a coherent
framework for the integration of the various aspects of learning, while at the same time
allO\\·ing enough room for creativity and variety to flourish . The model consist of five
elements:
a. Challenging questions, -where the - students are motivated to answer questions
which are related to the topic discuss.
b . Warm up I review activities, is a review of the previous lessons
c. Presentation activities, is language focus, which aims to enable learners to learn
and use language, correctly.
d. Practice activities, is a time where students can practice what they have learnt
orally and also improve their writing skill.
e. Reflection Activities, is an evaluation to see whether the materials are suitable ,
well-made and can be understood by students or not.
DISCUSSION :
Through the semi-structured interviews and the questionnaires survey, various
target tasks were identified and classified into more abstract and super-ordinate target
task types. The tasks identified in this partieular study shows more comprehensive result
and at the same time, gives an idea of specified business English tasks focussing on
English for travel arrangement.
According to the survey results, most of the respondents seemed to acknowledge
the importance of English in performing their work, especially in speaking ability and
also writing ability. The credibility of the target tasks identified in the study was
triangulated using various sources and methods
From the findings, it can be identified that the most commonly use of the
language especially in English for making travel arrangement is writing memos,
telephone messages, booking hotels, making reports and also writing emails. Both in the
skills of speaking and writing are really important here. Even though reading
comprehension skill is also important especially in understanding travel brochures and
also hotel accommodation, but they realized that speaking and writing is more important
for their work.
100
By having the new model in designing the materials , the teachers should he
creative in transferring their knowledge and emphasizing in speaking and writing. The
materials should be taken from the real condition, so that it is easy to understand and
absorb the idea what is being taught by the teachers. In this case Empowering teachers is
very important , because by empowering the teacher, it will change the classroom and
change the teacher·s instructional practice drastically. Teachers can provide
differentiated instruction. ln the class the students can work independently ( at the level
at which they can ) to convey what they know and understand about the materials gi vcn.
At the same time the aims to teach business English communication skills
especially English for travel atTangemcnt, should be comprehensive enough, in terms of
business English tasks, in order to meet the needs and wants of the students.
As Hutchinson and Waters ( 1987) pointed out in their distinction among
necessities ( what learner has to know in order to function effectively in · the target
situation ), lacks ( the gap between vvhat the Ieamer knows already and the attainment
goals that the Ieamer needs to acquire), and wants (what the Ieamer wants to leam in the
course ), considerable discrepancies were found between the target tasks that the
professionals in the Indonesian industries performed at work using English and the task s
that they wanted to leam.
CONCLUSION
From this study, it shows that a teacher must leam new ideas and strategies
throughout his/her career. It is part of his /her professional development. Professional
development is always a never ending process. A teacher is always expected to empower
himself /herself with the new concepts in tune with the changing times. There is always
scope for further developments. One method may be suitable for one teacher but it may
not work for others. The English teacher is responsible to decide on his/her own
empowerment. Based on the material design model found in this research, It is hoped that
the instruction perfonned by the empowered teacher will give a better result for the
professionals who work in Indonesian companies where English is used in their working
environment.
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