THE ENGLISH COMPETENCE OF FRONT-OFFICE HOTEL PERSONNEL A Thesis Presented to The Graduate Program in English Language Studies In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for The Degree of Magister Humaniora (M.Hum) In English Language Studies

  

THE ENGLISH COMPETENCE OF FRONT-OFFICE

HOTEL PERSONNEL

A Thesis

Presented to

  

The Graduate Program in English Language Studies

In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for

The Degree of Magister Humaniora (M.Hum)

In English Language Studies

  

By

Rindang Widiningrum

036332010

  

Sanata Dharma University

Yogyakarta

2008

STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY

  This is to certify that all the ideas, phrases, and sentences, unless otherwise stated, are the ideas, phrases, sentences of the thesis writer. The writer understands the full consequences including the degree cancellation if she took somebody else’s ideas, or phrases, or sentences without a proper reference.

  

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  I would like to express my gratitude to the following people. I would have never been able to finish my thesis without them.

• First of all, my Jesus Christ makes everything beautiful in its time. Because of Him, I could go through my ‘difficult’ life. Everything is possible in His way.
• I would like to express my gratitude to my supervisor, Bapak Bismoko. Thank you for your time and patience. I’ve been lost before, but with your patience you guide me to the right track.
• My thanks also go to all lecturers in the Graduate Program in English Language Studies. Pak Dwi, Pak Muk, Pak Alip, Pak Steve, Pak Pomo and others that I cannot mention one by one, thank you for sharing your knowledge. Thanks also to mbak Lely and mbak Hengky.
• All my friends at the ELS Program, mbak mauly, eny, and many others, I thank you for your friendship.
• My colleague in STiBA Satya Wacana, thank you for welcoming back and giving me the support.
• To all front officer in Laras Asri Hotel, especially Arif and Ambar, thank you so much for giving me the ‘data’. Success for you all guys.
• Last but not least, I would like to express my great thanks to my parents, my brothers for giving me the support and prayer. My thanks go to my husband for everything. My little boy (Ian alias Po), your mother is nothing without you. Thank you for your supporting sentence ‘Apakah kau sudah berusaha?’.

  Yogyakarta, April 2008 Rindang W

  

ABSTRACT

Rindang Widiningrum. 2008. The English competence of front office hotel personnel.

  Yogyakarta: English Language Studies. Graduate Program. Sanata Dharma University.

  A hotel is a place for many people who are away from home for many kinds of reasons, such as meeting, pleasure, seminar, and shopping. Many of these people are foreigners of different nation, who communicate mainly in English. When they need a place to stay, they will find a hotel, and the first people they communicate with are front office personnel. According to Linda, as stated in Master (1998), the English involved in helping a guest can be divided into three main areas. Those are when the guest arrives at the hotel, during the stay, and when the guest leaves the hotel. Front office personnel as persons who deal a lot with the guest must have good communication skills. They are required to be competence in accomplishing their job.

  Research on their required communication competence therefore is necessary. This study was particularly conducted to answer one research question: What English competence is required of hotel front office personnel?

  This was qualitative research within the aim to find the communicative competence of front office personnel. To get the data, the researcher conducted interview with people who have direct experienced with the work field. It means that they have the ‘lived experience’ (Patton, 2002). To do the data triangulation, the researcher also asked the participant to fill in the questionnaires, because not all of them were willing to be interviewed.

  This study was done in limited setting and it took place in Laras Asri Resort and

  

Spa Hotel as one of the big hotels in Salatiga. This research was involving only front-

desk officers. They were selected purposively for data richness and accessibility.

  The research results showed that the front office personnel must be competence in the four skills to communicate with the guests because they were the first persons to interact with the guests. Each skill has its own required competence based on the participant’ behavior, opinion, and feeling. In listening, the front office personnel must understand questions, instructions, and basic information about the hotel. In speaking, they can take and give information. In reading, they need to understand articles and report related to the hotel. While in writing, they need to write information correctly. It is expected that the lived-experience of the front office hotel personnel would improve understanding about their communicative competence in their job and ESP for them can be designed more effectively.

  ABSTRAK Rindang Widiningrum. 2008. The English competence of front office hotel personnel.

  Yogyakarta: English Language Studies. Graduate Program. Sanata Dharma University.

  Hotel adalah tempat bagi banyak orang yang sedang bepergian dengan berbagai macam alasan, seperti menghadiri pertemuan, piknik, seminar dan berbelanja. Banyak dari orang-orang tersebut yang merupakan orang asing dari Negara yang berbeda, yang menggunakan bahasa Inggris sebagai alat komunikasinya. Ketika mereka memerlukan tempat untuk tinggal sementara, mereka akan pergi ke hotel, dan orang pertama yang akan mereka ajak komunikasi adalah para pegawai front office. Menurut Linda, seperti yang terdapat dalam Master (1998), bahasa Inggris yang digunakan untuk membantu para tamu asing dapat dibagi dalam tiga bagian. Ketiga bagian itu adalah ketika tamu tiba di hotel, selama menginap, dan ketika tamu meninggalkan hotel. ‘Front officer’ sebagai orang yang sering berhubungan dengan para tamu, harus memiliki ketrampilan berkomunikasi yang baik. Mereka harus kompeten dalam melaksanakan tugasnya.

  Penelitian akan kebutuhan kompetensi komunikasi adalah perlu. Studi ini diadakan untuk menjawab sebuah pertanyaan. Pertanyaan dalam penelitian ini adalah kompetensi berbahasa Inggris apa yang diperlukan oleh pegawai ‘front office’?

  Ini adalah sebuah penelitian kualitatif dengan tujuan untuk mengetahui kompetensi komunikasi dari para pegawai ‘front office’. Untuk mendapatkan data, peneliti harus melakukan interview dengan orang-orang yang terjun langung dalam bidang tersebut. Hal ini berarti mereka memiliki ‘pengalaman hidup’ (Patton, 2002). Untuk triangulasi data, peneliti juga meminta partisipan untuk mengisi kuesioner, karena tidak semua participant bersedia untuk diwawancara.

  Studi ini terbatas dalam setting dan mengambil tempat di Laras Asri Resort & Spa Hotel sebagai salah satu hotel terbesar di Salatiga. Penelitian ini melibatkan hanya para pegawai ‘front office’. Mereka dipilih karena untuk ‘kekayaan data’ (data richness) dan kemudahan mendapatkannya.

  Hasil dari penelitian ini menunjukkan bahwa pegawai front office harus berkompeten dalam semua skill untuk berkomunikasi dengan tamu, karena mereka yang berhubungan langsung dengan para tamu. Masing-masing skill memiliki kompetensi masing-masing berdasar pada prilaku, opini, dan perasaan partisipan.Dalam mendengarkan, mereka diharapkan dapat memahami pertanyaan, instruksi dan informasi tentang hotel. Dalam berbicara, mereka dapat mencari dan memberi informasi. Dalam membaca, mereka memahami artikel dan laporan tentang hotel. Sedangkan menulis, mereka mampu menulis informasi secara benar. Diharapkan, pengalaman hidup (lived- experience) dari pegawai front office dapat menambah pengetahuan dan ESP untuk mereka bisa dibuat dengan lebih efektif.

  

TABLE OF CONTENTS

  20 2.1.3.2 Hotel Service…………………………………………………………...

  34 3.5 Data Analysis and Interpretation ……………………………………………….

  3.4.2 Questionnaire ………………………………………………………………

  34

  3.4 Data Gathering Instrument……………………………………………………… 33 3.4.1 Interview …………………………………………………………………...

  32

  3.3.2 Participants …………………………………………………………………

  31

  3.3 Data …………………………………………………………………………….. 31 3.3.1 Setting ……………………………………………………………………...

  3.2 Narrative ………………………………………………………………………... 30

  3.1 Method …………………………………………………………………………. 28

  CHAPTER 3 METHODOLOGY

  2.2 Theoretical Framework…………………………………………………………. 26

  24

  16 2.1.3.1 Hospitality Industry…………………………………………………….

  TITLE PAGE…………………………………………………………… ………... i APPROVAL PAGE ………………………………...………...……. ……………. ii THESIS DEFENSE APPROVAL PAGE ……………………………………….. iii STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY …………………………………………..…. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ………………………………………………………. v ABSTRACT ……………………………………………………………...………... vi ABSTRAK ………………………………………………………………………… vii TABLE OF CONTENTS …………………………………………..………..……. viii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS …………………………………………………….

  14 2.1.3 Front Office Personnel……………………………………………………...

  11 2.1.2 English Competence………………………………………………………..

  9 2.1.1.3 English as a World Language…………………………………………..

  8 2.1.1.2 English for Specific Purposes…………………………………………..

  6 2.1.1.1 English Communication Skill…………………………………………..

  2.1 Theoretical Review……………………………………………………………... 6 2.1.1 English Communication…………………………………………………….

  CHAPTER 2 LITERARY REVIEW

  1.5 Benefits of the Study …………………………………………………………… 5

  1.4 Research Goal and Objectives …………………………………………………. 4

  1.3 Problem Formulation …………………………………………………………... 4

  3

  1.1 Background …………………………………………………………………….. 1 1.2 Problem Identification ………………………………………………………….

  CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION

  X LIST OF EXTRACTS ……………………………………………………………. xi LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES ……………………………………………... xii

  35

  CHAPTER 4 DATA ANALYSIS

  4.1 The Use of English in the work field…………………………………………… 37 4.2 The level of performance……………………………………………………….

  45

  4.3 Experiences in handling guests…………………………………………………. 50

  4.4 Opinions about the four skills in communication………………………………. 52 4.4.1 Listening…………………………………………………………………….

  52 4.4.2 Speaking…………………………………………………………………….

  56 4.4.3 Reading……………………………………………………………………..

  59 4.4.4 Writing……………………………………………………………………...

  63

  4.5 Feelings about the four skills in communication……………………………….. 65 4.5.1 Listening…………………………………………………………………….

  65 4.5.2 Speaking…………………………………………………………………….

  67 4.5.3 Reading……………………………………………………………………..

  68 4.5.4 Writing……………………………………………………………………...

  70

  4.6 The relation between activities and skills………………………………………. 71

  4.7 Other findings…………………………………………………………………... 73 4.7.1 Front office personnel as front liner ……………………………………….

  73 4.7.2 Front Office Personnel as sales person……………………………………..

  74 CHAPTER 5 CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

  5.1 Conclusion ……………………………………………………………………... 76 5.1.1 Job Description …………………………………………………………….

  76 5.1.2 Front office competence ………………………………………………….

  77

  5.1.2.1 Listening ………………………………………………………………

  78

  5.1.2.2 Speaking ………………………………………………………………

  78 5.1.2.3 Reading ……………………………………………………………….

  79 5.1.2.4 Writing ………………………………………………………………..

  79

  5.2 Recommendations ……………………………………………………………… 80 BIBLIOGRAPHY ………………………………………………………………….

  81 APPENDICES ……………………………………………………………………... 84 Appendix A: Questionnaire Result……..…………………………………………... 85 Appendix B: First Interview……………………………………………………….. 103 Appendix C: Second Interview……………………………………………………... 110 Appendix D: Hotel Forms………………………………………………………….. 115 Appendix E: Blue Print……………………………………………………………... 117

  LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ESP : English for Specific Purposes HI : Hospitality Industry FO : Front Office R : Researcher

  LIST OF EXTRACTS Interview with 1

  st

  interviewee : 4.1, 4.3, 4.5, 4.6, 4.9, 4.10, 4.11, 4.13, 4.14, 4.16, 4.18, 4.19, 4.23, 4.24, 4.25, 4.27

  Interview with 2

  nd

  interviewee : 4.2, 4.4, 4.7, 4.8, 4.15, 4.17, 4.20, 4.21, 4.22 From Questionnaire : 4.12,

  4.26 LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES

Figure 2.1 : ESP ClassificationFigure 2.2 : Front Office Organizational ChartTable 2.1 : List of Communication SkillsTable 3.1 : Participants’ IdentificationTable 4.1 : Front Office ActivitiesTable 4.2 : The level of PerformanceTable 4.3 : Participants’ opinion on ListeningTable 4.4 : Participants’ opinion on SpeakingTable 4.5 : Participants’ opinion on ReadingTable 4.6 : Participants’ opinion on WritingTable 4.7 : Participants’ feeling on ListeningTable 4.8 : Participants’ feeling on SpeakingTable 4.9 : Participants’ feeling on ReadingTable 4.9 : Participants’ feeling on WritingTable 4.11 : Relation between activities and skills

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION This chapter tries to clarify the research question. In order to do so, its

  background, problem identification, problem formulation, research goals and objectives, and benefits of the study will be discussed.

1.1 BACKGROUND

  People went out from their house for many reasons. They might go for a short period of time, for example to eat in a restaurant for about one hour, or a long period of time. If they want to have a two-day seminar and the location is far from their house, surely they need a place to stay temporarily. Nowadays, the place or hotel is not only for local travelers, but also foreigners, because of globalization.

  Hospitality industry is said to be the fastest growing industry (Walker, 2002). Travel, Lodging, Foodservice, and Recreation are part of the industry.

  Hospitality Industry is said to give 200 million jobs, so it has a lot of chances for people to enter the industry. In the year of 2007, the work field in Indonesia related to hospitality industries increased to about 8,5 million, that is 8,8% from the whole work field (Yoeti, 1999).

  Hotel, as one part of hospitality industries, has many sub-divisions or departments. One of them is the front office department. In front office, the hotel employees directly receive guests whether they are domestic or foreigner. In order to be able to deal with guests especially foreigners, the front officers must have good communication skills and fluent in English, oral and written.

  In order to serve the guests, the hotel employees must know what the guests need. To know the need, they will have to do some researches but in a simple way, they can ask to the guests. Communication is the way to achieve that. Communication needs involve two parties that are the sender and the receiver. Both parties must have the same understanding about the message from the sender to the receiver. There are two kinds of communication, one-way communication and two-way communication. The language that is used to communicate depends on who the guest is. If the guests are from domestic, the language used will be Indonesia. If the guests are foreigners, English will be used to communicate. English is a worldwide language. It is interesting to know the English communication needs in the Hospitality industry.

  English for Specific Purposes (ESP) is a course in which the content is determined by the professional needs of the learners (Crystal, 1995). According to Evans (1998) ESP is divided into two categories, English for Academic Purposes (EAP) and English for Occupational Purposes (EOP). In EOP there are two sub sections: English for Professional Purposes and English for Vocational Purposes. Here, English for Hospitality Industries especially for front officers is placed in English for vocational Purposes, which is concerned with the language of training for specific occupations.

  The researcher intended to interpret the participants’ lived-experience. The researcher wanted to make clear description of the English competence that the employees must have. By knowing this, it will ease the employees to know which standard they are in now or which skills they need to improve. After that they can upgrade their skills in order to communicate better with their guests.

1.2 PROBLEM IDENTIFICATION

  This study focus especially in finding the English communication needs in starred hotel. Starred hotels usually have high intensity in using English to communicate, because many foreigners stayed there. Beside that, it will take a lot of time to do a research on all of the industries.

  As it was stated above, front office will be the target of this study. It is because front office personnel dealt directly with foreign guests, for example when the guests wanted to book a room or ask the direction to the room. They were also as the first persons that are reached by guests when the guests complain about something related to their stay in that hotel.

  The method that the researcher did was qualitative. It can be said that this gives an example of real people in real situations, enabling readers to understand ideas more clearly (Cohen et all, 2000). This research was done in a very limited setting. It is done by first doing literary research and find out the English used for the front officers. After that the researcher will have cross check with the employees in relation with the real situation that they faced in the field. This can be done by questionnaire and interviews.

  1.3 PROBLEM FORMULATION

  In this study, the researcher arose one question, that is: What English competence is required of hotel front office personnel?

  1.4 RESEARCH GOAL

  Based on the problem formulation above, there is one goal of the research. That is to interpret the English competence, which is required by hotel front office personnel.

  The followings are some objectives to achieve the goal: 1.

  To describe the participants’ activities in real life 2. To describe the participants’ opinion 3. To describe the participants’ feeling 4. To describe the participants’ understanding about their job

1.5 BENEFITS OF THE STUDY

  From the humanistic point of view, the participants’ lived-experience will improve their understanding of English competence in order to actualize their own potentials better. The researcher’s and research-report readers’ understanding will cause them to help participants better in acquiring required competence. Scientifically, better understanding may help improve the precision of explaining, predicting, and controlling participants’ English competence acquisition.

  The finding of this study hopefully can give input in the field of English for Specific Purposes, especially English for Hospitality Industries. Since nowadays this industry, especially hotel is becoming bigger, and the need to communicate in English is a must. The technological benefit of this study is that the institution offering the program could make an effective program, so that after the students finished studying the program, hopefully they can join to the world of Hospitality Industry and meet their qualifications.

CHAPTER 2 LITERARY REVIEW This chapter is related with the solution of the research problems. By

  reviewing the literature, we can get more knowledge and find bases for the answer of the problem. The purposes of this chapter are to clarify concepts and their interrelations and to use these concepts to help answer the research questions.

2.1 THEORETICAL REVIEW

  The sub headings that the researcher is going to discuss in the following paragraphs are: English communication, English Competence, and front office personnel.

2.1.1 ENGLISH COMMUNICATION

  The components of communication are the sender, message, medium, receiver, and feedback. Interaction is the head of communication and it is what communication is all about (Brown, 2001). People send messages, others receive them, and those people interpret the messages in a context. They negotiate meanings and collaborate to reach certain purposes.

  Today, in this global world, it is common for people to communicate with people outside their cultural group. Intercultural communication affects people in their personal and social lives, the classroom, and the workplace. Take for example in Hospitality Industries, there are many tourists came to Indonesia.

  They stay in hotels, then eat in a restaurant, travel using travel agent, and were guided by a guide. People in this industry need to communicate in English.

  Listening, speaking, reading, and writing are part of communication skills (Brown, 2001). English is learned as a tool for international communication in transportation, commerce, banking, tourism, technology, diplomacy, and scientific research. According to Brown (2001), “students will no doubt be more interested in the practical, non-stigmatized uses of English in various occupational fields in their own country than imitating American or British English.” They learn English in order to be able to use English for communicative, meaningful purposes.

  Communication will succeed if the sender can deliver the message to receiver. Both the sender and the receiver need communication skills in order to give and receive messages. They have good listening, speaking, reading and writing skills because the messages might be written or oral.

2.1.1.1 ENGLISH COMMUNICATION SKILL In the following, each skill related to communication will be discussed further.

  The skills can be categorized in two. Those are receptive and productive. Listening is a receptive skill because it is requires people to receive and understand incoming information (Nunan 2003). Historically, listening was ignored. With the rise of communicative language teaching in 1800s, the role of listening was increased. According to Nunan (2003: 26) Listening was seen as a

  . There were two views in acquiring

  major source of comprehensible input

  listening. Those are bottom up processing and top down processing. The difference is lied on the way learner attempted to understand what they heard. In bottom up processing, the learner started with the knowledge of vocabulary, grammar, and the like. While in top down processing, the learner started from their background knowledge.

  Reading, same with listening, is also considered as receptive skill. There was two major different according to Nunan. First, listening happened in real time, where you cannot review to unknown words. Second, listening is often needed response (productive) because it is sometimes in the middle of a conversation. While in reading, we have the ability to go back and find the meaning of difficult words. According to Nunan (2003: 68): Reading is a fluent

  

process of readers combining information from the text and their own

background knowledge to build meaning . For learners of English as a second

  language, reading is an important skill. It is important to learn in content class where reading in English is required.

  Speaking is one of productive skill. For many people, speaking is the hardest skill to acquire. There are two reasons as stated by Nunan (2003). The first reason is speaking happens in real time. The second reason is that when you speak, you cannot revise what you said like in writing. For many years, students were asked to repeated sentences from their teacher. With the communicative language teaching, learners should interact during lesson. So the lesson should consist of many opportunities for the learners to communicate in target language.

  Writing is a physical and a mental act. At the basic level, writing is a physical act. On the other hand, it is a mental work in getting ideas, organizing them into sentences and paragraph. The purposes of writing are to express and impress, because the writers serve themselves and the readers. Writing is both a process and a product. A process when the writer imagined a topic, made draft, edits. The reader saw it as a product to read.

2.1.1.2 ENGLISH FOR SPECIFIC PURPOSES

  In English for Specific Purposes (ESP), there are two main areas: English for Academic Purposes (EAP) and English for Occupational Purposes (EOP). In the EOP, there are two divisions: English for Professional Purposes and English for Vocational Purposes (Evans, 1998). Within the English for Vocational Purposes, there are two subsections: Vocational English and Pre-vocational English. The classification diagram is below.

  English for Specific Purposes

  English for Academic Purposes English for Occupational Purposes English for English for English for English for Englishfor English for

(Academic) (Academic) (Academic) Management Professional Vocational

Science and Medical Legal Finance and Purposes Purposes Technology Purposes Purposes Economics English for English for Prevocational Vocational

  Medical Business English English Purposes Purposes

  Figure 1 ESP Classifications (Evans, 1998)

  Vocational English is concerned with the language of training for specific trades or occupations, while Pre-vocational English is concerned with finding a job and interview skills. English for Hospitality Industries is a part of Vocational English, because it concerned with the language of training.

  According to Evans (1998) during the late 1960s until early 1970s, the focus of the ESP was written language. From the mid-1970s into the 1980s the focus was more to spoken interactions based on a grammatical. It gradually changed to a more functional. Materials were based on functions such as Greetings, Agreeing and Disagreeing. From the mid-1980s the materials were based on the actual situations such as meetings and telephone conversations.

  In conclusion, English for Hospitality Industries is part of vocational English. The researcher needs to focus on this part only, especially English that is used by front officers to communicate with foreign quests.

2.1.1.3 ENGLISH AS A WORLD LANGUAGE

  English has flourished and became a world language (Grimm in Crystal, 1995). By a world of satellites, televisions, radios and telephones, English will continue to flourish. There is tourism also that spread the language. In the seventeenth century, language was sea- and river-borne, moving at the speed of the fastest ship. English is the de facto international language of the Third World.

  It is an official language in some thirty-four countries (McCrum 1986). There are many English varieties now with local culture involved in it., such as Hong Kong-English, Singaporean-English, etc.

  The English spreading is visualized as three circles. Each circle represents each way in which the language has been acquired (Crystal, 1995). The inner circle refers to the traditional bases of English including the USA, the UK, Ireland, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. The outer circle refers to countries in which English has become part of the countries institution: Singapore, India, Malawi, and over 50 other territories. In those countries, English plays as ‘second language’. The expanding circle refers to countries, which acknowledge the importance of English as an international language. The countries, which are included in this circle are China, Japan, Israel, Greece, Poland, and other states.

  In these countries, English is treated as a foreign language.

  According to the German philologist Jacob Grimm in his lecture published in 1852: Of all modern languages, not one has acquired such great strength and vigour as the English … (it) may be called justly a LANGUAGE OF THE WORLD: and seems, like the English nation, to be destined to reign in future with still more extensive away over all parts of the globe. (Crystal, 1995)

  English is the dominant language in over 60 countries and is represented in every continent and in the three major oceans (Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific). This spread of English makes the term ‘world language’ a reality (Crystal, 1995). The status of English is the result of two factors: the expansion of British colonial and

  th

  the emergence of the United States as the leading economic power of the 20 century. The English of the United States, which is heard on television, films and radio, has become the voice of the First World in finance, trade, and technology (McCrum et al, 1986).

  The rise of English is a success story. Of all the world’s languages, English is the richest in vocabulary (McCrum et al, 1986). About 350 million people use English as a mother tongue. Three-quarters of the world’s mail, telexes, and cables are in English. In the computers, English is used as the information stored in it. Nearly half of all business deals are conducted in English.

  The journey of English has produced new Englishes, as it is stated by McCrum (1986). Among them are Caribbean English, Indian English, various forms of African English and Singapore English, which is known, sometimes as “Singlish”. It is also in other sectors, that in learning English, the culture of the mother tongue should be considered too.

  It is obvious that English is needed in many fields including hospitality industries. In this industry, people from all countries can communicate using English. So it is a must for people who wanted to join this industry to be able to use this language to communicate orally and written.

2.1.2 ENGLISH COMPETENCE

  A competency is a statement of what a student should be able to do consistently in a distinctive part of the curriculum and at a specified grade level (http://www.worldedreform.com/intercon/kedre9htm). In language learning for example in grammar, the competency states that the students should be able to write using the grammar they have been taught. So the standard of competency must be observable.

  Competencies are related to observable behaviors, which are important for the successful completion of real world activities. It makes as clear as possible what is to be achieved and the standards to measure achievement. Docking (1994:11) in Richards 2002, points out the relationship between competencies and job performance:

  A qualification or a job can be described as a collection of units of competency, each of which is composed of a number of elements of competency. ...An element of competency can be defined as any attribute of an individual that contributes to the successful performance of a task, job, function, or activity in an academic setting and / or a work setting. ..

  Based on the quotation above, competence in job can be shown in the performance in a work setting. It can be seen from his succeed in dealing with the task or the job.

  In second language acquisition, there is a term called “communicative competence”. This term was introduced by Dell Hymes as it is stated in Brown, 2000. According to Hymes:

  “…communicative competence as that aspect of our competence that enables us to convey and interpret messages and to negotiate meanings interpersonally within specific contexts.”

  In order to construct communicative competence, according to Canale and Swain (in Brown 2000), there are four different components to make it. Those are grammatical competence, discourse competence, sociolinguistic competence and strategic competence.

  Grammatical competence is the competence that we associate with mastering the linguistic code of a language, for example: lexical, syntax, and phonology. Discourse competence concern with intersentential relationships. It is the ability to connect sentences and to form meaningful utterances.

  Sociolinguistic competence requires social context understanding in which language is used, such as the roles of the participants, the information they share, and the function of the interaction. Canale and Swain described the last competence as “the verbal and nonverbal communication strategies that may be called into action to compensate for breakdowns in communication due to performance variables or due to insufficient competence.” In short, this strategic competence is the ability to cope with imperfect knowledge through paraphrase, repetition, avoidance, etc.

  Lyle Bachman modified Canale and Swain’s model of communicative competence (Brown, 2000). In his ‘language competence’, Bachman places grammatical and discourse competence under organizational competence. In pragmatic competence, he puts illocutionary competence that deals with functional aspects of language and Sociolinguistic competence that deals with politeness, formality and culture related. While strategic competence was put as a separate element of communicative language ability.

  Canale and Swain description on four elements of communicative competence might best described the intended meaning of competence. Those four elements are needed to communicate oral or written using the skills. In short, in this research, English competence is the ability to listen, speak, read and write in English, since the English here as the tool to communicate.

2.1.3 FRONT OFFICE PERSONNEL

  Many students are choosing careers in hotel industry, where English is the primary language of international communication, in accordance with the boom in the hotel industry and the availability of travel in these days. English for hotel need extensive practice with day-to-day spoken English, both formal and informal (Master, 1998).

  The front office personnel is required to use English to respond and to resolve any problem that might arise when the guest arrives at the hotel, during the stay, and when the guest leaves the hotel.

  According to Walker, front office has been described as the hub or nerve center of the hotel. It makes first impression on the guest who relies for information and service. As we know that many guests arrive at the hotel after long and tiring trips. They want to meet people who can help them with a warm smile and greeting.

  Front Office Manager Assistant Front Office Manager Uniformed Front desk Concierge Communication Reservation Service shift leader(s) Doorperson Front Desk Associates Bell persons

Figure 2.2 Front Office Organizational Chart (Walker, 2000)

  There are three main functions of the front office. The first is to sell rooms. In hotel, all departments work as a team, for example, after reservations office closes in the evening, all expected arrivals and available rooms are then handed over to the front desk. The second is to maintain balanced guests account.

  Here, the process begins with advance deposits, after that opening the guest account, and posting all charges from various departments. The third is to offer services such as handling mail, faxes, messages, and local and hotel information. Usually the guests come to the front desk with questions, so the front desk employees need to be knowledgeable about various activities in the hotel.

  In order to do their functions, the front office personnel should have skills that they need in order to communicate with the guests. According to English club.com, the skills are greeting, asking information, giving information, giving direction, and offering help. The detail description of skills was given in Certificate in English for Hotel and Restaurant Purposes (2006). Below are the statements that are in the handbook based on each skill.

Table 2.1 List of Communication skills (2006)

  NO SKILL Competence

  1. Listening The Employee can understand: questions and instructions in standard language standard information, requests and inquiries relating to areas of responsibility in hotels and restaurants routine customer inquiries if standard language is used basic information concerning own area of work the gist of announcements and messages