An ESP Coursebook for Armenian tour guides

Abstract

Over the last few years, Armenia has become a popular tourist destination. Every year tourists from Russia, Italy, France, Germany, Iran and many other countries from numerous continents come to explore Armenia. Ancient churches, temples, historical monuments and museums, as well as a growing wine industry along with a rich cultural night life offer tourists a new venue looking for something different. In addition, hiking trails and alternate nature tourism is another aspect of tourism in Armenia that has become popular during the last decade offering a variety of sightseeing choices including nature trails. Since tour guides play an important role in “shaping tourists’ experience” (Huang et al, 2010, p. 3), and since English dominates the tourism industry all over the world, it is crucial to have good English-speaking tour guides who will be able to communicate effectively when presenting visitors to Armenia. This is one of the main reasons for designing an ESP coursebook for Armenian tour guides. The course book is designed to teach specific skills and vocabulary, such as speaking, listening and target vocabulary/phrases which the members of the tourism industry. Additionally, there is a conspicuous lack of English for Specific Purposes (ESP) courses for tour guides in Armenian universities, especially for professions which are not majoring in the English language. Most of the Armenian Universities offer ESP for lawyers or ESP for business. However, the field of tourism and hospitality only has EFL where general English is offered after the second year of studying. However, it is not effective since tour guides need to learn specific vocabulary or phrases, they also need to practice listening and speaking skills, along with improving their pronunciation to be able to communicate with English speaking tourists. Thus, the lack of ESP in Armenia affects professions, such as tour guides.