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
STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY
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?’.
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.
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.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
TITLE PAGE……… ………... i
APPROVAL PAGE ………...………...……. ………. ii
THESIS DEFENSE APPROVAL PAGE ……….. iii
STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY ………..…. iv
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ………. v
1.2 Problem Identification ………. 3
1.3 Problem Formulation ………... 4
1.4 Research Goal and Objectives ………. 4
1.5 Benefits of the Study ……… 5
CHAPTER 2 LITERARY REVIEW 2.1 Theoretical Review………... 6
2.1.1 English Communication………. 6
2.2 Theoretical Framework………. 26
CHAPTER 3 METHODOLOGY
3.4 Data Gathering Instrument……… 33
3.4.1 Interview ………... 34
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
5.2 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
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
ESP : English for Specific Purposes HI : Hospitality Industry
FO : Front Office
LIST OF EXTRACTS
LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES
Figure 2.1 : ESP Classification
Figure 2.2 : Front Office Organizational Chart Table 2.1 : List of Communication Skills Table 3.1 : Participants’ Identification Table 4.1 : Front Office Activities Table 4.2 : The level of Performance
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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
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.
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 major source of comprehensible input. There were two views in acquiring 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.
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
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
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
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)
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.
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.
“…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.
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.
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
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.
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 2. Reading The employee can understand:
information in advertisements, brochures, articles concerned with field of work straightforward letters and standard texts such as appointments and invitations, standard letters and inquiries concerned with hotels and restaurants
articles and reports concerned with hotels and restaurants important information and details in all the above texts 3. Speaking The employee can:
give information about own place of work, company, hotel or restaurant, face to face or on the telephone
make arrangements and decisions using familiar language describe his/her work and comment on this
manage typical situations which occur at work ask questions concerning situations occurring at work give reasons for opinions/actions/decisions
4. Writing The employee can:
complete details in questionnaire or form take a telephone message
pass on/ask for factual information by letter, fax or email, making the important points clear
write a text on a subject in own specialist area, making the main points clear write a CV in table form
In conclusion, in front office especially front desk, the hotel employees need to master communication skills and language function appropriate to the field. This is necessary because they are in direct contact with the guests. They also must master English, because some guests came from other countries, and English can be used to communicate.
2.1.3.1 HOSPITALITY INDUSTRY
The hospitality and tourism industry is the largest and fastest growing industry in the world (Walker 2002). This industry is made up of many different professions. Hospitality Industry is a made up businesses that service people who are away from home.
The scope of Hospitality Industry, according to Walker (2000) is Travel, Lodging, Foodservice, and Recreation. Automobile, Coach, Rail, Cruise and air are part of the travel system. Hotel, motels are included in Lodging. In the Foodservice, there are restaurants and foodservice. Attractions, Gaming, Parks are belonged to Recreation part.
The Hospitality business is opened 365 days a year and twenty-four hours a day, because they are in services. Walker (2000) stated that there are 4 characteristics of Hospitality Industry. First, the industry depends on shift work. Usually there are 4 shifts: from 7 A.M., the mid shift from 10 A.M. to 7 P.M. The evening shift starts at 3 P.M. and goes on until 11.30 P.M. Finally there is a ‘graveyard shift’ which starts at 11 P.M. and lasts until 7.30 P.M. The second characteristic of this business is intangible, because the product of this industry is service and guest satisfaction. The third one is inseparability of production and consumption of the service product due to each quest’s demands. The last one is the perishability of the product. For example, there are 1.400 rooms available to sell, but we only sell 1.200 rooms, so we have lost 200 rooms and their revenue.
provides job opportunities to many people, who help to make reservations, greet, assist, and serve the guests.
There is a paradigm shift in corporate American hospitality (Walker, 2002). The shift is from the emphasis of the production aspect of the business to the focus on guest-related services. Giving a satisfaction service to the guest is a very difficult task. We never learnt that in school. To serve is to provide goods and services. The main point in teamwork is, someone in the back is serving someone in the front, who is serving guest.
In the following paragraphs, these industries, which are divided into three main parts, will be discussed further. Those are tourism, lodging (hotel), and restaurant.
According to Walker (2002) “Tourism is a dynamic, evolving, consumer-driven force and is the world’s largest industry if all of its interrelated components are placed under one umbrella, travel, lodging, foodservice and recreation.” There is interdependency between those components. People go to a place and stay in a hotel, ate in a restaurant, went to some interesting places using transportation (travel agent).
shopping facilities. Customers in the recreation places expect some information about those places. They will get it from the guide. A guide is a person who knows about the history of the place.
In the United States, the American Automobile Association (AAA) classifies hotels by diamond award, while the Mobile Travel Guide offers a five-star award (Walker, 2002). In Indonesia, the rating uses the five-five-star award. Hotels may be classified also according to location, price, and type of service offered.
In the management structure, we have General Manager who is responsible for the performance of the hotel and also its employees. Below GM, there is the executive committee. This committee includes directors of human resources, food and beverage, rooms division, marketing and sales, engineering, and accounting. The structure of the management in large, mid scale, and small is different. The bigger the hotel, the management structure will be more complex.
dessert and suggest after-dinner drinks. The server should master the menu, if the guests need an explanation, and also have a good communication skill. From the description, we can conclude that in this industry English is needed, because it can be said as a universal language. In hospitality industry, communication is an important factor, because in serving the guests, good communication skill is needed.
2.1.3.2 HOTEL SERVICE
The word ‘hotel’ was started to be used since 18 century in London (Arief, 2005). This word was taken from the word ‘hostel’ from France. It was a big house, which was equipped with facilities to be rented daily, weekly, or monthly.
According to SK Menparpostel no. KM.34/HK,103/MPPT-87, as it is cited by Arief, 2005:
“Hotel adalah suatu jenis akomodasi yang mempergunakan sebagian atau seluruh bangunan untuk menyediakan jasa pelayanan penginapan, makan dan minum serta jasa lainnya bagi umum, yang dikelola secara komersial serta memenuhi ketentuan persyaratan yang ditetapkan di dalam Keputusan Pemerintah”.
It is clear that hotel is a commercial business that must be for public. A hotel must have at least three kind of facilities or product. Those are: accommodation, food and beverages, and also 24 hours of service.
A hotel has a primary function that is to provide lodging accommodation. It needs cooperation of a large and diverse group of people. Each hotel has its own functions and departments, depends on how large the hotel is or the types of hotel. A general manager usually runs a large hotel and key executives who head major departments. Those departments are rooms division, food and beverage, marketing and sales, human resources, accountant, and engineer or facility (Walker, 2000).
In this paper, the researcher will focus only on the front office department, especially the personnel’s competence. Front office is part of rooms division. The followings are activities that are usually done by front officers: “greet guests as they arrive at the hotel, escort them to the front desk, and then personally allocate the room and take the guest and luggage to the room.” (Walker, 2000) Those practices belong to guest service associate (GSA).
2.2 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
Lived-experience is what people in a particular group directly experience in their life. It is what other people try to investigate and interpret in narrative.
As front office personnel, they have to realize that they are in the hospitality industry in which it considered that guest is the king and a business partner. Because hotel business depends on the amount of guest stayed, so, as the nerve of the hotel, the front office personnel must have good communication skill in order to give the best service and pleased the guest. If the guests were satisfied with the first stayed, they will surely come for the second, the third and etc.
In performing their duty, the front office personnel need to improve their communication skill day by day. The communication skills are related closely to the four skills, which are used to communicate. Those are listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Although not all of those skills used, but those skills sometimes integrated in order to reach the goal of communication.
To find out the English competence of front office personnel, we need to go to the work place and find out the answer. Involving those personnel as participant is a must, in order to get their lived-experience.
CHAPTER 3
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
In this chapter, the researcher elaborates the method in order to solve the research question empirically.
3.1 METHOD
In designing a research, there are three concepts to be considered according to Creswell (2003). They are knowledge claims, strategy of inquiry and method of data collection and analysis. A group of researchers claim knowledge through a participatory approach. These researchers believed that a research should contain an action agenda for reformation (Creswell, 2003). The participants are involved actively in the research. It should change the lives of the participants and their surrounding, such as the place where they work, and even it may change the life of the researchers.
The second consideration is the strategies of inquiry. It provides specific direction of procedures in a research design. In qualitative research, there are some strategies, i.e. ethnography, grounded theory, etc. In this research the researcher used narrative research. Clandinin and Connely in Creswell (2003) stated that:
about their lives. The information is the retold or restoried by the researcher into a narrative chronology. In the end, the narrative combines views from participant’s life with those of the researcher’s life in a collaborative narrative.
The third one is the specific methods of data collection and analysis. Researchers got data from the use of instruments (such as questionnaire), tests or by observation. The types of data can be numeric or text information depended on the research approach.
A qualitative research is conducted in a “normal” situation, which reflects everyday life of individuals, groups, societies, and organization. Usually it is done through an intense contact. By doing qualitative research, the researcher can see chronological flow and see which events led to which consequences. Beside that, the researcher also can get some knowledge beyond phenomenon. It tries to portray ‘what it is like’ to be in a particular situation, to catch the reality of participants’ lived experience of, thoughts about and feelings for a situation (Cohen, 2000).
3.2 NARRATIVE
In phenomenology, we try to find out what the world reality means to the participant. As it is stated in Patton, 2002:
… is a focus on exploring how human beings make sense of experience and transform experience into consciousness… thoroughly capturing and describing how people experience some phenomenon – how they perceive it, describe it, feel about it, judge it, remember it, make sense of it, and talk about it with others.
So, this research focused on how we put together the phenomena we experience in such a way as to make sense of the world. Patton also mention that a phenomenological study is the study that focuses on descriptions of what people experience and how it is that they experience what they experience.
Qualitative data is in the form of words. This data is gathered based on observation, interviews or documents. This kind of data usually occurs in natural setting. In accordance, it has its richness and enables the researcher to make thick descriptions. Qualitative data also can be supplement to validate, explain or interpret quantitative data from the same setting.
3.3 DATA
Setting and participants of this research were described in the following.
3.3.1 SETTING
This study was conducted in Salatiga. To be more specific, was in Laras Asri Hotel in Salatiga. This hotel is equal to four star hotels and it has a resort concept and spa. Reason for choosing this city is because the researcher live in this area and Laras Asri Hotel as one of the biggest hotel in Salatiga.
As we know that although Salatiga is a small town, but there are many foreigners here. We also have one International School. The visitors are also those foreigners that came from Asia, such as Korea, Japan and also from western, such as America.
3.3.2 PARTICIPANTS
As it was stated before in the Introduction that this research is very limited in setting, so the number of participant also limited. The participants of this research were 6 front officers from the Front Office Department.
According to Patton, 2002:
There are no rules for sample size in qualitative inquiry. Sample size depends on what you want to know, the purpose of the inquiry, what’s at stake, what will be useful, what will have credibility, and what can be done with available time and resources.
Table 3.1: Participants’ Identification
NO NAME/INITIAL SEX AGE WORK SINCE EDUCATTION
1. Marta Female 24 14 December
2007
D4 Perhotelan
2. John Male 29 2006 D1 Perhotelan
3. Ken Male 21 15 February
2005
D1 Perhotelan
4. Marcel Male 23 July 2006 College student
5. Andy Male 28 2006 Senior High
School 6. Paulo Male 28 30 August 2004 DIII
3.4 DATA GATHERING INSTRUMENTS AND DATA PRESENTATION To get the data, the researcher needs instruments. These instruments were needed to help the researcher to get thick description. The instruments of this research were questionnaire and interview.
to know their lived experience concerning the English competence, there are six kinds of questions that can be asked on any given topic according to Patton. But here, the researcher only used four of six, because those four kinds of questions are enough to find out the lived experience of the participants. Those are: behavior (what people experience or action), opinion (people’s judgment, intention), feeling (emotions), and knowledge (respondents’ factual information).
3.4.1 INTERVIEW
Only two employees were willing to be interviewed during their free time. The first interview was held on December 29, 2007 in her boarding house and it was recorded. The second interview was held on January 14, 2008. The interview was held to get the deep understanding about the lived experience and also about the questionnaire that they have filled before. They are the front office personnel who filled the questionnaire that the researcher has given before. The interviewees are the first is Marta (female) and the second is Marcel (male).
3.4.2 QUESTIONNAIRE
There were six (6) front office personnel that can be given the questionnaire. The questionnaires were given on December 19, and collected on December 28 2007. The first part of the questionnaire is their personal identity and the second part of the questionnaire is the open-ended questions. There are 8 points that the researcher ask, included their understanding, action, intention and feeling about their lived experience and about the four skills in communication.
3.5 DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION
Qualitative data is what happens in a particular social setting, which is in a particular place and among a particular group of people (Holliday, 2002). Data is what the researcher sees and hears in the field, and it is collected and recorded. Qualitative research also uses interviews and questionnaires. According to Holliday:”… that observation notes, research diaries, interviews and questionnaires are not types of data, but devices for collecting it.”
Before analyzing the data, we need to compile the data. According to Brown and Rodger, 2002:
CHAPTER 4
DATA ANALYSIS
In this chapter, the researcher presented the data thematically. This chapter is the anchor of this thesis, because the discussion and the analysis of data are in this chapter.
4.1 THE USE OF ENGLISH IN THE WORK FIELD
English is prerequisite to be the front office personnel. Front office personnel to communicate with foreign guests used it. Even though English was really needed, the use of it depended on the shift that the front office personnel have. Each shift has different characteristic.
Extract 4.1 Interview
R : Ada berapa shift dulu deh? [R : How many shifts are there?]
Marta : Ada 3 shift ..e sebentar … pagi, middle, siang, malam, ya bisa dibilang 3. Jam 7, jam 10, jam 12, jam 3, jam 11, lima .. bisa dibilang 5 … 5 shift, tapi kalo itu untuk laki-laki, kalo perempuan paling cuman 4, karena perempuan tidak mungkin ditaruh di yang masuk jam 11 malam, jadi paling malem itu jam setengah sebelas jadi masuk jam 3 kalo perempuan.
[Marta : There are 3 shifts..e..wait a minute…morning, middle, noon, night, yes, it is three. 7 am, 10 am, 12 pm, 3 pm, 11 pm, five…it can be said five…five shifts, but that’s for men. For women there are only 4, because women can not be put in the 11 pm shift. For women the latest shift is 3 pm, so they can come home at 10.30 pm.]
From the extract 4.1 Marta did not really sure with her answer, whether there were three, four or five shifts. While according to the second interviewee (Marcel), the hotel has 3 shifts, which were started from 7 am until 3 pm, after that 3 pm until 11 pm, and the last shift or graveyard shift is started from 11 pm until 7 am.
Extract 4.2 Interview
R : Ada berapa shift yang ada disitu? [R : How many shifts are there?]
[Marcel: There are 3 shifts, 7 am until 3 pm, 3 pm until 11 pm, 11 pm until 7 am.]
From extract 4.1 and 4.2, although the question from the researcher was the same and they both worked in the same place but the answers were a little bit different. The differences probably occurred because if we look back to the respondents’ identification, the two respondents have different job experience in relation with the length of time in which they have worked in that hotel. Marta has worked for fifteen days at the time of interview (December, 29, 2007) while Marcel has worked for one and a half year.
From the questionnaire in the Appendices, below were the activities that they did in their work field in which they use their English to communicate with foreigners.
Table 4.1 Front Office Activities
Activities Taken from Appendix
Answering telephone (telephone courtesy) A1, A3, A6
Process of check in and check out A1, A2, A4, A5, A6
Explaining hotel products A2, A4
Correspondence (letter, memo) A2, A4
Confirmation process A4 Taking the guests to their room, to downtown, to work A5
Showing (hotel tour) A5, A6
Handling complaints A6
The data above was taken from the questionnaires. The left column was about the activities, which the front office personnel did in relation with communication with foreigners.
From the table above (4.1), the front office personnel agreed that they use their English mostly in the check in and check out process. There were five participants who wrote in their questionnaires (in Appendices) that the process of check in and check out is the common activities when they use English. In the interview with Marta, she also said that she used English only in check in and check out process.
Extract 4.3 Interview
R : E…pertanyaan terakhir, selama di reseptionis disini e.. pekerjaan..atau kegiatan yang hubungannya dengan bahasa Inggris dengan tamu asing
Marta : Ya, Cuma itu aja paling check in, check out. Kalo check out, Cuma, “check out sir, what your number e…room number? Itu aja udah, dia sebutin nomor, buka billing trus menyampaikan kekurangannya itu aja, kekurangan yang harus dia bayar trus print udah itu aja.
[Marta : I think, they ares only check in and check out. When the guests want to check out, I just said, “Check out sir, what your number e…room number? He mentioned the number; I give him the bill and told him how much he had to pay. After he paid, we printed the receipt. Finish.]
This argument also supported by Marcel through the interview. He said that in front office, actually the major jobs that related to communicate with foreign guests were quite simple. Those were basically checked in and check out.
Extract 4.4 Interview
R : e… berarti bahasa Inggris yang digunakan Cuma … ini ya … [R : e…so it means that the English used was only for…]
Marcel : Sebagian besar Cuma ya check in – check out.
[Marcel: Most of the time, it is used only for check in – check out]
process. Handling reservation is part of receptionist job, especially if there were no reservation personnel, as it was stated in the interview with Marta.
Extract 4.5 Interview
Marta : …apalagi kalo seperti dia mau ngecek reservasi atau mau konfirmasi atau mau melakukan reservasi, karena di reseption itu juga multi karena reservasinya kan satu orang, jadi otomatis kita juga harus mbantu reservasi.
[Marta : …furthermore, if he/she wanted to check the reservation or confirm, or do the reservation, because there’s only one person in reservation, so as receptionist, we have to help the reservation.]
Extract 4.6 Interview
Marta : Tidak ada komunikasi, tidak ada percakapan, dan jarang juga tamu mampir itu untuk ngobrol itu … gitu jadi ya itu aja, trus paling … menyampaikan informasi, trus mungkin Tanya swimming pool atau restaurant. Tanya bukanya jam berapa atau ada acara apa, gitu aja .
[Marta : There is no communication, no conversation, and it is very rare that the guest stopped by at the receptionist to have a chat. We just give information, for maybe they asked about the swimming pool or restaurant, or maybe they asked what time it opened and if there were any special occasions.]
In short, what happened in the front office was two-way communication, where there were two parties involved, sender and receiver. It can be said that it was a question and answer session only, where mostly the guests asked information and the front office personnel responded by giving the answer of the guests’ questions. Like it was stated also by the second interviewee, that the front office personnel only interact with guest in the form of question and answer.
Extract 4.7 Interview
Marcel : …Sebenarnya simple kalau di front office tu ya, yang ini … yang disini check in-check out sih bu. Cuman disebagian hotel dibedakan antara billing dan kasir, jadi mungkin di hotel lain lebih simple dari ini. Mereka Cuma Tanya, bapak check in nya kamar ini, jenisnya ini, atas nama ini, udah gitu aja.
So from the first data analysis, we can get description about the work setting. The relation between the shifts and the specific activities was revealed from the interview with Marcel.
Extract 4.8 Interview
Marcel : Kalau shift pagi biasanya mereka ketemunya lebih besar ke check out nya …kita menanyakan billing, tambahan konsumsi. Terus pertanyaannya, kapan mau balik lagi ke hotel?
[ In morning shift, mostly we handle check out process, we ask the bill, additional thing. Then the queston is, when will you return to the hotel?]
Jam 3 mereka biasanya lebih menghadapi ke check in nya bu. Mereka check in, check in time kan jam 2 siang, Mereka biasanya, check in aja prosesnya mungkin memastikan apakah pesan kamarnya tepat, mungkin dalam bentuk set up bed, queen atau twin, trus jenis kamar, terus lagi konfirmasi masalah harga dan metode pembayarannya.
[ At three p.m. they usually handle check in process, because check in time is 2 p.m. They confirm the reservation, whether the guests have the right room or not, such as the type of the room, then the price and payment method.]
Yang malem, mereka closing, jadi istilahnya nutup bill…closing bill…ndak ada komunikasi kalau malem sama sekali, hanya check billing aja bu.
In conclusion, each shift has its own specific activities that the front office personnel must handle. In the hotel, the check in time is 2 p.m. and the check out time is 12 p.m. Therefore, morning shift personnel (7 a.m. until 3 p.m.) usually handled check out process and afternoon shift personnel (3 p.m. until 11 p.m.) handled check in time, while the grave yard shift handled the closing.
4.2 LEVEL OF PERFORMANCE
Based on the questionnaire from six participants, each has different opinion about which performance is easier than others. But if we related to the first point of Chapter IV, the discussion in this part related closely to the previous point. When the participants thought that it was easy, it means that their English competence was good at that point. On contrary, if they thought that it was not easy, it could be said that they have difficulty in performing their English competence. It might be that their skills in communication were limited in those activities, and surely it as related to the skills that they mastered.
Table 4.2 Level of Performance
Appendix Easiest (1) Hardest (6)
A1 When the guests want to sign or pay When the guest (by phone) want to be pick up
courtesy) A4 When we talk to foreign guest Correspondence A5 Taking the guest to their room Showing/hotel tour
A6 Check in process Handling complaint
From the questionnaire in Appendix A1 point 2.3.g, Marta wrote that she couldn’t understand guests’ intention because they talked too fast and it seemed that the guests were impatient. In the interview with her, she said:
Extract 4.9 Interview
Marta : … saya bisa, tapi yang by telephone minta pick up itu dari PT. K, karena memang orangnya tegangan, emosian gitu jadi saya nervous dulu trus saya lempar ke senior. Ngomongnya ndak jelas, jadi saya bingung, trus udah gitu memang sudah digaris bawahi K itu harus dengan cepat gitu lo, jadi langsung begitu dengar K, langsung saya lempar.
[Marta : …I can, but the person from PT. K, who asked to be picked up by phone, was a tempered man. Since he made me nervous, I gave the phone to my senior. He spoke unclearly, so I was confused. It was true that we have underlined PT. K. It meant that we have to give response quickly, so when I heard PT. K., I directly gave it to my senior.]
solution in Indonesian. Finally, we translated from Indonesia to English to be delivered to the guests. This also supported by Marta in the interview:
Extract 4.10 Interview
R : La, kalo menghadapi komplain, ada komplain kan mestinya beri jalan keluar
[R : So, when you were dealing with complaint, you gave the solution.]
Marta : Kita mendengarkan dulu, kalau komplain kan sudah pasti kan ya ini berarti harus listeningnya yang bagus karena tamu komplain kan otomatis kan dia bisa jadi loss control ngomongnya yang blabla.. dan kita mendengarkan itu kan mendengarkan sambil memahami, sesudah dia selesai ngomong baru kita apologize dulu minta maaf mengakui kesalahan kita, kesalahan siapapun harus kita yang akui kan gitu mengakui kesalahan kita baru setelah itu kita memberikan solusi, kalo memang kita belum mampu kita minta tolong dia untuk tunggu sebentar kita panggil atasan kita. Biasanya begitu
[Marta : First, we listened. If there was a complaint, we have to listen carefully. The guests might loss control and talked blablabla…while we were listening, we also have to understand. After he finished the talk, we apologized and admitted the fault. We have to admit that it was our mistake even though other people did it. After that we gave solution. If we cannot handle it, we asked him to wait while we called our supervisor.]
Marta : Ya..sudah pasti susah ya, karena otomatis khususnya buat saya yang bahasa inggrisnya ndak bagus gitu otomatis pada saat orang komplain kan tidak bisa kita ajak mencari bahasa lain untuk bisa saling memahami jadi mau tidak mau kita harus memahami itu yang paling susah, karena sudah pasti banyak yang tidak saya pahami kalo orang komplain dalam bahasa Inggris
[Marta : Yes, it was definitely difficult. For me, whose English is not very good, when they complained we couldn’t find other kind of communication. Whether we like it or not, we have to understand it . That was the hardest part, because there were so many things that I did not understand when people complained in English.]
When the researcher asked about what she did in dealing with complaint, the answer was almost the same with Paulo. She said, that in dealing with complaint, she must listen carefully to the guests, because usually when the guests complaint, they sometimes loss control, so they tend to speak fast and unclear because of the emotion. While listening, she tried hard to understand the problem, and after that she apologized. Anybody’s mistake must be admitted and then gave solution. If she cannot finish it, she will ask the guests to wait for a moment and called the supervisor.
According to the second interviewee, it was simple because they only asked standard questions from the form when they handled the check in and check out process. This statement also supported by Marta.
Extract 4.11 Interview
Marta : Kalo kita menguasai bahasa Inggris sudah pasti semuanya gampang apalagi memberikan informasi itu lebih gampang, karena otomatis kan Tanya jawab, kalo memberikan informasi kan tamu Tanya swimming pool ada berapa, dimana letaknya, kan Tanya jawab kan , kalo kita penguasaan bahasa inggrisnya bagus itu otomatis ini gampang tapi kalo seperti untuk saya e..mungkin yang reservasi lebih gampang karena yang ditanyakan baku kan. Hari kapan jadi sudah baku, sana tinggal jawab untuk tiga hari mulai dari tanggal ini check out tanggal ini, saya perlu satu kamar bed besar..paling gitu aja.
[Marta : If we can speak English, it is definitely that everything is easy. Giving information is easier, because it is only question and answer session. For example, when the guest asked how many swimming pool and where they are, we just give the answer. For me, maybe dealing with reservation is easier because what being asked are in the form, such as the date, how long, the type of room.]
4.3 EXPERIENCES IN HANDLING THE GUEST
In this part, the researcher would like to tell the experiences from the respondent in handling the guest. Not all of the activities in point 4.1, were discussed in this part, because the participants also did not complete the questionnaires they collected.
Extract 4.12 From Appendix A6
Showing/hotel tour : ada pernah ketika 1 keluarga dari Eropa timur showing, berhubung tamu tidak begitu fasih berbahasa Inggris, jadi harus menjelaskan 2-3 kali, bahkan beberapa kali pakai bahasa tarzan.
[Showing/hotel tour : there was once, when one family from East Europe joined the hotel tour. They were not very fluent in English, so we have to explain 2 or 3 times, and sometimes we even have to use ‘bahasa tarzan’.]
So, when the guests cannot speak or understand English well, the respondent must explain two or three times, and also he had to use ‘bahasa tarzan’ (tarzan language). It means that body language also involved in the communication, not only the four kills. In Tarzan’s story, Tarzan was a baby who lived in a jungle and being raised by a mother gorilla, so he could not speak and act like human although he was a human. When he grew up, he met human and Tarzan tried to communicate using body language.
Extract 4.13 Interview
Marta : Kalo ketemu langsung itu kita bisa pake bahasa tarsan atau paling nggak gini untuk menjelaskan muter itu kan kita agak2 enak hati tapi kalo ditelpon kan harus yang tepat gitu lo, karena kan by itelpon kan nggak enak menjelaskan berpanjang-panjang, muter-muter, tapi kalo ketemu langsung gini kan ini dia nggak mudeng bisa pake seperti ini lo, seperti ini lo..pake penggambaran gitu lo…biasanya gitu trus kena gitu. Seperti waktu saya di horizon kan saya..saya di service waitress tapi yang western, jadi special western , otomatis kebanyakan tamu yang kesitu kan tamu2 asing yang untuk makan steak, itu dinner …
[Marta : When we met face to face, we can use ‘bahasa tarzan’ or it’s ok to talk winding around, but on the phone, we have to talk precisely what we meant. It’s rather confusing to talk about something in a long way. If we met face to face, we can use the description. It is usually understandable. Take for example, when I was in ‘H’ hotel. I was as a waitress for western specialty, so most of the guests were foreigner who wanted to have steak, dinner…]
She also mention the same term with Paulo, that was ‘ bahasa tarzan’. Probably this term was a special term for front office personnel when they cannot use English to communicate with foreign guests. In other words, they also use body language to send the messages in the communication process with foreigners.
Actually, there were many experiences in the questionnaire of the six participants, but they did not give clear enough explanation, so the researcher found it difficult to retell the story. Probably this was one of the weaknesses of questionnaire; it cannot give clear description of the matter.
4.4 OPINION ABOUT THE FOUR SKILLS IN COMMUNICATION
Opinion is what people think about something. Below is the respondents’ opinion about each skill.
Listening
Below is the result of the participants’ opinion on listening. Table 4.3 Participants’ opinion on Listening
Opinion Appendix It is very important, but the problem here is too many
different dialects from different country.
A1
It is sometimes difficult to differentiate guests’ voices because the vocabularies are almost the same.
A2
It is very needed to start the interaction and communication to foreign guests.
A3
Sometimes it is difficult to know unclear words because they (foreign guests) speak too fast.
A4
By listening carefully, we can directly understand what they want.
From the table above, most of the participants agreed that listening, as a part of communication process was very important. The first respondent mentioned about different dialect, which she explored also in the interview.
Extract 4.14 Interview
R : kalo Korea itu susah ndak bahasa Inggrisnya? [R : Is it difficult to understand the Korean English?]
Marta : e…agak susah ya, memang .. memang orang korea, orang Taiwan ... jenis orang cina2 gitu, bahasa inggrisnya biasanya kan pake ngikut lafal mereka gitu, jadi agak sulit gitu, trus kalo India ada, India kemarin ada..ada tapi..indianya masih mending India kalo untuk bahasa inggrisnya kan masih bisa didengar gitu, tapi kalo yang korea dan cina kan ada ikut … ikut aksen2nya mereka..jadi sulit..
[Marta : Yes, it was rather difficult…Korean, Thailand, so basically Chinese, they speak English in their accent. Yesterday, there were people from India, but their English is more understandable compared to Chinese English.] R : Tamunya sering Asia ya?
[R : Did the guests mostly come from Asia?]
[Marta : Yes, there were also people who didn’t come from Asia. When we heard American or British English, we can understand it. But if we see ‘bule’ (foreigner), like for example, foreign from Italy, they spoke different English. Because they have different accent, which has ‘o’ in every word.]
As it was stated before, that in listening they have difficulties in recognizing dialects, like in the above description, she has a difficulty in understanding English spoken by Korean and Chinese because of their dialect. For Italian, they usually speak English with many ‘o’. So, every nation has its own English. As it was stated in Chapter 2 page 13, that the journey of English has produced new Englishes.
In the next extract, Marcel will also describing the same difficulties.
Extract 4.15 Interview
R : Terus, nah sekarang ini yang ada di kuesioner. Kan mendengarkan, kadang sulit membedakan kata-kata yang kurang jelas karena mereka berbicara terlalu cepat. Ini ada pengalaman?
Marcel : Jadi kalo action…apa namanya ya bu ya, aksennya dari orang bahasa Inggrisnya dari Itali, Denmark, dari Singapur itu sudah beda-beda, masih kebawa logat mereka masing-masing.
[Marcel: The English accent from Italy, Denmark, and Singapore are different. They still have their own accent.]
R : Selama disana, kamu ketemu orang apa aja?
[R : When you were there (at the hotel), what kind of people did you meet?]
Marcel : Singapur, Inggris, Denmark, terus yang Inggris Australi, itu yang sering sih bu. Beda-beda banget, jadi logatnya masih kebawa mereka. Kalau Singapur itu lebih banyak ke akhirannya … lebih ke tinggi ya … I want to ini ya… ada akhiran ya-ya pokoknya.
[Marcel : Mostly they came from Singapore, England, Denmark, and Australia. It’s completely different English, because they still use their own accent. If they were from Singapore, usually at the end of every sentence they put the word ‘ya’ in rising intonation, for example: I want this ya.]
Speaking
Table 4.4 Participants’ opinion on Speaking
Opinion Appendix It is easier, because we just say the words that we
know, but the problem lay on the vocabulary
A1
Because our dialect is rather different from native, so often the guests can not catch the meaning of our conversation
A2
After listening process, then we speak. We have to know vocabulary and understand grammar
A3
It is difficult to develop because every foreigner has different dialect.
A4
Sometimes it is difficult, because Javanese tongue not really suit to the English pronunciation
A6
To support the questionnaire, let’s explore more from the interview with Marta.
Extract 4.16 Interview
R : Nek menurut ambar nih ya, supaya bias fasih berkomunikasi dengan tamu ni yang diperlukan apa sih [R : In your opinion, to enable us to communicate well with
Marta : Ya..sebetulnya memang harus komplit ya..maksudnya harus berani ngomong dulu kalo menurut saya sih… [Marta : Yes, actually it must be complete. What I meant here is
we have to speak first.] R : Penting ngomong [R : Speak first.]
Marta : Berani ngomong..walaupun nggak begitu bisa, seperti saya, saya merasa saya punya keberanian untuk ngomong. Japi ada temen saya yang lebih..jadi kalo tertulis itu dia lebih bisa, lebih banyak yang dikuasai, tetapi untuk ngomong masih belum berani, jadi otomatis kan nggak keluar kata-katanya…kalo saya kan nggak begitu banyak yang saya kuasai cuman saya berani ngomong, berani coba gitu, jadi ya paling ehm…trus ambil kata apa trus..jeblos..jeblos gitu lo…
[Marta : Even if we cannot speak English well as long as we are dare to speak, just like me. A friend of mine is better in writing and she knew many things, but she didn’t dare to speak so there were no words spoken. Different with me, I only master English a little bit, but I dare to speak and to try…take one word combine with another word.]
While according to the second interviewee, we should also learn about cultural background.
Extract 4.17 Interview
R : Kalau berbicara, in ditulis pengembangannya yang sulit, karena setiap orang asing mempunyai dialek yang berbeda-beda.
[R : In speaking you wrote here that it was difficult to develop because every foreigners has their own dialect.]
Marcel : Berbicara? ..ya..ya bu. Sama menurut saya latar belakang ini ya, apa namanya ..e..kebudayaan juga, ada yang mereka lebih suka cepat, tapi kita nggak dapet. Kalau pelan, tapi mereka…lebih cepat itu Inggrisnya Jepang bu. Sangat membingungkan … ya,ya,ya…
[Marcel: Speaking? I think this was related to cultural background, some of them like to speak fast but we cannot catch. Japanese speak English faster, and it’s very confusing.]
Reading
Because the interviews were only held with two respondents (1 and 4) instead of 6, so only from those two respondents, the researcher can give description in detail.
Table 4.5 Participants’ opinion on Reading
Opinion Appendix It was rather easy, but there were some unknown
vocabulary
A1
Short, simple and clear (forms) A2 After speaking and listening, sometimes we have difficulties to understand text in English
A3
Short, simple and clear A4
It will be clearer A5
It is rather easy, because beside studying automatically our vocabulary will be improved
A6
Extract 4.18 Interview
R : Kalau membaca? [R : What about reading?]
