Exploring Variables of Hospitality and Tourism Students’ English Communicative Ability in Taiwan: An Structural Equation Modeling Approach
- Authors
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Liwei Hsu
Author
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- Keywords:
- Communicative Competence; EFL Learning; Hospitality and Tourism (H & T) Industries; Structural Equation Model
- Abstract
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English has been the lingua franca for wide spectrum of business operations and
hospitality and tourism (H & T) industries are no exception. Professionals of these two
industries are expected to have good communicative competence in English; nevertheless, no
standardized scale has been developed. Bachman’s communicative language ability (CLA)
model is so far considered as the comprehensive one to assess the abilities language learner’s
communicative abilities. The present study aims to develop a scale for H & T students’
communicative competence in English. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and structural
equation model (SEM) were employed. Twenty one items were developed and 390 English
teachers and managers of H & T industries (n= 390) were invited to respond them. SEM
analysis and the results showed that illocutionary competence outweighed sociolinguistic
competence in pragmatic knowledge while grammatical competence was considered to be more
important than textual competence in organizational knowledge. - Downloads
- Published
- 2014-07-11
- Issue
- Vol. 3 No. 3 (2014)
- Section
- Articles