English for Tourism Purposes (ETP): Development of Authentic Assessment in Improving the Speaking Skills of Tourism Vocational High School

Abstract

The data shows that the number of local and foreign tourists who come to West Sumatra via Minangkabau International Airport (BIM) each year reach 5,094 people. This condition requires tourism actors in West Sumatera to be more well-prepared to face this condition. One of the parties that might be in charged in this tourism sector are graduates of Tourism Vocational School in the province. It is expected that the graduates, as one of the driving forces in this sector, can really support the tourism with their ability. In regard to this, the school need to make sure that their graduates can compete and use the English that they have learned in school effectively to support the tourism. This is where the educators need to make sure that the learning and the assessment process are maximum. In supporting this, an authentic English for Tourism Purposes (ETP) assessment model is needed to achieve maximum learning outcomes. The purpose of this study was to develop an authentic assessment model to increase the speaking skills of the Tourism Vocational School students in Padang, West Sumatera. In collecting the data, this study used needs analysis by using online questionnaire. The samples of this study were students of Vocational High School (SMK) 9 Padang, especially students of grade XI, who were taken using purposive random sampling technique. The result of this research is a product of an authentic assessment model that will be used by vocational English teachers in the ETP learning process in the classroom.