• Jeffrey Stewart Morrow

  Author

Angkor Wat and its gateway city of Siem Reap (SR) have seen a remarkable growth of
tourism for the past decade. Many tourists have been native English speakers. This means that
tourist industry (TI) employees need to have a high level of English communication ability (ECA)
to communicate with international travelers effectively. However, data regarding English
education and ECA has been lacking. This being the case, the goal of this study was to collect
socioeconomic background data such as years and hours of English education during interviews
in six obvious TI related businesses, as well as assess the ECA of TI employees to examine the
role of ECA in obtaining better employment and income. Section one introduces the study.
Section two offers a review of literature. In section three, the method, materials, sample,
location, and limitations are given. Section four offers the findings, and section five concludes. In
section six, suggestions and recommendations are presented. Results found high positive
correlations in income with certain English background variables. In conclusion, TI employees
who have higher ECA and study more years and hours of English in school can obtain better
employment and higher incomes.

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