English language communication training needs of front office assisstants of hotels in Kuala Lumpur

In this study, English language communication training needs of Front Office Assistants are identified and described. Eight hotels of four and five-star rating in Kuala Lumpur took part in the survey, from which a total of 44 Front Office Assistants and 26 managers responded. The main aim of the research was to determine to what extent an English language communication training need exists among the Front Office Assistants, and which areas of job-based communicative activities deserve emphasis in a training programme. Also, further details of the needs of the Front Office Assistants were obtained by exploring the difference in perceptions between the Front Office Assistants and their managers regarding the needs of the Front Office Assistants. Data were collected via a needs assessment questionnaire, which required information amongst others, a rating by the respondents of the proficiency level of Front Office Assistants on 35 communicative activities, and the relevance of these activities to the job of Front Office Assistant. The result was a description of English language communication needs of the Front Office Assistants, comprising a numerical representation of the overall degree of need for such training, the degree of training need for each communicative activity, the ranking order of the communicative activities according to training importance, and comparison between the perceptions of the two respondent groups as regards the proficiency level of the Front Office Assistants, the relevance of the communicative activities to the job of Front Office Assistants, and the training importance of the communicative activities. The overall findings show that an English language communication training need exists for Front Office Assistants and that the managers felt the Front Office Assistants needed training in more of the communicative activities than the Front Office Assistants did themselves.

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