Study Guide

Objective

The student is able to operate in the tourism industry and acknowledge the importance of language skills as being part of professional skills. The student is able to talk about one's education, studies, and profession, write a CV, job application, email and other working life messages, and to communicate in verbal situations related to customer service.

Content

Talkin about studies, working environment and job tasks, CV, job application; communication skills: email, telephone and customer service situations (hotel, restaurant, tourist office, travel agency),hosting, professional vocabulary, current travel trends.

Location and time

Spring term 2023, multimodal learning. Distance lesson in Moodle Collaborate and contact lessons on Wärtsilä campus.

Materials

Material compiled by the teacher in Moodle learning space.

Teaching methods

The student is able to operate in a tourism environment. They understand that language skills are an essential part of their professional competence. The student can communicate orally and in writing in key customer situations in the tourism sector and negotiate politely and appropriately in work situations. The student will strengthen his/her vocabulary in his/her field of work. They will be able to act in oral job search situations and to prepare written job application documents in English.
The student understands the importance of communication register and the difference between informal and formal style, takes the listener into account and is able to communicate appropriately, both orally and in writing. He/she can prepare and present oral presentations. They will understand the principles of writing short reports in English and the basic principles of customer communication.

They will also be able to search for information and interpret texts in their field and work-related messages, use grammar tools, know reading strategies and use tools such as dictionaries and proofreading. Understand the differences in formality (stylistics) and register in English.

The course provides practice in professional English communication at level B2 (CEFR), which is tested before the start of the course. If your level is low, please take the English Referesher refresher course.

Student workload

1 credit = 27 hours of student's work. 3 cr = 81 hours of student work.

Evaluation scale

H-5

Assessment criteria, fail (0)

Written performance is failed if.
- The competence does not meet the criteria for grade 1.
- The text is not the author's own but has been copied or produced by a translation machine.

Oral performance is fail if the competence does not meet the criteria for grade 1.  

Assessment criteria, satisfactory (1-2)

Written communication 1: The developing communicator 

- The topic has been covered in line with the terms of reference, but in a rather limited and one-sided way. 
- The text is sometimes illogical and sentences are disjointed.  
 - There is little consideration of the reader and the situation (style and expressions).  
- The message is conveyed, although linguistic expressions are simple and errors occur  
- Satisfactory finishing of the text (proofreading, layout, titling, references where appropriate).  
- Good ability to make use of aids to support writing (dictionaries, proofreading).   

Oral communication 1: The emerging communicator  

- Can communicate in most common situations, including work-related situations, and has a command of the basic vocabulary required in these situations.  
- gives a prepared and comprehensible presentation on a professional topic of interest to him/her, even if the speech may be unstructured and illogical. He/she can use self-prepared materials to support his/her speech.  
- can participate meaningfully in a discussion, although he/she may need the support of his/her interlocutors.   
- can adapt his/her expression to some extent to the situation/ can take account of the requirements of the situation.   
- can pronounce intelligibly, although there may be some fumbling and some speech may not be entirely fluent.  
- uses the basic structures of the language (singular and plural distinctions, verb tenses, pronouns s/he/they), but these may be incomplete and interfere with the message. 

Assessment criteria, good (3-4)

Written communication 3: A good communicator 

A good communicator.   
The text progresses reasonably logically, but there are minor weaknesses in coherence (paragraphing, cohesion).  
Minor stylistic errors may occur. The text is largely reader-friendly, but the level of competence of the expected reader is not always taken into account (e.g. definition of terms).
The language is fairly fluent, clear and relatively error-free. Errors may occur in the more complex structures and expressions.   Sentence structures and vocabulary are fairly adequate to convey the message. 
The text is well finished (proofreading, layout, titling, references where appropriate).  
Excellent ability to use tools to support writing (dictionaries, proofreading).   

3: Good oral communicator
- Can communicate well in normal work-related situations and has a good command of the vocabulary required in such situations.  
- gives a well-prepared, fluent and structured presentation on a professional topic of interest to him/her. He/she may need to use self-prepared materials to support his/her speech.  
- can contribute meaningfully to a discussion and justify his/her position.  
- be able to adapt his/her expression to the situation and take account of the requirements of the situation.   
- Speaks fluently and at a normal rate. Speech stress and intonation support comprehension.  
- uses basic language structures with varying degrees of fluency.  

Assessment criteria, excellent (5)

Written communication

Students will be able to communicate in writing in a variety of professional situations     

5: Excellent communicator    

- The subject matter is varied and skilful and fully corresponds to the assignment. The text is structurally very clear, logical, coherent and varied.    
- The student is able to convey the message in a natural and relevant style, taking into account the target audience.
- The student is able to use written sources as appropriate to the situation and task to support the production of his/her own text.  
- The student's own written output is fluent and uses aids judiciously.  
- The language is very fluent and varied. There is a variety of sentence structures and an excellent command of vocabulary. Occasional errors may occur in the more demanding structures and expressions, but these do not lead to misunderstandings.   
- The text is excellently finished (proofreading, layout, titling, references where appropriate).   
- The author is able to convince the reader of his expertise.   

5: Excellent oral communicator
- Can communicate fluently in work-related situations, including those of a more demanding nature, and has a good command of the specific vocabulary needed to communicate in the field.  
- Can give a prepared, fluent and structured presentation on a professional topic. The use of any supporting material does not distract from the presentation itself.  
- be able to contribute meaningfully to a discussion and to lead and argue a point of view.  
- can fluently adapt his/her expression to the situation and respond naturally to the demands of the situation.   
- Speaks fluently and at a normal rate of speech. Speech stress and intonation support comprehension.  
- uses language with variety and nuance.