The Use of English Language Functions in Tour Guiding

Abstract

Nowadays, the use of English for non-natives is very needed, especially the needs of using English in more specific organization (Day & Krzanowski, 2011). This proofs that English for specific purposes (ESP) has grown significantly in the resent years. The needs of English in tour guiding is a must in order to prepare the tour guides to be able to guide the foreign tourists by using English. The aim of this study was to analyze the needs of English by the tour guides in Karimunjawa Islands and the what kinds of English language functions that they used in their vocation. The study focused more on what kinds of language functions used by the tour guides, i.e. greetings, introducing, apologizing, offering, etc. when communicating and guiding the foreign tourists. The participants of this study were the tour guides in Karimunjawa Islands in order to collect the data. Through questionnaires and interviews, the results showed that the use of English language functions were highly used by the tour guides in their vocation. In addition, the results also showed that the tour guides’ needs of English were considered as high. As the conclusion, the results reported that although the tour guides’ needs of English were high, the English language functions used were also high in order to support the tour guides to be able to communicate and guide the foreign tourists in Karimunjawa Islands.