Foreign Tourist Satisfaction with English Communicative Competence of Hotel Staff on Koh Chang, Trat

Chutima Satidsathien, Pawadee Srisang

Burapha University Chanthaburi Campus, Chanthaburi, Thailand

ABSTRACT

This research aims to investigate the satisfaction of foreign tourists with the English communicative competence of hotel/resort staff on Koh Chang, Trat Province, Thailand. The measures of this study were a questionnaire which assessed the degree of satisfaction and in-depth interviews with three participants. Data was collected from 149 foreign tourists, who had stayed at various accommodations on Koh Chang while they visited the island between May and December 2017. The findings showed that overall satisfaction with English communicative competence was at a high level (x̅ = 4.14). Additionally, five factors of competence were examined in detail. The analysis of these five factors of competence—rules of word formation and vocabulary, sentence formation, logical form of sequencing ideas, logical form of utterances, and appropriateness of communicative acts— demonstrated that appropriateness of communicative acts was the most significant competence with regard to tourist satisfaction. This finding is in-line with the in-depth interviews which raised some concerns about the appropriateness of asking questions during small talk. Some inappropriate questions that the tourists mentioned concerned income, family, private life, etc., which suggests a lack of cultural sensitivity by hotel staff. Sociocultural awareness is an important factor which should be included in the ESL/EFL learning context.

KEYWORDS

Communicative Competence, Satisfaction