``Doing Explicit'' in hospitality and tourism service encounters in English as a lingua franca
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
4-1-2023
Abstract
In many highly heterogenous hospitality and tourism (HT) settings around the world, English is used to mediate hospitality service encounters. However, little is known about how front-desk staff are able to effectively communicate with international guests of diverse linguacultural backgrounds to deliver quality service. This study investigates the use of communications strategies by Thai front-desk staff that is characterized by increased explicitness in their interactions in English as a lingua franca (ELF) with inter-national tourists. The data comprise 15 h of authentic interactions recorded at three sites: a tour service counter, an airport information counter, and a hotel front office. Using con-versation analytic procedures, the analysis reveals the staff's orientation to explicitness: they repeat key information multiple times to increase its prominence, use explication, circumlocution, and self-reformulation to clarify keywords and repair ongoing utterances to address potential ambiguity. In the absence of overt displays of non/misunderstanding, the staff's use of multiple explicitness strategies in these short, routine exchanges points to explicitness as a defining feature of ELF HT service encounters. The findings of this study have implications for ESP course development in HT where awareness raising and practice in the use of explicitness strategies should be incorporated.(c) 2023 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords
Effective communication, English as a lingua franca (ELF), English for hospitality and tourism, Explicitness strategies, Service encounters
Divisions
FLL
Publication Title
English for Specific Purposes
Volume
70
Publisher
Pergamon-Elsevier Science Ltd
Publisher Location
THE BOULEVARD, LANGFORD LANE, KIDLINGTON, OXFORD OX5 1GB, ENGLAND