English Journal Antartika Volume 3 No.
1 June 2025
ISSN: 3031-7614
Developing Corpus-Based English Teaching Materials for Hotel Staff Nurdiana Universitas Al-Azhar Indonesia usman@gmail.
Abstrak-Bahasa Inggris idealnya merupakan bahasa yang wajib dikuasai oleh mereka yang bekerja pada industri perhotelan termasuk di Indonesia.
Namun, kenyataannya, banyak staf hotel, bahkan yang bekerja di hotel bintang lima, tidak mampu berbahasa Inggris dengan tepat yang sesuai dengan konteks pekerjaan mereka.
Dalam kaitannya dengan pengajaran bahasa Inggris, diperlukan materi atau bahan ajar yang terdiri atas aspek bahasa dan penggunaannya yang tepat dan biasa digunakan yang sesuai dengan konteks dan situasi perhotelan.
Oleh karena itu, tujuan penelitian ini adalah untuk mengembangkan bahan ajar bahasa Inggris yang menekankan aspek bahasa dan penggunaannya yang lazim atau sering muncul di lingkungan perhotelan.
Pengembangan ini bisa dilakukan melalui pendekatan linguistik korpus untuk mendapatkan hasil yang maksimal terkait aspek bahasa yang biasa digunakan secara riil di lingkungan hotel sehingga mereka dapat berbahasa Inggris dengan tepat dan benar.
Penelitian ini menggunakan pendekatan deskriptif kualitatif.
dan menggunakan aplikasi korpus COCA (Corpus of Contemporary American Englis.
untuk mendapatkan data bahasa Inggris perhotelan yang sering muncul dan digunakan.
Hasil dari penelitian ini adalah terdapat temuan dari COCA yang menunjukkan beberapa ekspresi bahasa Inggris yang lazim dipakai dalam konteks perhotelan.
Implikasi dari hasil penelitian ini adalah bahan ajar bahasa Inggris yang dikembangkan untuk staf perhotelan disarankan berbasis korpus agar penggunaan bahasa Inggris dalam konteks perhotelan menjadi lebih otentik.
Kata kunci: Bahan ajar, bahasa Inggris, korpus, perhotelan Abstrak Ae Proficiency in English is essential for individuals working in the hospitality industry, including in Indonesia.
However, many Indonesian hotel- staff struggle to use English appropriately in workplace settings despite being employed in five-star establishments.
In the context of English Language Teaching (ELT), there is a need for instructional materials that incorporate relevant linguistic features and pragmatic usage tailored to the specific contexts and situations of the hospitality industry.
This study, therefore, aimed to develop English teaching materials that emphasize linguistic elements and expressions frequently used in hospitality settings.
corpus linguistics approach was adopted to ensure the materials reflect authentic and commonly used language in real-life hospitality interactions.
Employing a qualitative-descriptive design, the study utilized the Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA) to identify frequently occurring English expressions within hospitality The findings revealed a range of commonly used expressions that are contextually relevant to the hospitality sector.
Based on these results, it is recommended that English teaching materials for hotel staff be developed using corpus-based approaches to promote more authentic and natural language use in professional hospitality environments.
Keywords: teaching materials.
English, corpus, hospitality Received 01-06-2025
Revised 15-06-2025
Accepted 30-06-2025
INTRODUCTION
In recent years, language teaching through corpora has received increasing attention in research and development.
The use of corpora can also be applied in developing foreign language teaching materials, for example.
English for specific purposes such as English for hotel staff.
A corpus itself is defined as a compilation of texts in the form of speech/language expressions of native English speakers that are gathered for a specific purpose (Cheng, 2.
However, a corpus is also categorized as a linguistic toolAithat is, as a method for studying language (TogniniBonelli, 2.
One aspect of language teaching that has developed through corpora is the creation of teaching materials that emphasize mastery of linguistic elements, such as vocabulary and English grammar.
Research related to vocabulary acquisition through corpora, for example, has been conducted by Uswar et al.
Rifai .
, and Astuti & Aziez .
The results of these studies indicate that corpora help students increase their English vocabulary and provide insights into the distribution of word classes in English textbooks.
Meanwhile, a study on grammar teaching using corpora was conducted by Herpindo et al.
The findings of this study highlight This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.
0 International License.
English Journal Antartika Volume 3 No.
1 June 2025 that applying corpus linguistics in grammar learning and teaching methodology positively impacts studentsAo understanding of grammatical rules.
Few studies on using corpora in language teaching, including teaching material development, have focused on corpus-based development of English for hospitality materials, emphasizing language expressions commonly used by native English speakers.
In fact, these language expressions are frequently used in hotel communication in daily situations.
For example, in the English for Food and Beverage Service division, many expressions must be mastered beyond vocabulary related to food, beverages, and cooking methods.
In this regard, a corpus helps learners improve the accuracy of language expressions, as it contains a database of expressions commonly used by native English speakers.
This ensures that communication between hotel staff and foreign guests is authentic and not just a literal word-for-word translation from Indonesian to English.
Thus.
English communication between hotel staff and foreign guests is expected to run smoothly.
Based on the above explanation, if there is English training for hotel staff, they must be equipped with authentic language expressions that frequently appear in corpus databases.
This is to avoid the use of language that is uncommon among native English speakers.
This study is based on a previous study conducted by Nurdiana .
on the English language proficiency of hotel staff at a five-star hotel in Jakarta.
The findings revealed that 70% of the hotel staff .
specially operational staff in F&B, housekeeping, and banquet division.
had low English Some staff members could only say one or two English words and could not construct simple English These findings are supported by a previous study conducted by Milaningrum et al.
on English training for employees in the hospitality industry in Balikpapan.
The results showed that the employeesAo ability to communicate in English was low, preventing them from providing excellent service to hotel guests.
Using corpus-based teaching materials, hotel staff English training is expected to enhance their communication skills with guests.
This is in line with a study by Fauzi & Suradi .
, which showed that corpus-based English for hospitality materialsAiparticularly for vocabularyAihas a significant impact on improving hospitality-related English vocabulary.
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
The research approach used in this study is qualitative, as the data analyzed was non-numerical and did not involve statistical calculations.
According to Braun and Clarke .
, qualitative research uses words as data.
The difference between qualitative and quantitative research lies in the type of data used, where quantitative research involves numerical data and is usually analyzed using statistical techniques.
The primary data for this study were taken from the Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA).
COCA
is a collection of American English commonly used by native speakers in various specific contexts, both spoken and written.
The data for this study were collected using a documentation study technique.
The documentation in question refers to corpus data obtained from COCA.
The research data was analyzed through the following steps:
The collected data was classified into language functions commonly used in the hospitality industry, such as welcoming guests, checking reservations, taking orders, or billing.
The data in the form of language expressions were examined for their frequency of occurrence in COCA.
Based on their frequency, it was determined whether these language expressions should be integrated into the teaching materials.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
This study focuses solely on using English at the front desk and in the food and beverage service divisions.
Therefore, the results and discussion section will only cover the English expressions most used in these two Results There are several aspects to consider and implement when developing materials for English for Food and Beverage Service (F&B Servic.
The first is the sequence of service.
A general example of the service sequence that requires appropriate English usage includes:
Welcoming hotel guests https://ejournal.
id/index.
php/eja/index English Journal Antartika Volume 3 No.
1 June 2025 Reservation checking Escorting the guests to the table Taking an order Giving a recommendation Billing These six steps can be further broken down into more specific language functions, such as staff service complaints or food taste .
, promoting discounts .
romoting discount.
, or checking guest satisfaction.
Meanwhile, in the development of materials or teaching content for English for Hotel Front Desk Agents/Staff, attention must be given to job descriptions, which may include:
Handling all check-in and check-out tasks Managing online and phone reservations Informing guests about payment methods and verifying credit card details Recording relevant guest information such as name, contact number, email address, length of stay, etc.
Greet guests upon arrival and assign rooms Providing information about the hotel, available rooms, rates, and amenities Responding to guest complaints in a timely and professional manner In all these job descriptions, specific language expressions are used, such as when managing reservations online, by phone, or directly at the hotel lobby.
For instance, front desk staff may say:
Good morning.
May I assist you? Do you have a reservation? What name is the reservation under? These expressions are commonly used during check-in and reservation processes.
The service sequences mentioned above can be considered language functions from a linguistic perspective.
Each language function is associated with commonly used language expressions.
For example, in the language function of welcoming guests, the expressions often used include:
Good morning/afternoon/evening How can I help you? Can I help you? May I assist you? Meanwhile, commonly used expressions for other language functions, such as reservation checking, include AoDo you have a reservation?Ao These language functions and expressions can be developed into English teaching materials for hotel staff, which in this study are limited to English for F&B staff and front desk staff.
These materials can be easily found online or in English Hospitality books.
However, no English teaching materials for hotel staff have been published and developed based on a corpus database.
After examining language expressions commonly used by native speakers of American English through COCA, some expressions can be integrated and developed into English teaching materials for hospitality purposes.
English for Hotel Front Desk Agent/Staff One of the questions front desk staff frequently ask guests is how long they will be staying at the hotel.
In English, two sentences can be used: AoHow long will you be staying?Ao and AoHow long are you staying?Ao The COCA search results show that the second sentence appears more frequently than the first.
https://ejournal.
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1 June 2025 Figure 1.
Application Appearance I It can be seen in COCA that AoHow long are you staying?Ao appears 59 times, while AoHow long will you be staying? Appears 27 times.
The numbers marked with arrows indicate the frequency of occurrence of the language The higher the number, the more commonly it is used.
Therefore.
AoHow long are you staying?Ao is more recommended to be integrated into the teaching materials.
The following language expression is a sentence asking whether the hotel guest has made a reservation.
In English, the sentence is AoDo you have a reservation?Ao According to the COCA search results.
AoDo you have a reservation?Ao appears 34 times.
Figure 2.
Application Appearance II When attempting to search for other sentences that are translations from Indonesian to EnglishAiassuming they have the same meaning as Do you have a reservation?Aithe display in COCA is as follows.
Figure 3.
Asking Menu The sentence or language expression in question is AoHave you made a reservation? This sentence is uncommon in American English, so when searched in COCA, the result shows an error.
AoHave you made a reservation?Ao is often heard in English for hospitality classrooms because it is a literal translation from Indonesian to English.
Therefore, teaching materials should not include AoHave you made a reservation?Ao.
The following language expressions are AoHow can I help you?Ao and AoHow may I assist you?Ao.
These two expressions are commonly used in English for the front desk and for food and beverage.
After searching in COCA, the results are displayed as follows.
Figure 4.
Application Appearance i https://ejournal.
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php/eja/index English Journal Antartika Volume 3 No.
1 June 2025 It can be seen in the COCA display that AoHow can I help you?Ao has a frequency of 1,032 occurrences, which is significantly higher than AoHow may I assist you?Ao, which appears only 28 times.
Therefore, the expression AoHow can I help you?Ao is more recommended to be integrated into teaching materials.
English for Food and Beverage Service One of the language expressions commonly used by food and beverage staff is AoAre you ready to order?Ao or AoMay I take your order?Ao.
These sentences are typically used for the language function AoTaking an orderAo, or when F&B staff offer food and drinks to be ordered.
Based on the COCA search results.
AoMay I take your order?Ao appears 66 times, while AoAre you ready to order?Ao appears only 39 times.
Therefore.
AoMay I take your order?Ao is more recommended to be integrated into teaching materials.
Figure 4.
Application Appearance IV The next commonly used sentences are AoHow would you like to pay?Ao and AoHow will you be paying?Ao Based on COCA search results.
AoHow will you be paying?Ao appears 13 times, while AoHow would you like to pay?Ao appears 10 times.
This indicates that AoHow will you be paying?Ao is more commonly used than AoHow would you like to pay?Ao, and therefore it is recommended to be included as a primary language expression for the language function billing .
Figure 4.
Application Appearance V Discussion Based on the COCA search results for several language expressions commonly used at the front desk and in food and beverage services, the most frequently used expressions are as follows:
How long are you staying? Do you have a reservation? How can I help you? May I take your order? How will you be paying? These sentences are the most recommended language expressions to be taught and developed into English teaching materials for the hospitality industry.
Therefore, if there are other sentences or language expressions with similar meanings but are not commonly used, they should not be integrated into the teaching materials.
Below is an example of teaching material that can be developed based on the findings of this study.
https://ejournal.
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1 June 2025 Figure 5.
Language Expressions Figure 6.
Welcoming Guests This teaching material development differs from previous studies on developing English teaching materials for hotel staff or hospitality students.
For example, the study conducted by Rahayu and Darmayanti .
focused on needs analysis and teaching materials in the form of language functions, rather than emphasizing which specific language expressions should be taught because native English speakers commonly use them.
Another study by Saputri .
only reported tourism-based English themes that could be taught to students in the Applied Foreign Languages D4 program.
CONCLUSION
Investigating the English common expressions for hotel staff on COCA revealed five everyday language phrases, such as AoHow long are you staying?Ao.
AoDo you have a reservation?Ao.
AoHow can I help you?Ao.
AoMay I take your order?Ao, and AoHow will you pay?Ao Therefore, developing English teaching materials for hotel staff needs to consider the frequency of usage of the language.
If native English speakers do not commonly use a certain expression in a hospitality context, then it should not be taughtAiespecially if it is the result of a literal word-forword translation from Indonesian to English.
One effective way to identify such usage frequency is by using a corpus, such as COCA.
REFERENCE