e-ISSN 2597-4157
JURNAL
POLITEKNIK
UBAYA
JURNAL BISNIS TERAPAN
Jurnal Bisnis Terapan.
Volume 03 Nomor 02 (Desember, 2.
111-122 p-ISSN 2580 - 4928 Terakreditasi Sinta Peringkat 4.
No.
SK: 28/E/KPT/2019
E-mail: jbt.
ubaya@gmail.
Penerbit: Politeknik Ubaya.
Surabaya DOI: https://doi.
org/10.
24123/jbt.
ENGLISH PROFICIENCY OF HOTEL FRONT-LINERS:
WHAT AND WHY?
Yerly A.
Datu Program Studi Bahasa Inggris Bisnis.
Politeknik Ubaya.
Surabaya yerly@staff.
Abstract English proficiency for hotel front-liners is paramount in giving excellent service for the guests.
60 seconds in the beginning of interaction leave the first impression for Therefore, oral communication skills play a significant role as a part of a musthave competence for front-liners.
This study was triggered by initial findings at some hotels in Surabaya where there was a discrepancy between hotel leadersAo perception and real English proficiency of their front-liners.
The hotel leaders perceived lower than the passing grade of the hotel and urgency of upgrading their competence Two research questions should be answered: .
WHAT level of the frontlinersAo English proficiency was, and .
WHY they experienced difficulty when facing foreign guests.
To answer the questions, a descriptive qualitative research employing a case study approach was conducted.
The 3-star hotel consisting 20 participants was involved.
Test of Business English Communication Competence Version 2.
(TBECCv.
was given to participants.
TBECCv.
20 was an ESP test created and developed for front-liners.
After running the test, an online questionnaire was disseminated and interviews were also conducted for triangulation.
Results revealed that the score range of 50-59 received the highest percentage.
40% which showed their English proficiency needed to be upgraded.
Reasons of difficulty handling the foreign guests were due to .
L1 interference, .
educational background, .
less English exposure, .
the absence of ESP test at recruitment process.
The study recommended further study for other categories of hotel and the staff professional development was recommended as well.
Keywords: Front-liners.
TBECCv.
0, oral communication skills.
English proficiency.
Introduction Meeting.
Incentive.
Convention, and Exhibition (MICE) has been titled to Surabaya for the past few years and it is nothing to be surprised with since the city always develops many strategic programs that sustain its existence.
Besides a city of MICE, support for vocational education is apparently one of the examples of the strategic programs which becomes a practical solution to minimize unemployed graduates in this city.
Furthermore, tremendous and continuous efforts in making the city better in image, lots of beautiful parks have been created to strengthen a notion that this city is worth visited by anybody who wishes to do for business or even only for leisure.
The impact of engineered image along with its title as the city of MICE, growth of hotel number in Surabaya seems inevitable as a consequence where many capitalists notice such condition as an opportunity to put their capital in hotel and tourism business.
At least, it has impacted the competition in hospitality industries in Surabaya.
The presence of 3-star hotels in Surabaya has been mushrooming in a decade as an intuitive response from the capitalists who seek fortune in hotel business.
Not only local visitors, but also foreign visitors have been attracted by the development of Surabaya and never-ending attempts made by local government to make the city safe to stay or live in want to witness and experience themselves all the city can offer for them.
With such tight competition, consequently, all those 3-star hotels should give its excellent service in order to make visitors stay longer or repeat their stay in the hotels.
There are four specific customer service characteristics that lead to the biggest effect on repeat business and customer satisfaction in the hospitality industry.
competence, friendliness, knowledge, and service attitude.
The competence refers to the hotel front desk employeesAo problem solving and working performance (Meijerink.
Bondarouk, & Lepak, 2.
The AufriendlinessAy.
AucompetenceAy and Auservice attitudeAy are actually elements needed when interacting with guests to make the best impression.
Therefore, front-liners in this case play an important role for they are the first impression makers.
The first impression is defined as a part of human-to-human interaction (Bergman.
Eyseel & Korp, 2.
The AuinteractionAy between front-liners and visitors require strong oral communication skills.
In the writerAos initial observation, informal interview with some hotel leaders in Surabaya implied that there was an urgency for upgrading their front-linersAo English proficiency due to their hardship in making interaction with the foreign guests for some tasks like handling complaints, describing local tourism spots and culinaries and others.
To know more on how these hotel leaders perceived their front-linersAo oral proficiency, it was found that all of them .
%) gave the same score for their own staff.
Their perception can be seen in the following Table 1.
Table 1.
Perception of Hotel Leaders towards Their Front-Liners Category 5 star hotel 5 star hotel 4 star hotel 4 star hotel 4 star hotel 4 star hotel 4 star hotel 3 star hotel 3 star hotel 3 star hotel Score of English Passing Grade The above table shows there are 3 different categories of hotels comprising of two 5-star hotels, five 4-star hotels and three 3-star hotels.
When asked about the range of scores of their staffAos English proficiency, two of 5-star hotel leaders had the same range of scores.
According to them, the passing grade should be 80.
Meanwhile, five 4-star hotels also indicated the same score The findings in the initial interview were interesting since they were interviewed at their places.
As further asked reasoning they would not give exact scores, they admitted that they were not sure enough since at the beginning of recruitment they did not have a specific test for front-liner recruitment.
Similarly, the 3-star hotels respondents also gave the same range of scores.
The same statement was also given as they were asked about the reason of giving the score range not the exact score of the staffAy English proficiency.
The 4-star and 3-star hotels admitted the passing grade for English should be 70.
An interesting issue for this case is that both categories of hotels seemed to have similar AuclickAy of score for English proficiency.
Relevant to the above background, this study aimed at revealing WHAT the actual level/score of the front-linersAo English proficiency was and WHY these front-liners experienced difficulty in handling foreign guests was the second research question to answer.
For this objective, this study employed a descriptive qualitative research applying a case study approach.
Due to time limitation, a 3-star hotel was involved and there were 20 respondents participating in this study.
They were all from front-office division.
To answer the WHAT, the writer used Test of Business English Communication Competence Version 2.
0 (TBECCv.
and to elicit the WHY, online questionnaire and interview were Stages to conduct this study consisted of:
Familiarizing the TBECCv.
0 to the respondents TBECCv.
0 is an ESPT test designed for front-liners and considered as a new-coming test where items of questions drawn from target language use (TLU) both in speaking and For this reason, an effort to make the test familiarized was done which including introducing features of the test and time of completion.
Running the TBECCv.
0 for the respondents After participants got familiar by the TBECCv.
0, the next stage was to run the test followed by 20 participants.
Disseminating online questionnaires Online questionnaire was distributed to find more about participantsAo profile and elicit information relevant to the research questions.
Conducting interviews for triangulation To clarify unclear information during the process of analysing the questionnaire, an interview was conducted for triangulation.
Theoretical Framework First Impression in Hospitality Industry Hospitality industry completely relies on its front-liners since these front-liners are the AumarketingAy for the hotelAos image and product.
Some scholars argue in order to make a first impression, it takes a maximum of 60 seconds (Wargo, 2.
In addition, the whole process of forming the first impression happens very quickly and has lasting effects.
For this reason, the moments should not be ignored and must be well-handled.
The 60 seconds of first impression is important in any industry, but it is especially important in the hospitality industry because the industry is considered as a service dominated industry (Sundaram & Webster, 2.
This notion stresses out the importance of what to say in the early interaction between the customers and the staff.
Moreover, hospitality employees constantly interact with different customers every day so they are the way that new customers are forming the first impression every day (Agarwal, 2.
The staff should be able to maintain this competence at any time and any cost which means that keeping up with making good impression is truly Furthermore, in the long run, front-linersAo high-quality service can finally affect hotelsAo financial performance (Sundaram & Webster, 2.
, if they demonstrate good behaviours and create strong first impressions which can help the hotel have a more positive reputation and more repeated The awareness of their important role should be known when they are recruited at the very first place.
Necessity of Oral Communication Skills Interaction between customers and staffs that can create an unforgettable first impression should be well-maintained.
The activity uses so much on the ability to listen and respond the guestsAo needs.
Good oral and written communication skills are the top skills important to hospitality practitioners at different position levels (M.
Kostic Bobanovic & J.
Grzinic, 2.
The statement points out that oral communication skills should be acquired more specifically by all front-liners.
Their research also explored the importance of communication skills .
peaking, reading, listening and writin.
in English language among hospitality employees and students studying business and tourism.
There were 105 graduate students of a Department of Economics and tourism involved as their respondents and results of the study can be seen as follows.
Chart 1.
Difficulties in English Speaking Chart 1.
Difficulties in English Speaking Their Their that idiomatic the the that idiomatic partininEnglish Englishspeaking for both and are .
,44% Additionally, and 41,47%).
Additionally, both students .
,44% and 41,47%).
also had difficulties in using time clauses .
,21%).
From this information, it is necessary to emphasize the importance of their usage in everyday communication.
It is proven from their respondents that the urgency to improve communication skills is inevitable.
Meanwhile.
Meijerink.
Bondarouk, and Lepak .
stated that there are four specific customer service characteristics that have the greatest impact on repeat business and customer satisfaction in the students also had difficulties in using time clauses .
,21%).
From this information, it is necessary to emphasize the importance of their usage in everyday communication.
It is proven from their respondents that the urgency to improve communication skills is inevitable.
Meanwhile.
Meijerink.
Bondarouk, and Lepak .
stated that there are four specific customer service characteristics that have the greatest impact on repeat business and customer satisfaction in the hospitality industry: competence, friendliness, knowledge, and service attitude.
Here, competence refers to the hotel front desk employeesAo problem solving and working performance.
The working performance is related to how the front-liners give attention towards the guestsAo needs and respond well.
Another research conducted by Prabhu and Wani .
dealt with Indian hospitality industry.
The findings of the study reflected the importance of English as the universal medium of communication, and its importance in rendering quality service.
In sum up, all the hoteliers and Hotel Management teachers and students vehemently agreed that English language proficiency was a pre requisite for a career in hospitality.
StudentsAo confidence and performance was largely dependent on English language proficiency and urgency of motivating and guiding in order to meet industry standards existed.
From their study, link and match between graduates and hotel industry should be continuously done in order to get professionals that suited the demand in hospitality industry.
Test of Business English Communication Competence Version 2.
0 (TBECCv.
The need of English for Specific Purpose Test (ESP) test has emerged ever since hotels in Surabaya do provide one.
TBECCv.
0 is created and designed to respond to such a need.
The test is specifically designed for front-liners in Surabaya funded by the Ministry of Research and Technology of Indonesia within 2 yearsAo project.
It comprises two skills.
speaking and writing and overall duration to complete the test is 1.
5 hours.
In addition, 18 of 26 items were extracted as Target Language Use (TLU) for speaking and 7 of 10 items were extracted to serve as TLUs for writing (Datu, et.
The TBECCv.
0 was developed on the basis of 2-year research which involved 8 hotels in Surabaya and 40 participants comprising hotel leaders and FO staff.
The important stages in the study were conducted, such as conducting Focus Group Discussion (FGD) with hotel leaders, distributing a set of questionnaires to Front Office leaders and staffs, as well as enhancing clarity and confirmation through interviews.
This ESP test has received 2 Intellectual Property Rights (HKI) from the Ministry of Law and Human Rights of Indonesia with the certificate numbers as follows: .
EC00201853927, 13 November 2018 and .
EC00201972077, 20 September 2019.
Front-linerAos competences for speaking can be broken down in the following table (Datu, et.
Finding and Discussion This study aimed at analyzing two critical questions.
what the level of proficiency of frontliners was, and .
why they experienced difficulty in handling foreign guests.
The first question can be analyzed from the results of Test of Business English Communication Competence Version 0 (TBECCv.
which was tested to all front-liners.
The results obtained from the test given to them using TBECCv.
0 can be seen in the following Table 2.
Table 2.
Description of Competence in TBECCv.
0 for Speaking Question Task Describe a picture 2Ae3 Express an opinion 4Ae7 Propose a solution 8Ae9 Summarize and Retell Information 10 Ae 12 Respond to a 13 Ae 14 Formulate questions based on the information given Competence Describing room types Criteria Pronunciation Grammar Vocabularies Explaining local places Pronunciation and local delicacies Grammar Vocabularies Cohesion Pronunciation Offering additional services at the hotel Vocabularies Offering welcome Cohesion Relevance of the Offering solution for Context Completeness of the Context Asking about room Pronunciation Relevance of the Context Completeness of the Context Greeting guests Relevance of the Asking about the Context Pronunciation Making small talk Grammar Responding to a Doing morning call Asking about food Pronunciation Relevance of the Asking about the Context payment method Grammar Meanwhile for the writing, it can be broken down in the following table.
Time 2 minutes 4 minutes 4 minutes 6 minutes 2 minutes 2 minutes Table 3.
Description of Competence in TBECCv.
0 for writing Question 2Ae3 4Ae5 Task Fill a form based on the information given Write letters Respond to written Competence Criteria Filling a detailed Relevance of the Context form about a guest Writing a Grammar confirmation letter Relevance of the Context Writing a welcome Quality and variation of the sentences Writing an email of Vocabulary Organization Replying a Grammar complaint in Relevance of the Context written form Quality and variation of Writing a thank the sentences you email Vocabulary Organization Time Table 4.
Results of Speaking and Writing List of Participants Participant 1 Participant 2 Participant 3 Participant 4 Participant 5 Participant 6 Participant 7 Participant 8 Participant 9 Participant 10 Participant 11 Participant 12 Participant 13 Participant 14 Participant 15 Participant 16 Participant 17 Participant 18 Participant 19 Participant 20 Total Average Total Avg Score As seen in the table, the highest score is 77 and the lowest score is 23.
The gap was deep and it means there is a huge discrepancy when performing their communication skills to serve the guests on daily basis activity.
It can be easily predicted the struggles for those with the score of 23 in delivering the tasks as front-liners.
The TBECCv.
0 consisted of two main components of test.
and writing .
ne hour and ten minute.
It was tested within 1.
5 hours.
The above results were already combined assisted by the TBECCv.
0 software.
There were 6 participants .
%) who received the score in a range of 60-69, 3 participants .
%) receiving the score in a range of 70-79, 8 participants .
%) receiving the score range of 50-59, 1 participant .
%) with the score of 40-49, and 1 participant .
%) with the score range of The distribution of score range can be seen as follows.
Table 5.
Score Range Distribution Score range The distribution of score range above shows that the highest percentage of the score range Another concern is for those with score range of 60-69, 40-49 and 20-29 since according to the is between 50-59.
The score implies that both speaking and writing skills need to be improved they are inAnother is for those with score 60-69, 40-49should and 20-29 leadersAo the writerAos their ranges Englishofproficiency be at least 70.
since according to the hotel leadersAo perception in the writerAos initial observation, their English proficiency should be at least 70.
The second research question addressed the reason WHY the front-liners can be answered with the The second research question addressed the reason WHY the front-liners can be answered of questionnaire after they TBECCv.
The The results are as with theresults results of questionnaire they received TBECCv.
L1 Interference L1 Interference Chart 2.
The ParticipantsAo First Language (L.
Chart 2.
The ParticipantsAo First Language (L.
The Interference of the first language (L.
seems to be one the reasons of their difficulty in responding to foreign guests.
Based on the above chart, the participantsAo L1 is Javanese language .
%) and 45% of the participants admitted that Indonesian as their L1.
Further asked in the interview, they simply converted their English into their L1 whenever they found difficulty.
In daily conversation within The Interference of the first language (L.
seems to be one the reasons of their difficulty in responding to foreign guests.
Based on the above chart, the participantsAo L1 is Javanese language .
%) and 45% of the participants admitted that Indonesian as their L1.
Further asked in the interview, they simply converted their English into their L1 whenever they found difficulties.
daily conversation within the workplace, both languages are dominated.
Consequently.
English exposure in speaking is not enough to make them better.
Normally, when they have good speaking, confidence to always try out at any situations triggered.
Educational Background 7% of the participants graduated from senior high schools/vocational high schools as seen on Chart 3 below.
Most of the participants took hotel and tourism as their major.
From their majors.
English should not be troublesome anymore since ideally they were prepared for sufficient English during their study.
Yet, when asked further in the interview, though English was given in high schools, the focus of learning was grammar and reading.
They claimed that grammar portion was considerably a lot and, therefore, they were not skilful in productive skills, such as speaking.
Chart 3.
Educational Background i.
English Exposure Chart Educational Background Chart Educational Background When asked the last time the participants learned English, various responses were given.
This English Exposure to reveal exposure oflearned EnglishEnglish, learning various from them.
Chart 4were When asked last time the participants i.
English Exposure This to reveal of English Chartclaimed 4 showsto learn of the they learned English more learning than 4 years When asked of time the participants English, were given.
This admitted that they learned English than 4 years English for the last time was 2 years ago.
8% of the participant learned English 3 years ago.
From to learn English the last time was 2learning years ago.
the 4participant to reveal of English Chart shows thatlearned these findings, it reveals of English not sufficient Speaking.
English 3 years ago.
From these it reveals exposure of English of the participants of thewas that they learned English more thanbe4 practised years ago.
1% claimed Speaking, more specifically, in orderto be practised everyday inshould order to gain fluency.
They realized They selfEnglish for the last time was 2 years ago.
8% of the participant learned English 3 years ago.
From needed to be increased but their problem was on their self-confidence issue.
these findings, it reveals exposure of English of the participants were not sufficient yet.
Speaking, more specifically, should be practised everyday in order to gain fluency.
They realized their exposure needed to be increased but their problem was on their self-confidence issue.
Chart The Last Time LearningEnglish English Chart The Last Time Learning They also added in their interview that the use of English at their workplace was considerably high as Chart 4.
The Last Time of Learning English seen in the following chart.
They also added in their interview that the use of English at their workplace was considerably high as They also added in their interview that the use of English at their workplace was considerably high as seen in the following chart.
Chart Use of English at Workplace the Workplace Chart Use of English at the Due to use the of of tried English, put efforts by asking Due to the frequent English,use to putthey their fellows were perceived to have better speaking than them.
The efforts did not seem to give them better have better The did not with to give English not were place maximally.
already occupied with other tasks and English exposure did not take place maximally.
Absence of ESP Test at the Recruitment Process During the hotelProcess leader admitted that the ESP test was absent.
The only IV.
Absence of ESP Test at the Recruitment way to see the candidateAos English oral proficiency was through an interview.
The interview itself During recruitment process, the hotel leader admitted that the ESP test was absent.
The only way to only covered general information about the candidates and there were no specific questions that see the candidateAos oral proficiency wasInthrough The interview expose theEnglish as front-liners.
fact, thean of recruitment was crucial it determined the quality of the staff who would be hired someday.
The staff should be able to be covered general information about the candidates and there was no specific question that could the AumarketerAy of the hotel for their paramount role as first impression maker.
expose the performance as front-liners.
In fact, the process of recruitment was crucial since it Conclusion and Recommendation the quality of the staff who would be hired someday.
The staff should be able to be the As a city of Meeting.
Incentive.
Convention and Exhibition (MICE).
Surabaya has become a AumarketerAy of the hotel for their paramount role as first impression maker.
strategic choice for anybody who seeks for either pleasure or business since its development has sparkled for the last decade.
The attraction has made capitalists to invest money in hospitality industry and consequently growing numbers of hotels in Surabaya has been mushrooming.
Due to tight competition among hotel industries, excellent service should be a key issue for hotel leaders Conclusion the Recommendation ones who become the face of the hotel as front-liners.
As aFront-liners city of Meeting.
Incentive.
Convention Exhibition (MICE), are expected to have solid oral since Surabaya 60 seconds the firsta leave good bad for Initialorobservation was its and interesting strategic choice who or either pleasure business since has sparkled was found.
Hotel leadersAo perception on their staffAos English proficiency seemed lower than the for the last made capitalists in hospitality gradeThe by thehas This gap the present study to industry find answers of 2 research levelinofSurabaya English proficiency of the front-liners and why growing questions.
numbers of has been mushrooming.
Dueactually to tightwas they experienced struggles when facing foreign guests.
among hotel industries, excellent service should be a key issue for hotel leaders and the ones who become A qualitative research employing a case study was done involving 20 participants of the 3-star the face of the hotel as front-liners.
hotel in Surabaya.
Results of this study showed that he distribution of score range above shows Front-liners are expected to of sinceThe 60 score in theboth that the highest is between 50-59.
need to be improved since they Another concern is forfound.
those Hotel can leavewriting good orskills bad impressions.
Initial observation finding was score ranges of 60-69, 40-49 and 20-29 since according to the hotel leadersAo perception in the leadersAo perception on their staffAos English the passing grade expected by writerAos initial their English at least the management.
This gap has brought the present study to find answers of 2 research questions.
level of English proficiency of the front-liners actually was and why they experienced struggles when 120 guests.
facing foreign Reasons why they struggled when facing foreign guests seemed to be caused by several factors.
L1 interference, .
educational background, .
less English exposure, .
the absence of ESP test at recruitment process.
L1 interference also seemed related to less English exposure they had.
Their L1 interference prevented them from using more frequent English in daily basis conversation at workplace.
Meanwhile, their educational background, mostly graduates of hotel and tourism major, did not have sufficient oral English exposure since the subject of English focused more on grammar and reading, and yet productive skills were insufficient.
Recommendation for further study is to expand the participantsAo range.
more categories of hotel star so wide range of front-liners can optimally elicit deeper information on English proficiency and more solid conclusions can be made.
Lastly, a staff professional development for front-liners should be made and the focus will be more on productive skills of the staff.
This program can be the link and match between vocational education and hotel industry.
References