On the Study of Promoting Hotel Staff’s English Intercultural Communicative Competence-Taking Howard Johnson Sunshine Plaza Ningbo as an Example

Cao Yuting Wu Hanqi

Abstract：This study takes Howard Johnson Sunshine Plaza Ningbo as an example，and focuses on the research of English intercultural communicative level of hotel staffs. It is of positive and practical significance for the growing hotel industry. This paper uses questionnaire to investigate the influencing factors of hotel staffs’ English intercultural communicative competence，such as educational level，attitude toward hotel English learning and hotel English training effect. Through the questionnaire，it finds out that staffs’ English intercultural communicative competence is largely related to their educational level and their personal study habits. With the analysis of the existing problems of hotel staffs’ intercultural communicative competence，his paper puts forward some suggestions，such as reasonable arrangement of training time，personalized training and assessment，and extra reward outstanding employees during English training.

Key Words： English intercultural communicative competence; Hotel Staff; Howard Johnson Sunshine Plaza Ningbo

1.Introduction

English language ability is playing an increasingly huge role in the hotel industry. Under this circumstance，hotel staffs’ English intercultural communicative competence becomes a vital issue for hotel’s development. This paper will take Howard Johnson Sunshine Plaza Ningbo as a research target. As a high-end hotel，it is much more necessary for staffs in Howard Johnson Sunshine to grasp English intercultural communicative competence.

This study aims to investigate hotel staffs’ current intercultural communicative competence and figure out its influencing factors which can reflect the true situation of staffs’ service for foreign guests. Based on the internal and external problems discovered in hotel staffs’ intercultural communicative competence，the study will finally come up with several suggestions to improve staffs’ English intercultural communicative competence that can offer a better service to foreign guests.

2.Literature Review

The systematic study of Intercultural communicative competence motivated more scholars conducted study in this field all over the world which enriched the content of intercultural communicative competence. Xue （2009） discussed the definition of ICC in her study，she stated that language communication ability is not just the language skills of listening，speaking，reading and writing，but a kind of ability to use language at a higher level. Moreover，Han （2012） described the importance of English for employees and hotel’s development. Han said the application of hotel English in hotel service is the basic skill of high star hotel staffs. It is also the key quality of the hotel staffs to achieve efficient intercultural communication. Particularly in the high-star hotel service，hotel staffs are required to master a certain level of foreign language and intercultural communicative competence.

Even though people can realize how crucial English is for hotel service，there still have problems in staffs’ English expression and their intercultural communicative competence. Zhu （2013） found that more than 60% hotel staffs are hotel management major，graduating from vocational colleges or high schools. It is undoubtedly natural that they are lack of oral English practice，let alone the chances of communicating with foreigners. What’s more，hotel is lack of daily cultivation for hotel staffs’ awareness of intercultural communication. This gap brings great difference for hotel staffs’ current situation of intercultural communicative competence.

From the relevant previous studies，it can be inferred that most of the previous researches paid more attention to the internal problems which is not comprehensive. This paper examines comprehensive aspects which relate to staff’s English situation. Moreover，it lacks practical countermeasures to enhance hotel staff’s intercultural communicative competence and improve hotel’s English training system.

3.Research Methodology

The purpose of this study is to grasp the current development of hotel staffs’ English intercultural communicative competence in Howard Johnson Sunshine Plaza Ningbo. In addition，based on the preliminary investigation，it is found out that hotel English training organized by HR Department of Howard Johnson Sunshine has been carrying out for a certain time. Therefore，it is of necessity to discover the effects of hotel English training on promoting intercultural communicative competence through questionnaire and figure out the problems existing in the hotel English training. What’s more，this study analyzes the causes and puts forward effective strategies toward existing problems. To sum up，the following issues will be mainly dealt with：

（1）The current situation of hotel staffs’ English intercultural communicative competence in Howard Johnson Sunshine Plaza Ningbo;

（2）The causes of hotel staffs’ uneven English intercultural communicative competence;

（3）The countermeasures for improving this situation.

The subjects of this study involve totally 60 staffs in Howard Johnson Sunshine Plaza Ningbo，covering Front Office，Housekeeping and Food & Beverage three departments with 20 participants of each. Among the participants，there are young staffs and experienced employees as well. Therefore，this study can have an all-round understanding about the differences among hotel staffs’ intercultural communicative competence.

4.Results and Discussion

4.1 The Current Situation of Hotel Staffs’ English Intercultural Communicative Competence

The hotel staffs’ basic information includes their gender，working department and educational level. It shows that most of the employees who participated in the survey graduated from secondary school，the percentage is up to 50%. Moreover，nearly 44% employees have no professional English certificates. The datum show that the majority of those staffs only have weak basis of English language competence. They do not have a systematic and professional knowledge about English study which influence their intercultural communicative competence greatly.

To evaluate hotel staffs’ English intercultural communicative competence including their English expressing ability and their intercultural awareness，it shows that 40% hotel staffs have elementary English knowledge for daily communication，such as，introducing themselves. But there are 30% and 41.67% hotel staffs lack of description and discussing competence，they cannot express their own thoughts in English fluently. As to staffs’ intercultural body language awareness，hotel employees pay more attention to foreign guests’ gestures and their pronunciation and intonation. It indicates that hotel staffs have potential intercultural communicative awareness.

Through the results，it can be inferred that part of staffs hold good attitude toward hotel English training. 46.67% hotel staffs hold a positive attitude，they attend the training for their own improvement and participate the interaction initiatively. 50% hotel staffs attend the hotel English training passively which refers to hotel staffs’ English improvement relating to their attitude greatly. What’s more，for the effect of training，it shows that 53.33% hotel staffs think the content is useful and they have a little improvement in their English level. However there still exists a phenomenon that some staffs do not have any change in learning interest at all.

4.2 Causes of Hotel Staffs’ Uneven Intercultural Communicative Competence

Hotel staffs’ own reasons are not the only influencing factor for their intercultural communicative competence，but also due to external reasons’ influence.

4.2.1 Standing on the Internal Perspective

4.2.1.1 Low Average of Educational Level

The overall educational level of employees is low. The source of the staff is mainly junior college，and some of them are from undergraduate colleges. What’s more，junior hotel staffs hold a low educational level which influencing their English and intercultural communicative level greatly.

4.2.1.2 Short Awareness of the Importance of English Intercultural Communication

Foreign-related hotel staffs pay less attention to the cultivation and investment of English communicative competence. From the questionnaire，the result shows that 45% hotel staffs hold a general attitude toward English，even 13.33% employees do not have interest in English at all. This situation brings a great difficulty for hotel to carry out hotel English training and cultivate hotel staffs’ intercultural awareness. So there is a great necessity to enhance employees’ intercultural communicative awareness.

4.2.1.3 Insufficient Self-confidence for Intercultural Communication

There are up to 36.67% of hotel staffs that participate in the interaction passively and 21.67% are unwilling to attend the interaction. It indicates that the majority of hotel staffs do not want to express themselves and hold a negative attitude toward hotel English training. Due to insufficient knowledge of intercultural communicative competence and their own English level，hotel staffs are concerned that their words will affect the hotel external image in foreign guests. Therefore，for those hotel staffs have weak English basis，they do not have confidence to proceed cross-cultural communication，and speak out their thoughts in English.

4.2.1.4 Inaccurate Usage of Vocabulary，Grammar and Pronunciation

There are 50% hotel staffs holding secondary school diploma which refers to hotel staffs are lack of systemic professional English learning and intercultural communicative competence practice.Firstly，during staffs’ conversation，they will usually speak Chinglish that’s mainly caused by improper usage of grammar and lack of vocabulary. Last but not least，regards to pronunciation，it is one of the biggest influencing factors during service as well. Some of the hotel employees may have certain vocabulary reserve，but they have non-standard pronunciations. Therefore during their service for foreign guests，staffs always cannot respond to foreign guests immediately.

4.2.2 Standing on the External Perspective

4.2.2.1 Immature Training System

The hotel English training still has several problems. To achieve an effective training，it should have strong language learning atmosphere，but questionnaire from the hotel staff shows that the atmosphere is not attractive. What’s more，as to the training handouts，it should be more practical and relate to their actual daily work environment，so that it will increase staffs’ communicative competence to work out daily communicative difficulties.

4.2.2.2 Lack of Language Environment

Even though hotel has carried out training projects for hotel staffs to improve their English expression ability and intercultural communicative competence，it’s not enough and impressive for hotel staffs to improve their intercultural communicative competence depend on several training lessons. Training time is limited and hotel staffs’ memory for training contents is temporary，most of trained hotel staffs will not review what they have learned in their spare time.

4.3 Suggestions toward Hotel Staffs’ English Intercultural Communicative Problems

After having a specific exploration about the influencing factors and causes of staff’s uneven English intercultural communicative level，it’s better for researchers to come up with corresponding measures to improve this situation and enhance hotel staffs’ intercultural service level.

4.3.1 Conducting Professional Quality Assessment and Incentive Policy to Hotel Staffs

It is investigated that Howard Johnson Sunshine Plaza Ningbo makes an assessment to hotel staffs after training，but hotel only takes the written test as the major assessment method and the score cannot comprehensively and effectively measure the training effect on the trainees. As oral ability and listening competence is much more crucial，it is recommended to add the oral and listening test for checking how effective the training is for its staffs. What’s more，foreign guests’ feedback is important as well which shows staffs’ application ability and reflecting their disadvantages during the service at all round aspect. Using a comprehensive angle to evaluate will be fairer. Besides，it’s better for hotel to set up an incentive system to reward outstanding employees.

4.3.2 Cultivating Hotel staff’s Awareness of Cross-cultural Communication

Five-end hotels receive lots of foreign guests who come from different nations and have different cultural backgrounds. Hotel can set a foreign language reading room，the content of the reading room is about foreign culture and western countries’ development. Hotel staffs can borrow these books for free to broaden their horizon. Through this way，hotel staffs’ intercultural communicative awareness can be enhanced and their self-confidence during intercultural communication will be increased.

4.3.3 Conducting Regular Hotel English Training for Hotel Staffs

Toward hotel English training，hotel need to know the educational level of each employee and their current English level，and then provide personalized training to hotel staffs of different English levels. Meanwhile，hotel needs to consider the reasonable training time period and training times as well. This is not only a phased summary of previous training situation，but also an important plan for future hotel English training.

5.Conclusion

This study obviously has significant implications. It is the first time that there has a targeted research toward Howard Johnson Sunshine Plaza Ningbo. The finding results of this study lie in the following points. Even though the overall English level of five end hotels is at a moderate level，hotel staffs’ level of intercultural communicative competence in Howard Johnson Sunshine Plaza is uneven. This phenomenon mainly relates to hotel staffs’ educational level and their intercultural communicative awareness. Besides，the immature hotel English training in Howard Johnson Sunshine Plaza Ningbo and hotel staffs’ diverse attitude toward hotel English training causes the uneven intercultural communicative competence as well. In terms of the problems exist in hotel staffs’ intercultural communicative competence，this paper puts forward corresponding countermeasures to improve the situation.

Although useful findings were obtained，this study has limitations embedded within it. Only 60 participants in the questionnaire limited the study’s statistical power. Future research should adopt more methods and involve more hotel staffs in the questionnaire or interview to support the data.

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