PROFICIENCY IN ENGLISH AND CAREER OPPORTUNITIES IN THE LABOUR MARKET

The technological development, the growing economic globalization and the majordemographic shifts have brought about the need for a global language. In international business, travel, scienceand technology, education, immigration, academia, diplomacy and entertainment, English is the dominantlanguage, being spoken by over one billion people. English is used inside and outside the professionalenvironment, both for communication in global business and for communication in social networks, butproficiency in English can definitely enhance people’s career opportunities both if they look for a job in thecountry or plan to go abroad to find employment. It may determine a division among those who have access toinformation and prosperity and those who don’t. In the future not just wealth but also the way it is created willhave a great impact on people’s increasing communicative needs of international languages. It is obvious thenthat more and more people will need proficiency in English ,both as a language for international communicationand as the basis for constructing cultural identities

NEW APPROACHES TO TEACHING BUSINESS ENGLISH FOR TOURISM STUDENTS

Tourism is a service - sector which has proved to be constant in times of economic crisis and will continue to grow at a rapid pace in the 21st century and thus communication in foreign languages is vital for this field. However, English, the lingua franca of our century, remains a difficult language to master and , with the emphasis on science and professional subjects, language studies are often neglected in universities The present paper examines a few steps in the development of Business English and some new approaches to teaching Business English to tourism students considering the fact that recently, due to the changes going on in the labour market, there has been a shift in the students’ needs and a subsequent shift in the pedagogy of teaching Business English students in tourism By and large Business English is also a very difficult task, because it has to face both the challenges of teaching a foreign language and those of having that very foreign language become another language in itself through its specialized vocabulary with a double communication task. This must be added to the ever new communication skills required of our graduates in the labour market

THE IMPORTANCE OF TEACHING ENGLISH IN THE FIELD OF TOURISM IN UNIVERSITIES

As English is considered the lingua franca of the twenty-first century, everyone needs to have a good command of English today and the importance of teaching English for professional uses and particularly in the field of tourism is undeniable. English proficiency is required in all professional areas but it becomes essential in the tourist industry because of its specific characteristics.. English Language has played an important role in the development of tourism and in this field, English is used widely for travel as well as in client contact and is of outmost interest at the tertiary level. But its interest should not be restricted to tourism students: English for tourism is one of the most attractive areas of English for Specific Purposes(ESP) because, after all, all of us are tourists on various occasions nowadays

ENGLISH: THE LANGUAGE OF COMMUNICATION IN TOURISM

Tourism has become a success story of modern times. In the past decades the number of people whotravel abroad has grown rapidly. Tourism is a service - sector which has proved to be constant in times of economiccrisis and will continue to grow at a rapid pace in the 21st century. But tourism is an extremely complexendeavour.Communication is vital to its success since it is only through the effective use of communication thattourism marketers can offer to customers cues about world wide experiences.. Unfortunately, with the emphasis onscience and professional subjects, language studies are often neglected in universities. Consequently, English remains adifficult language to master in spite of the fact that the Tourism sector can benefit enormously from it and it can reviveinterest in learning languages

ENGLISH FOR SPECIFIC PURPOSES:PAST AND PRESENT

English for Specific Purposes(ESP) focuses on the specific communicative needs of particular professional or occupational groups and it has emerged out of Halliday, Mackintosh and Strevens’work,The linguistic sciences and language teaching(1964).Ever since it has developed rapidly and became a significant issue in English language teaching and research and its interdisciplinarity means not only an openness to the approaches and insights of other fields but also its distinctiveness. In this respect, English for Specific Purposes is related to applied linguistics and discourse analysis, pragmatics, sociocognitive theory, communicative language teaching, rhetoric, critical literacy and all these disciplinary perspectives help us to identify what it stands for

Aspects Regarding the Atmosphere Pollution Monitoring

This paper presents information regarding the variation of aerosols concentration in a central area in Galati city. For a period of time of 2 years and 5 months, there have been done correlations between aerosols concentrations with grading classes and the dominant wind directions (E-W, N-NW~S-SE, S~N, N~NE~S-SW). The results of the measurements are particular for only a point in time, being influenced by random variables (traffic intensity, temperature, pressure, wind speed, humidity etc.)

Air Quality Monitoring in Galaţi. Case Study

This paper presents information referring to the variation of aerosols concentration in a central area in Galati. For a period of time of november2005 to november 2006, there have been made correlations between aerosols concentrations and the predominant wind directions (E~W, N~NE~S-SW). The results of the measurements are specific only for a point in time, being influenced by random variables (traffic intensity, temperature, pressure, wind speed, humidity etc.)

THE ROLES OF THE ESP PRACTITIONER

English for Specific Purposes(ESP) can be defined as teaching and learning English as a second or foreign language for the purpose of using it in a particular domain. Since 1960s ESP has become a distinctive part of Teaching English as a Foreign Language(TEFL) its importance being due to the fact that English has become the contemporary lingua franca. According to Dudley Evans, there are five different roles to be performed by the ESP practitioner: teacher, collaborator, course designer and materials provider, researcher and evaluator.(1998).In our view each of these roles are extremely important for the ESP teacher , contribute to his/her success and cannot be replaced by anything els

NEEDS ANALYSIS IN ENGLISH FOR SPECIFIC PURPOSES

Needs analysis is considered to be the cornerstone of English for Specific Purposes(ESP). The concept of Needs analysis has been different along the decades. At the initial stages of ESP( the 1960s and early 1970s), needs analysis consisted in assessing the communicative needs of the learners and the techniques of achieving specific teaching objectives. Nowadays, the tasks of needs analysis is much more complex: it aims at collecting information about the learners and at defining the target situation and environment of studying ESP

CHALLENGES FACING THE ESP PRACTITIONER

The ESP teacher has to face certain challenges in his profession: One of the biggest challenges of the ESP teacher is the fact that he/she lacks the necessary knowledge of the subject to teach Business English, for instance, some researchers believing that such courses should be taught by subject teachers. The task of teaching ESP by ESL teachers is not an easy one. Dudley- Evans and St. John pointed out its complexity, identifying five key roles of the ESP practitioner: teacher, course designer and materials provider, collaborator, researcher and evaluator and this is probably the biggest challenge of the profession. The ESP practitioner has also to be aware of the fact that using a foreign language for workplace or study purposes requires not only linguistic proficiency and knowledge but also knowledge of work –related and disciplinary concepts.Last but not least, another challenge for the ESP practitioner is the use of technology in class, a valuable tool for helping with traditional forms of teaching and for creating new forms of communicating.Thus, the ESP practitioner has many things in common with the teacher of general English: he has to be familiar with linguistic development and teaching theories ,he has to be aware of contemporary ideas related to his position and role and he has to become familiar with the new technologies which can be used to improve his methodology.However,his role is more complex than that of a General English teacher