In this study, English language communication training needs of Front
Office Assistants are identified and described. Eight hotels of four and five-star
rating in Kuala Lumpur took part in the survey, from which a total of 44 Front
Office Assistants and 26 managers responded.
The main aim of the research was to determine to what extent an English
language communication training need exists among the Front Office Assistants, and
which areas of job-based communicative activities deserve emphasis in a training
programme. Also, further details of the needs of the Front Office Assistants were obtained by exploring the difference in perceptions between the Front Office
Assistants and their managers regarding the needs of the Front Office Assistants.
Data were collected via a needs assessment questionnaire, which required
information amongst others, a rating by the respondents of the proficiency level of
Front Office Assistants on 35 communicative activities, and the relevance of these
activities to the job of Front Office Assistant.
The result was a description of English language communication needs of the
Front Office Assistants, comprising a numerical representation of the overall degree
of need for such training, the degree of training need for each communicative
activity, the ranking order of the communicative activities according to training
importance, and comparison between the perceptions of the two respondent groups
as regards the proficiency level of the Front Office Assistants, the relevance of the
communicative activities to the job of Front Office Assistants, and the training
importance of the communicative activities.
The overall findings show that an English language communication training
need exists for Front Office Assistants and that the managers felt the Front Office
Assistants needed training in more of the communicative activities than the Front
Office Assistants did themselves
