Come Visit Us!

From APEC HRDWG Wiki

Most of the APEC economies are outstanding tourist destinations. Getting Business English students to work on a tourism package is a great way to get large groups with varying levels of English abililty to work together.

Heterogeneous groups generate more elaborative thinking, which increases depth of understanding and increases the breadth and quality of reasoning… Students in multilevel groups who have learned how to function effectively can generate more enthusiasm for their work while drawing on individual expertise in content and language (Christopher & Niez, 2010).

By creating classroom advertising teams, we can develop competition and great avenues of expertise for each student. If managed correctly, showcasing a personal economy or tourist attraction could bring out the best in all students.

Content Objectives

• To learn the importance of deadlines and how to meet them
• To explain the value found in one’s economy or a tourist attraction
• To prioritize what items are most important to create

Language Objectives

• To collaborate and cooperate in a team using all English language skills
• To produce informative, clearly comprehensible tourist paraphernalia in English

Activity

Have students showcase their economy, or a specific tourist attraction, with tourism paraphernalia. Create teams and give them specific deadlines for completing items. Each task below has a suggested timeline for the teams to complete the task. Adjust times, as needed.

1. It is crucial to create teams that are heterogeneous in terms of English language skill levels. Have each team choose a leader (15 minutes). This leader will have several responsibilities, including:

o Keeping the team focused and on task
o Reporting daily to the teacher on the teams’ progress

2. Ask the teams to brainstorm products to advertise their economy/tourist attraction (15 minutes).

3. Teams produce one or more of the following items (1 week, depending on how much class time is allotted and how many items teams need to create):

o A country map or map of tourist area
o Brochure
o Poster
o Online advertisement
o Calendar of events
o Tour guide role play
o List of things to do at target destination
o List of amenities
o Reservation form/feedback form

Teachers meet with the team leaders daily to get progress reports. Team leaders need to be prepared to answer questions about how their group worked together.

4. Each team presents their items to the class.

Enrichment: Create a school showcase for the products the class prepared. Invite friends, family, and local tourist agencies.

Materials

Choose materials based on the items each group chooses to produce.

Category

Organizational leadership: meeting deadlines, organizing a group to create a finished product

Learning Theme

Learning to do; problem solving

Resource

Christopher, D. H., and Niez, R. A. (2010). Large classes and group projects: A curriculum unit on tourism in the Philippines. In B. Baurain and P. L. Ha (Eds.), Multilevel and diverse classrooms (pp. 23–37). Alexandria, VA: Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages, Inc. (TESOL).

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 Also see Business Language Policy