1. AN INTRODUCTION TO TOURISM
Defining tourism in English
An introductory tourist terminology
First grammar activity: Structural change
Words often confused: travel, trip, journey, voyage, etc.
The history of tourism
Historical concepts & specific vocabulary
Idioms: From catching the travel bug to other idioms about animals
2. DESCRIBING TRENDS: STATISTICS
Interpreting statistical data
Statistics of evolution
Grammar: Structural conversion
Specific terminology
Dealing with pie charts: statistics of percentages
Useful expressions
Writing statistical reports
3. THE JOB SECTOR
Jobs in tourism
Professional skills and qualities
Applying for a job: writing letters of application and CVs
Job interviews
Words often confused: salary, wages, bonus, perks, etc.
Labour expressions
4. THE GEOGRAPHY OF TOURISM
Geographical names in English
The article THE
Nationalities and the people
National stereotypes
Idioms with nationalities
Festivals.
Research into some Spanish festivals.
The Passive Form
Advising customers on the geographical features of a destination
5. TRAVEL AGENCIES
Holiday types
Advising customers on holiday destinations
Typical travel agent’s expressions
Giving advice: Grammatical structures
Corporate travel
Specific terminology & dialogues
Applying for a visa
Modal verbs of obligation
Telephone language
6. TICKETS, RESERVATIONS AND INSURANCE
Payment terms
Quoting prices
Revision of numbers & figures
Selling a plane ticket
Expressions & dialogues
Insurance
Insurance terms & phrasal verbs
Explaining holiday hazards in order to claim insurance
Revision of Past Tenses
7. AIR TRAVEL
Airport announcements
Airport vocabulary
Procedures
Everyday procedures
Air procedures: check-in desk; cabin crew; safety, etc...
Grammar focus: Sequence linkers
Dialogues at the check-in desk
Qualifying as a flight attendant
Listening task and dialogues
Customs regulations
Reading task & specific terminology
8. WATER TRANSPORT
Introductory vocabulary: Water holidays
Vessel types
Selling cruises: cruise procedure
Writing a cruise brochure [Revision of the passive form]
Cruise description
?The Future tenses
International etiquette
?Vocabulary of bad manners
Describing cabins
9. TRAVEL BY ROAD AND RAIL
Railway vocabulary
Describing a train journey
Expressing comparison, contrast and reinforcement
Motor home rentals
Coach tours
Dealing with other people’s problems
10. ACCOMMODATION
Hotel description and hotel facilities
Room description
Room items
Order of adjectives
Hotel reception
Phone bookings
Check-out
Restaurant services
British & American English
Food items
Verbs of cooking
Explaining recipes
11. TOURIST INFORMATION & GUIDING
Tourist attractions
Enquiries at a tourist information centre
Giving factual information of sites
Expressing measures
Technical vocabulary
How to be a good guide (specific terminology)
On tour: describing cities, buildings and people
Guiding language
Adjective modifiers
Reading task: Around Moncada Street in Barcelona
12. DEVELOPMENTS IN TOURISM
Predicting future trends of this industry
Sustainable tourism
There will be two exams: one in February, the other in June. Your grade will be determined by your performance in the FINAL EXAM. The February grade will just serve as orientation for both teacher and student and will only count in case of doubt in June.
Each term grade will be made up of the following components:
Written exam: 60%
Oral exam: 20%
Class work: 20%
TOTAL: 100%
Here comes a brief description of each of these sections:
1. ORAL EXAMS
Students will sit an oral exam each semester. In February, this exam will be held in class, whereas in June learners will be allocated a time slot to do their oral presentations at ease. The activity to be prepared will depend on the course contents, as usual.
2. WRITTEN EXAM
Both the February and June exams will be long and comprehensive and will test learners on ALL the contents of the course included in the program.
3. CLASS WORK
The class work grade will include the marks students get from their written assignments and from short tests that might be occasionally administered. Given the difficulty to assess this sort of tasks, the teacher will use a letter-based system that will later be changed by numerical values. This grading system runs as follows:
A+:100 B+: 85 C+: 70 D+:55
A : 95 B : 80 C : 65 D : 50
A-: 90 B- : 75 C-: 60 D-: 45
In the end, the class work mark will result from the mean grade of all the values gathered by the student all along the term.
IMPORTANT NOT TO FORGET:
· To pass the course, students must get 50 % of the written exam.
· As class attendance and participation is crucial for the right development of the learning process, students can have this reflected in their mark as they will have 1 extra point added to the final grade iff (if and only if) they come to class every day during the semester, with the exception of SIX permitted absences. Any learners surpassing this amount of absences will not get this extra point and should refrain from trying to get it by means of documents that justify their absence. No formal justification will be accepted in that case.
· Both the written and the oral exam are obligatory. Students who pass only one of the exams in June will have to sit the other exam in September. The pertaining percentages will only be made when the students have both grades.
· The class work grade is compulsory, too. Only those students who can show some sort of formal justification for not being able to follow the course as normal may be exempted from that part of the grade. This obviously requires a certain degree of consent among student, teacher and head of studies.
· The exam in June is always FINAL, i.e., it includes all the contents of the course dealt with in the classroom.