2008

Since Ecuador has become an international destination for people all over the world, the local hotel industry needs to have a staff that can effectively communicate in English. However, only a small percentage can provide service to English speaking customers due to the lack of specialized courses that addresses the needs of this group. This study focuses on waiters of a five star hotels in Guayaquil. lt was intended to demonstrate that through the implementation of an English for Specific Purposes (ESP) module using a task based learning approach, waiters would develop functional competence in spoken interaction reaching a level A 1 according to the Common European Framework. An experimental design was used under the category of pre-experiment, specifically a one group design with a sample size of twenty waiters that later on ended up with only six participants. To determine their degree of functional competence, waiters took an oral pre test befare the module began based on their work protocol performed at their jobs. However, during the teaching process the need arase to design a new scale exclusively on spoken interaction to complement the first rubric. At the end of the module, a post test using both rubrics was conducted to detect if learning occurred. The results reflectad a notable increase in students' functional competence compared to the results of the pre test. As a result of the study, a 120 hour ESP program was created. The first of tour modules was developed along with students' and teacher's book.