THUONGMAI UNIVERSITY ENGLISH FACULTY - - GRADUATION PAPER A STUDY ON HOW TO IMPROVE ENGLISH COMMUNICATION SKILLS OF RECEPTIONISTS IN MUONG THANH GRAND HANOI HOTEL Supervisor: Student’s name: TRAN THUY DUNG M.A HOANG THI THUY Class: K50N1 Student Code: 14D170008 Hanoi - 2018 ABSTRACT Research topic: “ A study on how to improve English communication skills of Receptionists in Muong Thanh Grand Hanoi hotel” is meaningful and necessary both in theory and practice when communicate with foreign guest by English This study has systematized the theoretical issues related to English listening and speaking skills, the cause of these problems in communicate by English of receptionists in the hotel The study also analyzed, finds the difficulties of English communication skills that staffs in Reception Department face with based on reasoning andpractical expression of it through the use of data collection methodthe survey questionnaire to all receptionist From above the difficulties, the study has given some useful solutions to mprove English communication skills of Receptionists in Muong Thanh Grand Hanoi hotel to help them feel more confident and professional when communicate with foreign guest from many countries around the world Due to limited time, awareness and practical experience, the study could not avoid shotcomings and errors There fore, I look forward to receiving comments and suggestions in order to perfect the study ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS During the process of completing the thesis, I have received warmly help from my supervisor, teachers of English Faculty – Thuongmai University, my family and especially are the staffs of Reception Department in Muong Thanh Grand Hanoi Hotel First of all, I would like to show my deep gratitude to my beloved supervisor – M.A Hoang Thi Thuy, who directly guides me Thanks for her useful advices and detailed comments in the preparation as well as the correction Besides, she always supported and created favorable conditions for me to complete perfectly this graduation paper Secondly, I would like to send my sincerely thank for the FO Manager of Muong Thanh Grand Hanoi Hotel – Ms Nguyen Thi Hien Luong, who helped and guided me very enthusiastically during the process of interning and working I also send my special thanks to all staffs at the Reception Department at MTGH in particular of contributing their ideas and experience to help me enrich my graduation paper Lastly, I would like to express my deepest appreciation to my family and friends, especially my parents who always take care of me and encouraage me to complete the thesis Hanoi, April 9th, 2018 Student Tran Thuy Dung TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS No Abbreviations M.A F O Manager MTGH hotel English meaning Master of Art Front office manager Muong Thanh Grand Hanoi hotel Vietnamese meaning Thạc sĩ văn chương/ Xã hội Giám đốc- Trưởng Bộ phận Lễ tân Khách sạn Mường Thanh Grand Hà Nội LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS Image 2.1 Communication process Chart 1: Receptionist’s education level Chart The amount of time a receptionists had worked for the hotel Chart 3: Frequency of using English in workplace of receptionists Chart 4: The role of communication skills in the hotel Chart 5: Number of receptionists feel confident when communicate by English in their job Chart 6: The English skills that receptionists have encountered problems most Chart 7: Level of English communication skill of receptionists Chart 8: The intent of participants Table 1: Common problems in English communication skills Table 2: Cause of the problems in speaking skill Table 3: Causes of problems in listening skill CHAPTER 1: OVERVIEW OF THE STUDY 1.1 Rationale Nowadays, with the development of the international relationships among countries, English is playing an important role in the world and has become an important part of every enterprise People use English for communication and discussion in different aspects of life It is the key to opening the door, to discovering, exploiting new markets and seeking foreign investors and production scale In Vietnam, English communication skills are very essential for work place Therefore, English communication skills have become more necessary than ever However, there are still some problems about using English in communication activities, particularly in Muong Thanh Grand Hanoi hotel, especially in Reception Department As a company operates in the tourism – hospitality sector, as well as other hotels, everyday, Muong Thanh Grand Hanoi hotel has to work with visitors who come from many countries using different languages, including English English is the most language that is used in the hotel According to the recruitment process of Muong Thanh Grand Hanoi hotel, it focuses on the work of the interview through English, checks the qualifications related to English Most hotel staffs, especially receptionists, have quite good English, use English fluently, however, only in non-professional English English majority of almost the receptionists is still weak Some of the receptionists in the hotel have poor English skills, which is a barrier to dealing with foreign guests This study will explore the reality of using English in Recepion Department at Muong Thanh Grand Hanoi hotel and suggest some solutions or suggestions to help the staffs enhance their English communication skills Only in this way, the receptionist can communicate in English fluently and professional In order to help the staffs, especially the receptionists in Muong Thanh Grand Hanoi hotel improve their English communication skills, after one-month internship at Reception Department at the hotel, I carry on this study with the tittle: “ A study on how to improve English communication skills of Receptionists in Muong Thanh Grand Hanoi hotel” The study is expected to help the staffs, especially the receptionists in the hotel improve their English communication skills to work with foreigns guests more effectively 1.2 Previous study There have been lots of researches at abroad and at home which have been donein recently on the topic of “How to improve English communication skills “, for example: “A study on techniques to improve the first year english majors’ speaking skill at HPU (2013)” By Phung Thi Son, student at Department of Foreign Languages, Haiphong private university The study explored the reality of teaching and learning English speaking of the first year’s English majors in HPU and suggested some main technique with include the methods of stengthening the teaching of English speaking to help students enhance their English speaking skills.The author put forward a number of measures to change the student’s attitude on speaking English and let them find English speaking more interesting Pham Thi Huyen Huong’s research on technique to improve speaking skill for secondary student in Quang Ninh (2012) The researcher takes a survey of collected data and gives comments on real situation of teaching speaking in Secondary School in Quang Ninh After surveying, she realized that the teacher rarely give the student a chance to free talk They still get many difficulties when speaking English The least frequently used activities such as story telling, information gap are not applied At abroad, there are also a lot of researches relate to the topic of communication skills, for example, according to Piamsak Uraipan, M.A in Business English for International Communicationn at Srinakharinwirot University, the author studied and pointed our the problems with English speaking and listening of THAI flight attendances in economy class in 2011 This study was to examine listening-speaking problems of THAI flight attendants who work in economy class This study attempted to examine various problems with English in listening and speaking which occurred in economy class The data for this study were collected from 50 THAI flight attendants who were working in economy class According to this study, it was found that most THAI flight attendants in economy class thought pronunciation of specific consonants correctly and perceiving various accents were moderate problems Regarding the language functions, using proper language in miscellaneous situations excluding in-flight service were also moderate The majority of the flight attendants in the sample believed that they were good at English listening and speaking Studying the factors that cause problems and difficulties of speaking that encountered by English Language Students at Al Quds Open University in 2014, Dr Ahmed Maher Mahmoud Al Nakhalah has noticed during his career and teaching the course of Graduation Project and other courses at AlQuds Open University that the students face some difficulties and problems in speaking while they introduce and talk about their projects and during discussions in the lectures of different courses Then he suggested carrying out more studies and researches about speaking difficulties encountered by English language students However, in these topics, there is no study on how to improve English communication skills in hotel and hospitality In reality, the hotel staffs still have som difficulties in English communication skills and have significant impacts on communicating with foreign guests That is the reason why I choose the thesis “A study on how to improve English communication skills of Receptionists in Muong Thanh Grand Hanoi Hotel” 1.3 Aims of the study The aim of this study is to identify problems in English communication and find out some appropriate solutions to improve English communication skills of receptionist in Muong Thanh Grand Hanoi hotel in which, the study focuses on finding the reality of the staffs in Reception Department ‘s using English in communicate with foreigns guests and giving them the suggestions for better communication The expectation is that the receptionists at MTGH hotel can communicate in English confidently and fluently to achieve high efficiency at work 1.4 Research subjects Hotel business is a highly competitive one Every hotel requires professional personnel to provide proficient service Thus, communication between receptionist and guests must be clear and understandable To enhance English language skills and the effectiveness of their interaction with guests, MTGH hotel’ s receptionist must improve their English communicative competence, in terms of listening and speaking The finding of this study is beneficial for MTGH hotel because they help to provide an understanding of the English listening and speaking problems which occur between receptionists and guests These findings can be used to help Muong Thanh Grand Hanoi hotel design appropriate courses for receptionist Furthermore, this study can act as a guideline for developing more effective English courses for MTGH hotel staffs who work in other deprtment Here are some questions to deal with the study: - What is the reallity of the use of English of all staffs in Mương Thanh Grand Hanoi Hotel, especialy in receptionists? - What are the problems that receptionists in Muong Thanh Grrand Hanoi hotel encountered in English communication? - How frequently English communication skills problems occur in the Front Office Department’s communication activities? - What are some solutions or suggestions used to help students overcome English communication problems? 1.5 Scope of the study This present study focuses on improving English communication skills of all receptionists in Muong Thanh Grand Hanoi hotel It requires much time and effort However, due to the limitation of time, resources and knowledge as well as others condition, the study was carried out to find out the problems in English communicaton skilla of the hotel receptionists as well as offering some suggestions to help them enhance their English communicaton skills Thus, the study is valuable for the receptionist at MTGH hotel Thus, the study is valuable for the Receptionists in Reception Department at MTGH hotel 1.6 Research methodology In order to attain the primary aims, the researcher has consulted several ideas from the supervisor and people who fully understand this topic All the theories have been carefully selected and gathered through reference books and documents on the Internet websites A survey questionnaire was conducted for the receptionist in MTGH about their attitudes, evaluations about their matters and the difficulties that they have to cope with when communicating in workplace A survey questionnaire has been designed as the key data collection of the study Thus, this study is conducted with qualitative method In order to collect data for this study, I carried out this survey questionnaires to the Receptionists in Muong Thanh Grand Hanoi hotel and received consent participation of 20 employees of the Reception Department There are steps to conduct the survey: Step 1: The researcher identified the situation/reality of English communication of Receptionists in Muong Thanh Grand Hanoi Hotel Step 2: The researcher selected the data collection instrument for the study, in this case, survey questionnaires were chosen to collect data Then, the researcher firstly tried to draft survey questionnaires and asked supervisor to check or improve the survey, as a result, the actual questionnaires were developed Step 3: In the following step, the researcher identified the subjects of the survey and delivered the questionnaires to them Step 4: Finally, questionnaires were collected by the researcher and collected data were analyzed after that There are total 20 questionnaires were delivered and all of them were collected, which means the rate of collection was 100% as participants are the researcher’s colleagues All the comments, remarks, recommendations and conclusion provided in the study were based on the data analysis of the study 1.7 Organization of the study Thist study is divided into chapters as follow: Chapter are the Overview of the study which include rationale, previous studies, aims of the study, research subjects, scope of the study, research methodology and organization of the study Chapter 2: Literature review looking at some theoretical background reating to the study It focuses on the concepts of communication, communication in hotel – hospitality industry and the problems in English communication.skills of receptionists Chapter 3: Data analysis and research findings: provides the details of the findings including survey results through the questionnaire given to participants 10 3.1.7 Level of English communication skills of receptionists(Selfassesment) (See appendix) Chart 7: Level of English communication skill of receptionists Chart shows the results of the self-assessment in terms of communication skills The majority of the participants (45%) thought that they were good at English communication, whereas 35% of them thought their skills were fair Only a little percentage of staffs thought they just in average level 3.1.8 Question 8: Some common problems that receptionists faced with when communicate by English in workplace? (See appendix) Common problems in English communication skills Non-availability of words to express feelings Lack of confidence Lack of motivation Some difficult terminologies about hotel-hospitality sector Difference of syntax Limited vocabulary Uncertain of their word choice and grammar when speaking Other Numbe r 16 12 10 Table 1: Common problems in English communication skills In this question, receptionists were asked to tick the other common problems that they had to face when they communicate with foreign guests There is no doubt that Non-availability of words to express feelings was the most serious issue that almost all of staffs concern about It is followed by lack of confidence, lack of motivation and some difficult terminologies about hotel-hospitality sector with 10, and ticks respectively There are people ticked “Other” and “Active and Passive Structure”, “Translate documents about Hotel-Hospitality major”, etc were written in the blanks, this could be considered as uncommon problems in English communication and would not be researched for solutions/recommendations/suggestions due to the limitation of this study There is no one who did not check any common problem in this question, which means all of the staffs had to face at least one common problem when they communicate with foreign guest around the world 3.1.9: Causes of problems in speaking skill (See appendix) 30 Causes of problems in speaking skill Unable to choose the right word to speak(Vocabulary problem) Inaccurate pronunciation Agree 20 Disagree 16 Anxiety and fear of mistakes 15 The arrangement of words in mother tongue is 12 different from the syntax of English Table 2: Cause of the problems in speaking skill In table 2, the results show that all of staffs (20 peaple) have difficulties when choosing the right word to speak Besides, 16 staffs agree with “Inaccurate pronunciation” while only staffs disagree with it There are 15 staffs agree with the opinion “Axiety and fear of mistakes and 12 ones agree with “the arrangement of words in mother tongue is different from the syntax of English 31 3.1.10 Causes of problems in listening skill (See appendix) Causes of problems in listening skill Agree Disagree Unfamiliar with the foreigner's pronunciation because 18 they speak so fast Incapable of translating words or sentences 15 Unable to remember more information 11 Different pronunciation styles from different 20 nationalities Table 3: Causes of problems in listening skill Ttable represents some causes of problems in listening skills which staff faced whencommunicate with foreigns guests As shown in the table, the most difficult problem was the different pronunciation styles from different nationalities that all of staffs (20 people) agree about this Assumed that if they encountered many different pronunciation styles of many foreign guests, their motivation for listening would surely be decreased 18 of 20 staffs were unfamiliar with the foreigner's pronunciation because they speak so fast It is obvious that staffs cannot listen easily if they not have accurate pronunciation Therefore, it is very important to suggest essential solution to improve listening skill for the receptionists in the hotel Moreover, 15 and 11 of them incapable of translating words or sentences and unable to remember more information 32 3.1.11 The intent of participants (See appendix) Chart 8: The intent of participants The purpose of this question was to ask for the expectation of the receptionists toward this study, in particular, whether they did need recommendations that I have been researched in order to have good English communication skills According to the answers, only person who did not want to improve their English communication skills while the others recognized the importance of English communication in hotel industry and they wanted to improve their skill in the future 3.1.12 In their opinion, how can the hotel help them improve their English communication skills? (See appendix) This question collected the opinion from staffs about the difficulties that they faced when communicate with foreign guests as well as the recommendations from the hotel manager The answer for this question will be disclosed in the following chapter “Chapter 4: Recommendations and suggestions to improve English communication skills of receptionist in MTGH hotel? 3.2 Findings and discussion of the findings As the survey could be limited to only a small department just includes 20 staffs of Muong Thanh Grand Hanoi Hotel, the result could not reflect all the reality of communication skills at the hotel However, there are a lot of major findings that utilized to find the appropriate solutions, recommendations or suggestions to improve the reality, which could be drawn out as follow: Most of the staffs of the departmennt had 6-10 years of experience, which means they might have much experience in communicate by English with foreign guests However, there still have some staffs encoutered more difficulties in English communication skills, especially the new staffs who just have worked in Reception Department for 1-5 years or less than year Although English is the language that is used most in communicate with foreign guests, and most of the staff aware of the necessary of it in their workplace, a large number of them still have some difficulties in Listening and Speaking skill Moreover, a large number of the staffs had university degree and usually use English in working envronment, but they still feel unconfident and anxiety when start a conversation with foreign guests Nevertheless, they showed their good 33 attitude toward improving English communication skills by disclosing their desires to receive recommendations and suggestions, they would soon improve their skills in the future After analyzing the collected data from the survey questionnaires, the main difficult in communication skills that most of the receptionists had to deal with could be listed as below: • Non-availability of words to express feelings • Lack of confidence • • Lack of motivation Some difficult terminologies about hotel-hospitality sector In addition, there are some main cause of difficulties in Speaking and listening skill that almost staffs often encouter: • • • • • • • • Lack of understanding in accurate pronunciation Unable to choose the right word to speak (Vocabulary problem) Anxiety and fear of mistakes The arrangement of words in mother tongue is different from the syntax of English Unfamiliar with the foreigner's pronunciation because they speak so fast Incapable of translating words or sentences Unable to remember the entire information Different pronunciation styles from different nationalities To conclude, the difficulties of the hotel receptionists when communicate with foreign guests by English were found out in the survey questionnaires could help discover the appropriate solutions to the problems All the necessary solutions and recommendations will be fully disclosed in the following chapter “Recommendations and suggestions to improve English communication skills of hotel receptionists” 34 35 CHAPTER 4: RECOMMENDATIONS AND SUGGESTIONS 4.1 Some solutions to improve English communiction skills of Receptionists at Muong Thanh Grand Hanoi Hotel Base on the result of the study, the author would like to suggest some recommendations below for improve English communicatin skills of Receptionists in Muong Thanh Grnd Hanoi hotel According to this study, it was found that most receptionist in MTGH hotel thought non-availability of words to express feelings and lack of confidence were serious problems Some difficult terminologies about hotel-hospitality sector, lack of motivation, difference of syntax, limited vocabulary were moderate problems The majority of the receptionist believed that they were confident at communicate by English with foreign guests It is essential for MTGH’s receptionists to enhance quality of English communication on the ground that they play the role as the face of a hotel Nowadays, English is the key to opening the door to discovering, exploiting new markets and seeking foreign investors and production scale Firstly, the Hotel Management should organize some regular training programs of specialized English for the entire staffs, especially receptionists in the hotel This helps them to understand the importance of English in their work and make professional manner, politeness, and make an impression on foreign guests Secondly, putting stress on operating and using English in the work of Reception Department as well as others departments such as Human Resources, Accounting and Sale – Marketing is important task for hotel More importantly, the process of recruiting, interviewing should have clear procedures and details to accurately evaluate English ability of staffs, especially the reception division Thirdly, the Hotel Manager must have the rewarding policy, increasing the wages for employees who have the good qualifications and ability to use English well in the workplace This policy is aimed at motivating and encouraging staffs to work and improve professional English It is important to create more opportunities for staffs from the departments to interact directly with foreign clients in the trading activities in order to increase the 36 reflectivity of English to staffs in terms of English listening skill from many different countries for employees Toward the receptionists, they must have some solutions to enhance their English communication skills They should be active in learning English at home and at the workplace Firstly, to avoid fear of commiting mistake, The staffs should take courage to speak English without caring for mistakes every time and may ask the listeners to rectify them, as and when needed Secondly, when talking with foreign guest, if they speak faster than normal, the receptionists have to try to listen for key words, which in English are often the words that are stressed in the sentence For example, they may only pick up on the subject, but not the details Picking up on key words is the beginning of understanding If they try to understand everything at once, you will become frustrated and possibly give up Moreover, the staffs could overcome the fear of nervous when speak English by facing your fears: put yourself in a situation where you must speak English As long as they are able to communicate their ideas, acquire vocabulary, understand people and have an exchange with others in English, don’t worry about making mistakes Mistakes will only improve over time with a lot of practice, and one day,they’ll realize that they are making far fewer mistakes than before They can join some “foreigner-hunters” campaign at the weekend to talk with native speakers so as to enhance their confidence when communicate with foreign guests If you have time to talking with the foreigner you should communicate more and more to get high efficiency in English communication Last but not least, practice makes perfect, you have to learn more about different culture around the word to avoid language barrier and cultural conflict The author hopes that this paper will help hotel receptionists to improve their English communication skills to make make a good impression on foreign guests 4.2 Some suggestion for the further research 4.2.1 Limitations of the study Limitations of the study were as follows: The study was limited by the time the participants had available and the 37 conditions under which they completed the questionnaire The questionnaires were distributed to 20 participants of Reception Department at Muong Thanh Grand Hanoi hotel The participants were receptionists who always communicate with foreign guests in every situations The participants constrained by time as they had to work with lots of procedures such as check in and check out of many guests come from different countries around the world, the price of service and room in the hotel Hence, the findings might not be entirely accurate because of haste in questionnaire completion The study employed a questionnaire focusing on English listening and speaking problems in communicate with foreign guests It does not provide in-depth results on all aspects of the job because the participants were not be able to discuss English listening and speaking problems in other circumstances such as when receptonists stay over aboard, communicate with foreign colleagues, and communicate with foreign hotel manager in the meeting 4.2.2 Some suggestions for further studies Based on the findings, the following areas for further research are suggested: This study focused on the English listening and speaking problems of receptionists working at Muong Thanh Grand Hanoi hotel To broaden the study on English listening and speaking of hotel receptionists, further research could explore English communication skills problems of receptionists working in other hotel This investigation of other hotels would further research examining the differences and similarities in problems with English for MTGH’s receptionists and receptionists in other hotels This study rated the problems of English listening and speaking problems according to the receptionists’s themselves assessment The results of the study were possibly influenced by participant overestimation and bias To increase efficiency and accuracy of the study on English communication skills of MTGH hotel’s receptionists, research questionnaires should be distributed to foreign guests This would help further research to examine the English listening and speaking problems of receptionist from a guest’s point of view In conclusion, this study was carried out in order to examine the problems 38 with English listening and speaking encountered by receptionists in Muong Thanh Grand Hanoi hotel The first study area dealt with the problems in speaking skill such as unconfident, lack of vocabulary and grammar, fear of mistakes, etc The second investigated English listening skill problems with grammatical competence of the receptionists who communicate with foreign guests To obtain answers for the research questions, a survey was conducted with 20 staffs in Reception Department at Muong Thanh Grand Hanoi hotel from March 10th to April 15th 2018, between the hours of 4:00 p.m and 6:00 p.m According to this study, it was found that most receptionist in MTGH hotel thought non-availability of words to express feelings and lack of confidence were serious problems Some difficult terminologies about hotel-hospitality sector, lack of motivation, difference of syntax, limited vocabulary were moderate problems The majority of the receptionist believed that they were confident at communicate by English with foreign guests 39 CONCLUSION The core value of Muong Thanh Grand Hanoi hotel is to offer convenient services for customers and focus on building qualified staffs with highly professional, dynamic and creative working style and adapt to the innovation quickly As a result, Muong Thanh Grand Hanoi Hotel has served the best services for customers, promote the resources regarding capital, labor and technology for business operations Performing mainly in hotel - hospitality sector, Muong Thanh Grand Hanoi hotel uses English the most in communicating activities and working with foreign guests Employees of the Reception Departmentare trained to negotiate, write emails, communicate and conduct transactions in English Currently, more than half of them are able to fluently communicate and write in English, making cooperation with foreign partners easier than ever However, there are still have some existing problems in English communication of Hotel receptionsts in the hotel They often encounter some problem such as lack of vocbulary and grammar to express their feelings, fear of mistakes, some languages and culture barriers from different countries, etc These problems have significantly impact on maintaing proffessional image in the eye of international guests Thus, I conducted this study in order to find out the cause of these problem and suggest some useful solutions to help the receptionists enhance their Englich communication skills at workplace to make a good impression in the eyes of foreign guests Due to the limitation of time and comprehensive knowledge, this research may not satisfy the readers entirely There will remain some shortcomings and limitation in the paper and some aspects of the subject could not be mentioned I hope that this study can help learners and it might be guide readers to other interesting ideas of the subject for further researches 40 REFERENCES https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communication https://woman.thenest.com/definition-communication-skills-importancejob-3460.html https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/difficulties-speaking-english-possiblesolutions-khan https://www.slideshare.net/evansaaron775/receptionist-hotelcommunication-skills-pdf https://study.com/academy/lesson/communication-skills-in-the-hospitalityindustry.html http://luanvan.net.vn/luan-van/khoa-luan-a-study-on-techniques-toimprove-the-first-year-english-majors-speaking-skill-at-hpu-70818/ Problems with English speaking and listening skill of THAI flight attendants in economy classes – Piamsak Uraipan (2011) Problems and difficulties of speaking that encountered by English language students at Al Quds Open University – Dr Ahmed Maher Mamoud Al Nakhalah (2014) 41 APPENDIX The survey questionnaire for employees of Reception Department at Muong Thanh Grand Hanoi hotel Dear participants, This survey questionnaire is designed for the thesis: "A study on how to improve English communication skills of receptionists in Muong Thanh Grand Hanoi hotel" Your assistance in completing the survey is highly appreciated All the data collected are used for the aims of my study only, not for any other purposes Please tick in the box or write down your answer! Thank a million for your cooperation! Please answer the following question by circling or ticking the most suitable answer for the question or filling in the blanks if necessary A General information and the reality of using English in MTGH hotel Question 1: What is your education level? a University b College c Intermediate Question 2: How long have you worked for Reception Department in Muong Thanh Grand Hanoi hotel? a Less than year b 1-5 years c – 10 years Question 3: How often you use English in working environment? a Always b Often c Sometimes d Rarely Question 4: What is the role of English communication skills in hotel? a Very important b Important c Not important Question Are you confident when communicate by English in your job? a Yes b No Question 6: Which of the following English skills you encounter problems most in your job? a Listening skill b Speaking skill c Reading skill d Writing skill Question 7: Rate your level of English communication skill 42 a Excellent b Good c Fair d Average e Weak B The difficulties in using English in communication activities and some solutions to improve communication skills Question 8: In your opinion, what is the largest barrier that you always encountered when communicate by English in your workplace? (you can choose more than answer) a Non-availability of words to express feelings b Lack of confidence c Lack of motivation d Some difficult terminologies about hotel-hospitality sector e Difference of syntax f Limited vocabulary g Uncertain of their word choice and grammar when speaking Othet:………………………………………………………………………………… 43 Question 9: Causes of the problem in speaking skill Causes of problems in speaking skill Unable to choose the right word to speak(Vocabulary problem) Inaccurate pronunciation Agree Disagree Agree Disagree Anxiety and fear of mistakes The arrangement of words in mother tongue is different from the syntax of English Question 10: Causes of the problem in listening skill Causes of problems in listening skill Unfamiliar with the foreigner's pronunciation because they speak so fast Incapable of translating words or sentences Unable to remember more information Different pronunciation styles from different nationalities Question 11: In your opinion, how can the hotel help you improve your English communication skills? ……………………………………………………………………………………… Question 12: Do you have some solution to improve your English communication skills? a.Yes b No 44 ...ABSTRACT Research topic: “ A study on how to improve English communication skills of Receptionists in Muong Thanh Grand Hanoi hotel is meaningful and necessary both in theory and practice... Student Tran Thuy Dung TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS No Abbreviations M .A F O Manager MTGH hotel English meaning Master of Art Front office manager Muong Thanh Grand Hanoi hotel Vietnamese... thesis A study on how to improve English communication skills of Receptionists in Muong Thanh Grand Hanoi Hotel 1.3 Aims of the study The aim of this study is to identify problems in English communication