Runni ng hea d: Bi l i ngua l Tour Gui de Cl a s s for ESL Students i n Chi na

Bilingual Tour Guide Class

for ESL Students in China.
Yu Qi
 Table of Contents
1. Seven Steps of Syllabus Design and Lesson
Planning
(1) Needs Assessment
(2) Setting Goals and Objectives
(3) Conceptualizing the Contents
(4) Selecting/developing Materials and
Constructing Activities
(5) Organizing Contents and Activities
(6) Evaluation
(7) Consideration of Resources and Constraints
2. Course Syllabus
3. Lesson Plan
(1) Legal systems for tourism in China
(2) Transportation
(3) Accommodation
(4) Food
(5) Historical & Cultural Relics Tour
(6) Natural Wonders Tour

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Step 1. Needs Assessment

With the development of economy, tourism as a tertiary industry is

becoming more and more popular these days. Therefore, the career prospects

of tour guide, especially plurilingual tour guide, is getting better and better and

attract many students to step in this field. This course is designed for students

who are interested in becoming a bilingual tour guide. Before I design this

course, I want to know the diverse background features, English proficiency

levels, tour guide working experience, expectations and needs of my potential

students in order to make my course nichetargeting. I will use written

questionnaire to collect all these information and take them into account when

I design this training course. Also, I will have informal open-ended interviews

with the students and ongoing observation of their performances and reactions.

By these means I will have a better understanding of what my students already

knew and what they want to know, the ways they apply their knowledge and

the ways they prefer to learn English. I will engage myself in a continual needs

assessment and adjust my lesson plans as well.

Questionnaire

Name _____________ Age ______ Education Background _____________

How many years have you studied

English?

English proficiency CET 4/CET 6/TOEFL____IELTS____

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Your greatest strength as a learner of a.

English.(Be specific.) b.

c.

Why do you want to be a bilingual tour

guide?

Aspects of your English you would like

to improve in this class.

Are there any specific topics you want

to learn about in this class?

How much time per week are you

prepared to spend on homework of

this class?

Do you have any other suggestions

for your teacher?

Step 2. Setting Goals and Objectives

After collecting profile information of my students, I am equipped to

identify and articulate the desired outcomes of this course. The main goal of

this course is to help my students improve their English language skills on

travel English, from both listening and speaking perspectives, and give them

knowledge about legal system of tourism in China thus help them become a

good bilingual tour guide. Specifically, there are a series of instructional

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 objectives:

1. By the end of the course, the students will develop listening,

speaking and translation skills on Tourism English for authentic

usage.

2. Master the basic theory and knowledge of tourism.

3. Gain knowledge of cultural and historical tourist attractions as well

as natural wonders in China.

4. Have the ability to solve practical problems during their tour guide

time.

Step 3. Conceptualizing the Contents

Bilingual Tour Guide Class for ESL Students in China

What Why

Skills Covered: Why Cover these Skills:

1. Basic theory and knowledge of
tourism system in China.
2. Daily conversation (Listening
comprehension & speaking
competence)
3. Knowledge of historical places
and natural wonders in China.
4. Travel English terminology.
5. Problem-solving.
1. To be a tour guide, we need to master the
basic knowledge of tourism, to know the
legal systems for tourism in China and the
qualities a tour guide need.
2. Students need to communicate with
foreigner guests.Successful communication
depends on good listening comprehension
and intelligible spoken English.
3. Students need to have knowledge of
famous tourist attractions, including both
historical places and natural wonders in
China so they can better introduce them to
their guests.
4. Like other career field, tourism also have
its unique terminology that requires to
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learn.
5. Tour guide should know how to negotiate
around unexpected problems.
Step 4. Selecting/developing Materials and Constructing

Activities

I found a very useful material to help me develop this course, it is a textbook

named Practical English for Tourism. This textbook contains 5 main chapters,

covering almost all the perspectives that a bilingual tour guide should know,

ranging from tourism legal system, travel procedures, tourism types, tourist

attractions, to tourism elements. I might not cover all the units in the textbook,

but I will choose some interesting and useful units according to my students’

needs and expectations.

Step 5. Organizing Contents and Activities

I will organize the whole course contents and corresponding activities

according to the six main parts of Tourism English: legal system of tourism in

China, Transportation, Accommodation, Food, Historical & Cultural Relics

Tour and Natural Wonders Tour. For details, please see the syllabus.

Step 6. Evaluation

The evaluation system consists of two parts: oral presentations after each

topic theme; and one final real-life task performance of leading your guest tour

around the campus or the city they lived . By these two tools, teacher could get

an idea of the effectiveness of this course and what the students have learned

from this course as well as how they apply what they learned into the real

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working field. For detailed oral presentation dates and tasks, please see the

following syllabus.

Step 7. Consideration of Resources and Constraints

This course is held on campus or teaching institutions. The teacher can have

access to a large amount of resources, both in the classroom and outside the

classroom. In the classroom, the teacher can access computer, overhead

projector, blackboard, etc. Out of the classroom, the teacher can arrange field

trips for students to go practicing, such as leading fresh man to tour around the

campus, helping parents to book a hotel. However, there are some constraints

within this course, too. First, this course is focus more on English aspect rather

than tourism, so students may need to take another tourism focused course to

get the guide certificate. Second, it is not easy to find a real foreign guest to get

practice with. Students may work in pairs or groups to have a practice guide,

but it is still not the same as to guide a foreign guest. These constraints need

to be considered before this course officially starts.

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Course Syllabus

Course title: Bilingual Tour Guide Class for ESL Learners in China

Semester: Spring 2018

Instructor: Yu Qi Email: yuq48@psu.edu

Class meetings: Tuesday 4:00-5:00

Classroom: Sparks 7

Course Description:

This course is an English training class for non-native English speaking

students who want to be a bilingual tour guide in China. This course is a

task-based language teaching class, which covers the various tasks that

students need to accomplish in their future working field. This training course

aims at getting students familiar with basic knowledge of tourism and

improving their listening and speaking competence in tour English, as well as

their knowledge of historical places and natural wonders in China.

Goals and Objectives

The main goal of this course is to help the students become a good bilingual

tour guide in China. Students are expected to accomplish the following specific

objectives in this training process:

1. By the end of the course, the students will develop listening,

speaking and translation skills on Tourism English for authentic

usage.

2. Master the basic theory and knowledge of tourism.

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 3. Gain knowledge of cultural and historical tourist attractions as well

as natural wonders in China.

4. Have the ability to solve practical problems during their tour guide

time.

Non-mandatory Requirements and Students Responsibilities

1. Regular attendance is required.

2. Active participation in class discussion, activities and one-week

tracking feedback is expected of all students.

3. After-class assignments are required.

4. Be prepared to give three short oral presentations after each

session and participate in the final real task performance in campus you live.

Course Materials

Require textbook Practical English for Tourism. The teacher will adapt

teaching materials mainly from this textbook. Some other facilitative materials

will be obtained from web sources.

Assessment and Evaluation

This is a non-grade course. But participating in all after-session assessments,

final task performance and tracking report is encouraged. After each theme,

students are encouraged to do a brief oral presentation to show what they

mastered from the course. In the end of this course, students will be arranged

to guide some foreign guests around the campus.

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 Tentative Course Outline

Topic Goal Objectives Activity

Legal system Introduce the legal system Know some basic Group discussion.
Week 1 for tourism in China. knowledge of tourism legal Reading.
Practice speaking and system in China. Oral presentation.
critical thinking abilities.
Transportation Introduce the main 1. Learn some vocabulary of Conversation
Week 2
transportation for tourism transportation. imitation.
in China and practice 2. Know the procedure of Role play.
students’ listening, speaking air travel.
and problem-solving ability. 3. Practice problem-solving
ability.
Accommodation Learn how to book the most 1. Learn some essential Make your own
Week 3
suitable hotel for your vocabulary of how to book conversation
guests in English with a hotel. based on
essential travel vocabulary. 2. Know the procedure of worksheet 1.
booking a hotel room and Fill in the blank of
how to choose the most worksheet 2.
suitable hotel.
3. Practice problem-solving
ability.
Food Introduce China’s eight Learn the basic knowledge Read articles.
Week 4
cuisines: Jiangsu, Sichuan, of Chinese cuisines. Introduce
Shandong, Guangdong, different cuisines
Zhejiang, Fujian, Hunan, to different
and Anhui. groups.
Historical and Introduce Chinese famous 1. Learn the history of the Read article.
Week 5
Cultural relics tour historical sightseeing ---- Summer Palace Oral presentation.
Summer Palace. 2. Practice introducing the
Summer Palace to partners.
3. Learn how to make a tour
guide speech.
Natural wonders Introduce natural wonders 1. Learn the basic Group discussion
Week 6
tour in China ---- Jiuzhaigou knowledge of Jiuzhaigou Reading and
2. Practice to dub a silent picture matching
video of Jiuzhaigou game
Dub a silent video
using the
knowledge you
know.

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 Theme Based Lesson Plans

1. Sample lesson plan ---- Legal systems for tourism in China and

abroad.

Teaching Aim

Introduce the legal systems for tourism in China and practice students’ reading,

speaking and critical thinking abilities.

Learning Objectives:
The students will get to know some basic knowledge of legal systems for

tourism in China.

THE PLAN WHY

(describe the activities & student arrangement) (give justification for activities & student arrangement)

Get to know students.

Orientation (10 min.) Give them the general idea what we will do for this
a. Greetings and self-introductions. class.
b. Briefly introduce what the course is about and what we
are going to learn today.

Connection/Transition:
It is really good to see you and get to know you in this class and I hope we will have a wonderful time together. Now
let’s have some warm up questions for the theme we are going to learn today ---- Legal systems for tourism in
China.

Presentation (5 min.)
Since students are not that familiar with legal systems
Divide students into different groups and let them discuss for tourism in China now, it is a good choice to let
what they know about legal systems for tourism in China them have a group discussion and exchange their
based on the warm up questions that teachers gave them. knowledge before go depth into the theme.

Connection/Transition: Now we know a little bit more about legal systems for tourism in China, let ’s read an
article that introduces them in details.
Just like what I mentioned before, students are not
Engagement (25min.) familiar with tourism legal systems in China, so it is
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a. Give students an article about legal systems for
tourism in China.
b. Let them underline the key information of the article.
c. After that, students will share their understandings of
the article with their partner.
good to give them some authority materials to
accumulate their knowledge upon this certain topic.
Also they have a chance to exchange their
understanding of the systems with their classmates.

Connection/Transition: So far you all did a very good job. I hope you could prepare a brief presentation about
what you learn from this class about legal systems in China.
Presentation is a very good way to evaluate what
Assessment/Evaluation (15 min.)
students learn from the course. Teacher could find
Ask students to do a brief oral presentation about legal out whether students get the key information or not
systems in China. as well as what they are confused with, in this way
teachers could help their students better. Also, oral
presentation could practice students’ speaking ability.

Connection/Transition: Teachers could give some feedback to students’ oral presentations.

Ask students to think about the pros and cons of
Expansion/Homework (5 min.)
Chinese legal systems and give some suggestions
a. Review the knowledge we learned today. about how to improve it could practice students’
b. Think about the advantages and disadvantages of critical thinking ability. They are the future tour guide
Chinese tourism legal systems. so they need to know what this field is about, what are
c. Prepare some suggestions to improve our legal systems the advantages and disadvantages of it and how to
and share with your classmates in the next class. make this field better.

2. Sample lesson plan ---- Transportation.

Teaching Aim

Introduce the main transportation for tourism in China and practice students’

listening, speaking and problem-solving ability.

Learning Objectives:
1. Learn some vocabulary of transportation.

2. Know the procedure of air travel.

3. Practice problem-solving ability.

THE PLAN WHY

(describe the activities & student arrangement) (give justification for activities & student arrangement)

Review what we learned last class and check their

Orientation (15 min.)
after-class assignment.
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1. Review the key points of last class and ask students to Prepare for today’s topic.
share their suggestions about how to improve our tourism Introduce new vocabulary of transportation.
legal systems.
2. Warm up questions for transportation. eg: What
transportations do you know, which one do you prefer to
take, why you prefer that transportation, share your
stories about taking a flight.

Connection/Transition: Let’s learn some new words and expression of transportation!

Learn new vocabulary.

Presentation (10 min..
Learn authentic expressions through conversation.
1. New vocabulary.
2. Give students a conversation and let them read it out
with their partner.

Connection/Transition: Now we have learned some new words and expressions, let’s apply what you learn
through a little game!

Engagement (25min.)
a. Give students a worksheet of the procedure of taking
a flight.
b. Name a number revising 1-27 randomly. Set the
challenges for that number of the sheet, e.g. ‘you park
your car’ challenges could be: 1=there are no spaces in the
car park; 2 = you can’t carry all your luggage; 3 = your car
breaks down. Make a short role play with your partner,
one is guest who meets a problem and one is tour guide
who provides the solution.
This little role play activity is very useful for students to
get familiar with the procedures of taking a flight. It
also practice students’ listening and speaking abilities.
What’s more, they need to be polite when they
communicate with their guests so this could practice
their language expression. The most important point
is, by setting challenges for each steps, students could
practice their problem-solving ability. A tour guide
should know how to negotiate around some
unexpected situations.

See whether students apply what they learned into

Assessment/Evaluation (10 min.)
authentic situation and evaluate their
Ask students to present their role play in pair. problem-solving ability.

Connection/Transition: Give some feedback to their role play, also teachers could ask other students about
their solution towards the same problem to find out the best solution.

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Procedures of taking a flight.

3. Sample lesson plan ---- Accommodation.

Teaching Aim

Learn how to book the most suitable hotel for your guests in English with

essential travel vocabulary.

Learning Objectives:
1. Learn some essential vocabulary of how to book a hotel.

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 2. Know the procedure of booking a hotel room and how to choose the most
suitable hotel.

THE PLAN WHY

(describe the activities & student arrangement) (give justification for activities & student arrangement)

Recall the procedure of booking a hotel and the

Orientation (10 min.)
elements we need to take into account when we
Warm up question: Share your own experience of booking choose a hotel.
a hotel with your classmates.

Connection/Transition:
Seems like we all have some interesting experience of booking a hotel. Let’s learn some vocabulary of hotel
booking.

Presentation (10 min.)

Read out the vocabulary list of hotel booking, ask students It is always useful to learn vocabulary.
to repeat.

Connection/Transition: Now look at the worksheet 1 of hotel reception counter conversation.

This worksheet provides the model of how to make a
Engagement (20min.)
conversation with a hotel reception counter server. By
Look at the worksheet of hotel reception counter creating the conversation of their own, students could
conversation. Try to fill in the blank and make your own deepen their memory upon this topic and apply better
conversation with your partner. into the authentic lives.

Connection/Transition: So far you all did a very good job. Now look at worksheet 2.

Assessment/Evaluation (15 min.) This worksheet could evaluate whether students

Finish worksheet 2 and check your answer with your master the vocabulary or not.
partner.

Connection/Transition: Teachers could check the answer with the whole class.

Expansion/Homework (5 min.)
a. Review the knowledge we learned today. Give specific instructions about the target guests and
b. Surf the internet and find the most suitable hotel for a ask students to find the most suitable hotel could
couple who want to spend their honeymoon at a quiet, practice their information filtering capability.
clean, convenient hotel which has a nice view of the beach
in Qingdao.

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Worksheet 1

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Worksheet 2

4. Sample lesson plan ---- Food.

Teaching Aim

Introduce China’s eight cuisines: Jiangsu, Sichuan, Shandong, Guangdong,

Zhejiang, Fujian, Hunan, and Anhui.

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 Learning Objectives:
Learn the basic knowledge of Chinese cuisines.
THE PLAN WHY
(describe the activities & student arrangement) (give justification for activities & student arrangement)

Foodie time! This topic is always attractive, by

Orientation (10 min.)
discussing students’ favorite food, teacher could bring
Warm up question: What’s your favorite Chinese food? out the theme of different Chinese cuisines.

Presentation (10 min.) Students all like Chinese food but they might not know
Divide students into 8 different groups. Hand out the about Chinese cuisine. By reading the article, students
article that introduce China’s eight cuisine to students and could have a general idea of different kinds of Chinese
each group will read one Chinese cuisine. Students should cuisines.
identify the features of that Chinese cuisine and prepare
to share with other groups.

Connection/Transition: Now, introduce the cuisine you read to different groups.

By this way, students could get the chance to practice
Engagement (20min.)
introducing Chinese cuisines to others as well as get to
Introduce the cuisine you read before to other groups. know more about Chinese cuisine.
make a table of comparison of different cuisines.

Assessment/Evaluation (15 min.) A table is clearer to see the differences and features of
Make a table of comparison of different cuisines. different cuisines. Making a table could help students
know Chinese cuisines better.

Expansion/Homework (5 min.)
This assignment is just for fun but it could be useful to
Try to cook your favorite Chinese food! help students review the features of Chinese cuisine.

5. Sample lesson plan ---- Historical & Cultural Relics Tour

Teaching Aim

Introduce Chinese famous historical sightseeing ---- Summer Palace

Learning Objectives:
1. Learn the history of the Summer Palace
2. Practice introducing the Summer Palace to partners.
3. Learn how to make a tour guide speech.

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 THE PLAN WHY
(describe the activities & student arrangement) (give justification for activities & student
arrangement)

Give students a brief introduction of the Summer

Orientation (10 min.)
Palace.
Show a video of Summer Palace.
By reading the article, students could learn the history
Presentation (10 min.)
of the Summer Palace.
Give students the reading material of a conversation talking Also it is very important for them to memorize the key
about the Summer Palace. information and organize the language to introduce it
Write down the key information and prepare to introduce to others.
the Summer Palace to your partner.

Connection/Transition: Now, introduce the Summer Palace to your partner.

Engagement (20min.)
Practice introducing the Summer Palace to your partner. Organize you own words to introduce a famous place
Give feedback to each other. is a very important skill for tour guide.

Assessment/Evaluation (15 min.)

Listen to sample guide speech Listen to other professional tour guide speech could
(https://tourismenglish.wordpress.com/2013/02/26/tour-g benefit students a lot. Also, it is good to present in
uide-speech-budapest/), and make some adjustment to front of a group of people because tour guide
your own guide speech. sometimes need to handle many people at one time
Present your own edited guide speech in front of your and this activity could help them relieve the
classmates. nervousness.

Expansion/Homework (5 min.)
Choose a famous historical place and search for Review what we learned today and strengthen the
information about it. Write tour guide speech of the place memory and skills.
and present next class.

6. Sample lesson plan ---- Natural wonders tour

Teaching Aim

Introduce natural wonders in China ---- Jiuzhaigou

Learning Objectives:
1. Learn the basic knowledge of Jiuzhaigou
2. Practice to dub a silent video of Jiuzhaigou

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 THE PLAN WHY
(describe the activities & student arrangement) (give justification for activities & student
arrangement)

Recall the experience of past trip to natural wonders

Orientation (5 min.)
in China and bring out the theme we are going to talk
Warm up questions: how many natural wonders in China about today.
have you been? Shared your experience with your partner.

Presentation (10 min.)

1. Read an article that introduce Jiuzhaigou, mark down the
key information. It is good to combine readings and pictures together
2. Display the pictures of Jiuzhaigou. One by one discuss so students could learn the history, features and other
and describe the features of the pictures. Students could aspects better.
recall the article in order to discuss and describe better.
3. Match places with pictures and compares the knowledge
of the article and what you described before.

Engagement (20min.)
Last class we already learned how to make a tour
Show a silent video of Jiuzhaigou and ask students to dub guide speech, so by dubbing the silent video of
the video. Jiuzhaigou, students could practice both the
knowledge of natural wonders and tour guide speech.

Assessment/Evaluation (15 min.)

Evaluate the extent of students’ knowledge and guide
Choose some students to dub the silent video in front of all skills.
the students and ask other students to give feedbacks.

Expansion/Homework (5 min.)
Review the things we learned today. Review not only today’s lesson, but also the whole
Since this is the last course, I hope students have a general course and think about what a god tour guide needs.
idea of what a good tour guide need.

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