Teaching English for tourism: a phraseological and cultural approach

Tourism has become one of the most important sectors in the global economy and is often considered one of the main tools which may help promote the economic, social, and cultural growth of a country. Until recently, tourism has been studied particularly from a sociological perspective (Dann 1996; Boyer and Viallon 1994) and only in the last few years the language of tourism has been extensively researched (Author 2002, 2008, 2011, 2012a, 2013; Calvi 2005; Fodde and Denti 2005; Cappelli 2006, 2012; Maci 2010, 2012). New theories on this type of special language show that it is highly phraseological and also characterized by a close relationship with the cultural values of each country. As a consequence, if the main aim of tourist language is to attract customers from all over the world, experts in the field should be trained both from a linguistic and a sociocultural perspective. However, neither the phraseological approach nor the influence of culture on language are adequately taken into account in the tourist training domain, and textbooks dealing with English for tourism still tend to focus on single words rather than on phrases: they provide lists of words according to specific semantic fields, such as transport, accommodation, time out and so on. Furthermore, different ways in which similar concepts can be verbalized by different cultures are not even mentioned or taken into account. However, as Halliday (1978) argues, having a good knowledge of a language is not enough because social and cultural contexts constrain the use of words. As a result, language should not be considered as constituted by single words but by phrases and texts within communities. For this reason, lexis and the meaningful relations that words entertain with other words within different contexts (Halliday 1985; Sinclair 1991) should be at the basis of language teaching and learning. In the light of this phraseological and socio-cultural approach to language, we will briefly overview some of the textbooks used in Italian high schools and university courses to teach English for tourism, and will propose additional activities for students. The relationship between language and cultural aspects will be considered particularly within the teaching of English for tourism in university language courses.