Teaching English for Tourism Edited by M.J. Ennis and G.M. Petrie

English for Tourism (EfT) is a specialized language which comes under the umbrella term of English for Specific Purposes (ESP). Teaching languages for specific purposes, to use in specific contexts is a well established practice which can be traced back to the Greek and Roman empires (Dudley-Evans and St. Johns, 1998,1). How ESP should be taught, however, is a topic of hot debate, as it is a field which has evolved over the years rather than being developed with a specific goal in mind. In fact, in the words of Dudley Evans and St. John, ESP “was not a planned and coherent movement, but rather a phenomenon that grew out of a number of converging trends” (1987: 6). It is, as a result, applied in widely differing ways but tends to be learner-centred, often focusing on teaching specific language for specific language use based on an initial needs analysis of learner aims and requirements (Hutchinson and Waters, 1987), aspects which emerge clearly in the accounts provided in this volume.