Language components included in Tourism courses in European universities -final results- Research conducted by the work group “SLEST” for the “Leonardo- da-Vinci” project The present project is financed with the approval of the European Commission. The authors are the sole owners of this publication and the commission denies all responsibility for the possible use of the information contained herein.

Numbers and characteristics of institutions FranceGermanyBritainItalyPolandSloveniaSpain There are almost 900 tourism training centres! The number of universities which offer the Introduction to Tourism Diploma is between 30 and 50 (10 of these universities are located in the Paris region). In 2003 the number of students who were signed up to a tourism course was There are courses in almost 16 universities (mainly “Fachhoch- schulen”); the name given to study courses is usually “Tourismus- management” Almost a third of the 333 universities and colleges in Great Britain offer courses in “Tourism Science” at various levels. The learning of languages is not always envisaged and it is not compulsory to take a languages course There are at least 60 universities offering in the three year BA (mainly Faculties of Economy or Philosophy) there are various programmes of study from “Management of the Territorial Assets” to “Management of Tourism”; the situation is characterised by some confusion with regard to the content. 18 universities also offer the MA There are 27 private universities offering both the MA and BSc and 18 state universities (with MA courses); there are also another 10 “colleges” offering BSc courses There are 2 universities and 3 higher training centres (“college”). At university courses are part of the Economy Faculty There are 45 universities which all follow the same model, and 73 professional training centres (public and private); the duration of level 1 is 2 years, and the duration of level 2 is 2 years)

Characteristics of the language courses FranceGermanyBritainItalyPolandSloveniaSpain The training levels go from BAC+1 to BAC+5 (BAC is the equivalent of state exams awarded at 18 in Italy). There is no reference to specific language courses, but generally English is present. There is also the possibility of optional language courses. - There is no reference to specific languages - 2 universities do not offer language courses - English is always compulsory In many universtites, the courses are very “flexible”: students can decide which modules to take and at what level to start; it is set up in modular form and each university decides autonomously which modules to offer. Many courses concentrate on managerial skills than languages. The most commonly taught languages are French, German and Spanish (never compulsory!) There are no references to specific languages in tourism (in some universities language courses are not even offered; in fact the general plan of ministers is that there is no need for language courses at study level, only a final test). Taught languages are more than any others, apart from English, French, German and Spanish. The contents include, apart from the sector specific vocabulary: - Geography - Architecture - History - Hotel + Restaurant - Free time - Business / Economy Two languages are compulsory (at various levels), one has to be English; a third language is the student’s wom choice. University: general languages + economic / all the students learn the same language College: also specific language, even though a lot of the time it is very generalised - English is always compulsory - Often German and French are compulsory

Characteristics of the exams FranceGermanyBritainItalyPolandSloveniaSpain The courses and the exams are orientated towards the learning of subjects like: Law and Economy of Tourism, European Management of Tourism, Country Promotion Traditionally the characteristics of the exam are not specified in the programme of studey. Each tutor/ professor teaches what they know best The departments responsible for the teaching of languages decide in full autonomy on the development and the content of the exams. In general they are based on the four skills in the form of coursework and continuous assessment, rather than soley by a final examination. The exam requirements are generally not specified in the programme of study (apart from general indications like “written exam” or “oral”). The teacher or professor decides every time on the content (oral, written, level etc). Exams are usually more written than spoken (often the weights are 60%:40%). The colleges seem to have a more “realistic” exam (with regard to content for the tourism environment). Traditionally, they are not specified in the programme of study.

Duration of courses / hours dedicated to languages FranceGermanyBritainItalyPolandSloveniaSpain The duration of the course is divided as follows: short courses (from 1 to 2 years) and long courses (from 3 to 5 years). There is no specific reference to the number of hours dedicated to foreign languages (need to look at each case individually); in some universities languages are not compulsary. In a few cases language courses are offered, but they are optional. Taught languages are almost always English, French and Spanish (other languages are optional). Hours dedicated vary between 90 and 180 hours per course. Normally courses are 2 or 3 years in length. Normally there are 2 to 4 hours a week dedicated to the learning of languages. Some universities offer training abroad, for a duration of 3 to 6 months. At univeristy generally 2 languages are taught for 2 or 3 years (often English is compulsory). The situation is very varied, but on average it is 9 credits for the first language and 6 for the second for the entire duration of the course (results in it being difficult to indicate the exact number of hours, as the course contents are not given in hours) (in Rome Sapienza University, 4 credits equals about 60 hours of learning). Duration of course: 4 years; minimum of 120 hours for each language (up to 60 hours per semester). There are 2 or 3 years at university and 2 or 3 at college; it is usually scheduled for about hours per annum for each language. There are 90 hours dedicated to English per year (compulsary as a first language, subdivided into 2 or 3 years of study). There is currently a proposal to double the number of hours.

Final level of achievement ► “Common European Framework” FranceGermanyBritainItalyPolandSloveniaSpain No reference to the European picture. There are different grades of linguistic knowledge (generally 5) that show the level of the students’ competence in languages. (projects that make reference to the European picture are currently in progress). There is NO reference. There is NO reference (only for example “GCSE – C- level”, for the rest the definitions are always very general). None of the programmes of study in the 40 universities where Touism Science is taught make reference to the Europan levels. There is NO reference; the level generally required is “good level of mastery of the language” (including specialised vocabulary; see the first page). No level of study is referred to, but generally they talk about “elementary level” and “advanced level” There is never any reference.