THE INTEGRATION OF PRAGMATIC COMPETENCE INTO ENGLISH FOR SPECIFIC PURPOSES COURSES FOR TOURISM STUDENTS
Keywords:
pragmatic competence, English for Specific Purposes (ESP), tourism students, speech acts, politeness strategies, intercultural communication, professional discourse.Abstract
This article examines the integration of pragmatic competence into English for
Specific Purposes (ESP) courses designed for tourism students. It argues that
communication in tourism requires not only grammatical accuracy and professional
vocabulary but also the ability to select socially appropriate language according to context,
interlocutor status, communicative intention, and cultural expectations. The study
discusses pragmatic competence as a core component of professional communicative
competence and relates it to common tourism situations, including welcoming guests,
providing information, making recommendations, handling complaints, apologising,
refusing requests, and resolving service-related problems. Special attention is given to
speech acts, politeness strategies, intercultural awareness, and discourse management as
teachable elements within ESP instruction. The article also outlines practical classroom
techniques such as role plays, situational dialogues, case studies, authentic tourism
materials, and reflective analysis of service encounters. It concludes that the systematic
inclusion of pragmatic tasks in ESP courses can improve students’ ability to communicate
appropriately, professionally, and effectively in international tourism contexts. The
proposed approach supports needs-based syllabus design and the assessment of context-
sensitive language performance in practice.
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