ENGLISH LANGUAGE NEEDS OF COMMUNITY - BASED TOURISM STAKEHOLDERS: A CASE STUDY OF MEO VAC, VIETNAM

Abstract

Community-based tourism (CBT) has gained increasing attention as a sustainable and inclusive development model, particularly in rural and ethnolinguistically diverse regions. In such contexts, English operates not only as a medium of service interaction but also as a resource for cultural representation and community empowerment. Despite the growing importance of English in CBT, existing research on English for Specific Purposes (ESP) has largely concentrated on formal tourism sectors, with limited attention to the localized and culturally embedded communicative needs of CBT stakeholders. Addressing this gap, this study investigates the English language needs of CBT practitioners in Meo Vac, a mountainous destination in northern Vietnam. Drawing on a comprehensive needs analysis framework, the study adopts a qualitative-dominant mixed-methods design, integrating questionnaire data (n = 35), semi-structured interviews (n = 12), field observations, and document analysis. The findings indicate that while speaking and listening are central to tourism-related communication, CBT stakeholders require a broader repertoire of communicative competencies, including the ability to explain local culture, engage in storytelling, and manage intercultural interactions. Participants reported persistent challenges related to limited lexical resources, low communicative confidence, and difficulties in processing diverse English accents.This study contributes to the ESP and tourism education literature by reconceptualizing English needs in CBT as context-sensitive and multidimensional. It further provides empirically grounded implications for the design of culturally responsive, needs-based English courses that support sustainable tourism development and community empowerment.