Developing Multimedia English for Tourism E-learning Materials on UNESCO’s World Heritage Sites (2) : Tripartite Purposes and Trial Materials

Abstract

English for Tourism, being a branch of English for Specific Purposes, provides practical information and communicative training for those who are interested in jobs in the tourism industry. The purpose of our research is to develop multimedia CALL materials dealing with UNESCO’s World Heritage Sites not only in Japan but also throughout the world so that students can study English related to their interests while also enhancing their knowledge in tourism. This study is supported by Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (No. 23520690: Development of Multimedia E-learning Materials on UNESCO World Heritage Sites and Analyses of the Effectiveness of Blended Learning). In this paper, we will discuss the needs of our students concerning English for Tourism, the method of our material development, and the effectiveness of our materials obtained from a trial implementation with undergraduate students of the University of Nagasaki, Siebold. As the results of the questionnaire administrated in 2010 showed only 37.37% of students had accurate knowledge about the number of UNESCO World Heritage Sites, it is worthwhile to create study materials for students to acquire the general knowledge about the World Heritage Sites in the world. To gather pictures and video clips for the development of CALL Materials, we have visited several world heritage sites in－and outside of Japan such as Stonehenge, Ayers Rock, Shirakawa-go, and Temples and Shrines in Kyoto. For the implementation of online materials, we use a revised CALL system called QAWAII developed by Oda et.al. (2000). The results of our trial lessons will be reported.