What can an Intensive English Program Contribute to the Local Community? A Perspective of the Foreign Tourists Towards EFL Learners

Abstract

The number of foreign tourists has increased in Japan recently and the authors of this study organized a summer intensive program which included a field trip to the local port where big cruise ships come in. At the local port, the students in this program were given an opportunity to communicate with overseas passengers on the cruise ship in English. In Japan, our students often find it difficult to use English after they finish their lessons on campus and therefore the authors of this study believe that the field trip in this program would be beneficial to our students. The aim of this study is to explore the perception of the overseas tourists towards English as a foreign language (EFL) learners in Japan. A small-scale questionnaire was used for the data analysis and a total of 15 responses were analyzed. The results of this study showed that overall, overseas passengers enjoyed participating in our intensive program and they reported that even though Japanese students tended to be shy to speak, they found the Japanese students’ command of English to be good. Based on the results of this study, introducing speaking activities in class before we take our students to the field trip is recommended in order to make this field trip more effective in the future.