A Needs Analysis for English for Specific Purposes Speaking Skills Development for Tourism Front-Liners: Targets, Challenges and Learning Preferences

English is the lingua franca in the Maldives tourism industry, and learning English with a focus on the tourism industry is essential. However, there are limited context-specific learning materials tailored to cater to the front-liners’ needs. This study explored their speaking needs to develop an English for specific purposes (ESP) module. It examined the importance of speaking English for front-line workers, their challenges, learning preferences and readiness for mobile learning. The study was conducted qualitatively through semi-structured interviews with 14 tourism front-line staff members and two lecturers, as well as an analysis of 10 job descriptions of front-line staff. The findings revealed that English is crucial for them to speak with guests and colleagues. The target situations for speaking English include welcoming guests, check-in and check-out processes, enhancing the guest experience and handling requests and complaints. They face challenges due to limited vocabulary and grammar, as well as affective factors such as language anxiety and a lack of confidence. The speaking competency needs of front-line staff encompass grammar, vocabulary, and core speaking skills, including requesting, expressing, explaining, providing information, offering advice and describing. Participants prefer to learn through task-based, collaborative and contextualised tasks. They also preferred technology-integrated activities, such as multimedia learning and game-based learning and are ready to adopt mobile learning. An ESP speaking module should include content relevant to authentic scenarios, and purposefully selected vocabulary and grammar to enhance effective speaking delivered through mobile technology, integrating multimedia and game-based learning. The findings provide valuable insights for developing an ESP module to teach and learn speaking skills for tourism front-line staff.