lunes, 19 de octubre de 2015

Pick up a project topic

Look at the different options resulting from our brainstorming session, choose a topic from the list below and post your choice along with the names of the team members. Remember only one project for each one of the topics is allowed!

1. Reactions to illegal tourist apartments in Barceloneta

2. A contrastive analysis of the world’s largest cruise ship - Harmony of the seas

3. Case study: dark tourism experiences in Barcelona

4. Sustainable tourism vs. eco-friendly tourism in Barcelona

5. Researching women-only hotel chains in Spain

6. Exploring the viability of a hostel-based MICE department

7. The impact of luxury tourism in Barcelona

8. Examining tourists’ favourite bus lines in Barcelona

9. An analysis of British and French heritage tours in Menorca

10. The effect of mass tourism on the conservation of Barcelona’s heritage

11. Market research: language tourism in Barcelona

12. Academic tourism experiences abroad in higher education contexts


lunes, 21 de septiembre de 2015

Ready for year 2015-16?

English Level 3. Research project

The research project is a very important component in this level. Read the following guidelines to find out more about it and suggest possible topics you could work on.

The research project deals with a topic related to the tourism and hospitality industry. The research topic must be identified by the students at the beginning of the academic year and the project outline and planning must be checked by their teachers, who will supervise their work throughout the course.

At the end of the second term each team of students must use powerpoint as well as other support materials in their oral presentations. Every member will be required to speak for about 10 minutes, so the whole presentation will take 20-30 minutes, depending on whether the teams are composed of two or three students. At the end of the presentation the students will have to answer the questions formulated by the board of examiners, made up of two teachers.

The project can be structured as follows:

-Introduction: The aim is provide a general idea of the study, including its objectives.
-Theoretical framework: The conceptual framework of the research must be stated clearly.
-Methodology: The methodological approach, as well as data collection, processing and analysis must be described.
-Results: The results deriving from the previous section must be presented.
-Conclusions: The conclusions need to relate to the research objectives.
-Bibliography: The references of all the resources used must be listed.
-Annex: Support materials can be included in this section.

Within the continuous assessment system the written project accounts for 10% of the final mark, whereas the oral presentation of the research project constitutes 30% of the final mark. Those students who sit up the final exam must not submit a written project, and the oral presentation of their research accounts for 50% of the final mark.

Assessment criteria for oral production (out of 10 points):

-Language use (grammar/vocabulary accuracy, range & adequacy): 4 points.
-Task achievement (efficient achievement of communicative purpose, content relevance & extent): 3 points.
-Fluency & pronunciation (speech flow, intonation, stress & rhythm): 2 points.
- Communicative resources (use of linguistic and non-linguistic resources, support materials, attitude): 1 point.

Assessment criteria for written production (out of 10 points):

-Language use (grammar/vocabulary accuracy, range & adequacy): 5 points.
-Task achievement (efficient achievement of communicative purpose, content relevance & extent): 3 points.
-Topic development (structure, progression & coherence): 2 points.

Have a fruitful year! Ready... steady... go!

lunes, 15 de diciembre de 2014

How? Where? When?

Having formulated your objectives and research questions/hypothesis, now you should post an outline of your methodology. A Gantt chart will help you plan the different stages of the research process.

The Methodology section is the core of your paper. It should answer two main questions:

1. How did you collect or generate the data?
2. How did you analyse the data?

Be direct and precise. Use the past tense and include enough information so that it can be determined if the data collection, data processing, subsequent results and final conclusions are valid. You need to explain the reasons why you chose a particular method or procedure, the anticipated problems in the process and the steps you took to prevent them.

More specifically:

a- Present the basic demographic profile of the sample population or participants (e.g. age, gender, origins, etc.).

b- Describe the materials and tools that you used (e.g. observation, interviews, questionnaires, etc.).

c- Explain how you prepared the materials and describe the research design.

d- Explain how you gathered the data.

e- Describe the techniques that you used to process the data (e.g. descriptive statistics, SWOT analysis, etc.).

lunes, 10 de noviembre de 2014

What? Why?

This is the basic structure your research project should have. Follow the outline as you construct your final draft. Now that you’ve chosen a topic let’s focus on the introduction. Post the objectives and research questions you wish to work on.

Chapter 1: Introduction
In this section, let the reader know in a few sentences what your project will be addressing. State at the outset what you are interested in researching and why. Explain how the topic of your project is related to your studies. Clearly state your research problem and break it down into a series of more specific research questions, or, whenever feasible, into hypotheses.

Chapter 2: Review of literature
Indicate which studies have already been done on the same or related topics; which questions or hypotheses have been offered; major findings; consistencies and inconsistencies among these findings. Appropriate citations would include recent peer-reviewed articles published in regionally, nationally, or internationally recognized professional journals; books; monographs; etc. After reviewing the literature, place your own research within a context of already existing knowledge. Is your research an attempt to retest previous research findings? Investigating some aspect(s) of previous research in greater depth? Exploring areas suggested by previous findings? Studying a problem about which little or nothing is known, but which needs to be investigated for practical or theoretical reasons?

Chapter 3: Methodology
Identify your research variables and the method of investigation. Specify the research sample -who the subjects of your research will be and how you are going to select them. Give your reasons for choosing such a sample. Identify your procedure. Indicate which techniques of data collection you intend to use (observation, interviews, questionnaires, records, personal documents, etc.), and any relevant information about your research design. Discuss how you wish to analyze your data. Produce a Gantt chart to help you plan the different stages of the research process.

Chapter 4: Results
In this section, the results of the survey (or research) should be presented without comment. It should be divided appropriately. Appropriate charts and graphs should be presented either in this section or in the appendices.

Chapter 5: Conclusion
This section essentially returns to section one and should present how this study answers its research questions and how it fills the knowledge gap presented in chapter two. This section should be clearly divided by the research questions and it should reveal how the results of this study match or do not match other similar research. Great care should be taken to discuss why this study is important and how the results can be used. There should be a large number of citations to aspects that have been previously mentioned in other sections of the study. There should also be a reference to the limitations of the study and where future research should be conducted.

Citations (References)
This section should be a bibliography of all the sources you have used and cited throughout your paper/project. APA style must be used for all citations throughout the text and for your bibliography.

Appendices
Include your research instruments.

Adapted from: http://www.mtsu.edu/universitycollege/mps/pdf/Project_Final_Draft_Outline.pdf

miércoles, 22 de octubre de 2014

Project topics

It’s time to start thinking about your research project. Consider the different options resulting from our brainstorming session, choose a topic from the list below and post your choice along with the names of the team members. Remember only one project for each one of the topics is allowed!

1. The feasibility of a new itinerary for Bus Turístic in Barcelona.

2. Theme hotels in Port Aventura: a contrastive analysis.

3. Hotel service provision through apps in Barcelona.

4. The ecologic hotel offer in Barcelona.

5. Tree housing in Catalonia: a profitable business?

6. Barcelona as a vegetarian destination.

7. The perceived usefulness of the Catalan Tourist Board.

8. Lodging in the telecommunications tower of Collserola: a viable option?

9. Motivations for choosing Barcelona and Montreal as academic destinations.

10. Profiling Erasmus students at CETT.

jueves, 18 de septiembre de 2014

Welcome to the academic year 2014-15!

English Level 3. Research project

The research project is a very important component in this level. Read the following guidelines to find out more about it and suggest possible topics you could work on.

The research project deals with a topic related to the tourism and hospitality industry. The research topic must be identified by the students at the beginning of the academic year and the project outline and planning must be checked by their teachers, who will supervise their work throughout the course.

At the end of the second term each team of students must use powerpoint as well as other support materials in their oral presentations. Every member will be required to speak for about 10 minutes, so the whole presentation will take 20-30 minutes, depending on whether the teams are composed of two or three students. At the end of the presentation the students will have to answer the questions formulated by the board of examiners, made up of two teachers.

The project can be structured as follows:

-Introduction: The aim is provide a general idea of the study, including its objectives.
-Theoretical framework: The conceptual framework of the research must be stated clearly.
-Methodology: The methodological approach, as well as data collection, processing and analysis must be described.
-Results: The results deriving from the previous section must be presented.
-Conclusions: The conclusions need to relate to the research objectives.
-Bibliography: The references of all the resources used must be listed.
-Annex: Support materials can be included in this section.

Within the continuous assessment system the written project accounts for 10% of the final mark, whereas the oral presentation of the research project constitutes 30% of the final mark. Those students who sit up the final exam must not submit a written project, and the oral presentation of their research accounts for 50% of the final mark.

Assessment criteria for oral production (out of 10 points):

-Language use (grammar/vocabulary accuracy, range & appropriacy): 4 points.
-Task achievement (efficient achievement of communicative purpose, content relevance & extent): 3 points.
-Fluency & pronunciation (speech flow, intonation, stress & rhythm): 2 points.
- Communicative resources (use of linguistic and non-linguistic resources, support materials, attitude): 1 point.

Assessment criteria for written production (out of 10 points):

-Language use (grammar/vocabulary accuracy, range & appropriacy): 5 points.
-Task achievement (efficient achievement of communicative purpose, content relevance & extent): 3 points.
-Topic development (structure, progression & coherence): 2 points.

viernes, 28 de marzo de 2014

The impacts of tourism on a destination

Watch your presentations and do the self-assessment tasks below.









Choose the appropriate descriptors. Looking back at my presentation:

 I am happy with my performance
 I had prepared my presentation thoroughly
 The subject of my presentation was a good choice
 My presentation was structured clearly
 The support materials I used were appropriate
 I was comfortable throughout the presentation
 I paid attention to the audience
 My classmates were interested in my presentation
 My classmates asked interesting questions
 My classmates’ feedback was useful
 My teacher’s feedback was useful
 The comments on my presentation were suitable
 Everything went as I had expected
 It was a positive learning experience

Make comments on each one of the following aspects concerning your oral presentation:

 Linguistic use (grammar/vocabulary accuracy, range & adequacy)
 Task achievement (efficient achievement of communicative purpose, content relevance & extent)
 Fluency & pronunciation (speech flow, intonation, stress & rhythm)
 Communicative resources (use of linguistic and non-linguistic resources, support materials, attitude)

General comments:

 Did anything go wrong during your presentation? What could you have done to avoid it?
 Which aspect of your presentation are you most proud of?
 How did the beginning / development / end of your presentation go?
 Would you like to repeat your presentation? Would you change anything?
 If you could do your presentation again, do you think your performance would be better now? Why / why not?
 Others