English Speaking Proficiency Of Local Tour Guides In Selong Belanak: A Quantitative Study

Abstract

This study aimed to measure and classify the English speaking proficiency of local tour guides in Selong Belanak and to identify their primary linguistic strengths and weaknesses. Employing a quantitative descriptive design, this study involved 20 local tour guides selected through purposive sampling. Data were collected through audio-recorded role-play speaking tests and assessed independently by two raters using a standardized 1–5 scoring rubric adapted from Harris (1969), focusing on pronunciation, grammar, and fluency. The findings revealed that the participants achieved an overall mean score of 3.48, indicating a Good level of English speaking proficiency. Among the assessed components, fluency emerged as the strongest aspect (M = 3.80), followed by pronunciation (M = 3.55), whereas grammar represented the principal weakness (M = 3.10), reflecting limited structural accuracy despite effective communicative performance. The findings indicate that informal, autodidactic language acquisition within a tourism environment effectively develops communicative fluency and intelligible pronunciation but is insufficient to strengthen grammatical competence. These results provide practical implications for designing targeted English for Tourism or English for Specific Purposes (ESP) training programs that prioritize grammatical development while maintaining the communicative fluency of local tour guides, thereby supporting service quality and sustainable tourism development.