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Dr Klaus Bung
68 Brantfell Road
Blackburn BB1-8DL
England
w: www.dynamic-language-learning-dr-bung.com

Klaus Bung:
The Foreign Language Needs
of Waiters and Hotel Staff 1
(aka "The long waiter study")
- Part A -

Note (written on 2010-05-31):

The beginnings / endings of each page have been marked in such a way that the printed original version can be quoted from this html version.

If you have trouble in seeing the odd characters with rare diacritics (e.g. Jiři Klír, where the characters with diacritics might display as little empty squares or as some other garbage, go to your Control Panel, Regional Options, and switch on language support for ALL languages. That will maximise your chances of making such characters correctly visible. In some cases, I have added an alternative to paragraphs with many diacritics by giving them as an image as well as as text. I have also sometimes given names with diacritics both with and without diacritics to make it easier for Google to find them, e.g. authorJiři Klír appears also as "Jiri Klir", "María José Sánchez" appears at least once also as "Maria Jose Sanchez".

I have used asterisks plus colour *** for emphasis *** instead of underlining (found in the original print publication) and instead of font changes (italics, bold, font-size) because such devices easily disappear without trace in electronic texts and such disapperances are then practically impossible to trace without scrupulous comparison with the original, an effort which no sane reader is likely to undertake.

You can often click on images to make them larger.

This paper was a contribution to a large project of the Council of Europe run by a committee under the leadership of Dr John L M Trim, in whose numerous publications information about the objectives, details and the history of the project can be found. Some parts of my text are better understood if the reader knows that this paper was a contribution towards the work of this committee and refers repeatedly to the work of other members of this committee, e.g. van Ek, Richterich, and others. The term T-level means "threshold level", an attempt to define the lowest useful learning objective.

The following summary of the project has been taken from the Internet in 2010, where further links can be found:

http://www.ecml.at/help/detail.asp?i=124

Quote starts:

Threshold level

In the mid 1970s the Council of Europe's experts developed a specification in operational terms first of what a learner should be able to DO when using the language independently for communication in a country in which that language is the vehicle of communication in everyday life, and then of the necessary knowledge and skills.

A descriptive instrument for specific languages

The initial threshold level specification for English, together with the specification developed for French (Niveau Seuil), provided the basic models which have been adapted for other languages in the light of their particular linguistic situation, and further developed in the light of experience. The model has been extremely influential in the planning of language programmes, providing a basis for new national curricula, more interesting and attractive textbooks, popular multimedia courses and more realistic and relevant forms of assessment.

quote ends

This paper exists as a "short version" and as a "long version".

This is the long version (120 pp A4 in print), which contains all the arguments.

For the short version (30 pp A4 in print) click here.

------------------------------------------ page 1 cover page ------------------------------------------

First published in 1973 by The Council of Europe

Re-published on the Internet
on 2010-05-31

Conseil de L'Europe / Council of Europe

Strasbourg, 4 June 1973

CCC/EES (73) 19

Committee for Out-Of-School Education and Cultural Development

"The Foreign Language Needs of Waiters and Hotel Staff 1!

Dr Klaus Bung

------------------------------------------ page 2 inner cover page ------------------------------------------

We speak English
Wir sprechen deutsch
Ici on parle français
Si parla italiano
Se fala portugués
Y també parlém valençiá
che riute ...

(Notice outside a small hotel in Valencia, Spain)

We speak English / We speak German / French spoken here / Italian spoken / Portuguese spoken, and we also speak Valencian - isn't that a surprise ...

(Note added on 2010-06-31: More than minimal language skill is required to understand the following complaint, published in BILD, Hamburg, on 6 March 1979:

Ein Gast läßt sich eine Portion Fisch kommen. Nachdenklich starrt er längere Zeit auf den Teller, bis der Wirt aufmerksam wird und ihn fragt:

"Was machen Sie denn da?"

"Ich unterhalte mich mit dem Fisch!"

"Wieso?"

"Ich habe ihn gefragt, was es Neues in der Donau gibt. Da hat er mich traurig angeschaut und gesagt:

' Was weiß denn ich, bin ja schon vier Wochen heraus!' "

(Herta Müller, 25 Mark)

A guest orders a portion of fish. Thoughtfully he stares at his plate for a long time. Eventually the innkeeper notices and asks him:

"What are you doing there?"

"I am having a chat with my fish!"

"You what?"

"Well, I asked him for news from the Danube. Then he looked at me sadly and said:

'How am I to know, it's now four weeks that they abducted me! ' "

(Sent in by Herta Müller, 25 Marks)

------------------------------------------ page 3 -----------------------------------------

		Page
	List of symbols	5
	List of technical terms	7
	List of figures	9

1	Introduction	11

2	The linguistic setting	12

3	Staff functions in a small hotel	19

3.1	Introduction	19
3.2	More detailed description of hotel functions	22
3.21	Extension of the medium-conversion model	22
3.22	Coarse analysis of six hotel functions	25
3.221	Function 1: Waiter	25
3.221.1	F1a: Understanding order and bringing food	25
3.221.2	F1b: Explaining what a certain dish is	26
3.221.3	F1c: Exploring the guests' general wishes	27
3.221.4	F1d: Suggesting foods	28
3.222	Function 2: Receptionist	28
3.222.1	F2a: Letting of rooms	28
3.222.11	F2aa: Understanding questions	28
3.222.12	F2ab: Replying	29
3.222.13	F2ac: Showing rooms	29
3.222.14	F2ad: Ascertaining guest's wishes	29
3.222.15	F2ae: Understanding orders	29
3.222.16	F2af: Taking money	30
3.222.2	F2b: Passport &c	30
3.222.21	F2ba: Passport and registration	30
3.222.22	F2bb: Requesting details from passport	30
3.222.23	F2bc: Explaining details of registration form	31
3.222.24	F2bd: Reading an English-language passport	31
3.222.3	F2c: Explaining eating arrangements	32
3.223	Function 3: Porter	32
3.224	Function 4: Correspondence	33
3.224.1	Language of reply	33
3.224.2	MC-vectors and sentence types in hotel correspondence	37

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		Page
3.224.3	The arangement of learning units for writing hotel correspondence	38
3.225	Function 5: Telephonist	42
3.225.1	F5a: Incoming telephone calls	42
3.225.11	F5aa: Rooms available?	42
3.225.111	Language switching	42
3.225.12	F5ab: Outsider wants to speak to guests	44
3.225.2	F5b: Connect guest's outgoing calls	47
3.226	Function 6: Giving information	50
3.3	Summary of surface analysis of hotel functions	51

4	Detailed analysis of Function 1: Waiter serving food &c in a restaurant	55

4.1	The significance of the waiter's operations and their temporal relation	60
4.2	Triggers	62
4.21	The implications of trigger-vectors	64
4.3	Is language learning worthwhile?	66
4.4	The ordering of operations	67
4.41	Partial order of task size	68
4.42	Partial order of importance	72
4.43	Performance deficiencies and back-chaining	74
4.45	The operational must-precede relation	75
4.5	Learning sequences	78
4.51	The Delta-Diagram	78
4.52	Partial order of vocabulary lists	80
4.53	Notation for must-precede relations containing alternatives	83

5	Potential word lists for Op 7: Understanding an order for food &c	89

5.1	Towards formal procedures for establishing learning units	89
5.2	Van Ek's word list	93
5.3	Ogden's BASIC English word lists	98
5.31	The Sánchez test: Utility of 'international words'	99
5.4	The Penguin word list	104

6	Notes	106

7	Bibliography	112

	Appendix: Kleist's 'Anekdote aus dem letzten preußischen Kriege'	116

------------------------------------------ page 5 -----------------------------------------

List of symbols

(The page numbers indicate place of first, or major, occurrence.)

		Page
A	assertions necessary as a means of communication	25
A	begin	48
a	in MC-vectors: the process of finding an appropriate response to a verbal input	24
a	arbitrary vertex of a graph	58
B	name of vector component specifying whether a hotel function demands both receptive and productive skills	52
B	BASIC English words contained in BG or in BI	90
b	arbitrary vertex of a graph	58
BG	basic general list; food nouns in list of 850 words in Ogden's BASIC English	90
BI	basic international list; food nouns in list of 'international words' recognised in BASIC English	90
C	name of a vector component which determines whether a hotel function is central	21
C	caller; a person outside the hotel wishing to speak by telephone to a guest in the hotel	44
c0, c1, ..., cn c4=c2 (and similar notations)	components of a vector	13
D	dispatch guests (group of waiter operations)	56;58
D	degree of difficulty of 'international word'	90
d	difficult	102
E	name of a vector component which determines whether a hotel function is essential	21
E	telephone operator of telephone organisation outside hotel (e.g. in post-office telephone exchange)	48
E	food &c nouns to be found anywhere in van Ek 1972	90
e	easy	102

------------------------------------------ page 6 -----------------------------------------

		Page
ed	very difficult	102
EE	van Ek elsewhere: food &c nouns contained in van Ek 1972 but not in EF	90
EF	van Ek food list: nouns contained in van Ek's 1972 list 'Shopping and meals'	90
F1, F2, ..., F6	Function 1, ..., of hotel staff	20
G	guest in the hotel	44
g	guest	63
I	imperatives necessary as means of communication	25
k	kitchen staff	63
L	name of a vector component which determines whether a hotel function is 'live'	21
M	the learner's mother tongue	13
m_ij	m (subscript ij): cell of a matrix, in row i and column j	58
MC	medium-conversion; the processes described in Bung 1973	22
N	non-verbal event	48
n	normal degree of difficulty	102
O	any language other than the learner's mother tongue or his target language	13
Op 1, Op 2, ...	operations carried out by the waiter; reference numbers and key on page	55
P	productive skill	22;26
p	preceding operation	63
PS	Penguin Spanish: food nouns in Alvarez and Norman 1968	90
Q	questions necessary as a means of communication	25
R	receptive skill	22;26
R	receive guests (group of waiter operations)	56;58
S	serve guests (group of waiter operations)	56;58
SC	sum of vector components	65;64
T	the target language	13
T	telephonist	44
type 42 vector	see c4=c2	13;16
UT	unique trigger	63;64
V1, V2, ..., V27	short names of vectors	14;64

------------------------------------------ page 7 -----------------------------------------

		Page
ve	very easy	102
W	words and fixed phrases sometimes suffice as a means of communication	25
w	waiter	63
Z	stop	48

List of technical terms

(The page numbers show place of first occurrence and definition or critical applications)

		Page
	addressee-country: the country to which the reply is to be addressed	34
	alternative in the must-precede relation: a or b must precede c	83
	back-chaining	74
	CA-relation: a relation containing alternatives and conjunctions	84
	C-language	35
	common-core learner	93
	component of vector	13
	conjunction in the must-precede relation: a and b must precede c	84
	Delta-Diagram	78
	functions of hotel staff: each function is a set of operations usually carried out by the same specialist employee; list of functions on page	20
	generic principle: the principle of achieving great coverage with few words by learning generic terms before the specific terms subsumed by them	98
	gesture: a non-verbal event	61
	hotel-language: language of the country in which the hotel is situated	33
	importance of task	72
	information reduction: the process of abstracting from the semantic information in a message (Bung 1973)	24
	in-language: language of letters addressed to hotel	33

------------------------------------------ page 8 -----------------------------------------

		Page
	language switching: the use of two distinct languages, L and M, in a conversation or correspondence so that the input is regularly in L and the output in M	34;42
	linguistic setting	12
	logical support relation	67;78
	medium conversion: the processes described in Bung 1973	22
	MOT-model	13
	operations of waiter: operations are constituents of functions; list of operations on page	55
	partial order: an irreflexive, asymmetric and transitive relation; a relation is a set of ordered pairs; an irreflexive relation contains no pairs a ---> a, in an asymmetric relation a ---> b excludes b ---> a, and in a transitive relation a ---> b and b ---> c imply a ---> c	39
	performance deficiency	74
	simple precedence (in the must-precede relation): a and only a needs to precede b	84
	size of task	68
	SM-elements: subject matter elements	88
	special purpose language: a subset of the rules of a natural language designed to cater for the special needs of a person carrying out a specific job	89
	threshold level	60
	T-level: see threshold level	60
	trigger: the event or person determining the beginning of an operation	62
	trigger-vector: a vector which specifies who triggers off an operation	63;64
	trigger word: 'waiter'	81
	vector: an ordered set of numbers	12
	vector name: an ordinal number in the decimal system assigned to a vector for quick reference	15;63;64
	1-cells: matrix cells with value 1	58

------------------------------------------ page 9 -----------------------------------------

List of figures

		Page
1	General model of linguistic settings	15
2	Linguistic settings to be considered in this study	17
3	List of hotel staff functions	20
4	Classification of six hotel functions	21
5	Procedure to determine the best language for a reply in hotel-correspondence	35
6	Examples of languages used in hotel-correspondence	36
7	Partial order of productive correspondence sub-skills	39
8	Simple orders compatible with Figure 7	40
9	Learning sequences for hotel-correspondence	41
10	Recommended partial order of must-precede relation in productive correspondence skills	41
11	Language combinations handled at hotel telephone switchboard	44
12	Medium-conversion vectors for hotel telephone switchboard activities	45
13	Potential interpreter roles of telephonist	46
14	Chains of communication through telephone switchboard	48
15	MC-vectors assigned to switchboard chains of communication	49
16	Survey of sentence types required in hotel functions	52
17	Frequency of vectors in Figure	16 53
18	List of waiter's operations	55
19	Central waiter function: temporal sequence of operations	56
20	Matrix of Figure 19	57
21	Immediate constituent analysis of waiter's operations	59
22	Trigger tabulation	63
23	Frequency of vectors in Figure 22	64
24	Graph representing partial order of task size	70
25	Matrix representing partial order of task size	71
26	Graph representing partial order of importance	73
27	The operational must-precede relation	76
28	Matrix of the operational must-precede relation	77
29	The Delta-Diagram	79
30	Vocabulary categories for Op 4, 7 and 10	81

------------------------------------------ page 10 -----------------------------------------

		Page
31	Vocabulary categories for Op 4, 7 and 10	82
32	Conjunction	85
33	Alternative	85
34	Conjunction and alternative in new notation	86
35	Graph containing conjunction, alternative and simple precedence	86
36	Pedagogical must-precede relation of skills listed in Figure 31	87
37	List of nouns relevant for Op 7	90
38	Spanish sample menu	96
39	Vocabulary required for Op 7 below and above T-level	98
40	Intelligibility of Ogden's 'international words' in Spain	101
41	Difficult 'international words' in English and Spanish	103

Continued in Part B

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