Masaryk university, brno faculty of education

4. Practical part 
4.1 Research Aims and Questions 
The main aim of the research is to discover whether there is a positive relation between 
creation and application of speaking activitites designed to fit the needs of an ESP classroom 
and students‘ knowledge and ability to react in conversational situations related to the Hotel 
Keeping and Tourism study programme.
The research will answer the following questions: 
1) Can participation in the designed activities lead to boost in students’ self-confidence? 
2) Will piloting all the activities lead to better fluency in spoken language? 
3) Will students feel more comfortable and natural in everyday conversational situations
connected to their study programme after they have gone through all the activities? 
4) Can the activities motivate students to active participation in the lessons and to self-study? 
5) What effect will the designed activities have on students’ opinions on the lessons? 

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4.2 Research Context 
Higher Vocational School in Economics and Nursing and Secondary School in 
Boskovice has a very long tradition of education. It was founded in 1887. The school is situated 
in Hybešova street, not far from the centre of the town. Two other objects belong to this school 
as well, one is located in Kapitána Jaroše street, the other one in Havlíčkova street, thus making 
it one of the largest schools in the region. Most of the fields of study are finished by a school 
leaving exam - maturita.
The maximum capacity of school is 1450 students. Secondary school applicants can 
choose from several study programmes: Information Technology, Hotel Keeping and Tourism, 
Business Academy, Veterinary Prevention, Organic Food, Business or Clothing Technician. 
Further education is provided at the College of Higher Education in Economics and Nursing, 
where applicants can enroll into study programmes of Finance and Banking, Financial Leading 
of an Enterprise, Tax Consulting, Tourism and Certified Nurse. These courses are finished by 
a leaving exam – absolutorium. 
Students are divided into groups per fifteen people on average, maximum number of 
students in a group is twenty. Secondary school courses have 3 English lessons per week, each 
lesson lasts 45 minutes, the College of Higher Education offers the same amount of lessons per 
week.
The essential material used during lessons is 
Maturita Solutions Elementary : Student’s 
Book
and 
Maturita Solutions Elementary : Work Book
, both published by Oxford University 
Press. These books are well-organized into 10 thematic chapters, each chapter includes pages 
designed to practise basic language skills such as listening, writing, reading and speaking. Every 
chapter of the book is divided into sections A to G according to the same pattern: 
•
A – Vocabulary and listening 
•
B – Grammar 
•
C – Culture 
•
D – Grammar 
•
E – Reading 
•
F – Everyday English 
•
G – Writing 

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21 
In their second year, students are supposed to go through chapters 6-10. The book is 
used across all the secondary study programmes and is followed-up 
by Maturita Solutions Pre-
Intermediate
in the third year.
The biggest problem of the books is the insufficiency of speaking activites. The book 
offers some, but they are rather rare. It can be used as a general teaching aid for maturita 
preparation, on the other hand, it lacks specific vocabulary and conversational situations that 
would be able to boost the language skills in the area of hotel keeping and tourism.
This is the reason, why a set of activities has been created to help students prepare better 
for their future carrier or further studies. After they have gone through all the activities, they 
should improve their speaking skills in everyday situations connected with travelling, hotels 
and tourism, as well as improve their self-confidence in these situations.