Students will be assessed via a 90-minute written examination paper and a spoken examination. Students need to demonstrate their understanding and use of the specialised language and terminology used in the travel and tourism industry. Monolingual dictionaries are allowed for the Writing Section only. Students must pass the written examination to access the spoken examination.

WRITTEN EXAMINATION

• Reading comprehension: based on business and tourism texts together with extracts of information taken from a variety of published authentic guides, promotional materials, manuals, maps, plans and graphical data. Students will need to be familiar with the specialist vocabulary, terminology and abbreviations of travel and tourism

• Listening comprehension: requires students to be able to follow and understand a range of spoken materials, such as news programmes, presentations and everyday conversations about travel and tourism.

• Writing: students could be asked to write promotional material for a leaflet or brochure, a tour commentary or a travel itinerary supported by advice and recommendations. Alternatively, they could be asked to write an e-mail of confirmation to a client, detailing complex travel arrangements.

• Functional/professional language: tests your use of English with tasks that show how well you can control your grammar and vocabulary in a business-specific context.

SPOKEN EXAMINATION

Students will be assessed via a 15-minute (approx.) spoken examination in English, which consists of three parts: a general knowledge test, a topic discussion and a role-play. All parts carry equal mark weighting and students are assessed on their performance according to the following four assessment criteria: fluency, lexis (vocabulary), grammar and pronunciation.

Part 1
Students will answer questions about the geography, history, culture and civics of the UK.

Part 2

Students are required to report on and discuss specialist articles about the following topics:

1 Tourist and travel
2 Holiday and accommodation types
3 Leisure and business travellers and tourists
4 Methods of travel
5 Job roles in the travel and tourism industries
6 The specialist language of the tourism industry

Materials will be made available on the e-learning platform https://elearning.uninsubria.it/in the relevant course section.

Part 3

Students will act out a dialogue after being assigned a role among the following:

• travel clerk and travel consultant in travel agencies
• travel and tourism information officer in tourist information centres
• reception/front of house staff
• conference and event organiser in conference centres and in hotels
• tour operator’s representative at holiday resorts, tour guide on coach tours and on tourist sites

Students who hold a valid certificate equivalent to the Council of Europe's Level (B2) may access directly to the spoken examination or submit a recognition request to the Segreteria Studenti. For a complete list of valid certificates, see Manifesto degli studi 2018-2019.