The Effects of Watching Foreign Movies on Iranian Hotel Management Students’ Speaking Skill

The purpose of the current study was to explore the effects of watching foreign language (FL) videos on Iranian hotel management learners’ speaking skill. Two intact classes, taught by the same instructor, were considered as the two groups of the study. The experimental group (N = 30) watched the FL videos during eight sessions while the control group (N = 30) did not have an opportunity to watch the videos and had their normal classes.  The Oxford Placement Test (OPT) and IELTS Speaking Test were administered as the instruments in the current study. Results indicated that the participants’ speaking skill improved significantly after watching the FL videos.  Moreover, the findings demonstrated that watching FL videos significantly promoted the learners’ pronunciation.  In practical terms, the findings suggest that tourism course developers can include more foreign movies in their courses’ syllabus and language instructors to hotel staffs can take advantage of students' interest in watching videos and use it as an effective tool in their classroom to enhance the hotel staff and hotel management learners’ speaking skill and pronunciation.