Research on Teaching Innovation of Tourism English Courses from the Perspective of Cultural Communication

Abstract

Against the backdrop of deep integration between culture and tourism, the mission of tourism English courses is shifting from training language skills alone to cultivating professionals who can communicate Chinese culture effectively in international settings. Drawing on the perspective of cultural communication, this paper examines the internal logic that connects industrial change, job competency restructuring, and curriculum objectives, and proposes an integrated innovation framework for tourism English courses. The framework rests on four pillars: a multi-stakeholder governance structure in which universities, cultural and tourism enterprises, and industry platforms share responsibilities under compliant school-enterprise arrangements; a structured teaching team built on interdisciplinary collaboration, dual academic-industry leadership, and tiered teacher development; a reform pathway that restructures the curriculum around authentic job-task chains, develops on-campus and off-campus dual training bases, empowers instruction with digital intelligence technologies, and institutionalizes evidence-based evaluation; and a quality assurance mechanism that is traceable, reviewable, and continuously improving. The paper argues that only by embedding cultural communication competence into every key element of the course—objectives, governance, faculty, content, scenarios, technology, and assessment—can tourism English education move beyond instrumental language training and become a genuine vehicle for telling China’s stories well in the global tourism arena. The proposed model offers a replicable reference for the reform of foreign language courses in applied higher education.