An Assessment of French Language Skills of Tourism and Hospitality Students at Plateau State Polytechnic

The tourism and hospitality sector in Nigeria increasingly requires graduates with demonstrable foreign language competence, given the multilingual profile of international visitors and the growing importance of Francophone African tourists at heritage and ecotourism sites. This study assesses the French language competence of tourism and hospitality students at Plateau State Polytechnic, Barkin-Ladi, with a focus on practical communicative skills relevant to hotel and tourism contexts. A descriptive survey design combined proficiency testing with structured interviews administered to 145 second-year tourism students and 12 programme lecturers. Proficiency tests were adapted from hospitality-sector French assessment instruments and covered reception dialogue, menu description, direction giving, and complaint handling in French. Results indicate that the majority of students fall below the A2 level in oral French production, with writing and reading skills marginally higher. Students demonstrated better passive than active competence, suggesting insufficient opportunities for oral practice in the curriculum. Lecturers reported inadequate time allocation for French within the tourism programme and noted the absence of any French language laboratory on campus. Hospitality French was taught as a standalone module rather than integrated across vocationally relevant units. The study recommends a vocationally contextualised French language strand embedded across tourism programme modules, procurement of French audio-visual resources, and establishment of a language corner in the hospitality school dedicated to French communicative practice. Keywords: French language skills, hospitality students, Plateau State Polytechnic, vocational French, tourism