English is a major medium of communication among guests and staff in four and five staff hotels in Pakistan. However, due to complete absence of any English for Occupational Purposes (EOP) research in the Pakistani hotels, the hotel establishments have to suffice with non-customized English language courses at the hotel-run training centers. The present research aims at providing the ground  for designing a tailor-made English language course for the Front Office Department staff. It identifies the key situations of guest-staff encounter and skills required by the staff  to communicate with the guests in these situations. The data for this research was collected at eight 4 and 5 star hotels in Multan, Islamabad, Lahore,  Faisalabad, Karachi, Peshawar, Bhurban and Quetta mainly through observation; interview was used as a supplementary tool. Two kinds of observation techniques were employed i.e. shadowing and participant observation. The results show that the need for skill of spoken interaction is common to all the staff, one major difference being in the channel, telephonic or face to face. Some personnel, that  include Telephone Operator, Reservation Incharge, Concierge Incharge, and Business Center Secretary, need the  note-taking skill while they are engaged in spoken interaction. Only one personnel i.e. Reservation Incharge needs two additional skills- reading and writing. Guest Relations Officer’s (GRO) job is the most diversified and challenging of all. The research also suggests different steps to achieve the finale of the course design based on this research.

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