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Journal of Hospitality,Leisure, Sport & Tourism Education

Journal of Hospitality, Leisure, Sport & Tourism Education 15 (2014) 34–49

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n Tel.:E-m

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Constructing a competence model for internationalprofessionals in the MICE industry: An analytic hierarchyprocess approach

Hui-Wen Vivian Tang n

Teacher Education Center, Ming Chuan University, No. 5 De Ming Rd., Gui Shan, Taoyuan County, Taiwan, ROC

a r t i c l e i n f o

Keywords:MICE industryEnglish for specific purposesAnalytic hierarchy processEnglish-medium instructionCommunicative competenceIntercultural competence

x.doi.org/10.1016/j.jhlste.2014.04.00176/& 2014 The Author. Published by Elseviereativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/)

þ886 2 26087269, þ886 2 2397 1533; faxail address: kshvt00@hotmail.com

a b s t r a c t

The study aimed to construct a competence model for educating and evaluating English-proficient international professionals for the MICE industry in Taiwan. An initial competenceframework extracted from the existing literature was decomposed into a hierarchical structurefor analytic hierarchy process (AHP) analysis. AHP through pairwise comparisons by 11 expertswas utilized to determine weight values of competences pertaining to the development ofa content-based English-medium educational program for international MICE professionals.The overall prioritization of competences solicited by AHP provided practical and researchimplications for prioritizing training needs with consideration to contextually-specific factorsof a different setting under investigation.& 2014 The Author. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-

NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/).

1. Introduction

The past decade has seen sustainable growth of the meeting, incentive, convention, and exhibition (MICE) industry in theform of hosting mega-events and constructing massive centers in the Asia-Pacific region, including Taiwan (Hing, McCabe,Lewis, & Leiper, 1998; Ministry of Economic Affairs, Taiwan, 2008; UFI, 2011a; Fourie & Santana-Gallego, 2011). UFI, TheGlobal Association of the Exhibition Industry (formerly named the Union des Foires Internationales), revealed in itsDecember 2011 data that Taipei ranked 7th among all Asian cities in terms of the amount of available exhibition floor space(UFI, 2011b). Taiwan has also improved its ranking at the International Congress and Convention Association from 35th in2008 to 27th in 2011 (CNA, 2012; ICCA, 2012). The economic value of the convention industry in Taiwan was estimated atapproximately of US$ 300 million (NT$8.7 billion) in 2012. Government spending on the plan of developing Taiwan into anAsia MICE base amounted to US$76 million (NT$2.2 billion) from 2010 to 2012 (CNA, 2012). The ongoing expansion onconvention venues and numbers of international expositions has brought with it the challenge of preparing students forcareers in the industry on the rise (Ministry of Economic Affairs, Taiwan, 2008).

Aside from growing demands for MICE workforce resulting from the continuous construction of convention propertiesand expansion of international events, increased globalization has led to a need for greater number of trained internationalprofessionals to provide professional service to participants and visitors from all over the world (Davies & Brown, 2000; Tsai,2013). The English language is the current lingua franca for international communication. Hence, in addition to training andstaffing an adequate number of skilled MICE personnel, the cultivation of English-proficient MICE professionals will be an

r Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license.

: þ886 2 2397 1522.

H.-W.V. Tang / Journal of Hospitality, Leisure, Sport & Tourism Education 15 (2014) 34–49 35

add-on to internationalize Taiwan's MICE industry (Her, 2007; Tsao, 2011; Tsai, 2013). Despite a general academic responseto educational practices and research on human resource development in the fields of hospitality, tourism and internationalbusiness, there has been very little written on the topic of MICE education and much less on professional training for thecultivation of international MICE professionals. In view of the tourism and economic contributions of international MICEactivities to the host destination, indentifying essential competences for international professionals in the MICE industryconstitutes a topic of great importance for upcoming large-scale events hosted in Taiwan, China, and other Asian countries.The thrust of the present study, therefore, was to test and develop a group decision-making model, termed the analytichierarchy process (AHP), used to prioritize essential competences that international professionals in the MICE industryshould acquire in order to meet the language and professional demands of the industry on the rise. The overall prioritizationof competences for international MICE professionals would provide a reference for curriculum and training programplanning, as well as a mechanism for evaluating and selecting a professional workforce to serve in a diverse internationalMICE arena.

The model was constructed in the context of an Applied English Department of a tertiary setting in Taiwan, especiallyEnglish major students who are exposed to academic track options of tourism or international business. However, the modelcan move beyond this to assist in generating the relative weights of competences considered important to the effectiveoperation of any large-scale event held in other non-English speaking countries. In sum, the specific purposes of this studyare as follows:

1.

To construct a comprehensive competence model for international MICE professionals based on the existing literatureand expert opinions for analytic hierarchy process (AHP) analysis.

2.

To synthesize, through the application of AHP, a set of prioritized core competences and competence indicators that maybe used as a reference for designing training programs, as well as a mechanism for selecting qualified internationalprofessionals for the MICE industry in Taiwan.

2. Literature review

2.1. Professional English language education and the event industry

Taiwan's determination to promote business tourism and incentive travel has signaled a major impact on thedevelopment of English for Specific Purpose (ESP) in tourism-related education to meet the rapidly rising market demanddriven by economic, social, and technological advancement (Her, 2007; Chang & Hsu, 2010). In Taiwan, the formal andinformal learning of English has taken place in a variety of ways as expanding educational opportunities for personal andprofessional growth (Chern, 2002; Nunan, 2003; Oladejo, 2005; Her, 2007). Amongst all the notable approaches to Englishlanguage teaching, communicative language teaching (CLT) has been the most influential method within the Chinesesocieties since 1980' (Sun & Cheng, 2002; Chern, 2002; Hu, 2005; Oladejo, 2005; Ye, 2007; Pan, 2010). To address differentcommunicative needs of disparate disciplines and professions, a great deal of research has been done about improvingcommunicative competences of students enrolled in English for general purposes or English for specific purposes programsin the Chinese context (e.g. Anderson, 1993; Yu, 2001; Rao, 2002;Chern, 2002; Liu, 2005; Hsu, 2011; Spring, 2012).

During the last two decades, research on English for Specific Purposes (ESP), English for Professional Purposes (EPP) andcontent-based English-medium instruction in the Chinese context has grown rapidly (e.g. Tsui,1991; Chia, Johnson, Chia, &Olive, 1999; Pang, Zhou, & Fu, 2002; Chang, 2005; Zhang. 2007; Yuan, 2009; Tsao, 2011). Expanded from the generalumbrella term of business English, a plethora of ESP/EPP curricula or syllabi have been constructed in disparate businesscontexts, such as trade, finance, investment, economics, tourism, hospitality, to name a few (Pang et al., 2002; Chew, 2005;Abdel Ghany & Abdel Latif, 2012; Li & Li, 2013). The development route of ESP or EPP, along with the proposition that Englishis a necessary result brought by the demand of internationalizing the MICE industry, has extended to event management,trade fairs and the convention industry (Tsai & Davis, 2008; Zeng & Yang, 2011; Tsai, 2013). Adhering to a traditionalapproach, the learning of ESP for non-English major students, including those in the fields of tourism, hospitality and eventmanagement, is merely one or two subjects studied (Chia et al., 1999; Kim, 2006; Chen, Chiu, & Lin, 2011; Hsieh, 2013). Thevast majority of research on ESP/EPP course planning, therefore, has focused on probing into the linguistic andcommunicative competency via genre analysis, corpus analysis or need analysis to meet the demands of the learners(Ibrahim & Mahmoud, 2010; Nelson, Devardhi, & Tadesse, 2012). Little consideration, however, has been paid to thedevelopment of professional competence frameworks for shaping content-based and English-medium instruction programsfrom a cross-disciplinary perspective. In the current decade, the topic of English for the MICE industry has been recognizedas an independent branch of ESP appearing in the era of economic globalization and trade internationalization (Zhu, 2009;Zeng & Yang, 2011). However, literature targeting on identifying competences for international professionals in the MICEindustry is grossly inadequate. The current study is articulated in an effort to address the lack of research and practicalevidence regarding identifying a professional competence model for international MICE professionals in Taiwan. As notedearlier, the proposed model and methodology may be extended to further studies on shaping international MICE

H.-W.V. Tang / Journal of Hospitality, Leisure, Sport & Tourism Education 15 (2014) 34–4936

professional competence frameworks based on contextually or culturally specific demands by other Chinese societies ornon-English speaking countries.

2.2. The development of competence criteria and indicators for international MICE professionals

2.2.1. Communicative competences within the content-based ESP frameworkThe concept of connecting the English-medium pedagogical initiative to language form, language function, and course

content concerned with societal and real world demands has received increasing attention within the realm of professionalEnglish education for ESP/EPP learners (Grosse & Voght, 2012; Lafford, 2012). It was claimed that English-mediuminstruction usually does not exclude a role for linguistic teaching; instead, it is situated as ‘emerging’ from the content-arealearning, unplanned and incidental (Courchêne, 1992; Lafford, 2012). Research on programs identified as content-driven viaEnglish-medium instruction has been carried out in school-based immersion programs, university ESP/EPP programs andadult education. Empirical research on evaluations of learning outcomes has served to allay concerns about possible effectson academic achievement or to investigate the contributions of such a model over mainstream approaches that teachEnglish language and content-area knowledge as separate subjects. Much of this research has evidenced that students incontent-driven and English-medium programs demonstrated greater language proficiency gains and subject mastery thanstudents in the mainstream programs (Al-Ansari, 2000; Marsh, Maljers, & Hartiala, 2001).

In curriculum studies during the past decade, the paradigm shift from content-based toward competence-basededucation was conceptualized to avoid discrepancies between what was intended by curriculum planners and what wouldbe more relevant to market-oriented needs by the real world (Bates, 1995; Ladkin & Weber, 2010; Malan, 2010; López-Bonilla & López-Bonilla, 2012). To proceed from the pedagogical background of content-based to competence-basededucation and take into account the link between the learning of a target language and professional knowledge, skills andbehaviours, the approach of “competence-based language education” is gaining ground in professional English and appliedEnglish curriculum designs (Benesch, 1993; Lum, 1999; Ramanathan & Morgan, 2007). Course designs ranging from teachingmaterials, syllabi, classroom activities and assessments are constructed based on measurable definitions of languagecompetences as a channel through which knowledge, skills and behaviours are communicated via English-mediuminstructions as they are needed for life in the society and future employment (Davison & Cummins, 2007; Ramanathan &Morgan, 2007).

With regard to competences identified in the existing foreign/second language education literature, the popularity ofCommunicative Language Teaching (CLT) has led the way for global acceptance of communicative competence as aninfluential theoretical framework and mainstream concept in teaching English as a second language. Although generalprinciples and axioms for embedding communicative competences into English language teaching in the Chinese societieshave been researched for decades, there is a dearth of research identifying key competences associated with curriculumdevelopment to train international professional workforce in various work settings, including the MICE industry. Over thepast two decades, there have been dramatic changes in professional English course offerings in Taiwan's academicinstitutions, and professional English is increasingly being accepted as a legitimate and effective means of preparing Englishand non-English major students in various professions to succeed in the increasing globalized world (e.g. Chia et al., 1999;Chang, 2005; Zhang, 2007; Tsao, 2011). The globalization of business and maturation of technology have further encouragedcontinuing investigations into current practices of professional English education as a key determinant for career placementand success (Celce-Murcia, Dornyei & Thurrell, 1995; Gatehouse, 2001; Pang et al., 2002). In an attempt to shape Englishcurricula around generic competences for effective work in the global village, the present study supports the notion thattailoring a professional English competence model would have implications for educational programs that prepareprofessionally and culturally competent graduates for employment in the MICE industry. As a pre-condition in shaping acontent-area competence framework for international MICE professionals, the concept of communicative competence hasbeen envisioned in different ways to address learners' specific needs for different disciplines, occupations and activities. Forexample, a recent discussion by Amorim (2010) maintained that communicative competence in business settings can beachieved by the following three organizing principles or pillars: (a) the production of spontaneous contextualizedcommunication in the target language; (b) the development of cultural awareness specific to the professional arena; and(c) the applicability of praxis-oriented learning tailored to the workplace. Organizing principles of the three-pillarcompetences are illustrated in Fig. 1.

The aforesaid study coincides with the three key competence criteria offered by Luka for tourism professionals (Luka,2007a, 2007b). As can be seen in Fig. 2, ESP competence for tourism professionals, based on empirical needs analysis, wascategorized into three criteria: communicative, intercultural and professional activity competences. Competence indicatorsassociating with each criterion were then generated using students' self-assessments and observations (Luka, 2007a).‘Communicative competence’, ‘intercultural competence’ and ‘professional activity competence’ from the ESP for tourismprofessionals formed the basis for decision criteria of the study. A summary of an integrated framework given below wasgraphed based on Luka's effort to further construct an AHP structure mapping essential competence for internationalizingthe MICE industry.

Communicative competence had been defined in English for general purpose literature as comprising four competenceindicators, namely, grammatical, discourse, sociolinguistic and strategic competences. Pragmatic competence, defined ascontextual lexis, language functionality, unity and constructions for continuity of communication, was added to the existing

CulturalAwareness

ContextualizedCommunication

Communicative Competence

Praxis-Oriented Learning

Fig. 1. Organizing principles of the three-pillar competencies (Amorim, 2010).

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four-competence ESL framework proposed by Canale and Swain (1980), and further elaborated by Savignon (2002). Somenotable attempts have been made to document the importance of developing pragmatic competence within the context offoreign language learning (e.g. House, 2003; Vellenga, 2004; Martínez-Flor & Alcón., 2007). Effects of various types ofinstruction on the acquisition of pragmatic competence in the ESP context were also investigated by interventional studiesto ascertain the need to implement instruction on different pragmatic areas, such as requests and suggestions (e.g. Usó-Juan& Salazar, 2002; Martínez-Flor & Alcón., 2007). Hence, pragmatic competence has been placed at the center of ESP or EPPresearch and has been regarded as an essential component within the framework of professional English communicativecompetence (Celce-Murcia et al., 1995).

In shaping a comprehensive competence ESP framework for international MICE professionals, it is imperative to considerstudents’ development of intercultural and professional competences as vital content-area knowledge in conjunction withcommunicative competence documented within the literature on teaching English for general purpose.

2.2.2. Intercultural competenceThe cultural aspect of development as a part of the entire learning to foster ESP/EPP competences of international

professionals has been stressed by many scholars (e.g. Zoranyan, 2008; Lindner, 2010; Ribeiro, 2011; Lafford, 2012). A greatdeal of research has asserted the importance of developing intercultural competence in English for tourism and businesspurposes (Dornyei & Csizér, 2005; Zoranyan, 2008; Wang, 2010). The second criterion or core competence named‘intercultural competence’ was conceptualized by Luka (2007a) as having the following three competence indicators: (1)attitude, (2) declarative knowledge of cultural aspects, and (3) an ability to operate in different cultural contexts. Differentcompetence frameworks used to teach and assess intercultural competence have been proposed in previous studies onmanagement, international communication, tourism, foreign language education and other professional arenas (e.g.Bennett, 1993; Byram, 2000; Yu, Weiler, & Ham, 2001; Planken van Hooft, & Korzilius, 2004; Deardorff, 2006; Schulz,2007). Nonetheless, it is generally affirmed that successful intercultural training can enhance individuals' three levels ofcompetence: (1) the cognitive level; (2) the affective level, and (3) the behavioral level (Gertsen, 1990; Yu et al., 2001;Deardorff, 2006; Repečkienė, Kvedaraitė, & Jankauskienė, 2011). One of the most influential theoretical underpinnings ofintercultural communication named Model of Intercultural Communicative Competence (MICC) theorized by Byram (2000)classified intercultural competence into five factors, including attitude, knowledge, skills of interpreting, skills of discoveryand interaction, and critical cultural awareness. Another leading model of intercultural competence presented by Deardorff(2006) seems to concur with the frame of reference proposed by Luka's conceptualization when cultural learning ismeasured by three fundamental elements, namely knowledge, skills and attitude. In a vein similar to the three-levelcompetence framework discussed above, Wiseman (2003) describes a comprehensive typology of intercultural competencein a model where three components are identified: knowledge, skills, and motivation. Brookes and Becket (2011) providedfurther insight into the concept and intricacies associated with developing global competences among universityundergraduates. It was suggested that to be globally competent graduates requires a confluent educational approach tofoster appropriate knowledge, values/attitudes and skills among university students (Brookes & Becket, 2011). Notableintercultural or global competence models capable of reflecting intercultural competence for ESP/EPP program designs arelocated in Table 1.

ESP Competence

Communicative Competence

Intercultural Competence

Professional Activity

Competence

Grammatical Competence

Pragmatic Competence

Discourse Competence

Sociolinguistic Competence

Strategic Competence

Attitude

Declarative Knowledge of

Cultural Aspects

Ability to Operate in Different

Cultural Contexts

Cognitive Competence

Personal Competence

Technological Professional Competence

Fig. 2. ESP competences for tourism professionals (Luka, 2007a).

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2.2.3. Professional competences in ESP contextsThere is very little literature available that specifically identifies professional competences for English-proficient

international specialists in the MICE industry. Most of the relevant academic studies discuss professional competence fordeveloping competence-based curricula in various disciplines, such as engineering, management, business and tourism (e.g.Kriegl, 2000; Bodmer, Leu, Mira, & Rütter, 2002; Boyatzis, Stubbs, & Taylor, 2002; Horng & Lu, 2006). The literature has alsodocumented a myriad of occupation-specific competences considered to be imperative for professionals in the hospitalityand tourism industry. Such competences include inspiration-motivation, creativity, mentoring, keeping current, proactive-ness, active listening, professional ethics, self-adjustment abilities, linguistic abilities, cultural competence, managementskills, financial management ability, etc. (Perdue, Ninemeier, & Woods., 2002; Li & Wang, 2010; Kalargyrou & Woods, 2011;Coughlan, 2001; Causin, Ayoun & Moreo, 2011; Leong & Li, 2012). Although a number of studies have applied weightingtechniques to construct competence models for educating MICE managers and planners in Taiwan (Lee, 2011; Hsieh, 2013),they are quite different from the present investigation in research orientation. This study, unlike the previous ones focusingon managerial and operational knowledge and skills, aimed to explore intercultural, communicative and professionalcompetences of prospective professionals working in the international MICE industry.

Recent studies on identifying competences for internationally educated professionals rarely concentrated on construct-ing a holistic competence framework required by workplaces. Only two studies were found which are significantly related to

Table 1Notable intercultural competence models.

Cognitive level Behavioral level Affective level

Deardorff (2006) Knowledge (awareness and understandingof one's own culture and culturaldifferences)

Skills (think critically, solve problems andinteract with people from diverse cultures)

Attitude(openness, readiness andwillingness to respect people fromother cultures)

Wiseman (2003) Knowledge (awareness or understanding ofnecessary information and actions)

Skills (the actual performance of thebehaviors being affective and appropriate tothe context)

Motivation (feelings, intentions,needs, and drives associated with theactual engagement in interculturalcommunication

Luka (2007a) Declarative knowledge of cultural aspects Ability to operate in different culturalcontexts

Attitude (inquisitiveness andopenness, tolerance)

Brookes andBecket (2011)

Knowledge and understanding of(1) Core subject/discipline in differentcultural contexts (2) Global contemporaryissues (3) Different cultures and placesCultural norms and expectations(5) Languages

Skills (ability to) (1) Make well-informedethical and responsible decisions (2) Seeconnectivity between global and localdimensions (3) Work effectively acrosscultures (4) Communicate effectively acrosscultures (5) Cope with ambiguity inunfamiliar cultural contexts

Values and attitudes (1) Challengesand discards prejudice (2) Respectsand values diversity (3) Acceptspolitical and ethical responsibility(4) Feels empowered to bring aboutchange (5) Promotes justice andequality

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the investigation of professional competence in the ESP context. As noted earlier, Amorim's definition of the applicability ofpraxis-oriented learning tailored to the workplace was echoed by Luka's third criterion, professional activity competence(Luka, 2007a; Amorim, 2010). Based on an extensive review of competence studies, Luka (2007a) concluded that tourismspecialists’ ‘professional activity competence’ was further divided into the following three competence indicators: cognitive,personal and technologically-professional competences. As can be seen from the existing literature, limited research existson identifying essential competences used to train, develop and assess international professionals in the MICE industry.Given the fact that the convention industry has been an important economic contributor to the world, and the globalizationof business has contributed to the needs of international specialists, further investigation is needed to build acomprehensive and complete a competence framework for internationalizing the MICE industry (Nadkarni & Leong,2007; Zhu, 2009; Zeng & Yang, 2011; Tsai, 2013).

The research method utilized involved a twofold procedure, leading to the prioritization of competences for specificgroups of workforce trained to be international professionals for the MICE industry in Taiwan. First, modified Delphi methodwas employed to solicit a conceptual framework pertaining to a set of hypothetical competences for international MICEprofessionals. Second, AHP was used to acquire a prioritized competence model which would be a source of reference forrelevant program planners.

2.3. The application of AHP to studies on professionals' critical competence

Analytic hierarchy process (AHP), initiated by Saaty in 1971, has been widely used to deal with multi-criteria decisionmaking problems, including ranking attributes, determining the optimal alternative, and synthesizing performanceindicators in the fields of management, economics, marketing, tourism and engineering (e.g. Saaty, 2000; Udo, 2000;Ananda & Herath, 2003;Vaidya & Kumar, 2006; Ho, 2008; Hong, 2009). Increasing numbers of research studies have begunto adopt AHP to assess, construct, generate, prioritize or measure competences demanded by various professions (e.g.Hafeez & Essmail, 2007; Lin, Lin, Chiu, Hung, & Chen, 2010; Chiu, Lee, & Lin, 2010). Those studies all involved the evaluationof the relative importance of attributes or criteria by experts or key stakeholders in the field under investigation. Table 2depicts studies using AHP as a decision support aid to construct professional competences.

The aforementioned studies adopted AHP as a valid decision aid used to identify competence criteria for course planning,personnel evaluation and selection. The literature contains other interesting research studies of AHP applications toeducation settings. For example, Grandzol (2005) demonstrated the value of AHP in selecting faculty in academicinstitutions. The feasibility of AHP in educational research can also be found concerning e-commerce security coursedevelopment, English language program planning, introductory programming course design, curriculum development forthe MICE workforce, as well as English course design for the tourism/hospitality undergraduate curriculum (Kim, Han, Kim,& Choi, 2005; Parker, Chao, Ottaway, & Chang, 2006; Chen et al., 2011; Tang, 2011; Hsieh, 2013).

3. Methodology

The modified Delphi method and AHP analysis were used in the present study. A thorough description of themethodology section is broken down into the following five parts: (1) Setting and Delphi panel selection, (2) Hierarchy

Table 2Application of the AHP in previous studies on competence construction.

Area of study AHP applications Author(s) and year published

Industry-oriented management education model Incorporating Delphi and AHP in exploringmanagement competences and managementcurriculum alternatives

Lin et al. (2010)

Commercial and industrial organizations AHP is used to structure human performanceimprovement scheme

Albayrak and Erensal (2004)

Government-owned organizations Using AHP to evaluate individual competencies thatare essential for government-own organizations

Hafeez and Essmail (2007)

Middle managers in the medical industry Applying AHP to establishing a model for selectingmiddle managers

Fang et al. (2010)

Hotel first level supervisors Using the Delphi techniques and AHP to extractappropriate assessment criteria

Li and Wang (2010)

Decision making about e-learning implementation Prioritization of e-learning options using AHP Begičević et al. (2007)Personal trainers at fitness centers Utilizing AHP to identify competences to be included

to personal trainer course module,Chiu et al. (2010)

Curriculum planning for MICE industryprofessionals

Using the fuzzy Delphi techniques and AHP toconstruct curriculum for professional MICEworkforce

Hsieh (2013)

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model development using modified Delphi method, (3) AHP instruments, (4) AHP data analysis procedure, and (5)Estimating the priorities and ranking of core competences and competence indicators.

3.1. Setting and Delphi panel selection

The study took place in an applied English department of a tertiary setting in Taiwan known for its well-coordinatedcontent-based and English-medium instruction and its salient feature of curriculum making in the academic tracks oftourism, international business, translation and English language teaching. English as a medium of instruction has been alegitimate pedagogical approach adopted by the department to facilitate the process of developing English languageproficiency in parallel to the development of professional knowledge and communication skills encoded in theaforementioned communicative competences and a wide range of ESP and content-area competences. The department,thereby, was assessed in an antecedent qualitative investigation as having the capacity of developing a content-based andEnglish-medium instruction ESP curriculum module for MICE professionals (Tang & Wang, 2010).

In adopting Delphi panel as a group decision-making technique, the foremost concern is the size and composition of thepanel (Cantrill, Sibbald, & Buetow, 1996; Loo, 2002). The literature maintained that for research studies relevant to planningor decision making, a typical panel size would range from 7 to 15 participants (Phillips, 2000; Labuschagne & Steyn, 2010).To justifiably adopt the group decision-making process, a homogenous group of experts is suggested to solicit appropriateconsensus opinions (Baker, Lovell, & Harris, 2006; Novakowski & Wellar, 2008). Based on the above justifications, purposefulsampling was utilized to select 11 experts from the following three groups of stakeholders: four ESP teachers experienced incontent-based instruction, four tourism/MICE professionals and three international business experts. All experts selectedwere based on the criteria of teaching, research or managerial work experience relevant to the application of English to thefields of international business, tourism, hospitality or MICE industries.

The composition of the expert panel in the study, hence, was with heterogeneous educational and professionalbackgrounds. In an attempt to reach consensus building to harmonize views provided by multiple stakeholder groups withpossible characteristic heterogeneity (Cantrill et al., 1996; Bolloju, 2001; Solms, 2009), the sampling strategy employed inthe present study would first allow controversies and disagreements to arise, followed by AHP technique to bring amathematical choice aggregation in decision making.

3.2. Hierarchy model development

The foundation of the competence model for international MICE professionals being developed in the present study wasmainly based on the ESP framework proposed by Luka (2007a, 2007b). The present study also used conceptual frameworksfrom the fields of English for general purposes, intercultural communication and professional performance indicators forbuilding the research foundation. The initial hierarchy model was constructed through a modified Delphi process. TheDelphi panelists, or the hierarchy task force, were recruited in the present study to identify a three-level hierarchy forfurther AHP judgment. In the first Delphi round, the 11 panelists were asked to qualitatively examine conceptualframeworks constructed by Amorim (2010) and Luka (2007a), together with other possible criterion indicators fromcommunicative language teaching, intercultural communication and professional competence development literature. Themain purpose of the first Delphi procedure was to acquire the content validity and reach a consensus on the frameworkdepicting competence criteria and indicators prior to conducting AHP questionnaire survey. As a result of the first round

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panel review and discussion, the term ‘technologically-professional competence’ clustered under the criterion of ‘MICEprofessional competence’ adopted from literature was altered into ‘MICE work skills’. Further modifications include: thedefinition of ‘cognitive competence’ under the criterion of ‘MICE professional competence’ was altered into ‘generalprofessional knowledge’; the criterion indicator ‘tourism-related knowledge’ was added to the framework under thecompetence criterion of ‘MICE professional competence’. They also reached a consensus on deleting the indicator of‘personal competence’ clustered under the ‘MICE professional competence’, which was perceived by 7 panelists asoverlapping with the ‘skills domain’ and ‘attitude domain’ under the criterion of ‘intercultural competence’. The panelistswere then asked to vote for their preferred frameworks of intercultural competence indicators after reviewing the threemodels presented in Table 1 above. Nine of the eleven panelists voted for Deardorff's three-factor model of globalcompetence (Deardorff, 2006). No further comments and concerns were raised by the panelists regarding the hierarchyprior to AHP judgments. Collectively, the five communicative competences indicators extracted from the English for generalpurpose literature, the three intercultural competence indicators initiated by Deardorff (2006), and the three professionalcompetence indicators agreed upon by the panelists during the first Delphi round were included and clustered into an AHPhierarchy. Definitions of the 11 competence indicators used to explain the three core competences are described in Table 3below. Fig. 3 depicts the adjunct model of the AHP hierarchy extracted by the Expert Choice 11.5 (2008).

3.3. AHP instruments

During the second Delphi round, an AHP questionnaire was structured based on the modified AHP hierarchy beforeissuing to the 11 experts in the study. A total of 11 competence indicators were identified pertaining to the three content-area core competence criteria for international MICE professionals. According to Saaty (2000), AHP questionnaires allowparticipants to choose a value scaling from 1 to 9 to rate the relative priorities between several pairs of alternatives underparticular criteria with respect to a specific goal. The cornerstone of AHP is the pairwise comparison procedure which helpsexperts independently judge the relative importance of each criterion to the goal (Shapira & Goldenberg, 2005). To generateeffectiveness comparisons, a detailed instruction for the Delphi penal were provided for using the 1-to-9 scale (Table 4).

Expert Choice 11.5 (2008), the software that facilitates application of AHP, generated the AHP questionnaires at eachorder or level of the hierarchy grouped criteria or sub-criteria for pairwise comparisons. For example, Fig. 4 below illustratedeach possible pairwise comparison for the three 1st-order criteria; a separate questionnaire listed the five 2nd-order criteriawithin the communicative competence criterion, yet another listed pairwise comparisons for the three 2nd-order criteriawithin the cultural competence criterion, etc.

3.4. AHP data analysis procedure

This stage of the analysis was performed using Expert Choice 11.5 for criteria weights and competence indicator ranking.Pairwise comparison information obtained from the AHP instruments judged by the 11 experts was synthesized for eachlevel of the hierarchical model formed a 3�3 matrix with the first-order criteria. Under the each 1st-order criterion, a 5�5matrix, a 3�3 matrix, and a 3�3 matrix with the 2nd-order criteria were formed. Means of the 11 experts' judgments oneach criterion and sub-criterion were calculated. A positive mean indicated that the row criterion was more important thanthe column criterion; the positive mean can be directly entered into the upper triangular portion of the matrix. If a negativemean was obtained, it indicated that the row criterion was less important than the column criterion; then, the entry into theupper triangular portion of the matrix should be ‘one divided by the absolute value of the negative mean’. The entries in the

Table 3The description of the competence indicators used in the AHP hierarchy.

Core competences Competence indicators Descriptions

Communicative Grammatical Mastery of sentence-level grammarPragmatic Mastery of contextual lexis, language functionality, unity and constructions for

continuity of communicationDiscourse Mastery of intersentential organization.Sociolinguistic Socioculturally appropriate use of language.Strategic The verbal and nonverbal communication strategies used to enhance the effectiveness

of communication

Intercultural Knowledge Awareness and understanding of ones own culture and cultural differences.Skills Think critically, solve problems and interact with people from diverse cultures.Attitude Openness, readiness and willingness to respect people from other cultures.

MICE professional General professionalknowledge

Knowledge and skills concerning business correspondence and computer/digitalliteracy

MICE work skills Mastery of essential professional language and knowledge about history, meaning &operation of a specific event, and fundamentals of the MICE industry.

Tourism-relatedknowledge

Mastery of geographical features and tourism-related information of the host city.

Fig. 3. An AHP hierarchy pertaining to English competences for the MICE industry.

Table 4Scale used in AHP pairwise comparisons (Saaty, 1995).

Intensity of importance Definition Explanation

1 Equal importance Two activities contribute equally to the objective3 Weak importance of one over another Experience and judgment slightly favor one activity over another5 Essential or strong importance Experience and judgment strongly favor one activity over another7 Very strong importance An activity is strongly favored and its dominance demonstrated in practice9 Absolute importance The evidence favoring one activity over another is of the highest

possible order of affirmation2,4,6,8 Intermediate values When compromise is neededReciprocals of above nonzero If activity i has one of the above nonzero numbers assigned to it when compared with activity j,

then j has the reciprocal value when compared with i.

Fig. 4. Survey questionnaire to conduct pairwise comparison for the 1st-order criteria (core competences).

Table 5First-order criteria pairwise comparison matrix.

Communicative Intercultural MICE professional

Communicative 1 1 0.604Intercultural 1 1 0.439MICE professional 1.656 2.280 1Sum of columns 3.656 4.280 2.042

Table 6Comparative analysis of average weights.

Communicative Intercultural MICE professional Sum of rows Weights

Communicative 0.274 0.234 0.296 0.803 0.267Intercultural 0.274 0.234 0.215 0.722 0.240MICE professional 0.453 0.533 0.490 1.475 0.492

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lower triangular portion of the matrix were the reciprocals of the corresponding entries in the upper triangular portion.The pairwise comparison matrix for the 1st-order criteria (the three core competences) and sums of columns were illustratedin Table 5 below. Table 6 depicts the comparative analysis of average weights of the 1st-order criteria (core competences).

H.-W.V. Tang / Journal of Hospitality, Leisure, Sport & Tourism Education 15 (2014) 34–49 43

The priority weights among 1st-order criteria can be seen from the Expert Choice output (Fig. 5).The other three 2nd-ordercriteria (competence indicators) pairwise comparison matrices were computed in the same manner.

The validity of the questionnaire survey result was examined based on Satty's consistency test, aiming to provide a directmeasure of consistency in judgment elicited by the experts. A consistency ratio (C.R.) measures how far a decision-maker'sjudgments are from perfect consistency. It is obtained by dividing C.I. by Random Index (R.I.). Saaty (1995) suggests thefollowing Random Index (R.I.) based on the matrix size under investigation (Table 7). For instance, the 1st-order criteriamatrix size in the present study is 3, and the R.I. is 0.58. According to Satty (1995), if the C.R. is less than 0.10, the judgmentsare reasonably consistent and therefore acceptable. If the C.R. is greater than 0.10, it is suggested that the decision-makersreevaluate their judgments. It can be seen from Fig. 6 below that the overall inconsistency¼0.01 (i.e. C.I.¼0.01). Thecalculation shown below indicates that the present study yields an acceptable level of overall C.R. of 0.0172.

C:R:¼ C:IR:I

¼ 0:010:58

¼ 0:0172

The C.R. computed for the three sets of pairwise comparisons on the 2nd-order criteria, with a highest of 0.012 and thelowest of 0.003, were well within the tolerance specified in the AHP literature. It was therefore verified that the consistencyamong the 11 experts' judgments was high.

3.5. Estimate priority weights and criteria ranking

Fig. 6 shows the priority weights among 2nd-order criteria and their ranking. The result executed by Expert Choice wasillustrated in Table 8. It shows the overall weights for the 1st-order criteria, and local and global weights for the 2nd-ordercriteria. Column 1 of Table 8 below shows that the ‘MICE Professional Competence’, which has an overall weight of 49.2%,plays an important role in experts' judgments of international MICE professionals' core competence selection. The criterionof ‘communicative competence’ accounts for 26.7%, and the criterion of ‘intercultural competence’ for 24.0%. Column 3shows the local weights of the 2nd-order criteria within the 1st-order criteria. Column 4 records the global weights of the 11

Fig. 5. Priority weights among 1st-order criteria.

Table 7Random Index values according to matrix size (Saaty, 1995).

Matrix size 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14

R.I. 0.00 0.00 0.58 0.90 1.12 1.24 1.32 1.41 1.45 1.49 1.51 1.48 1.56 1.57

Fig. 6. Priority weights among 2nd-order criteria and their ranking.

Table 8Weight values and ranks of the competence model for international MICE professionals.

1st-order criteria (core competences) 2nd-order Criteria (competence indicators) Local weights Global weights Rank

Communicative competence (weight¼0.267) Grammatical 0.077 0.021 (11)Pragmatic 0.105 0.028 (10)Discourse 0.384 0.103 (4)Sociolinguistic 0.330 0.088 (5)Strategic 0.104 0.028 (10)

C.I.¼0.009; C.R.¼0.008Intercultural competence (Weight¼0.240) Knowledge 0.144 0.035 (8)

Skills 0.609 0.146 (3)Attitude 0.247 0.059 (6)

C.I.¼0.007; C.R.¼0.012MICE professional competence (weight¼0.492) General professional knowledge 0.119 0.059 (6)

MICE work skills 0.553 0.272 (1)Tourism-related knowledge 0.328 0.162 (2)

C.I.¼0.002; C.R.¼0.003

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2nd-order criteria across all the criteria under judgments. Among the 2nd-order criteria, the competence indicator of‘MICE work skills’ has the highest weight (27.2%), followed by ‘tourism-related knowledge’ (16.2%), ‘interculturalcommunication skills’ (14.6%), and ‘discourse competence’ (10.3%). The last three choices are ‘grammatical’, ‘strategic’ and‘pragmatic’ competences, with weights of less than 3%, respectively.

4. Conclusion and discussion

This study aimed to empirically rank priorities of core competences and competence indicators that are crucial forEnglish-proficient international MICE professionals. The evaluation setting was targeted on an Applied English Departmentof a tertiary setting in Taiwan. Pairwise comparisons using the AHP were conducted to compute weighted values of MICEcompetences for international professionals in a hierarchical evaluation framework extracted from the literature and furthermodified as a result of Delphi panel discussions. Among the three core competences, ‘MICE professional competence’ wasassessed by the 11 Delphi panelists as the most critical core competence that international MICE professionals must possess.The second important core competence is ‘communicative competence’, followed by ‘intercultural competence’. Among the11 competence indicators, results of the AHP analysis show that ‘MICE work skills’ and ‘tourism-related knowledge’clustered under the core competence of ‘MICE professional competence’ were perceived by expert panelists as the twohighest ranking competences for international professionals in the MICE industry. ‘Intercultural communication skills’clustered under the core competence of ‘intercultural competence’, ‘discourse competence’ and ‘sociolinguistic competence’under ‘communicative competence’ were also regarded as highly relevant to the cultivation of English- proficientinternational professionals to serve in the MICE industry. The overall prioritization of competence indicators implies thatthe core competence of ‘MICE professional competence’ more importantly determines the work efficiency at internatio-nalized event settings than the other two core competences. Results of the study also show that international MICEprofessionals, in addition to discourse and sociolinguistic aspects of the language competences, must equip themselves with‘MICE work skills’, ‘tourism-related knowledge’ and ‘intercultural communication skills’ in order to provide adequate serviceto visitors around the globe.

The AHP has been utilized by many researchers to identify and prioritize competence or performance indicators for thepurpose of evaluating management/organizational effectiveness and developing training programs in a variety ofdisciplines, including hospitality/tourism management, event management and ESP for hospitality and tourism (e.g. Kimet al., 2005; Begičević, Divjak, & Hunjak, 2007; Hafeez & Essmail, 2007; Li and Wang, 2010; Chen et al., 2011; Horng, Hsu, Liu,Lin, & Tsai, 2011; Hsieh, 2013). In light of the above research, the present study attempted to make a specific contribution tothe ESP literature by extending the AHP application to the development of a content-based and English-medium programfor international MICE professionals in Taiwan. The following steps are involved when solving decision problems by AHP andExpert Choice: (1) constructing a structured hierarchy based on literature review and Delphi judgment; (2) performingcomparative judgment of criteria and sub-criteria in pairs on a factor scale from 1 to 9; (3) verifying consistency of judgmentby checking if the consistency ratio (C.R.) is less than 0.1; and (4) weighting the contribution of each criteria and sub-criteriato the goal and synthesizing the priorities.

This present study disclosed the problem of assessing the importance of competences inherent in the area ofinternational MICE professional education and training. The content-based competence hierarchical framework and theutilization of AHP through Expert Choice formed a basis that enables researchers and practitioners to get a sense of corecompetences and competence indicators underlying complex dynamic phenomena involved in the ESP/EPP literature. Themethod employed by the study in aggregating a large amount of information into a comprehensible format and the resultsof competence prioritization lead to a number of practical and research implications.

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5. Implications, limitations and future research

5.1. Implications for practice

The MICE English hierarchical framework and the overall prioritization of core competences and competence indicatorsconstructed in the study can serve as a foundation for planning professional MICE curricula or pre-event intensive trainingsdesigned to efficiently deliver trainings for international MICE professionals. Synthesized results of the study can also beused to facilitate the hiring and recruiting process of trained international workforce for specific events held in Taiwan orother non-English speaking countries.

To meet the market demands for international professionals, the integration of language-oriented development andprofessional-oriented learning via English-medium instruction has been proposed as the cornerstone of ESP and EPPeducation (Flowerdew, 1993; Yogman & Kaylani, 1996). The major assumption is that English-medium instruction couldbenefit both students' gaining of content knowledge and English language proficiency (Courchêne, 1992). One importantpedagogical implication of the study is to embed highly prioritized competences into an English-medium instructioncurriculum as an academic track option for applied English undergraduates. To inform how to teach, how to developmaterials and how to test, it is proposed that the weight distribution of competences identified in the present study be usedas reference for instructors of the following courses: Introduction to MICE Industry, MICE and Tourism, Event Management,International Etiquette, Interpersonal Communication Skills, Intercultural Communication, English Conversation, PublicSpeaking, etc. In doing so, highly prioritized competence indicators of ‘MICE work skills’, ‘tourism-related knowledge’,‘discourse competence’, ‘intercultural communication skills/attitude’ and ‘sociolinguistic competence’ are demonstrable inthe international MICE professional curriculum for applied English major students in Taiwan. The introduction of thepresent competence framework into the MICE industry would also shed light on practical concerns regarding theformulation of selection criteria and rubrics for hiring, staffing and evaluating qualified international MICE professionals.A hypothesized scoring rubric was coded based on the above undertaking as an example to illustrate how the seven mosthighly prioritized competences were authentically formulated into an assessment tool to describe the progress of students'acquisition of professional English competences and to evaluate qualifications required to be English-proficient interna-tional MICE professionals (Table 9). In addition to the above pedagogical and practical implications, on-going professionaldevelopment of content-area instructors is also critically important for conveying the curriculum goals, assuring theaccountability of the competence-based and English-medium instruction, and implementing the pedagogical methods toeffectively involve students in classroom activities.

5.2. Limitations and implications for future research

One of the major limitations of the study comes from the composition and the size of the expert panelists. The elevenexperts recruited from the fields of English teaching, tourism/MICE management and international business were assumedto have full comprehension of the MICE industry and the MICE education. Nevertheless, due to the subjectivity andtransitivity of AHP judgment, further research could expand the size of the panel to include opinions and comparativejudgments from experts in the fields of educational administration, human resource development and AHP methodologists.

Another limitation associated with the composition of the expert panelists lies in the selection of experts exclusivelyfrom Northern Taiwan, targeting at shaping a competence framework for an Applied English Department in Taiwan. It wasempirically confirmed that cultural differences exist in different regions in Chinese societies (Kwon, 2011). It is thereforesuggested that future research studies replicate the present study by taking into account factors that reflect culturaldifferences in Chinese societies. This can be done by involving multiple stakeholders formed by different cultural groups infuture studies to assess different perceptions across cultures or regions in Chinese societies. Such investigations may lead toa diversity of competence priorities to reflect culturally specific characteristics of events held in different regions of Chinesesocieties. One of the major advantages of AHP is its flexibility in changing the weights synthesized from experts' judgmentsof criteria or alternatives on the basis of different contextual needs and therefore, it is easily adaptable with diverse areas ofapplication (Vaidya & Kumar, 2006; Shahin & Mahbod, 2007).

Table 9A hypothesized scoring rubric constructed based on the 7 most highly prioritized competences.

Competences Weight value % (suggested) Superior Excellent Good Fair Poor

MICE work skills 0.272 30 30 24 18 12 6Tourism-related knowledge 0.147 15 15 12 9 6 3Discourse competence 0.103 10 10 8 6 4 2Intercultural communication skills/attitudes 0.201 25 25 20 15 10 5Sociolinguistic Competence 0.088 10 10 8 6 4 2General professional knowledge 0.059 5 5 4 3 2 1

Notes: Intercultural Communication Skills and Intercultural Communication Attitudes were combined into one dimension in the rubric.

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Previous research has provided evidence that English-medium content-driven programs helped students improve theirEnglish language competence and content area knowledge (Grabe & Stoller, 1997; Al-Ansari, 2000; Marsh et al., 2001; Snow,2005). It is recommended that follow-on studies be conducted to investigate the effects of the competence-based andEnglish-medium instruction on gaining of prioritized content-area knowledge and skills for the MICE industry by comparingthe English-medium instruction group and the conventional ESP learner group enrolled in the hospitality, tourism or eventmanagement programs where the learners' native language is used as the medium of instruction. If the competences of aselected group of English-medium instruction students are significantly heightened through English-only traininginterventions designed based on competences prioritized by the present study, results of the study could serve as a moreobjective and effective basis for the development of international professional training programs for MICE industry.

In conclusion, the utilization of AHP and expert judgments in the study challenged earlier structural-based or learner-centered schools widely endorsed in the ESP and EPP literature using register and rhetorical analyses or simply analyzingthe needs or learning process of the students (e.g. Hutchinson & Waters, 1987; Blue & Harun, 2003; Su, 2009; Nelson et al.,2012). Professional English training needs to speak to the real tasks demanded by the workplace and provide students withessential competences identified by experts in the field. The study attempted to look at education and training of English-proficient international MICE professionals from a different perspective which shifts the scope of interest from language-centered, content or learning-centered approaches to a prioritization of competences that need to be mastered in the courseof given time constrains. In response to the specialized nature of ESP and EPP in preparing English major students forimmediate workplace demands, the prioritization of competences for international MICE professionals in the study wascharacterized by a synthesis of requisite language, knowledge and skills determined by real world experts. Results of thestudy would function as a point of departure for subsequent studies on selection of workforce, design and implementationof competence-based professional training for the purpose of internationalizing the MICE industry in Taiwan and other non-English speaking countries.

Acknowledgement

This research was funded by a research Grant from the National Science Council Taiwan (NSC 101-2410-H-130-042).

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