111 ENGLISH PROFICIENCY OF HOTEL FRONT-LINERS: WHAT AND WHY? Yerly A. Datu Program Studi Bahasa Inggris Bisnis, Politeknik Ubaya, Surabaya yerly@staff.ubaya.ac.id Abstract English profciency for hotel front-liners is paramount in giving excellent service for the guests. 60 seconds in the beginning of interaction leave the frst impression for them. Therefore, oral communication skills play a signifcant role as a part of a must- have competence for front-liners. This study was triggered by initial fndings at some hotels in Surabaya where there was a discrepancy between hotel leaders’ perception and real English profciency of their front-liners. The hotel leaders perceived lower than the passing grade of the hotel and urgency of upgrading their competence emerged. Two research questions should be answered: (1) WHAT level of the front- liners’ English profciency was, and (2) WHY they experienced difculty when facing foreign guests. To answer the questions, a descriptive qualitative research employing a case study approach was conducted. The 3-star hotel consisting 20 participants was involved. Test of Business English Communication Competence Version 2.0 (TBECCv.2.0) was given to participants. TBECCv.20 was an ESP test created and developed for front-liners. After running the test, an online questionnaire was disseminated and interviews were also conducted for triangulation. Results revealed that the score range of 50-59 received the highest percentage; 40% which showed their English profciency needed to be upgraded. Reasons of difculty handling the foreign guests were due to (1) L1 interference, (2) educational background, (3) less English exposure, (4) the absence of ESP test at recruitment process. The study recommended further study for other categories of hotel and the staf professional development was recommended as well. Keywords: Front-liners, TBECCv.2.0, oral communication skills, English profciency. Jurnal Bisnis Terapan, Volume 03 Nomor 02 (Desember, 2019) 111-122 p-ISSN 2580 - 4928 e-ISSN 2597-4157 POLITEKNIK UBAYA JURNAL JURNAL BISNIS TERAPAN Terakreditasi Sinta Peringkat 4, No. SK: 28/E/KPT/2019 E-mail: jbt.politeknik.ubaya@gmail.com, Penerbit: Politeknik Ubaya, Surabaya DOI: https://doi.org/10.24123/jbt.v3i02.2506 Introduction Meeting, Incentive, Convention, and Exhibition (MICE) has been titled to Surabaya for the past few years and it is nothing to be surprised with since the city always develops many strategic programs that sustain its existence. Besides a city of MICE, support for vocational education is apparently one of the examples of the strategic programs which becomes a practical solution to minimize unemployed graduates in this city. Furthermore, tremendous and continuous efforts in