VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES NGÔ HẢI YẾN THE APPLICATION OF COMMON EUROPEAN FRAMEWORK OF REFERENCE (CEFR) TO DESIGNING A SYLLABUS OF GENERAL ENGLISH FOR THE FIRST-YEAR STUDENTS AT QUANG NINH UNIVERSITY OF INDUSTRY ỨNG DỤNG KHUNG THAM CHIẾU CHÂU ÂU (CEFR) THIẾT KẾ CHƯƠNG TRÌNH CHI TIẾT TIẾNG ANH TỔNG QUÁT CHO SINH VIÊN NĂM THỨ NHẤT TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC CÔNG NGHIỆP QUẢNG NINH. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111 HANOI – 2014 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES NGÔ HẢI YẾN THE APPLICATION OF COMMON EUROPEAN FRAMEWORK OF REFERENCE (CEFR) TO DESIGNING A SYLLABUS OF GENERAL ENGLISH FOR THE FIRST-YEAR STUDENTS AT QUANG NINH UNIVERSITY OF INDUSTRY ỨNG DỤNG KHUNG THAM CHIẾU CHÂU ÂU (CEFR) THIẾT KẾ CHƯƠNG TRÌNH CHI TIẾT TIẾNG ANH TỔNG QUÁT CHO SINH VIÊN NĂM THỨ NHẤT TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC CÔNG NGHIỆP QUẢNG NINH. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111 Supervisor: Assoc. Lê Văn Canh HANOI – 2014 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com DECLARATION I certify my authority of the submitted studied entitled THE APPLICATION OF COMMON EUROPEAN FRAMEWORK OF REFERENCE (CEFR) TO DESIGNING A SYLLABUS OF GENERAL ENGLISH FOR THE FIRST-YEAR STUDENTS AT QUANG NINH UNIVERSITY OF INDUSTRY In total fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Master of Arts September 2014 Ngô Hải Yến i TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like, first of all, sincerely and wholeheartedly to thank my supervisor, Dr Le Van Canh, my supervisor, for his valuable instructions and comments, his considerate assistance and invaluable critical feedback.
My special thanks go to all my teachers of the Post-graduate course 21 at Vietnam National University, University of Languages and International Studies for their interesting and useful lectures. I also wish to convey my sincere thanks to all my colleagues and the first-year students at Quang Ninh University of Industry for their contribution to the data collection and their constructive suggestions for this research. Last but not least, I am grateful to my friends and my family who gave me support and encouragement during the time of fulfilling this work. ii TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com ABSTRACT Very recently, the Ministry of Education and Training of Vietnam has issued the Common Framework of Competencies in Foreign Languages on the basis of the Common European Framework of References for Languages: Teaching, Learning and Assessment, commonly called the CEFR.
As the official institutionalization of the Vietnamese Common Framework was preceded the policy of using the CEFR to define the competencies in English, this thesis uses the term the CEFR. The innovation is a very recent phenomenon, and because of this most of educational institutions in the country do not have the English language syllabus for the attainment of the goals defined by this innovation. This study is an attempt to develop a syllabus towards this. The thesis reports on the results of situation analysis and particularly the students’ current level of English proficiency, which are then used as the source of reference for the development of the English syllabus for the first year students at Quang Ninh University of Industry.
The goal of the syllabus is to identify appropriate task types that are aimed at enabling the students to achieve the A2 level on the CEFR, or Level 2 on Vietnamese Framework. As this is just a suggested syllabus, it has not been piloted yet. Therefore, evaluation and modifications resulting from the piloting the syllabus is needed. The study also makes recommendations regarding administration and pedagogy that are needed to deliver the syllabus if it is approved by concerned people and authorities.
iii TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com TABLE OF CONTENTS Declaration…………………………………………………………. i Acknowledgement………………………………………………………… ii Abstract……………………………………………………………………… iii Table of Contents……………………………………………….………… iv List of abbreviations………………………………………………………. vi PART A: INTRODUCTION ……………………………………………… 1 1. Aims and objectives of the study…………………………………….
Scope of the study…………………………………………………. Significance of the study…………………………………………. Methods of the study………………………………………………… 3 7. Structure of the study……………………………………………… 4 PART B: DEVELOPMENT ……………………………………………… 6 CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW ………………………………….1 Syllabus in language teaching………………………………………… 6 1.1 Syllabus and curriculum…………………………………………… 6 1.2 Types of syllabus……………………………………………………… 7 1.1Grammatical/ Structural Syllabus…………………………………….3 Notional-functional syllabus……………….4 Task-based syllabus………………………….5 Topical/ Content-based syllabus…………….7 Competency-based syllabus………………….8 Skill-based syllabus …………………………….9 Text-based syllabus……………………………….3 Approaches to syllabus design……………………………………… 10 1.2 The Common European Framework of References…….1 What is the Common European Framework? .2 Descriptors for Common Reference Levels……….3 The application of CEF in teaching English in the world and in 14 Vietnam CHAPTER II: THE METHODOLOGY ………………………………… 17 2.……………………… 17 iv TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.2 The students’ KET test……………………………………………….3 Major finding and discussion………………….
21 CHAPTER III: SYLLABUS DESIGN …………………………………….1 Selecting the most suitable approach to syllabus design and a type of 24 syllabus….2 Proposed objectives of the syllabus……………………………….3 The content of the syllabus…………………………………………….1 The topics/ thematic content……………………………………….2 Grammar and Vocabulary………………………………………….3 The language functions in the syllabus………………………….1 Imparting and seeking factual Information………………………….3 Expressing and Finding out Moral Attitudes…………………….4 Expressing and Finding out Intellectual Attitudes………………….5 Expressing and finding out Emotional Attitudes…………………… 31 3.6 Getting things done………………………………………………… 32 3.4 The task types used in the syllabus ………………………………… 32 3.5 The organization of the syllabus…………………………………… 34 3.6 The Timing of the Syllabus………………………………………….1 Recommendations to university administrations ………………… 36 3.2 Recommendations to the Teachers………………………………….3 Recommendations to Students……………………………………… 37 PART C: CONCLUSION…………………. I v TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS QUI: Quang Ninh University of Industry CEFR: Common European Framework of Reference. KET: Key English Test ALTE: Association of Language Testers in Europe VNU-HCM: Vietnam National University, Ho Chi Minh City ULIS-VNU: University of Languages and International Studies-Vietnam National University. TBLT: Task-based Language Teaching EFL: English as a Foreign Language.
vi TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com PART A: INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale Vietnam, like other developing nations, is aware of the importance and necessity of foreign languages but has not been very successful in producing sufficient, fluent foreign language speakers and proficient users of English. One of the main reasons is the lack of appropriate teaching methods and learning environment. Moreover, syllabus design and materials construction have always been a big problem to the university administration boards and English teachers.
This is the precise situation at Quang Ninh University of Industry. In recent years a series of conferences and seminars at various levels have been organized with a view to work out solutions to foreign language education in Vietnam. The most remarkable evidence of change is the issue of the Decision 1400-QD-TTg by the Prime Minister approving the Project of foreign language teaching and learning in the national system for the 2008-2020 periods.The general goal of the project is to renovate thoroughly teaching and learning of foreign language within national education system, to implement a new program on teaching and learning foreign language at every school levels and training degrees, which aims to achieve by the year 2015 a progress on professional skills, language competency for human resources, especially at some prioritized sectors; by the year 2020 most Vietnamese youth whoever graduate from vocational schools, colleges and universities gain the capacity to use a foreign language independently. Within the context of this Decision, The Ministry of Education and Training has issued the Common Framework of Levels of Foreign Language Proficiency, based on the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: Learning, Teaching, and Assessment (CEFR).
This Framework includes 6 levels equivalent to those of CEFR and the national foreign language education curriculum will be designed accordingly. The introduction of English into the primary education curriculum starting from grade 3 is the greatest change in the foreign language 1 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com education in Vietnam. The new curriculum defines that students at the completion of Primary education should reach Level 1(A1 of CEFR), at the completion of Lower secondary education Level 2 (A2 CEFR) and General school leavers should reach Level 3 (B1 CEFR). For tertiary education, graduates from vocational colleges should reach level 2 and university graduates level 3, and graduates from language colleges should reach from level 4 to 5, with the second foreign language as a compulsory subject.
While the CEFR and the Common Framework of Levels of Foreign Language Proficiency has been institutionalized, the QUI has not the appropriate syllabus, which is developed in the light of the new framework. Zarale (2005) studied the implementation of the CEFR in Colombia and recommended that” the need for the construction of standards regarding foreign language education based on our contextual features, not leaving aside the issue of being global competent”.This gives me a tremendous impetus to implement the study “The Application of Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) to designing a syllabus of General English for the first-year students at Quang Ninh University of Industry.” However, because of time constraints, the syllabus proposed here is just for first –year students. Although it is targeted at A2 level, the experience in developing and implementing this syllabus will be useful for developing the syllabus for the second-year students which is targeted at B1 level. Aims and objectives of the study The aim of the study is to develop an English language syllabus for the first-year students at Quang Ninh University of Industry with reference to the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR), on which the Vietnam Common Framework of Competencies in Foreign Language is based, taking into consideration of the target learners’ needs and other contextual variables.
In order to achieve this aim, the following objectives are defined: 2 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com To define the needs of the first-year students at QUI reflected in their level of proficiency as measured by means of a standardised test. To define the learning outcomes of the syllabus. To develope the task types that may be suitable for the first-year students at QUI. Research questions To achieve the aforementioned aims and objectives, the following research questions are set out to be answered: What level of English proficiency on the CEFR are the first-year students in QUI? What are the learning outcomes of the syllabus? What inputs and task types should be included in the syllabus to achieve the defined learning outcomes given the situation in QUI? 4.
The scope of the study The study focuses on the designing a syllabus of General English for the first-year students at Quang Ninh University of Industry, basing on the criteria of level A1, A2 of CEFR. The study of syllabus design of other level would be beyond the scope. Significance of the study This study may be of some help to the teachers and students in QUI. It implements the reform of syllabus design and material construction according to the benchmarks of CEFR.
In addition, the study contributes greatly to the programme of teaching and training English with a view to meet the English requirements denoted in National Plan “Teaching and Learning Foreign Languages in the National Formal Educational System in the period of 2008-2020. Methods of the study 3 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com As the aim of this research is to develop a CEFR-based syllabus that is appropriate to the context of teaching and learning at QUI, a quantitative method was adopted to analyze the contextual factors such as the university, the teachers and the students. One of the requirements for syllabus design is the analysis of the the students’ learning needs. In order to gain understanding of the students’ needs, a test was used to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the students regarding the four macro skills: Listening, Reading, Speaking and Writing.
The test result then was interpreted to identify the students’ entrance level of proficiency so that decision on content to be incorporated in the syllabus was made. This is a survey research which is intended to define the gap between the students’ emtrance level and the target level in an attempt to design a syllabus for this students group.