Vietnam national university College of Foreign Languages Department of postgraduate studies ---------- NGUYỄN THU HƯƠNG Evaluation of the 3rd Semester Reading Syllabus for English Major Students at Hanoi University of Industry (HaUI) Đánh giá đề cương môn đọc hiểu học kỳ 3 cho sinh viên chuyên ngữ trường Đại học Công Nghiệp Hà Nội M.A MINOR THESIS FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY Supervisor: Dr. To Thi Thu Huong Hanoi, 2010 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com TABLE OF CONTENT Chapter 1. Background of the study. Statement of the problem.
Objective and structure of the study. An overview of evaluation. The roles of needs analysis. Language course evaluation.
Overview of reading process. Reading and reading comprehension. Reading strategies to approach reading materials effectively. Reading strategies for effective processing of reading materials.
Purposes of reading. Overview of syllabus. Definitions of syllabus. Types of syllabus.
Roles of syllabus in training program. The role of reading syllabus in language curriculum. Research objectives and methodology. 21 iv TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.
Questionnaires for teachers and students. Interview with teachers and officials. Document and context analysis. Findings and recommendations .1 Finding of the study.2 Objectives in relation to students‟ needs .3 Effectiveness of the course book in use .2 Recommendation for improving the current syllabus.
35 Goal and Objectives. 36 Goal of the course. 36 Time allocation modification. 37 Course book consideration.
56 v TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail. Theoretical background Recently, along with the development of technology and business, English is considered to be the language of opportunity that is the reason why the demand of English has remarkably changed. Particularly in Vietnam, people use English to learn better, to know more about new technology and be able to get a good job. For many reasons, English has gradually become the most widely used language in international relations.
In Vietnam, many foreign companies, the majority of which use English as a medium of communication, have come and invested in various fields like tourism, electronics, telecommunication, banking, transportation, environment, oil industry, etc. Therefore, how to teach and learn English effectively has become an important mission to meet the great demand for communication with foreigners, especially in various fields mentioned above. That is the reason why the demand of good English users is higher especially in the field of translation and interpretation. Another issue is whether the designed syllabus meets the expectation of both teachers and learners.
In this light, evaluation is very important for teachers because of the future direction in classroom practice, the planning of course and the management of learning tasks and students (Rea- Dinkins and Germaine, 1992). Being the systematic collection and analysis of all relevant information necessary to promote the improvement of a syllabus and assessment of its effectiveness and efficiency, as well as the participants‟ attitudes within the context of particular institutions involved (Rea- Dinkins and Germaine, 1992, p.3), evaluation plays three interrelated and overlapping roles in course design. They are evaluating needs, student‟ learning and the course itself (Grave, 2000, p. Evaluation could be done at the end of a course and provides information about the students‟ overall achievement as well as the overall effectiveness of the course (Hedge, 2000, p.
375) for further improvement. When you evaluate the course, you assess what your course design has achieved with respect to you intention in designing it (Grave, 2000, p. However, evaluation is not an easy job as it needs to take into consideration many different factors such as course objectives, time allocation, material and assessment; once completed, the evaluation of a course can help 1 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com further improve the course. With the aim to make a better change in the implementation of the 3rd semester English reading syllabus for English major students at Hanoi University of Industry (HaUI) this study focuses on evaluating the syllabus developed by teachers at the English Department at HaUI regarding factors such as course objectives, time allocation, material and assessment.
Background of the study Hanoi University of Industry (HaUI), which previously known as a college of vocational training, was founded in 2005. Previously, English was taught as a compulsory subject following the requirement of Ministry of Education and Training. After finishing the college, students only need to master basic level of General English (GE). Although at that time English was a compulsory subject, students and teachers did not consider English as important as other subjects, thus teachers thought that it was not necessary to evaluate any GE syllabuses.
Recently, recognizing the needs of society for good English for Specific Purposes (ESP) teachers, translators and interpreters, HaUI establishes its English Department at the same time of HaUI‟s foundation. The ultimate goal of the English Department is to train ESP teachers, translators and interpreters who need both English and knowledge in specific fields of science and technology. The English Department has 50 teachers who mostly graduated from University of Foreign Languages in Hanoi and some from other places nationwide to meet the demand of training. At present, these English teachers are able to teach GE as well as ESP.
Statement of the problem Having been teaching at Hanoi University of Industry (HaUI) for five years, I have used many syllabuses in teaching English for different kinds of students namely non- English major students, for ESP, and for English major students. As far as I am concerned, the English syllabi at HaUI have not ever been evaluated yet. I, therefore, would like to make contribution to the development of teaching English at my University in general and at the English Department in particular. This is the reason why I evaluate one of the syllabi used at the English Department at HaUI with the aim of revising the current syllabus and the hope to make a better change in its implementation.
2 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com My study is targeted at the 3rd semester reading syllabus of English major students of the English Department. Objective and structure of the study The ultimate goal of the study is to evaluate the current 3rd semester reading syllabus (thereafter called the syllabus) for English major students at HaUI. Due to time constrain, I plan to conduct the research to find answers to the following questions: 1. To what extent does the syllabus meet the expectations of both teachers and learners in terms of course objectives, time allocation, materials and assessment? 2.
What are the suggestions to further improve the syllabus? Such findings will provide insights into the strengths and weaknesses of the current syllabus and help propose some recommendations for an even better syllabus. The thesis is organized into five chapters. Chapter 1 is the Introduction, Chapter 5 is the Conclusion. Chapter 2, Literature Review, consists of an overview of evaluation, reading process and of syllabus.
Chapter 3, the Study deals with the methodology of the study detailing the data collections and analysis. Chapter 4, Findings and Recommendations, provides an insight into the current syllabus with its own strengths and weakness in real situation via feedbacks from students and teachers. It also gives recommendations for an even better syllabus. 3 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.
An overview of evaluation There are many definitions of evaluation. Basically, evaluation is asking questions and acting on the responses. According to Brown (1989, p.223), evaluation is the systematic collection and analysis of all relevant information necessary to promote the improvement of a curriculum and assess its effectiveness and efficiency, as well as the participants‟ attitudes within the context of the particular institutions involved. Rea- Dickins and Germaine (1992) claim that evaluation is an intrinsic part of teaching and learning.
It can provide a wealth of information to use for the future of classroom practice, for planning of courses, and for the management of learning tasks and students. They assert that “making evaluative judgments is therefore a feature of social life, but evaluation is not always something that we do in a principle and systematic way”. Evaluation plays three interrelated and overlapping roles in course design. The first is evaluating needs, the second is evaluating students‟ learning and the third is evaluating the course itself (Graves, 2000, p.
While evaluation entails the collection of information on what learners can do in the target language, it also involves additional processes designed to assist us in interpreting and acting on the results of our evaluation. Graves also believes that evaluation can be both formative and summative. Formative evaluation, whose purpose is pedagogically motivated (Hedge, 2000, p. 376), takes place as the course is in progress and provides information about how well the students are doing what they have achieved, what they need to work on, and how well the course is meeting their needs.
Summative evaluation is done at the end of a course and provides information about the students‟ overall achievement as well as the overall effectiveness of the course. Hedge (2000) also refers to the term “evaluation” as “the assessment of students at the end of the course. Recently, however, the meaning of evaluation is understood as an assessment of all aspects of a program. Evaluation can relate to course and learners in a number of ways.
First, the course can be judged as it is planned. Second, all what are 4 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com actually happening in the classroom can be observed, described and assessed. Thus, there is parallel between assessing the students‟ learning and evaluating the course. According to Graves (2000, p.
208), when you evaluate the course, you assess what your course design has achieved with respect to your intentions in designing. In conclusion, evaluation relates to courses and learners, it is also include the aspects of a program so it can be referred to three notions of evaluations such as pre-course evaluation, on- course evaluation or post-course evaluation which depend on the purpose of the evaluation. The following parts briefly discuss need analysis and language course evaluation. Needs analysis In need analysis, not only students‟ needs are mentions, but the institutional needs and teachers‟ needs should be as well.
However, in the case of this minor thesis, these needs are already reflected through the objectives of the 3rd semester reading syllabus for English major students, which were designed by teachers of the English Department. This shows that teachers expect students to achieve the reading skills through working on selected English books. Thus, teachers‟ needs are not dealt with in the survey for this study. Needs In fact, there are different discussions about the meanings of needs.
Walter expressed their opinion about needs as follows: - Needs can refer to learners‟ study or job requirement that is what they have to be able to do at the end of their language course. This is called to be a goal- oriented definition of needs (Widdowson, 1981, p.2) - Needs can be considered what the learners need to do to actually acquire the language. This is a process- oriented definition of needs and the means of learning (Widdowson, 1981, p. 5 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com - Needs are considered to be what students themselves would like to gain from the language course.
In this sense “needs are perhaps more appropriately described as objectives” (Berwick, 1989, p. - Needs may be interpreted as lacks, that is what students do not know or cannot do in English (Robinson, 1991, p. 8) In this study, learners‟ needs will be taken into account under Hutchinson and Walters‟ point of view in terms of target needs and learning needs. Target needs are what the learner needs to do in the target situation and can be categorized as necessities, lacks and wants.