VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES NGUYỄN THI ̣ MAI HƢƠNG AN EVALUATION OF EBP MATERIAL “ENGLISH IN ECONOMICS AND BUSINESS” FOR ECONOMICS AND BUSINESS MANAGEMENT STUDENTS IN HANOI UNIVERSITY OF MINING AND GEOLOGY (ĐÁNH GIÁ GIÁO TRÌNH TIẾNG ANH THƢƠNG MẠI “ENGLISH IN ECONOMICS AND BUSINESS” DÀNH CHO SINH VIÊN KHOA KINH TẾ VÀ QUẢN TRỊ DOANH NGHIỆP TRƢỜNG ĐẠI HỌC MỎ - ĐỊA CHẤT HÀ NỘI) M. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Language Teaching Methodology Code: 6014.0111 Hanoi, 2013 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES NGUYỄN THI ̣ MAI HƢƠNG AN EVALUATION OF EBP MATERIAL “ENGLISH IN ECONOMICS AND BUSINESS” FOR ECONOMICS AND BUSINESS MANAGEMENT STUDENTS IN HANOI UNIVERSITY OF MINING AND GEOLOGY (ĐÁNH GIÁ GIÁO TRÌNH TIẾNG ANH THƢƠNG MẠI “ENGLISH IN ECONOMICS AND BUSINESS” DÀNH CHO SINH VIÊN KHOA KINH TẾ VÀ QUẢN TRỊ DOANH NGHIỆP TRƢỜNG ĐẠI HỌC MỎ - ĐỊA CHẤT HÀ NỘI) M. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Language Teaching Methodology Code: 6014.0111 Supervisor: Assoc Prof. Nguyen Phuong Nga Hanoi, 2013 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY OF THE THESIS I certify my authorship of the thesis submitted today entitled: “An Evaluation of EBP Material “English in Economics and Business” for the Economics and Business Management Students in Hanoi University of Mining and Geology” in terms of Statement for thesis and Field Study Reports in Master‟s Programs Issued by the Higher Degree Committee.
Nguyễn Thị Mai Hương November, 2013 i LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I owe a great many thanks to so many people who have supported me all the way throughout my study to this final achievement. It is with deep gratitude that I wish to thank Ms. Nguyen Phuong Nga, Associate Professor, Doctor of Philosophy for her wholehearted guidance, valuable suggestions and academic advice during the course of writing this thesis, without which this work would hardly have been accomplished. I also wish to acknowledge all the staff of the Department of Post-Graduate Studies for giving me assistance and the lecturers who conducted the Master course for me with valuable knowledge.
I would like to extend my deep appreciation to my colleagues and students at English Division – Faculty of General Science, Faculty of Economics and Business Management, Hanoi University of Mining and Geology. Last, to my family, words are not enough to express my gratitude. I am grateful to my parents, my dear husband, and my two little sons. Without their help and encouragement, I could not have completed this study.
ii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS Communicative Language Teaching: CLT English for Academic Purposes: EAP English for Business Purposes: EBP English as A Foreign Language: ELT English for General Business Purposes: EGBP English for Occupational Purposes: EOP English for Specific Purposes: ESP English for Specific Business Purposes: ESBP English for Vocational Purposes: EVP Faculty of Economics and Business Management: FEBM Hanoi University of Mining and Geology: HUMG Vocational English as a Second Language: VESL iii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES Figure 1. Diagram of business communication (Pickett, 1986: 16) Figure 2. Closing the circle (McGrath, 2005: 180) Table 1. Comparison of Topics Required in the Material and the Course Table 2.
Teachers and Students‟ Perception of the Appropriateness of the Material to the Course objectives Table 3. Teachers and Students‟ Perception of the Appropriateness of the Material‟s Contents Table 4. Teachers and Students‟ Perception of the Appropriateness of the Material‟s Methodology Table 5. Teachers and Students‟ Suggestions iv LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com TABLE OF CONTENTS CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY OF THE THESIS .ii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS.
iii LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS. Rationale of the Study. Scope of the Study.
Design of the Study.2 PART II: DEVELOPMENTS. 4 CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW. English for Specific Purposes. Definition of ESP.
A Brief Classification of ESP. English for Business Purposes. Definition and Characteristics. English for General Business Purposes and English for Specific Business Purposes.
Definition of Materials .9 v LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Types of Materials Evaluation. Pre – use Evaluation. In – use Evaluation.
Post – use Evaluation. Criteria for Materials Evaluation. Hutchinson and Waters’ Criteria. Previous Researches on Materials Evaluation .16 CHAPTER II: THE METHODOLOGY.
The Current Teaching and Learning Situation at HUMG. Participants of the Survey. Data Collection Instruments. Survey Questionnaires For Teachers.
Survey Questionnaires for Students. Informal Interviews with Teachers and Students. Data Collection Procedures .25 CHAPTER III: RESEARCH RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS. The Course Objectives .27 vi LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.
The Material Analysis. The Description of the Material “English in Economics and Business”. The Appropriateness of the Material to the Course objectives. The Appropriateness of the Material to the Content Requirements.
The Appropriateness of the Material to the Teaching Methodology Requirements. The Survey Results. Teachers and Students’ Perception of Course objectives. Teachers and Students’ Perception of the Material’s Contents and Methodology.
The Appropriateness of the Contents. The Appropriateness of Methodology. Teachers and Students’ Suggestions .42 PART III: CONCLUSION. Limitations of the Study.
Suggestions for Further Research. VIII vii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. XX viii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com PART I: INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale of the Study English for Specific Purposes (ESP), along with the development of English as the most powerful language in the world, has been a popular field for such a great of scholars such as Hutchinson and Waters (1987), Ian McGrath (2005), Dudley – Evans, and John (2007), and so on.
Specifically, English for Business Purposes (EBP) has been increasingly growing in the field of ESP parallel with the expansion of the global commerce. As a result, any Vietnamese Business Administration graduates who long to be recruited by a foreign enterprise need to train themselves really good skills and knowledge of Business English. The teaching of EBP has been apparently developing rapidly as well as the increase of various textbooks and material employed. However, it is really hard to say which material is more appropriate or which is less.
From the current situation, the issue here is to choose a right material for learners to study EBP effectively. A great deal of institutions and universities are teaching EBP with different kinds of material. The most essential goal here is to satisfy the needs of students and employers in their future career. The Faculty of Economics and Business Management, Hanoi University of Mining and Geology has started to facilitate the course book English in Economics and Business for ESP courses since 2010.
However, it is said that this material does not meet the demands of both students and employers. Therefore, this study is conducted with the hope of evaluating this material and explaining why it is suitable with the needs of the students and employers. In other words, this study aims at seeking strong points as well as weak points of this material and suggesting some recommendation to enhance the strength and reduce the weakness to gain the EBP training‟s objectives for students. 1 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.
Scope of the Study The study limits itself to evaluate the EBP material “English in Economics and Business” – an EBP text material that has been used at Faculty of Economics and Business Management for 5 years. It is accomplished in the view of the third year students who have just finished studying it and teachers who have been using it. Methodology This study employs the qualitative approach to evaluate the material English in Economics and Business using survey questionnaires and interviews. It specifically aims to address the following research questions: To what degree is this material suitable with the training objectives of the Hanoi University of Mining and Geology? What do teachers and students think of the appropriateness of the material? 4.
Design of the Study The thesis is composed of three main parts: introduction, developments and conclusion. The Introduction aims at the rationale, the aims, the scope, the methodology and also the design of the study. The Developments consists of three chapters. Chapter I is Literature Review.
This chapter reviews some theories of basic concept (ESP, EBP, material evaluation) based on the publications in the field. She also analyses some previous researches in the same field. Chapter II is the methodology. In this chapter, the author presents the research methodology and the instruments used to collect data mainly from the 2 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.
The interviews are used to make clear some misunderstandings in the questionnaires. The procedure of collecting data and the analysis of the survey data will be described carefully. In the Conclusion, the author briefly summarizes the issues that have been investigated and suggests some implications. 3 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com PART II: DEVELOPMENTS CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW This chapter deals with English for Specific Purposes (ESP), English for Business Purposes (EBP), English for General Business Purposes (EGBP), English for Specific Business Purposes (ESBP) as well as the material‟s concepts, types and criteria.
Then, the chapter discusses relevant findings of researches in the field. English for Specific Purposes 1. Definition of ESP The definition of ESP has been studied by various scholars around the world. The conductor would like to quote several of them after reviewing materials.
“English for Specific Purposes is a term that refers to teaching or studying English for a particular career (like law, medicine) or for business in general” (International Teacher Training Organization, 2005). There is a specific reason for which English is learned. (Cited from Dudley – Evans, and John, 2007: 3) Dudley – Evans, and John (2007); whereas, give their own definition which have absolute and variable characteristics. In absolute characteristics, they both agree that ESP is designed to meet the specific needs of the learner; ESP makes use of the underlying methodology and activities of the disciplines it serves; and ESP is centred on the language (grammar, lexis, register), skills, discourse and genres 4 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com appropriate to these activities.
Whereas, in variable characteristics, they state that ESP may be related to or designed for specific disciplines; ESP may be, in specific teaching situation, a different methodology from that of general English; ESP is likely to be designed for adult learners, either at a tertiary level institution or in a professional work situation. It could, however, be used for learners at secondary school level; and ESP is generally designed for intermediate or advanced students. Most ESP courses assume basic knowledge of the language system, but it can be used with beginners. Hutchinson and Waters (1987:19) states that “ESP must be seen as an approach not as a product”.
ESP is not a kind of language or methodology, nor does it consist of a particular type of teaching material. Understood properly, it is an approach to language learning, which is based on learner needs. In brief, the author would like to follow the definition of Hutchinson and Waters because the two writers reach a modern ideology here – “learner – centered”. Although these scholars have their own ideas on ESP, they all share the same opinion that ESP has certain characteristics as follows: ESP is designed to meet specific needs of learners; ESP makes use of the underlying methodology and activities of the disciplines it serves; ESP is centered in the language (grammar, lexis, and register), skills, discourse and genres appropriate to these activities.