VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ------------------- NGUYỄN THỊ THÙY LINH AN EVALUATION OF THE ESP MATERIAL “ENGLISH FOR INTERNATIONAL TOURISM” FOR STUDENTS OF TOURISM DEPARTMENT AT HANOI UNIVERSITY OF INDUSTRY ĐÁNH GIÁ TÀI LIỆU TIẾNG ANH CHUYÊN NGÀNH “ENGLISH FOR INTERNATIONAL TOURISM” DÀNH CHO SINH VIÊN KHOA DU LỊCH TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC CÔNG NGHIỆP HÀ NỘI M. MINOR THESIS FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY CODE: 60 14 01 11 Hanoi, 2015 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 THỊ THÙY LINH AN EVALUATION OF THE ESP MATERIAL “ENGLISH FOR INTERNATIONAL TOURISM” FOR STUDENTS OF TOURISM DEPARTMENT AT HANOI UNIVERSITY OF INDUSTRY ĐÁNH GIÁ TÀI LIỆU TIẾNG ANH CHUYÊN NGÀNH “ENGLISH FOR INTERNATIONAL TOURISM” DÀNH CHO SINH VIÊN KHOA DU LỊCH TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC CÔNG NGHIỆP HÀ NỘI M. MINOR THESIS FIELD : ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY CODE : 60 14 01 11 SUPERVISOR : DR. NGÔ TỰ LẬP Hanoi, 2015 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com DECLARATION I hereby, certify that the minor thesis entitled “An evaluation of the ESP material ‘English for International Tourism’ for students of Tourism Department at Hanoi University of Industry” is the result of my own research; and that it has not been submitted for a higher degree to any other universities or institutions.
I agree that the origin of my paper deposited in the library can be accessible for the purposes of study and research. Hanoi, 2015 Nguyễn Thị Thùy Linh i LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am, first of all, greatly indebted to my thesis supervisor, Dr. Ngô Tự Lập, for encouraging me to complete this work. Without his valuable instructions, comments, criticisms and corrections this thesis would be impossible.
Special thanks go to my lecturers of Post Graduate Department for their useful lectures. My appreciation and gratitude are also extended to all my colleagues and students who have stimulated and guided my thinking during the time I did this research. Last but not least, I would like to express my deep gratitude to my parents whose love and encouragement have been equally important to my educational endeavors, and especially to my husband and my son who has helped me to ease the burden of the work. ii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ABSTRACT Materials evaluation is very important for language teaching and learning since no textbook or set of materials is perfect.
This thesis was carried out to evaluate the ESP material which is currently in use for the students in Department of Tourism at HaUI. The research findings are expected to give suggestions for the adaptation of the material in the near future with an ambition to improve the effectiveness of the teaching and the learning English at HaUI. The data collection instruments in this study were questionnaires, interview and the document analysis. The material in use is analyzed according to the criteria listed in Hutchinson and Waters’ objective analysis process.
A survey on the teachers' and students' opinions about the extent to which the material meets the requirements of the course in terms of the aims, content and methodology is conducted. Finally, the findings from the analyses and the surveys are discussed. The result of the thesis revealed some strength and weaknesses of the material. It was found that the material basically met the course objectives in terms of aims, content and methodology.
Based on the findings, the thesis suggests that adaptation should be made to overcome its weaknesses so that the students can benefit in the future course. iii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES Figure 1: Types of ESP (Kennedy and Bolitho, 1984) Figure 2: The materials evaluation model proposed by McDonough & Shaw (1993:75) Figure 3: The materials evaluation model proposed by Littlejohn (1998:3) Figure 4: The materials evaluation model proposed by Hutchinson & Waters (1987:98) Table 1: The students' opinions on the aims of the material Table 2: Students' opinions on the difficulty of the material Table 3: Students' opinions on the usefulness of the material Table 4: Tourism teachers' opinions on the material Table 5: English teachers' opinions on methodology Table 6: Students' opinions on the activities iv LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ESP: English for Specific Purposes GE: General English ELT: English Language Teaching HaUI: Hanoi University of Industry EOP: English for Occupational Purposes EAP: English for Academic Purposes EST: English for Science and Technology v LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com TABLE OF CONTENT DECLARATION. iii LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES. iv LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS.
Practical background of the research. Aims of the study. Scope of the study. Methods of the study.
4 CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW. An overview of ESP. Definitions of ESP. Types of ESP.
Definitions of materials evaluation. Reasons for materials evaluation. Types of materials evaluation. Approaches to materials evaluation.
McDonough and Shaw’s approach. Hutchinson and Waters’s approach. 10 vi LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Criteria for materials evaluation.
18 Chapter 2 begins with the description of the research method. It then specifies the data collection tools, the subject, and the data collection procedures. Data collection instruments. Interview questions for English language teachers.
Interview questions for teachers in department of Tourism. Data collection process. 21 CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION. The appropriateness of the material to the aims of the course.
Aims of the course. English teachers’ interview results. Students’ questionnaire result. The appropriateness of the material to the content requirements of the course.
Material analysis results. The content requirements of the course. Teachers’ interview results. Students’ questionnaire results.
26 vii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Tourism teachers’ questionnaire results. The appropriateness of the material to the methodology requirements of the course. Methodology implied in the syllabus.
Methodology implied in the material. Teachers’ interview result. Students’ questionnaire result. Suggestions for the material improvement.
Teachers’ interview result. Students’ questionnaire result. Good selection of authentic texts of different topics. Grammatical structures and grammar.
Methodology implied in types of tasks/exercises:. Summary of the study. On the ESP materials. Areas for adaptation.
Techniques for adaptation. On the requirements of the course. Limitations and suggestions for further study. 38 viii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.
XX ix LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com PART A: INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale Today, English is used in a wide variety of fields such as technology, medicine, education, science, economics, etc, so it is becoming more and more important. In Vietnam, English has been taught as a subject in schools and there are also a large number of English materials being used. In recent years, Vietnam is applying the student-centered approach in language teaching.
As a matter of fact, curriculum, materials, teaching methods, and evaluation should all be designed for learners and their needs. As a result, English for Specific Purposes (ESP) materials relating to different fields become more and more popular. Materials determine both learning and teaching, so choosing an appropriate material is very important. However, the more various the ESP materials are, the more difficult it is to choose an appropriate material for the teaching and learning.
Different materials have different strengths and weaknesses, so evaluation is a necessary process to help teachers also learners select a good material to follow. Therefore, evaluation plays as a key role in educational research and development. As a matter of fact, English materials used to teach the non- English major students at HaUI have never been evaluated. Although at the beginning of each new school year, there are always some activities for clarifying aims of the textbooks and the target results of teaching and learning, many parts in the lessons do not match with HaUI’s teaching and learning condition.
Many students complaint that while they expect to improve their four English skills - listening, speaking, reading and writing, English materials used as ESP material for the ESP course of Tourism department at HaUI “ English for International Tourism” focuses much on speaking and listening. In addition, the last year students are required to take TOEIC test (which consists of reading and listening only) and get 450 TOEIC score to graduate from the university. These concerns arising from the researcher’s teaching experience, which encourages the researcher to carry out the following research: “To what extent does the “English for International Tourism (pre-intermediate)” satisfy the requirements of an English language course at HaUI in terms of aims, content and methodology?” 2. Practical background of the research The English programs of Tourism department at Hanoi University of Industry (HaUI) The English courses for the non-major students at HaUI are divided into four stages: In the first year (the first two semesters), they have to complete 120 forty- 1 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com five minute periods of general English with the course book “New Headway- elementary” written by Liz and John Soars.
In the second year, they have other 120 forty-five minute periods of general English with “New Headway-pre- intermediate” written by Liz and John Soars. In the third year, they had 120 forty- five minute periods with the books “Real listening and speaking 2” and “Understanding English pronunciation”. For the last year, the students need to finish 75 forty-five minute periods with the book “English for International Tourism- Pre Intermediate” written by Dubicka and O’Keeffe (2003). The English teaching material For the last year students of tourism department at HAUI, “English for International Tourism Pre- Intermediate” written by Dubicka and O’Keeffe (2003) has been used as the principal material since 2012.
It contains 15 units; each unit is organized by a set pattern of components: language focus, vocabulary, and professional practice. The first component, language focus, introduces some useful grammatical structures. In the vocabulary section, a number of words on different topics are given in reading, listening and speaking tasks. In addition, the students also have to practice pronunciation with sounds, word stress, ending sounds or intonation.
In the last component, professional practice, the students are offered opportunities to practice in situations related to tourism. Aims of the study The main purpose of this study is to evaluate the ESP material “English for International Tourism Pre- Intermediate” to determine whether it satisfies the requirements of the ESP course at HaUI in terms of aims, contents and methodology, which implies what changes to be made to improve the effectiveness of the material for future use. Research question To achieve the aims of the study, the answers to the following question were sought: To what extent does the book “English for International Tourism” satisfy the requirements of an English language course at HaUI in terms of aims, contents and methodology? 5. Scope of the study Evaluating a material relies on a number of criteria such as audience, aims, content and so on.
Given that the target learners and the pedagogical conditions at HaUI are clearly specified, for this study, the researcher focuses on the following criteria: 2 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com - Aims of the book - Content - Methodology (in terms of tasks and teaching - learning technique) Due to the limited scope of a minor thesis, the researcher will invite 60 last year students to fulfill the survey questionnaires, 7 teachers (4 from the English department and 3 from the Tourism department) for interviewing. Methods of the study The study applies both qualitative and quantitative methods. In order to achieve the research’s aims, document analysis, questionnaires for the students and interview to teachers are also exploited.