VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY- HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES -----[Ö\----- CAO THÒ HOAØNG YEÁN AN EVALUATION AND RECOMMENDATION OF THE ENGLISH SYLLABUS FOR THE FINANCE AND ACCOUNTING STUDENTS AT VAN LANG UNIVERSITY IN HO CHI MINH CITY A THESIS IN TESOL CODE NUMBER: 5.02 SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS (TESOL) Supervisor: NGUYEÃN HOAØNG TUAÁN, M. HOCHIMINH CITY, 2005 CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY I certify my authorship of the thesis submitted today entitled: AN EVALUATION AND RECOMMENDATION OF THE ENGLISH SYLLABUS FOR THE FINANCE AND ACCOUNTING STUDENTS AT VAN LANG UNIVERSITY IN HO CHI MINH CITY In terms of the statement of Requirements for Theses in Master’s Programmes issued by the Higher Degree Committee Ho Chi Minh City December 15, 2005 Cao Thò Hoaøng Yeán RETENTION AND USE OF THE THESIS I hereby state that I, CAO THI HOANG YEN, being the candidate for the degree of Master of TESOL, accept the requirements of the University relating to the retention and use of Master’s Theses deposited in the Library. In terms of these conditions, I agree that the original of my thesis deposited in the Library should be accessible for purposes of study and research, in accordance with the normal conditions established by the Library for the care, loan and reproduction of theses. Ho Chi Minh City December 15, 2005 Cao Thò Hoaøng Yeán ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my deep gratitude to all those who have contributed in different ways to this thesis: To my thesis supervisor, Mr.
Nguyen Hoang Tuan, for his constant guidance and instruction in the preparation and completion of the thesis. Dang Thi Huong who has carefully read every chapter of my draft version and has given invaluable advice on every possible change for a better version. To Mr Nguyen Huynh Dat, Head of the Department of English Linguistics and Literature, Ho Chi Minh City University of Social Sciences and Humanities and all the teaching staff for their devotion during my M. To the Board of Directors in the Finance and Accounting Department at Van Lang University for their approval and untiring assistance.
To the ESP teaching staff, finance and accounting students at Van Lang University and the directors of Giditexco, Van Dat Thanh and Nagakawa companies who heartidly responded to my questionnaires and interviews. Thai Thi Xuan Thuy, Head of the Foreign Languages Department of Ho Chi Minh City University of Economics, Ms. Nguyen Thi Thanh Ha, Mr. Vo Dinh Phuoc, Mr.
Stephen Dudzik, my colleagues and my friends for their help and patient support. To my family, who with patience and encouragement, kept me going right to the end. ABSTRACT This study examines the possibilities of improving the ESP instruction at Van Lang University through syllabus design. As required by Ministry of Education and Training, time length as well as teaching method should be readjusted so as to give students more flexibility in their learning.
Accordingly, a syllabus that can meet those requirements is to be recommended. The study takes a critical look at the current syllabus for the students of the Finance and Accounting Department in order: (1) to identify the goals of the university and its students’ needs; (2) to evaluate the syllabus performance by qualitative and quantitative methods employed in the study including questionnaires, interviews and test results and; (3) to recommend the revised syllabus relevant to the needs of the community. Through an extended data analysis, conclusions are made as follows: (1) within a time length of 150 periods (in the Vietnamese context, a period is equivalent to a class-contact hour which is forty-five minutes), reading skills form the central core in a teaching program; (2) the syllabus must address communication skills relevant to job interviews and; (3) the content-based syllabus and communicative approach should work together to achieve the syllabus target. Extra activities are recommended to motivate students and develop their English competence.
Evaluation on the implementation of the syllabus is also desirable so as to make adjustment on teaching approaches. TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Certificate of originality. i Retention and use of the thesis. iv Table of contents.
v List of Abbreviations. ix List of Illustrations. English in the world. English in Vietnam.
English teaching and learning resources at VLU. Materials and time allocation. The teaching staff. Teaching and learning facilities.
The analysis of the students’ needs and the faculty’s goals and objectives. The aims of the study. The structure of the study. 15 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW Page 2.
The definitions of the syllabus. The role of the syllabus. Types of language syllabus. The skills-centred approach for ESP.
Content-based syllabus for ESP. Goal and objective setting. The role of the content-based syllabus in a skills-centred approach. Choosing course content.
Communicative language teaching method. Purposes of evaluation. Different concepts in evaluation system. The qualitative procedure.
The quantitative method. Selection of the subjects. Characteristics of the subjects. Instruments: data collection procedure.
58 Questionnaire for the students. 58 Questionnaire for the teachers. 61 Interviews for the teachers. 61 Interviews for the directors.
Test result evaluation. 63 CHAPTER 4: DATA ANALYSIS AND THE FINDINGS 4. Responses to the questionnaires. Results of the interviews.
The current syllabus. 92 Product-oriented syllabus. Evaluation of the current syllabus. 96 Purposes of evaluating the current syllabus.
96 Time constraint and materials evaluation. The revised syllabus. 120 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 5. 135 APPENDIX 1: The Plan of the Textbook “Enterprise Three”.
135 APPENDIX 2: The Plan of the Textbook “The Language of Accounting in English”. 137 APPENDIX 3: The Plan of the Textbook “Accounting”. 138 APPENDIX 4: The Plan of the Textbook “Business Speaking”. 139 APPENDIX 5: Test in English.
155 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS BA Bachelor of Arts CUP Cambridge University Press EGP English for General Purposes EFL English as a Foreign Language ESL English as a Second Language ESP English for Specific Purposes EMT English as a Mother Tongue FRES Flesch Reading Ease Score GE General English HCMC Ho Chi Minh City MA Master of Arts OUP Oxford University Press TESOL Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages UE The University of Economics US United State VLU Van Lang University LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS FIGURES Page 1. Continuum of ESP Course Types. Factors Affecting ESP Course Design. Continuum of Syllabuses.
A Skills-Centred Approach to Course Design. The Role of The Syllabus in A Skills-Centred Approach. The Materials Evaluation Process. 39 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS TABLES Page 3.
The Student subjects’ background information. Teachers’ background information. Directors’ background information. Assessment of the students’ levels in the second year.
Responses from the student subjects (in the third semester). Responses from the student subjects (in the last semester). Responses from the teacher subjects. The Plan of the Textbook “Enterprise”.
The Plan of the Textbook “The Language of Accounting in English”. The Plan of the Textbook “Accounting”. The Plan of the Textbook “Business Speaking”. The FRES and Text Length of Reading Texts from Two Textbooks.
The Revised Syllabus. The Current Syllabus and the Revised Syllabus. 117 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS CHARTS Page 4. Assessment of the students’ levels in the second year.
37 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION This study refers to the English syllabus for the Finance and Accounting Department’s students at Van Lang University in Ho Chi Minh City. The evaluation of current syllabus and recommendation for revised syllabus will be the main concerns of the study. It is hoped that other educators who are working in similar challenging case will benefit from this research. This chapter introduces the background to the study including some issues about English development, the Van Lang University, the aims and the structure of the study.
English in the world English is perhaps the most rapidly advancing language in the world today. Deep concerns about developments and controversies in English language instruction appear virtually every day in the media. When we look back at the history of language development, the quest for improved English teaching methods has been a major aspect of educational activity since the beginning of the twentieth century. English language beginner’s courses appeared in the University of Michigan in the 1940s, and the Michigan materials soon came to influence all materials developed in the United State for teaching English as a Second Language (ESL) students and became the dominant methodology in the United State for more than 20 years.
In Britain, Hornby built the basic grammatical structures needed in English-language syllabuses and courses at different level in his books Guide to Patterns and Usage in English (1954) and The Teaching of Structural Words and Sentence Patterns (1959). But the first lexical and grammatical syllabuses appeared in the 1920s, it is the grammar syllabuses that have been regarded as the core of a language course or program. The twentieth century has seen an immense amount of activity in language teaching methodology. Grammar Translation, The Direct Method, Audio-Lingualism - all preceded what some have called The Age of Methods, comprising most of the last decades of this century (Richards and Rodgers, 1986 cited in Forum, 2000: 3).
In addition, technology development has brought the whole world so much closer. English language radio and television programs, videos, and films are readily available in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) setting, along with newspapers and magazines. In addition, Internet usage now provides many opportunities to interact with English-speaking peers on various topics and to develop grammatical, discourse, and socio-cultural competence. World Wide Web sites can supply students with an almost infinite range of information.
English, then, has developed as an official or secondary language in many regions other than the Britain, Australia, and North America. It is currently popular in the former colonies or territories of Great Britain and the United States, such as India, Singapore, the Philippines, Nigeria, and Ghana. Changes in the English status and the purposes for studying English around the world led to the language development. English for Specific Purposes (ESP) is one of the developing fields.
By its narrowly defined nature, ESP requires the use of content materials that are not always constructed for the language learning purpose but for a specialized target. ESP teachers have just begun to recognize the importance of the words and phrases that surround the special terms. At the same time, Basic English courses are designed to focus on learner needs and needs analysis. The movement in learner-centered teaching, therefore, was reflected in ESP from this focus as the underpinning of course design.
Moreover, discourse and genre analysis and linguistic corpora has also been noticed in the field. English in Vietnam In Vietnam, foreign language is a compulsory subject in high schools and universities. In the 20th century, after implementation of the ‘Doi Moi’ policy, Vietnam rapidly developed in business and industrialization. And foreign investment activities increase every day.
These factors lead to the country’s education transformation, where English competence is required more than ever. There have been growing demands from students and society, so English language classes were among the top choices in 1990s. Dang Thi Huong (2004: 99) states “In recent years, particularly after the ‘Open Door’ policy was implemented in 1986, English has become one of the required subjects taught at university”. It can be said that Vietnam has undergone dramatic changes in the last decade, especially in the foreign language field “English has undergone explosive growth, hundreds of language centers have been established all over the country with an overwhelming majority of Vietnamese learners studying English” (Nguyen Ngoc Quang, cited in Do Huy Thinh, 1996: 4).
At VLU, English is one of the required subjects during students’ academic years.