VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES PHẠM THỊ THU TRANG USING COMPETENCE-BASED APPROACH IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF A WRITING COURSE FOR ENGINEERS AT VIETNAM ATOMIC ENERGY INSTITUTE (Sử dụng cách tiếp cận dựa trên năng lực để phát triển một khóa học viết dành cho các kỹ sư tại Viện Năng lượngnguyên tử Việt Nam) M. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111 HANOI – 2016 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES PHẠM THỊ THU TRANG USING COMPETENCE-BASED APPROACH IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF A WRITING COURSE FOR ENGINEERS AT VIETNAM ATOMIC ENERGY INSTITUTE (Sử dụng cách tiếp cận dựa trên năng lực để phát triển một khóa học viết dành cho các kỹ sư tại Viện Năng lượngnguyên tử Việt Nam) M. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111 Supervisor: Dr. Dương Thu Mai HANOI – 2016 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com DECLARATION I hereby certify that this thesis is entirely my own work.
I have provided fully documented references to the others‟ work. The material in this thesis has not been submitted for assessment in any other formal course. I also accept all the requirements of ULIS relating to the retention and use of M.A Graduation Thesis deposited in the library. Hanoi, 2016 Phạm Th Thu Trang i LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ACKNOWLEDGEMENT This thesis would not be fulfilled without the help of some people, and in some ways, I would like to thank everyone who has taught me, inspired me, challenged me, and supported me throughout the realization of this thesis.
I would like to express my deepest thanks to my beloved supervisor, Duong Thu Mai, Ph.D, for her whole-hearted assistance, encouragement as well as her profound guidance she gave me while I was doing my research. I would like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude to all lecturers in Faculty of Post-graduate Studies, University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi for their interesting lectures which have inspired me to conduct this thesis. Besides, I would like to send my gratitute to the teaching experts at Vietnam National University, Hanoi who took part in my interview and gave me orientation to edit the course guide. I would also like to express my thanks to the leaders and working learners at Vietnam Atomic Energy Institute for their willingness to participate in the research.
Without their help, this project could not be fulfilled. Last but not least, I am most thankful to my family members who have always inspired and encouraged me to complete this study. Hanoi, 2016 Phạm Th Thu Trang ii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ABSTRACT Strong needs of working learners, urgent demands of occupation and great expectation of leaders have revealed there is a call for designing a writing course at Vietnam Atomic Energy Institute. This course with workplace orientation was developed using competence-based approach so that the learning outcomes can meet future staffing requirements of the nuclear organization.
In this case, based on understanding of VAEI context, learners‟ needs and employers‟ requirements analysis, the paper is to explore the target genres, determine the specificity of writing competences covered within the course, and then develop course schedules. Notably, there have been no attempts in investigating this issue before. Hopefully, the paper would investigate needed English written competences for engineers at Vietnam Atomic Energy Institute and provide suggestions for the course components including contents, objectives, teaching methods and assessment to implement the future writing course under the light of Competence-Based Approach. iii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com TABLE OF CONTENTS PART A: INTRODUCTION.
Aims of study. Scope of study. Methods of study. Design of study.
4 PART B: LITERATURE REVIEW. 5 Chapter 1- An Overview of the Competence-Based Approach. Definition of Competence and Competency. Definition of Competence.
Definition of Competency. Approaches in course designing. Skill-based approach. Content-based approach.
Theme-based approach. Functional-Notional approach. Competence-based Approach. The application and features of CBA in course designing.
The application of CBA in English Language Teaching (ELT). Course development process according to CBA. 12 Chapter 2- Theoretical Issues on Writing Course. Nature of writing.
English writing competence in theory and in reality. English writing competences in theory. Realization of English writing competence. Writing teaching approaches.
The Product Approach. The Process Approach. Context of the study. 27 iv LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.
Data collection instruments. Semi-structured interviews. Data collection procedure. Needs analysis by graphical method and simple percentage analysis.
35 PART D: FINDINGS & DISCUSSIONS. Students’ needs and employers’ requirements analysis. Needs from students‟ perspectives. Needs from employers‟ perspectives.
Interview results of the 1st course draft – Editting the 1st course content. The appropriateness of the course objectives to students‟ language proficiency. The completeness of the course content and materials. The coherence of course schedule and assessment scheme to the course objectives.
The integration of teaching methods, teachers and students‟ roles. The success probability of course implementation. Decisions on editting the 1st course guide. Course content and materials.
Course schedule and assessment scheme. Reflection on research process. Limitations and suggestions for further study. I v LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AND SYMBOLS ADDIE Analysis, design, development, implementation, and evaluation CBA Competence – based approach CBESL Competency – based education in ESL CBLT Competence- based language teaching CBI Content-based instruction CEFR Common European Framework of Reference for Languages CSW Common Scale for Writing ELT English Language Teaching EOP English for Occupational Purposes ESOL English for Speakers of Other Languages ESL English as Second Language ESP English for Specific Purposes ETS Educational Testing Service FNA Functional-Notional approach IELTS International English Language Testing System L2 Second language No.
Number SBA Skill-based approach TBA Theme-based approach TOEFL Test of English as Foreign Language ULIS University of Languages and International Studies VAEA Vietnam Atomic Energy Agency VAEI Vietnam Atomic Energy Institute VNU Vietnam National University vi LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com LIST OF TABLES, CHARTS, FIGURES Table 1. VAEI leaders‟ features in the semi-structured interview. Experts‟ features in the semi-structured interview. 34 Chart 1: Course development process according to CBA.
Stages of teaching writing under the product approach. Stages of writing process according to process approach. Stages of writing process according to process approach. Tasks expected in thewriting course.
Major skills needed to support. Aim at CEFR level of language proficiency. Genres of written documents needed to learn. Genres of written documents with difficulty.
Type of feedback expected in the course. The importance of assessment types. The effectiveness of assessment types. The appropriate teaching methods.
The students‟ willingness for self-study. The appropriate proportion of class time/self-study time. The effectiveness of the given lesson sequences. The students‟ roles in the course.
The teachers‟ roles. The types of materials included in a writing course. 43 vii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com PART A: INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale In the industrialized world, a great number of graduates, engineers and businessmen, who are expecting to gain more advanced knowledge and open access to the world, notably need English competences.
Among English competences that working learners seek training, achievement of English writing proficiency assumes an enormous importance in fitting the heavy literacy demands of their employers. Not only is it hard to imagine modern workplaces without English essays, commercial emails, reports, case studies and journal articles but writing is also a key feature for writers to demonstrate their understanding of subjects and their experiences. Nevertheless, these kinds of experiences are extremely challenging to students and may be especially frightening to those writing in a second language. This is not only because different languages seem to have different ways of organizing ideas and structuring arguments but because students‟ prior writing experiences in the school, college or university do not prepare them for the literacy expectations of their professional workplace.
That is one of reasons why for the last decades, the matter of educational contents corresponding to future job demands has become an essential issue in educational reforms all over the world. Due to widespread concern about the quality of students‟ learning process, in particular, fluency in the conventions of writing in English at work, Competence – Based Approach originated in response to increase calls for learning outcomes upon course completion. The approach focuses on assisting students towards writing competence in particular target genres so as to be more responsive to professions‟ needs; in other words, familarizing them with writing English for Occupational Purposes (EOP) (Auerbach, 1986). As a result, writing course designers are supposed not simply to develop the content of teaching writing generally but to recognise particular kinds of writing which are valued and expected in one certain professional context.
In details, EOP practitioners need to make considerable use of the findings such as the literacy demands to determine what is to be learned and to organise instruction around the genres that learners need and the social contexts in which they will operate. In the social context of Vietnam, one recent upsurge attempts in acquiring English competence involves in human resource of nuclear field, when the network 1 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com of nuclear programs has spread in various regions of the world and Vietnam is considering the introduction of Nuclear Power as part of its national energy strategy. Related to this strategy, Vietnam Atomic Energy Institute (VAEI), Ministry of Science and Technology is national research institute whose responsibility is to train and develop man power in the field of atomic energy – the field encompassing a plenty of international scientific studies and technological materials. Hence, building and maintaining the availability of research workforce, who are competent in written English, has been one of the most critical challenges of VAEI.
Meanwhile, the same issue as above-mentioned, “the abyss existing between the goals of the academic and the professional world” inevitably exists at VAEI (Dominguez and Rokowski, 2002). In particular, because of a discrepancy between the university English language curriculum and requirements for jobs, almost all graduates working here have deficiency of written English competences. As a consequence, much concern of both themselves and their employers has been given to the adequate outcomes of their written works in English to effectively serve the occupational demands in a research institute. Strong needs of working learners, high demands of occupation and great expectation of leaders reveal there is a call for study of designing an EOP writing course at VAEI.
This course with workplace orientation should be developed using competence-based approach so that the learning outcomes can meet future staffing requirements of the nuclear organization. In this case, based on understanding of VAEI context, learners‟ needs and employers‟ requirements analysis, course designers are to explore the target genres, determine the specificity of writing competences covered within the course, and then build up course guides and schedules. Notably, there have been no attempts in investigating this issue before. It is, hence, of principal importance to research the matter intensively at this Institute.
The aforementioned reasons have given rise to the development a writing course in this study, in which competence-based approach is selected. Hopefully, the researcher would make the contribution to complete an in-depth investigation of needed competence in English written communication for engineers to shed some light in the area where resources are limited. 2 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.