VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES, TRAN NGUYET MINH DESIGNING AN ESP READING SYLLABUS FOR FIRST-YEAR STUDENTS OF ARCHITE URE AT ITANOI UNIVESITY OF BUSINESS AND TECIINOLOGY THIRT KA CHUONG TRINH BOC HIRU TIENG ANH CHUYÊN NGÀNH CHO SINH VIEN THU NHẬT KHOA KIEN TRÚC, ‘TRUONG DH KINH DOANH VA CONG NGHỆ HÀ NỘI MLA .MINOR PROGRAMME TIIESIS Vield: English Tcaching Mcthodology Code: 60. Ngé Hiru Hoang HA NOI— 2013 'VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES, TRAN NGUYET MINH DESIGNING AN ESP READING SYLLABUS FOR FIRST-YEAR STUDENTS OF ARCTITECTURE AT HANOI! UNIVESITY GF BUSINESS AND TECHNOLOGY THIẾT KÉ CIƯƠNG TRINII DOC IMU TING ANII CHUYEN NGANH CHO SINH VIÊN THỨ NHẬT KHOA KIÊN TRÚC, TRƯỜNG DH KINH DOANH VÀ CÔNG NGHỆ HẢ NỘI M. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodolugy Code: 60. Ngé Hiru Hoang HA NOI_— 2013 TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS - - ñ ABSTRACT.
ch he ‘TABLE OF CONTENTS. - - - - 1V LIST GF TABLES: - - vi LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS. Mil PART A INTRODUCTION 1 1. Rationale of the study.
Previous related studies 3 3. The ai oÊ he stuẩy. Seope oŸ the stuổy. Significance of the study - - - — 8.
Organization of the thesis - - - ce PART B DEVELOPMENT. CHAPTER I THEORIFICAL BACKGROUND 6 1. English for specific PHTbGS8S. Reading in ESL/EFL and ESP.isennninnneneenenineneniueeiinin nanan LI 1.4, Needs analysis CTIAPTER TI RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 17 2.
Data callection instruments - - 17 iv LIST OF TABLES Table 3. Architects” jebs, workcing places, and frequeney of readin. TexL genres Table 3. Source of materials ‘Table 3.
First-year students’ expectations towards the ESP reading course. First-year and third students’ purposes of attendance. Word-attack strategies ‘Table 3. Kirst-year students’ preferences on topics of reading text.
Third-year sLudents’ attitudes towards lhe current. reading syllabus for first-year students. Third-year students’ suggestions for improving ESP training quality vi 2. Previous related studies Together with the economic integration into the global market, the need of leaning Tnglish and especially FSP is ever increasing.
So far, there have been a number of studies on ESP syllabus design for ESP courses. Among those, there aro ESP theses for different disciplines. Among, them are the ESP reading, syllabuses designed by Doan Văn Giao (2005, ciled in Ha, 2008) for students of Civil Fngineering, Tran ‘Thi Dung, for students of Urban Planning (2007), Dinh ‘Thi ‘Thu Ha for students Informatics (2008) and Dora Chostelidou for students of Accountancy (2010). They did a needs analysis suitable for the context al.
their working place Giao (2005) carries out a needs analysis on current students, ex-students, ESP teachers, teachers and employers. This is expected to help improve the teaching and learning of LISP reading at his university. However, he only uses questionnaires as a data collection instrument, which is not enough to achieve objective results of his students’ needs. In Dung’s thesis, whal is nolable is an iredepth arulysis of needs from various sources, inchiding BSP teachers, subject teachers and second-year smdents.
However, the questionnaire items conceming reading skills and exercises are a bil too lengthy and complicated [or the students. Ha (2008)’s thesis was donc with ex-students apart from [SP teachers, subject teachers and second-year students, This helps the author get a wider view ou what reading skills, lypes of English specialist materials leamers should be in touch with at work, which is a reliable source about target needs. What is emphasized in Chseostelidou (2010)’s stuly is thal a needs amulysis is a key to identifymg leamers’ needs, learning competence and competence required of them in their future job. ‘Therefore, needs analysis plays a crucial role in designing an BSP course A common feature of these studies is the use of needs analysis in the process of designing or redesigning an ESP syllabus.
Thanks for that, they are used by the wriler of this thesis as an important source of reference. Secking lo design an FSP syllabus appropriate for the first-year students of Architecture at ITUBT, this study 3 LIST OF TABLES Table 3. Architects” jebs, workcing places, and frequeney of readin. TexL genres Table 3.
Source of materials ‘Table 3. First-year students’ expectations towards the ESP reading course. First-year and third students’ purposes of attendance. Word-attack strategies ‘Table 3.
Kirst-year students’ preferences on topics of reading text. Third-year sLudents’ attitudes towards lhe current. reading syllabus for first-year students. Third-year students’ suggestions for improving ESP training quality vi It is the fact that the ESP syllabus plays a significant part in the whole English program.
Lowever, from academic year 2013-2014, due to some factors, the whole time for the English program will be cut. to only two yoars. If the RSP reading instruction fasts for one academic year only, it would not be a sufficient tune to train students the language for Architecture purpose In addition, during the time teaching IGP and ESP to Architecture students, from first-year to third-year ones, the researcher recognizes two major issues. First, whereas they are quite confident with English grammar exercises, they struggle a lot when dealing with the four language skills, particularly reading.
Third-year students prove lo be ineffective readers, with weak reading skills although they have laken onc academic year studying GE with a four-skill integrated couse. Sccondly, quite a few teachers have made complaints about our Architecture students’ lack of focus and molwvation in read GE texts, mostly because they find them uninicresting and irrelevant, so the effectiveness of the class is often low. In conclusion, it is the fact that the current syllabus has not yielded the teachers’ desired resuilts and has proved inadequate in addressing the students’ needs. To improve the sludents’ reading skills, it is suggested thal @ separate reading couse should be introduced earlier from the first academic year, because reading takes considerable time and resources to develop, and it cannot be taught in one or two courses (Grabe, 1991).
Apart from that, in order to make the syHabus accommodate the Architecture students’ immediate and long-term needs, an LSP approach to syllabus design should be adopted. With consideration of the whole context, I decided to carry out the research entitled “Designing an SP reading syllabus for first-year students of Architecture at Hanoi University of Busmess and Technolagy” 2. Previous related studies Together with the economic integration into the global market, the need of leaning Tnglish and especially FSP is ever increasing. So far, there have been a number of studies on ESP syllabus design for ESP courses.
Among those, there aro ESP theses for different disciplines. Among, them are the ESP reading, syllabuses designed by Doan Văn Giao (2005, ciled in Ha, 2008) for students of Civil Fngineering, Tran ‘Thi Dung, for students of Urban Planning (2007), Dinh ‘Thi ‘Thu Ha for students Informatics (2008) and Dora Chostelidou for students of Accountancy (2010). They did a needs analysis suitable for the context al. their working place Giao (2005) carries out a needs analysis on current students, ex-students, ESP teachers, teachers and employers.
This is expected to help improve the teaching and learning of LISP reading at his university. However, he only uses questionnaires as a data collection instrument, which is not enough to achieve objective results of his students’ needs. In Dung’s thesis, whal is nolable is an iredepth arulysis of needs from various sources, inchiding BSP teachers, subject teachers and second-year smdents. However, the questionnaire items conceming reading skills and exercises are a bil too lengthy and complicated [or the students.
Ha (2008)’s thesis was donc with ex-students apart from [SP teachers, subject teachers and second-year students, This helps the author get a wider view ou what reading skills, lypes of English specialist materials leamers should be in touch with at work, which is a reliable source about target needs. What is emphasized in Chseostelidou (2010)’s stuly is thal a needs amulysis is a key to identifymg leamers’ needs, learning competence and competence required of them in their future job. ‘Therefore, needs analysis plays a crucial role in designing an BSP course A common feature of these studies is the use of needs analysis in the process of designing or redesigning an ESP syllabus. Thanks for that, they are used by the wriler of this thesis as an important source of reference.
Secking lo design an FSP syllabus appropriate for the first-year students of Architecture at ITUBT, this study 3 3. Data oolleotion proeedte 21 2. Mathod of data analysis. - - 22 CHAPTEE II ĐATA ANALYSIS.
Discussion of findings - - - .36 CHAPTER TV THE PROPOSED ESP READING SYLLABUS. The goals and objzotives of the ESP reading course. Content selection and gradation.4, Suggested teaching methedology al 4. A proposed ESP reading syllabus for first-year Architecture students at Hanoi University of Business and Technology.
Research limitations and suggestions for further study - 44 REFERENCEE. ìọ Sàn reeeÏ APPENDICES. iL APPENDIX 1 FIRST-YEAR STUDENT QUESTIONNAIRE, eos APPENDIX 2 THIRD-YEAR STUDENT QUESTIOXNAIRE.VI APPENDIX 3 ARCTITRECT QUESTIONNAIRE. VI APPENDIX 4 INTERVIEW FOR ESP TEACHERS.
wx APPENDIX 5 Teachers’ suggested teaching techniques. xu APPENDIX 6 A proposed ESP reading sTlabus. - XIV LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ELT English Language Teaching ESP Lnglish for Specific Purposes GE, EGP English for General Purposes 1IUBT 1ianoi University of 13usiness and Technology La Second language/foreign language vii is also expected to contribute its distinguished features to the whole rescarch scenario of LISP teaching in general 3. The aim of the study The main aim of the study is to investigate the leaming needs, wants and lacks af the first-year sludents of Architecture in BSP reading learning, and expectations of ESP teachers, which serve as the foundation for designing an appropriate HSP reading syllabus.
To achieve the aim, a needs analysis was done to identify the target needs and Icarning needs of the students because, as Basturkmen £2008) puts it, a key feature of LISP syllabus design is that the syllabus is based on an analysis of the needs of the students 4, Research questions This study aimed to address the following research questions: 1. What are the perceptions and attitudes of Architecture students, BSP teachers at HUBT, and architectural professionals towards ESP reading? The answer to question 1 leads to the next question: 2. Ts il necessary to mtroduce an ESP reading syllabus Lo first-year students of Architecture at HUBT? And if yes, 3. How should such an ESP reading syllabus be designed? 5.
Methodology Survey research is employed in this study with the use of questionnaire and interview as the means of collecting data about first-year Architecture students’ target needs and learning needs. (For more details, see chapter II, Part B} 6. Scope of the study The study is done based on the circumstances for firsi-yoar Archileclure majors al Hanoi University of Business and Technology (HUB). Due to the scope of the is also expected to contribute its distinguished features to the whole rescarch scenario of LISP teaching in general 3.
The aim of the study The main aim of the study is to investigate the leaming needs, wants and lacks af the first-year sludents of Architecture in BSP reading learning, and expectations of ESP teachers, which serve as the foundation for designing an appropriate HSP reading syllabus. To achieve the aim, a needs analysis was done to identify the target needs and Icarning needs of the students because, as Basturkmen £2008) puts it, a key feature of LISP syllabus design is that the syllabus is based on an analysis of the needs of the students 4, Research questions This study aimed to address the following research questions: 1. What are the perceptions and attitudes of Architecture students, BSP teachers at HUBT, and architectural professionals towards ESP reading? The answer to question 1 leads to the next question: 2. Ts il necessary to mtroduce an ESP reading syllabus Lo first-year students of Architecture at HUBT? And if yes, 3.
How should such an ESP reading syllabus be designed?
