TABLE OF CONTENTS TABLE OF CONTENTS. 1 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS. 4 LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS. Scope of the Study.
Organization of the Study. 10 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW. Definitions of Key Terms. Communicative Language Teaching (CLT).
Definitions of CLT. Characteristics of CLT. Teacher's and Student' s roles in CLT Classroom. Definitions of Communicative Activities.
Purposes of Communicative Activities. Characteristics of Communicative Activities in Classroom. Types of Communicative Activities in Classroom. Teaching Reading Business English Texts.
Definitions of Reading. Teaching Reading Business English Texts. Three stages to teach students reading Business English texts. The current Business English textbook at QBEMS.
33 CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY. Methods of Data collection. 40 CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION. Teachers and students' perceptions of communicative activities and types of Business English texts.
Reality in using communicative activities in teaching reading Business English texts. Teachers' attitudes towards the materials in use. Students' attitudes towards the communicative activities. Teachers‟ frequency of using communicative activities.
Communicative activities conducted by the teachers. Communicative activities often used in stages of teaching reading. Teachers' class organization. Roles of communicative activities in teaching and learning 2 reading.
Teachers' roles in reading activities. The effects of communicative activities to the students .The advantages of using communicative activities in teaching and learning reading Business English texts .The disadvantages of using communicative activities in teaching and learning reading Business English texts. Suggestions for teaching and learning Business English texts more communicatively and effectively. Suggestions for teachers.
Suggestions for students. 78 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION, IMPLICATIONS AND SUGGESTIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH. Limitations of The Research. Suggested Further Research.
86 APPENDICES Appendix A: Questionnaires for ESP teachers Appendix B: Questionnaires for ESP students Appendix C: Questionnaires for ESP students (in Vietnamese) Appendix D: Questions for teachers and students' interviews 3 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS CA: COMMUNICATIVE APPROACH CLT: COMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE TEACHING EFL: ENGLISH AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE ELT: ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING ESL: ENGLISH AS A SECOND LANGUAGE ESP: ENGLISH FOR SPECIFIC PURPOSES QBEMS: QUANG BINH ECONOMIC MIDDLE SCHOOL 4 LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS Table 3.1: Teachers‟ background information Table 3.2: Students‟ background information Table 4.1: Teachers and students‟ perceptions of communicative activities Chart 4.1: Types of Business English texts used by the teachers Chart 4.2: Number of communicative activities Table 4. Teachers‟ sources of materials to design communicative activities Chart 4. Students‟ attitudes Chart 4. Teachers‟ and students' report on frequency of using communicative activities Table 4.
Communicative activities conducted by the teachers Chart 4. Stages of teaching reading Chart 4. Teachers‟ activity organization Chart 4. Roles of communicative activities Chart 4.
Teachers‟ roles in reading activities Table 4. Effects of communicative activities to the students Table 4. Advantages of using communicative activities Chart 4. Teachers' difficulties Chart 4.
Students' difficulties 5 ABSTRACT This research was designed to investigate the reality of using communicative activities in teaching reading Business English texts for ESP students. This research aims at examining the teachers' and students' perceptions of communicative activities as well as types of Business English texts; gaining an insight into how the teachers of English at Quang Binh Economic Middle School (QBEMS) apply CLT; giving some suggestions which would be useful for teachers in teaching reading Business English texts and finding better solutions for developing new English teaching method at present. To obtain these aims, this research first presents an overview of CLT, and then investigates the definitions, purpose s, characteristics and types of communicative activities. Furthermore, the research finds out the teaching reading Business English texts with some considerations of current Business English textbook at QBEMS.
The research is implemented by a mixed methods research design. Participants for this research were eight ESP teachers and ninety ESP students at QBEMS. It was carried out with a combination of both quantitative and qualitative approach to collect and analyze data. In order to get the reliable data, questionnaires and interviews were used for teachers and students.
The results show that the applying communicative activities in teaching reading Business English texts in QBEMS has been achieved some good results. Most of the teachers positively perceive the use of communicative activities. However, they can not avoid some obstacles in trying the new method. Based on the research finding, suggestions were given to both teachers and learners in dealing with Businesss texts communicatively.
RATIONALE English plays a very important role in Vietnam as well as in other countries in the world. With the open-door policy of the government and the integration into the World Trade Organization, our country has more opportunities to develop the economy. The globalization of business has increased contact between people and businesses around the world. Contacting in the business arena worldwide has grown dramatically as a result.
Therefore, business English has become more and more important. However, many students in this field are still very unfamiliar with the use of economic and business terms. A good understanding of Business English will help students a lot in their study and contribution to the development of the country. English teaching methodology has been innovated in recent years.
Among many methods, CLT is considered the dominant temporary trend in language teaching and learning. CLT emerged as a new teaching approach in Britain in the 1970s. As early as the 1970s, the CLT approach became popular among second language acquisition researchers and second language teachers (Skehan, 2003). In order to meet the need of the learners, there has been a revolution in language teaching methodology with various new approaches and methods proposed to make the English teaching and learning more communicative and effective.
Among them, CLT is regarded as the most effective one because “a communicative approach must be based on and respond to the learner‟s communicative needs” (Canale and Swain, 1980: 27). The communicative approach (CA) might not be new in many countries where English is used as a foreign language. In Vietnam, this is not very strange to a great many EFL teachers and learners either. CLT has been an influential approach in Vietnam for at least two decades now.
The significant role of English as an international means of communication is undeniable. English has been widely used 7 in many fields of society such as culture, economics and politics. The global trend in this era raises an urgent need for integration among countries in terms of economics, technology and culture. English as an international language therefore is quite necessary for every country in the process of integration.
Le (2000: 3) pointed out that “The economic open-door policy pursued by the Government of Vietnam has increased the demand for English speaking people who are expected to be competent to communicate verbally with the outside world and to access technology.” In recent years, many Vietnamese teachers have tried to use CA in their English Language Teaching (ELT) classrooms. In the CA, most teachers and learners meet more difficulties than success, because of many reasons. Because of such a significant value of the approach, how to adapt CA in (ELT) to develop learners‟communicative competence in English has always been the objective of many teachers of English. In fact, in many places, teachers of English are still playing a central role in the teaching and learning process.
They are responsible to provide students with knowledge about English language. Many teachers tend to make students understand the language rather than to motivate them to perform or practice the language communicatively. In addition, most of the students learn English only because this is a compulsory subject that they have to pass. As a result, many learners are very good at the knowledge of grammar but they may fail to communicate with each other in English.
In order to improve this situation, many educational policies, innovations and changes of English teaching methods have been suggested and experimented with many schools in Vietnam in which teaching English through skills seemed to be the most effective and appreciable way. Besides listening, writing and speaking, reading skill in English is also very essential for communication. Reading is considered one of the most important skills at school English curriculum in Vietnam. How to teach reading well and effectively has been a challenge of every teacher.
The search for good methods to teach reading has attracted much teachers‟ and researchers‟ attention. In this tendency, CLT is used by teachers. 8 Working as a teacher of English at QBEMS for over 12 years, I have found it quite essential to have more insights into the use of communicative activities in teaching reading Business English texts. Communicative activities are considered to be very useful for teachers of English and they are effective means of increasing student‟s participation in language classrooms.
In the course of working with my colleagues, I have realized that they are very interested in CLT. However, from the informal talks with my colleagues, I also see that almost ESP teachers who have been teaching at QBEMS are not very successful in applying communicative activities. How to teach students communicatively in ESP reading classes has long become a challenge to teachers of English. For the reasons above, I have decided to study the topic: “The reality of using communicative activities in teaching reading Business English texts to students at Quang Binh Economic Middle School.
RESEARCH OBJECTIVES This study aims at knowing how teachers and students view communicative activities; having a full insight into how communicative activities are applied in teaching reading Business English texts at QBEMS, at the same time finding out the problems the teachers faced in teaching reading Business English texts. The study is also to explore the necessity of communicative activities to motivate learners in learning ESP reading and consider the types of activities that the teachers use in their reading classes. Finally, it searches for how these communicative activities have influenced students‟ achievements. I also carry out this study with a purpose to learn about communicative activities and give some suggestions which would be useful for teachers in teaching reading Business English texts communicatively as well as to find better solutions for developing the new English teaching method at present.
SCOPE OF THE STUDY QBEMS trains accountancy major. The English textbook is the collection of many Business English texts. In order to help students to communicate effectively in Business English classes, teachers can conduct many different communicative 9 activities. The significance of these activities is seen as a main part of the process.
However, due to the limitation of knowledge and time, the study only focuses on the reality of using communicative activities in teaching reading Business English texts to students at QBEMS. RESEARCH QUESTIONS This research aims to investigate the use of communicative activities in ESP reading classes. It focuses on how teachers use communicative activities and its effects on students‟ reading Business English texts. The study seeks to answer the following questions: 1) What are the teachers and students‟ perceptions of communicative activities in the Business English classroom? 2) What advantages and disadvantages in using communicative activities do the teachers at QBEMS often meet when teaching reading Business English texts ? 3) What suggestions could be given to promote the application of communicative activities in teaching and learning reading Business English texts? 1.
ORGANIZATION OF THE STUDY The thesis consists of five chapters. Chapter 1, The Introduction presents the rationales for the research, research aims, research questions, the scope and the organization of the study. Chapter 2, The Literature Review reviews theoretical background related to the study, including explanation of key terms and discussions of related studies. Chapter 3, The Research Methodology describes the methodological structure of the study with 4 parts: participants, data collection, procedures and data analysis.
Chapter 4, The Findings and Discussion describes, analyzes and discusses the findings which were gained from the data according to the three mentioned research questions.