VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES LÊ THỊ HỒNG DUYÊN ESP TEACHERS’ PERCEPTIONS AND PRACTICES IN VIETNAMESE CONTEXT Cách hiểu và thực tế giảng dạy của giáo viên tiếng Anh chuyên ngành trong bối cảnh Việt Nam A thesis submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Major: English Language Teaching Methodology Code: 62140111 Supervisors: Dr. DƯƠNG THỊ NỤ Dr. ĐỖ TUẤN MINH Hanoi, 2017 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP The thesis entitled “ESP Teachers‟ Perceptions and Practices in Vietnamese context” has been submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. I, the undersigned, hereby declare that I am the sole author of this thesis.
I have fully acknowledged and referenced the ideas and work of others, whether published or unpublished, in my thesis. My thesis does not contain work extracted from a thesis, dissertation or research paper previously presented for another degree or diploma at this or any other university. Signature: LÊ THỊ HỒNG DUYÊN i LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ABSTRACT Compared to well-established research into language teacher cognition, little investigation has been conducted in the field of ESP teacher cognition. In fact, ESP teachers‟ perceptions in relation to their practices are not fully documented in both local and global contexts.
To address such research gap, a multiple case study was conducted with nine ESP teachers working in three selected universities of medicine and pharmacy in the northern part of Vietnam. The study aimed at investigating those teachers‟ perceptions and practices of ESP teaching as well as contextual factors affecting their thoughts and instructional behaviors. Data were collected from the three main research instruments including pre-interviews, classroom observations and post-class observation interviews. The findings showed that the teachers in this study used their intuition to assess their students‟ needs which were passing the exam and preparing for their future needs.
As for them, ESP teaching was generally not much different from EGP teaching; and the typical feature of ESP lay in the terminology of the field. As such, their perceptions about teaching approach strongly oriented to the knowledge transmission, which focused on provision of basic terminology, grammar structures and basic skills. Additionally, those teachers‟ practices, which were mainly characterized by Grammar Translation Method, were in accordance with their perceptions towards the transmission of knowledge. The consistency in those teachers‟ thinking and instructions were explained by the three main influential factors including their lack of expert theories and professional development activities; available sources as institutional guiding norms such as course guides, course books, tests, experienced colleagues and limited time frame; and a number of national and institutional guiding authorities.
Although this study does not aim at generalizing the findings to the whole context of Vietnam, it has depicted the picture of ESP teaching in some Vietnamese contexts. The major contribution of this study lies in the interpretation of teachers‟ cognition and their instructions in light of their agency and their teaching ownership. Besides, by placing the teachers‟ perceptions and practices under different contextual scales, this study argues that changing one single factor in the system could be insufficient to alter those teachers‟ cognition and instructional behaviors. From the findings, some implications about theory, research and policy are offered.
ii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS No one who achieves success does so without acknowledging the help of others. The wise and confident acknowledge this help with gratitude. -Alfred North Whitehead- And with all of my gratitude, I would like to express my whole-hearted thanks to the ones who supported me during my PhD journey. Without their help, my journey could not be completed.
Firstly, I would like to express my thankfulness to my chief supervisor- Dr. Dương Thị Nụ for her willingness to help me from the very start of the journey and her enthusiastic guidance and sincere sharing during the course. I am also grateful to my associate supervisor- Dr. Đỗ Tuấn Minh who has greatly inspired me with his professional working style and who gave me a lot of courage, especially when I got stuck on my way.
Secondly, my sincere thanks also go to the former Dean Assoc. Lê Hùng Tiến and the current Dean Dr. Huỳnh Anh Tuấn as well as the staff members at the Faculty of Postgraduate Studies, University of Languages and International Studies (ULIS), Vietnam National University (VNU), who are always so kind and supportive during my study time. Thirdly, I also appreciate all the examiners: Prof.
Hoàng Văn Vân, Assoc. Trương Viên, Assoc. Phan Văn Quế, Assoc. Lưu Quý Khương, Assoc.
Lê Hùng Tiến, Assoc. Lê Văn Canh, Assoc. Nguyễn Phương Nga, Assoc. Hoàng Tuyết Minh, Assoc.
Nguyễn Văn Trào, Dr. Nguyễn Đức Hoạt, Dr. Hoàng Thị Xuân Hoa, Dr. Huỳnh Anh Tuấn, Dr.
Hoàng Thị Hạnh, Dr. Dương Thu Mai, Dr. Vũ Thị Thanh Nhã, Dr. Trần Thị Duyên, Dr.
Nguyễn Thị Hương, Dr. Trần Thanh Nhàn, Dr. Trần Thị Thanh Phúc and Dr. Ngô Thu Hương who commented on my qualifying papers and my final thesis.
Their insightful comments as well as hard questions sharpened iii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com my mind and provided me with a great deal of ideas to develop my research on the right track. Fourthly, I would like to send my deepest gratitude to Dr. Hoang Thi Hanh who unconditionally shared with me all the necessary skills and knowledge to do qualitative research. Her extraordinary personality and profound thoughts gave me a lot of precious lessons which will be with me for my whole life.
I also owe thanks to my colleagues at the Department of Foreign Languages, Haiphong University of Medicine and Pharmacy who continuously supported me and showed sympathy with my hard work. In addition, I would like to convey my thankfulness to all the participating teachers at the 10 medical universities nationwide who participated in my preliminary research, especially the nine teachers who accompanied me during a long time of my main study. The results I have achieved today partially belong to them. I will also never forget sincere friendship and support of my PhD fellow students: Ms.
Lưu Kim Nhung, Ms. Lê Hương Hoa and Ms. Nguyễn Minh Trâm. We have been together through thick and thin of our PhD journey.
I believe that our sisterhood will last long even when we are living in far distance. I also recall my close friends and sisters: Ngọc, Việt, Linh, Tú, Mai and Mai Anh for their help and encouragement. Last but not least, unconditional love, sacrifice and care of my family members for me during the journey cannot be expressed in words. They are also the motivation for me to overcome all the difficulties and to become a better me now.
iv LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com TABLE OF CONTENTS STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS.v LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS. viii LIST OF FIGURES. ix LIST OF TABLES.
Statement of the problem. Scope of the study. Significance of the study. Context of the study.
Organization of the thesis .8 CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW .1 Development of English for Specific Purposes (ESP) .2 ESP development as a global trend .3 ESP development in Vietnamese context.2 Major foci in ESP .3 Distinguishing ESP and EGP teaching methodology .4 ESP teaching approaches.1 Defining teachers‟ perceptions .2 Factors affecting teachers‟ perceptions .1 Defining teachers‟ practices .2 Factors affecting teachers‟ practices .5 Studies on language teachers‟ perceptions and practices .34 v LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.1 Relationship between teachers‟ perceptions and practices .2 Some theoretical frameworks for exploring teachers‟ perceptions and practices .6 Studies on ESP teachers‟ perceptions and practices .48 CHAPTER 2: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY .1 Selection of methodology to the study .2 Setting of the study .1 Selecting the cases and research sites .3 The analytical framework of the study .4 Data collection methods .1 Semi-structured interviews .2 Post-class observation interviews .5 Transcription and analysis of the data .1 Transcription of the data .1 Analysis of the interview data .2 Analysis of the observational data .82 CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS ABOUT ESP TEACHERS‟ PERCEPTIONS AND PRACTICES .1 Teachers‟ perceptions of ESP teaching .1 Teachers‟ views of students‟ needs .84 vi LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.2 Teachers‟ perceptions of ESP teaching aims .3 ESP teaching approaches: Teachers‟ orientation to knowledge transmission .2 Teachers‟ perceptions as reflected in their teaching practices .1 Isolated vocabulary teaching .2 Explicit instruction of grammar points .3 Focus on translation and reading .4 Importance of accuracy and memorization .3 Factors affecting teachers‟ perceptions and practices .1 Teachers‟ lack of expert theories and professional development activities .2 Available sources as institutional guiding norms.151 CHAPTER 4: DISCUSION OF THE FINDINGS .1 Revisiting the research questions.2 Reflecting the findings on the analytical framework. Summary of the research. Implications of the study. Limitations of the study.
Future research avenues .179 APPENDIX A: CONSENT LETTER FORM APPENDIX B: WORKING SCHEDULE WITH PARTICIPATING TEACHERS APPENDIX C: PRE-INTERVIEW GUIDELINES APPENDIX D: SAMPLE OF A PRE-INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT APPENDIX E: SAMPLE OF A POST-CLASS INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT APPENDIX F: INFORMATION ABOUT CLASSROOM OBSERVATIONS APPENDIX G: SAMPLE OF A CLASS OBSERVATION TRANSCRIPT APPENDIX H: THE INITIAL CODING SYSTEM vii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS EAP English for Academic Purposes EFL English as a Foreign Language EGP English for General Purposes ELT English Language Teaching EOP English for Occupational Purposes ESL English as a Second Language ESP English for Specific Purposes EST English for Science and Technology GE General English IELTS International English Language Testing System TOEFL Test of English as a Foreign Language viii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1.1: Needs Analysis jigsaw (Songhori, 2008, p.2: A time-line of approaches to ESP (Adopted from Nelson, 2000) .3: Burns‟ (1992) intercontextuality framework .4: Borg‟s (1997) teacher cognition elements .5: Alzaanin‟s (2014) Cognitive-Ecological Model (CEM) of teaching EFL writing .1: The analytical framework of the study .2: An example of coding episodes in the observational data .1: A summary of the main findings of the study. 153 ix LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com LIST OF TABLES Table 1.1: Summary of topics and methodologies used in previous studies on ESP teachers‟ cognition .1: Researcher‟s choice of qualitative/ inductive research approach .2: Background information about the participants of the study .3: Tentative sub-elements within each layer of the adapted analytical framework .4: An example of sorting and storing one identified code in the interview data .5: Potential themes and supporting codes .1: Frequency of teachers‟ words regarding knowledge transmission. 95 x LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Statement of the problem Keeping pace with continuous changes of our society and rapid growth of globalization, English language teaching (ELT) has become a challenging and demanding occupation.
“One of the effects of the growing importance of global English in professional contexts has been the rise of ESP teaching at all levels” (Huttner, Smit & Mehlmauer-Larcher, 2009, p. ESP teaching has become a growing trend and mainstream in many areas and regions, especially in Asia, as what Johns and Dudley-Evans (2001) confirm that “the demand for English for specific purposes continues to increase and expand throughout the world” (p. In fact, since its emergence, a lot of efforts have been made by researchers, educators and teachers in order to find better ways and initiatives to facilitate ESP teaching and learning. In Vietnam, ESP teaching is still in its development.
Within the allocated time frame for the English curriculum by the Ministry of Education and Training (MoET), most teachers of English who work in non-English major universities or vocational colleges normally take charge of at least one ESP course (Dung & Anh, 2010; Khanh, 2015).