VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ------------ VŨ THỊ PHƯỢNG INVESTIGATION INTO TASK- BASED LANGUAGE TEACHING METHOD IN TEACHING ESP TO THE NON- ENGLISH MAJOR SECOND YEAR STUDENTS AT ACADEMY OF FINANCE (Tìm hiểu phương pháp dạy học thực thi nhiệm vụ trong giảng dạy tiếng Anh chuyên ngành cho sinh viên không chuyên năm hai ở Học viện Tài chính) M. Minor Thesis Program Field: English Language Teaching Methodology Code: 60.10 HANOI- 2013 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ------------ VŨ THỊ PHƯỢNG INVESTIGATION INTO TASK- BASED LANGUAGE TEACHING METHOD IN TEACHING ESP TO THE NON- ENGLISH MAJOR SECOND YEAR STUDENTS AT ACADEMY OF FINANCE (Tìm hiểu phương pháp dạy học thực thi nhiệm vụ trong giảng dạy tiếng Anh chuyên ngành cho sinh viên không chuyên năm hai ở Học viện Tài chính) M. Minor Thesis Program Field: English Language Teaching Methodology Code: 60.10 Supervisor: Cao Thúy Hồng, M.A HANOI- 2013 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com TABLE OF CONTENT Table of contents Page Declaration i Acknowledgements ii Abstract iii Table of content v Lists of tables, figures and abbreviations viii iv LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com PART I: INTRODUCTION I. Scope of the study 3 IV.
Overview of the study 4 PART II: DEVELOPMENT Chapter I: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND and LITERATURE REVIEW I.2 Characteristics of tasks 7 1.3 Types of task 9 1. Task- based language teaching 12 1.2 Task- based frame work 13 1. English for Special Purposes (ESP) 15 1.1 Development of ESP 15 1. Literature Review 18 v LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com Chapter II: Methodology 2.
The context of the study 20 2. Data collection methods 22 2. Data collection procedures 25 2.4 Data analysis methods 27 Chapter III: Data Analysis: Results, Discussions and Recommendations 3. 1 Teachers and student’s perceptions about TBLT in ESP 28 3.1 Teachers and student’s perceptions about ESP 28 3.2 Teachers and student’s perceptions about tasks 29 3.3 Teachers and student’s perceptions about features of tasks 31 3.
Task- based language teaching realization in ESP class 32 3.1 Frequency of using TBLT in ESP 32 3.2 Task types in ESP 34 3.3 Task cycle in ESP 38 3.3 Problems and Suggestions 39 3.1 Problems in learning and teaching ESP via tasks 39 3.2 Suggestions 42 vi LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com PART III: CONCLUSION I. Major findings of the study 44 II. Limitations of the study 44 III. Suggestions for further studies 45 REFERENCES 46 APPENDICES vii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com LISTS OF TABLES, FIGURES AND ABBREVIATIONS List of tables: Table 1: Teachers and Students’ opinion about ESP Table 2: Teachers and Students’ perceptions of tasks Table 3: Students’ perceptions of task features Table 4: Frequency of task types used ESP class Table 5: Problems of using tasks in ESP class List of figures Chart 1 (a) (b): Frequency of using TBLT in ESP teaching for the 2nd year students at AOF.
Chart 2: Preferable types of tasks among students in ESP class List of abbreviations: AOF: Academy of Finance ESP: English for Special Purpose TBLT: Task- based Language Teaching Ss: Students viii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com PART I: INTRODUCTION This initial chapter states the problem and the rationale of the study, together with the aims, objectives and the scope of the whole paper. Above all, it is in this chapter that the research questions are identified to work as clear guidelines for the whole research. Statement of the problem and the rationale for the study English is being taught as a foreign language in Vietnam from Elementary school. It is also used as a medium of instruction in secondary and tertiary level of education.
Although the students have learnt English for a long time, they are unable to reach the expected proficiency level when they start tertiary education. Over the years, different approaches, methods and procedures, have been employed to help learners learn English. Some traditional methods are GTM (Grammar Translation method), ALM (Audio Lingual method). These methods are teacher- center, and focus on linguistic accuracy rather than interactive or communicative competence of learners.
Learners are often passive in class and have difficulties communicating in the real life. Since the late 20th century, along with globalization trends, the demand for English as a global language in international business, travelling and cultural exchange etc has becoming higher and higher. As a result, nowadays, a new method of teaching and learning English to serve those purposes has been indeed indispensable, and learner-centered approaches have been developed. The new approaches draw knowledge from the learner, working through their needs and interests and selecting materials, activities and tasks accordingly.
One modern method is Communicative Language Teaching (CLT). According to Richards and Rodgers (2001), CLT is the 1 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com acquisition of communicative competence via student engagement in meaningful use of language at discourse level. To achieve this, the teacher facilitates communicative activities by managing the classroom environment, providing resources and acting as a communicator. “Classroom activities are often designed to focus on completing tasks that are mediated through language or involve negotiation of information and information sharing” (Richards and Rodgers 2001: 165).
One of the most popular methods within CLT recently is task-based language teaching (TBLT). This method promotes communication and social interaction. In this method, learners are presented with a task or problem to solve and do not concentrate on language features during performance. Language analysis is incorporated after learners have performed a task.
TBLT focuses on using the tasks which are suitable for or meet students’ needs. The reasons are TBLT seems to bring meaningful use of language with authentic tasks and it can promote autonomous learning. With such advantages, it has been applied into many English courses. There is no exception of TBLT application to English for Specific Purposes (ESP) courses in which the requirements are the knowledge of specialization and skills of English to achieve the goal of professional communication in professional fields.
Therefore, both ESP and task- based language teaching method focus on learners’ needs to reach a certain goal and obviously, the exploitation of TBLT in ESP teaching is a good choice for many ESP teachers. In fact, there have been some studies on application of TBLT in ESP so far in many countries including Vietnam , yet they only focused on certain aspects such as effectiveness, syllabus design etc. Students and teachers, the two key factors of any teaching and learning, have not been sufficiently 2 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. In Academy of Finance, ESP is an obligatory subject in 2 semesters for second- year students and third- year students and ESP teachers here have applied TBLT for their lessons.
This inspired the researcher to conduct a research on the perceptions of teachers and learners of TBLT in ESP here. Aims and objectives of the study In the first place, this study aims to identify teachers and students’ perceptions of TBLT in ESP. Specifically, the study would investigate into how teachers and students think or feel about the task and features of TBLT in ESP course. Secondly, a closer look is taken to find out how tasks are realized in ESP class.
In other words, the researcher tries to investigate how often TBLT is exploited for second- year students in ESP course, which type of task is preferred in ESP class, and how task steps are realized in class. In addition, some pedagogical techniques to overcome the problems or disadvantages will be provided as suggestions for TBLT application in the same context. In brief, the researcher expects to answer three following questions: 1. What are teachers and students’ perceptions of TBLT in ESP? 2.
How is TBLT realized in ESP class? 3. What are teachers and students’ suggestions for TBLT to teach ESP course? III. Scope of the study First, although TBLT is generally set as the title of the whole study, it is impossible for the researcher to cover everything related to TBLT but only some aspects of the issue in the given context. This research only focuses on the context of ESP course in AOF for non- major second- year students.
Secondly, the research is done to find out the perceptions of teachers and 3 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com students in terms of concept, features, task realization and disadvantages of TBLT. Thirdly, it is noteworthy that the sample of the research is restricted to 60 students and 10 teachers in Faculty of Foreign languages in AOF. An overview of the rest of the paper The rest of the paper includes 2 parts as follows: Part B: Development Chapter 1 – Theoretical Background and Literature review – provides the background of the study, including definitions of key concepts, discussions of related studies and how the present study fits into the field. Chapter 2 – Methodology – describes the participants and instruments of the study, as well as the procedure employed to carry out the research.
Chapter 3 – Data analysis and discussion – presents, analyzes and discusses the findings that the researcher found out from the data collected according to the three research questions. Part C: Conclusion This part summarizes the main issues discussed in the paper, the contribution as well as the limitations of the research, suggestions for successful TBLT application in ESP course and some suggestions for further studies. Following this chapter are the References and Appendices. 4 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com PART II: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND AND LITERATURE REVIEW This chapter sheds light on the literature of the study, specifically the background and a number of studies related to the research topic.
To begin with, a sketchy picture of the research background will be provided with an overview of the three key concepts, namely “task”, “task- based language teaching” and “ESP”. Next, a brief review of the related studies will disclose the research gap and hence, justify how the present study fits into the research area.1 Definition of task In any class, activities are given to achieve certain goals of the lesson. In other words, teachers try to design various activities for getting learners’ involvement to reach purposeful objectives. So are activities tasks or tasks simply the same as the popular term, so- called exercises? Nunan (2004) said: “the concept of “task” is a very important element in every syllabus design, classroom teaching and learner assessment” (p.
This big role of task leads to a variety of its definition. Prabhu (1987) suggested that a task is an activity in which learners are required to reach an outcome from given information and during this process the duties of teachers are to control and regulate. 5 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com Willis (1996:26) also defined a task as an activity in which the learners use the target language “for a communicative purpose” to “achieve an outcome’. Two definitions above reach an agreement that a task is a purposeful activity and used in teaching and learning the target language with communicativeness.
The ultimate goal of each task is to reach certain objectives of the lesson through a process of the students’ involvement. Teachers, of course, are not centered in carrying out a task, the centeredness or the focus of each task is students. With task implementation, the role of teachers and students in class has changed in comparison with old methods; the teachers are just facilitators. Teachers just guide, control and support students’ working in a task.
Here is another definition of tasks: “an activity or an action which is carried out as the result of processing or understanding a language.