MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HUE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES TRAN THI MAI VY AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE USE OF ESP MATERIALS FOR THE SECOND - YEAR STUDENTS OF AGROFORESTRY AT KON TUM TECHNICAL AND ECONOMIC COLLEGE MA THESIS IN THEORY AND METHODOLOGY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts, Hue University of Foreign Languages HUE, 2016 i MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HUE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES TRAN THI MAI VY AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE USE OF ESP MATERIALS FOR THE SECOND - YEAR STUDENTS OF AGROFORESTRY AT KON TUM TECHNICAL AND ECONOMIC COLLEGE THEORY AND METHODOLOGY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING CODE: 60.11 SUPERVISOR: TRUONG BACH LE, PhD. HUE, 2016 i BỘ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO ĐẠI HỌC HUẾ TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ TRẦN THỊ MAI VY ĐIỀU TRA VỀ VIỆC SỬ DỤNG GIÁO TRÌNH TIẾNG ANH CHUYÊN NGÀNH CHO SINH VIÊN NĂM THỨ HAI NGÀNH NÔNG LÂM TẠI TRƯỜNG CAO ĐẲNG KINH TẾ - KỸ THUẬT KON TUM LUẬN VĂN THẠC SĨ LÝ LUẬN VÀ PHƯƠNG PHÁP DẠY HỌC BỘ MÔN TIẾNG ANH MÃ SỐ: 60.11 NGƯỜI HƯỚNG DẪN KHOA HỌC: TS. TRƯƠNG BẠCH LÊ HUẾ, 2016 ii STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY This work has not previously been submitted for a dregree or diploma in any university. to the best of my knowledge and belief, the thesis contains no material previously published or written by another person except where due reference is made in the thesis itself.
23 May 2016 Signature Tran Thi Mai Vy iii ABSTRACT ESP materials are the useful means and essential component in ESP teaching and learning. Materials evaluation is universally accepted as an integral part of teaching and learning. The study evaluates the quality of the English for Agro-Forestry materials designed for the students of Agro-Forestry major at Kon Tum Economic and Technical College. The study is theoretically based on two-stage materials evaluation model proposed by McDonough and Shaw (2012) and checklist-based materials evaluation model proposed by Danaye Tous and Haghighi (2013).
A survey questionnaire was used in this study to elicit the perspectives of 116 Agro-Forestry major students and 7 ESP teachers about the course book in question and its accompanying materials. The materials evaluation section of the questionnaire consisted of 22 items grouped under 5 main categories: (1) the aims and approaches; (2) layout, organisation and topic content; (3) language content and style; (4) language skills and strategy; and (5) other practice considerations. The data was mainly subjected to analysis through descriptive statistics. An independent samples t-test was computed to clarify the equality and variance of the responses between the two groups of the population (teachers and students).
The findings showed that most ESP teachers were generally in favour of the materials except for the language skills and practical considerations, whilst the students did not highly value all five criteria, especially language skills, aims and approaches and practical considerations. From the perspectives of the Agro-Forestry students and ESP students, the category that had the highest mean was the language content and styles, while the category that had the lowest mean was the language skills. The findings also revealed that there were no significant differences between the variance of the Agro-Forestry students and ESP teachers except for the aims and approaches of the ESP materials. The findings were also supported by ESP teachers' comments collected through the interviews.
The study concluded with recommendations and suggestions for the improvement of the materials. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I would like to express my grateful thanks to my supervisor, Dr. Truong Bach Le, for his great advice, guidance, support and care. I will be always in respect to him for his relentless dedication, effort and overwhelming kindness.
My profound thanks are extended to Dr. Hoang Tinh Bao for his valuable comments to my first thesis draft. My special appreciation goes to ESP teachers and other subject teachers at Kon Tum Economic and Technical College who have given me a great deal of encouragement and enthusiastic support when I enrolled in this graduate programme and during the survey for this thesis. My deepest respect and gratitude also go to my friends who extended their hands for help during the data collection period.
My special thanks go to my father and brothers for their support during my study and may I present this thesis in loving memory of my late beloved Mother. v TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER 1. The rationale of the study. Aims and objectives of the study.
Scope of the study. Significance of the study:. ESP as a discipline. Definition of ESP.
Theoretical developments of ESP. ESP theory developments. Target Situation/Needs Analysis. Skills and Strategies.
ESP learners' needs and ESP learning styles. ESP learners' needs. ESP learning styles. ESP Teachers' role.
Reasons for materials evaluation. Materials evaluation process. Materials evaluation methods. DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS.
Demographic characteristics of the participants. Analysis of students' needs for learning ESP. Evaluation from the students and ESP teachers. Reliability of the questionnaires.
Perceptions on the aims and approaches. Perceptions on the layout, organisation and topic content. Perceptions on the language content and style. Perceptions on the language skills and strategies.
Perceptions on several practical considerations. Comparison of the means of five factors and independent T-test. Comparison on the means and standard deviations of the factors. Independent T-Test on the evaluation of students and teachers.
Other opinions collected through interviews with the ESP teachers. CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS. Recommendation for future research .65 viii LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES Figure 1. The process of ESP courses analysis and learners' needs.
Students' place of residence. Number of students by province. Summary of Students' demographics. ESP Teachers' demographics.
Attitudes toward the importance of ESP in the subject. Purposes of learning ESP stated by the students. Purposes of learning ESP stated by the teachers. Participants' attitudes towards the importance of language skills.
Reliability Statistics: Students' Questionnaire. Reliability Statistics: ESP teachers' questionnaire. Aims and Approaches. Layout, organisation and topic content.
Language content and style. Participants' perception on language skills and strategies. Participants' perception on practical considerations. Means and standard deviations of the factors.
The independent T-Test on the ESP materials evaluation .53 ix LIST OF APPENDICES APPENDIX 1. AGRO-FORESTRY STUDENTS' QUESTIONNAIRE. BẢNG CÂU HỎI DÀNH CHO SINH VIÊN. ESP TEACHERS' QUESTIONNAIRE.
BẢNG CÂU HỎI DÀNH CHO GIÁO VIÊN TIẾNG ANH CHUYÊN NGÀNH. A SAMPLE CHAPTER OF THE ESP TEXTBOOK UNDER EVALUATION. The rationale of the study Hundreds of millions of people across the world are learning using English as an important language for international communication and professional purposes. It is the language of communication and instruction in business, education, science and technology, international academia and events.
Hence, teaching English as an international language is an essential goal of most of countries all over the world. People learn English for many different reasons, among which the most common might be preparing for their future career. To fulfill this demand, English for specific purposes (ESP) is put into the curriculum of most colleges and universities. In this regard, material development for an ESP course is a critical issue to ESP teachers.
English for Specific Purposes (ESP) has drawn a high level of interest among scholars of linguistics, teachers of English and students of various disciplines as English language has become more globalised than ever as the result of the acceleration of trade and rapid advances of technology. ESP has grown to become one of the most prominent areas of EFL teaching since the early 1960's, after the Second World War through the communication in the sciences and technology. There is extensive academic literature on ESP which has established a substantial research base for English linguistics researchers (Hutchinson & Waters, 1987; Nunan, 1988; Dudley-Evans & St. ESP is defined by Dudley-Evans and St.
John (1998) as an approach that is developed to meet the particular needs of the learners within a specific discipline or field by using relevant methodology and activities. ESP is different from General Purpose English teaching in terms of its methodology and content, especially when ESP is specifically related to a profession (Dudley-Evans & St. It can be understood from this 1 statement that when learners study English for their occupational needs, it will be appropriate to design courses that are methodologically and structurally different from General Purpose English courses. English for specific purposes is an approach to language teaching in which all decisions depend on learners’ needs.
In fact, it is devoted to both students and workers of the field. Moreover, there are two parts of ESP: EAP (English for Academic Purposes) and EOP (English for Occupational Purposes). There are five major components that can be categorised under language instruction within ESP. These elements are the students, the teacher, materials, teaching methods, and evaluation.
Materials are the vital component concerning what happens inside the ESP classroom because they control the process of teaching and learning. In other words, materials should satisfy learners’ needs; teachers have to follow the curriculum and select the relevant materials according to them, taking into account their students’ interests and motivation. In order to help learners, the teacher may adapt, supplement, and elaborate those materials. In this context, ESP materials should not be chosen randomly but should be selected appropriately in order to foster learners’ capacities.
It is thus crucial to mention that materials must be enjoyable, initiative and creative so that to reach the ultimate aims of both teaching and learning processes. It is here that the ESP teacher’s role as a researcher is very important; he/she tries to look for the appropriate materials for the classroom from what is available concentrating on learners’ needs respecting factors, such as, learners’ age, sex, ethnic group, background knowledge, academic objectives and requirements, proficiency levels, cultural aspects, and learning/teaching styles. Textbooks, learning activities, video and audio clips, computer software, visual aids and others can be covered under ESP materials. ESP materials should be authentic and practical in order to meet learners’ needs and interests.
Also, it would be useful to have a variety of ESP materials. Since students’ understanding of vocabulary is 2 very limited, the vocabulary in ESP materials should be controlled so that to foster students’ understanding of the selected materials. For lower level students, grammar also should be involved. In Vietnam, English is learnt and taught in a non-English environment.
This obstacle is coupled with the fact that ESP is the new and challenging domain to ESP teachers and poses difficulty in ESP material development. At Kon Tum Technical and Economic College (KTEC), different ESP courses are taught to students of different majors such as electrical engineering, economics, land management, forest management, agronomy and crop science. teaching ESP, teachers of the English section, especially those who are teaching English for technical students, encounter many problems due to the inadequacy of appropriate ESP course books. Since no really suitable published material is available for use, there is no choice but designing their own materials for the ESP courses.
The evaluation of the ESP materials being used has rarely been conducted, which implies that students' needs and expectation are almost neglected. For all these reasons, this research study is aimed to investigate the use of ESP materials for second-year students of Agro-Forestry at Kon Tum Technical and Economic College”. The study attempts to explore students' and teachers' perceptions of the needs for English for Agro-Forestry as contained in the existing course book and the way it is presented.