VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POSTGRADUATE STUDIES CAO SƠN HÙNG AN INVESTIGATION INTO STUDENTS’ COMMUNICATIVE NEEDS IN ENGLISH: THE CASE OF UNNIVERSITY OF LABOUR AND SOCIAL AFFAIRS (NGHIÊN CỨU ĐIỀU TRA VỀ NHU CẦU GIAO TIẾP TIẾNG ANH CỦA SINH VIÊN TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC LAO ĐỘNG XÃ HỘI) M. MINOR THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60 14 10 HÀ NỘI, 2012 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POSTGRADUATE STUDIES CAO SƠN HÙNG AN INVESTIGATION INTO STUDENTS’ COMMUNICATIVE NEEDS IN ENGLISH: THE CASE OF UNNIVERSITY OF LABOUR AND SOCIAL AFFAIRS (NGHIÊN CỨU ĐIỀU TRA VỀ NHU CẦU GIAO TIẾP TIẾNG ANH CỦA SINH VIÊN TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC LAO ĐỘNG XÃ HỘI) M. MINOR THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60 14 10 Supervisor : M. Văn Thi Thanh ̣ Bin ̀ h HÀ NỘI, 2012 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com TABLE OF CONTENT Part A: INTRODUCTION.
Scope of the study. Aims of the study. Subjects and Methodology of the study. Design of the study .7 CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND.
"COMMUNICATIVENESS" AND COMPETENCE. What is ―communicativeness‖?. Changing the communicative needs. The impact of integrated language skills in communication.
19 CHAPTER 2: THE STUDY. Data and Methodology. Results and Discussion. Students‘ Needs and Actual Use.
30 PART C: CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATION. Conclusions and implications. Limitation and suggestion for further study. 38 APPENDIX…………………………………………………………………………I iv LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com LIST OF TABLE AND DIAGRAM Tables Page number Table 1: Students‘ needs of listening by type of job 24 Table 2: Students‘ needs of speaking by type of job 25 Table 3: Students‘ needs of reading by type of job 26 Table 4: Students‘ needs of writing by type of job 27 Table 5: students‘ wants by type of work 29 Table 6.
Response percentages: Language proficiency (self- 31 assessment) by type of work Table 7. Response percentages: skills used in the workplace by 32 type of work v LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com PART A: INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale English is undoubtedly considered a golden key to open the door of such fields as commerce, science and technology throughout the world. Therefore, it is necessary to teach this language in educational establishments of all levels.
One of the most important purposes of learning English is to communicate with other people especially native speakers while communication is mainly based on speaking in which intonation is an important aspect. Therefore, how to speak English smoothly and fluently with an accurate intonation is essential to any learners of English including Vietnamese learners. However, during the course of the research‘s study and teaching practice, it is found that little or even no attention is paid to the teaching and learning of communicativeness. In addition, among many aspects of the teaching and learning English, communicativeness is often neglected at non-major language colleges.
Students are taught about this issue when they are in university or college; so many of them find it difficult to communicate because of their pronunciation or because they can‘t pronounce an utterance with accurate intonation. As a result, their English does not sound native-like. Similarly, students always have troubles in listening and understanding native speakers. This leads to the fact that a lot of them feel shy and lack of confidence in speaking English.
During the past 20 years, the explosion in business and communications technology has revolutionized the field of English language teaching, and has radically shifted the attention of course designers from teaching English for Academic purposes to teaching English for more specialized purposes. In the last few years, first (L1) and second (L2) language acquisition research into language teaching have led to an increased interest in investigating the most effective ways of improving the ability of workers in using English for specific purposes in the workplace (Li So-mui and Mead, 2000; Louhiala-Salminen 1996). Several recent studies of ESP have provided evidence of the importance of teaching English for specific purposes (Li So-mui and Mead, 2000; Edwards, 2000; Lohiala-Salinen, 1 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 1996; Huchinson and Waters, 1987). For example, it has been observed that the type of language used by each worker is influenced by the worker‘s working instrument (see for example, Pogner, 2003; Zak and Dudley-Evans, 1986), by his aims and professional constraints, as well as by his specialization and the type of duties assigned to him, and by the texts the worker produces and deals with (e.
These educational studies have been developing in tandem with a recognition that learning English for specific purposes play important roles in workers‘ and administrators‘ success in their fields of work and business environments. Over the last few years, many researchers have offered a number of books and articles bringing out new insights and approaches from different theoretical perspectives. For instance, an important survey was conducted in Finland in 1998 by the National Board of Education on the language and communication skills in the fields of industry and business. It studied language/ communication needs of industry and business employees and was aimed at showing how language teaching could best equip students with the skills required in professional life.
The survey has revealed that compared with engineers, employees in production jobs, installation and repair workers do not need to use foreign languages as much as the members of the other group. However it is clear that they have to read instructions, socialize and travel. They rarely get involved with writing formal papers, giving presentations or negotiating. The study thus has shown that the need for oral communication overrides written skills (reading and writing) in the first group, while the discrepancy in the second is smaller (Reported in Viel 2002:1).
Similar studies have been carried out in other European and Asian countries (see Perrin, 2003; Ponger, 2003; Edwards, 2000; Le So-Mui and Mead, 2000). In his study on writing and interacting in the discourse community of engineers, Pogner (2003:865) has concluded that writing in the discourse community of engineers cannot be isolated from its contexts, from the chains of communication of 2 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com which it is a part, or from the interaction between the writers (consultants) or readers (Clients). On this issue, Pogner also adds: Text production and revision by consultant engineers are not only cognitive problem-solving and communication processes ….but also means of negotiation professional standards and roles; defining strategic functions of texts and genres; establishing, maintaining or changing the text’s and interaction’s context by helping the readers/users of the text carry out their own complex technological and business tasks. In like manner, in a study which took place in a specialized business context involving senior German bankers, Edwards (2000) has observed that there is a correlational relationship between the place of work and the effective needs of workers in terms of language skills practiced, terminology used, and syllabus design and materials preparation for the workers.
This work arose from a long-standing association between the on-going process of research in the field of teaching/learning English for Specific purposes in General, and the study plan towards a Bachelor of Arts degree from the Department of English for Applied studies at the University of Labor and Social Affairs (ULSA). More specifically, it developed from an attempt to revise the study plan continuously based on the results of other studies on ESP along with an authentic analysis of learners' perceptions of needs, wants and lacks in the workplace in the future. The rationale behind choosing these two areas of students‘ future work (accounting and insurance) for the purpose of investigation is because they are two of the most important fields in which English is used extensively. So, for a better understanding of the day-to-day activities and the ‗real world‘ needs of these students, an empirical investigation was carried out so as to see whether the type of material and skills being taught to our students suit their 3 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com needs or not.
Another aim of this study is to see whether there is a need to modify our objectives or to update our programs in light of the results of this investigation. So this study will concern itself partially with studying language use, and the workers‘ perceptions of ESP in light of their abilities and ‗real world‘ need. Scope of the study The research is based on data collected from thirty respondents in four different classes at University of Labor and Social Affairs in Hanoi, Vietnam. The participants in the survey were students in the major of accounting and insurance.
This paper is an exploratory study of the use of English by accounting and insurance students. It attempts to examine the communication needs of the students in the workplace by shedding light on their perceptions of needs, wants and lacks. Aims of the study This study was conducted for the purpose of achieving a better understanding of the communication needs placed upon Vietnamese accounting and insurance students. Moreover, this study was to identify the students‘ needs, wants, lacks of English for the purpose of including in our curriculum what is needed by our students and excluding what deemed to be less important to them.
This study also was carried out so as to see whether the type of material and skills being taught to our students suit their needs or not. Another aim of this study is to see whether there is a need to modify our objectives or to update our programs in light of the results of this investigation. Subjects and Methodology of the study The design of this investigation is based on the work of Hutchinson and Waters (1987), and Dudley-Evans and Jo ST John (1998), in which they define needs in terms of ―target needs (i. what the learner needs to do in the target situation) and Learning needs (i.
what the learner needs to do in order to learn).‖ The main concern of this investigation will be an analysis of the target needs of the subjects in these two areas of workplaces. However, as all the subjects of this study 4 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com are university undergraduates, no attempt will be made here to investigate their learning needs. To understand the undergraduates‘ preferred ways of learning, it is highly recommended that such investigation to be conducted at the University of Labor and Social Affairs in Hanoi, Vietnam, where several ESP courses are taught to the university students. According to Hutchinson and Waters (1987), and Dudley-Evans and Jo ST John (1998), the best methodology for studying the target needs of any particular group of students is to use such methods as Questionnaires, follow-up interviews, collection of authentic workplace texts, and visits to the workplace.
The corpus of this study was collected with the assistance of three ESP students enrolled in the Department of English for Applied Studies at University of Labor and Social Affairs (ULSA) by means of a questionnaire and interviews. Data collection methods used in this study include calculating percentage of answers in the questionnaire. Details of methodology applied in the study are discussed in part B, chapter 2. Some of the interviews were conducted by me.
The present research is based on data collected from thirty respondents in leading positions in four different classes: accounting and insurance. The participants in the survey were students in the major of accounting and insurance, all of whom are Vietnamese-English balanced bilinguals capable of using English for different purposes. Fifteen of them study in the field of accounting and the other fifteen in the field of insurance. The sample is composed of twenty-two males and only eight females.