MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HUE UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES ------------ DANG THI NGOC BICH ESP NEEDS ANALYSIS FOR PHARMACEUTICAL STUDENTS AT QUANG BINH MEDICAL SCHOOL 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, 2018 MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HUE UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES ------------ DANG THI NGOC BICH ESP NEEDS ANALYSIS FOR PHARMACEUTICAL STUDENTS AT QUANG BINH MEDICAL SCHOOL MA THESIS IN THEORY AND METHODOLOGY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING CODE: 60.11 SUPERVISOR: TRUONG BACH LE, D. HUE, 2018 BỘ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO ĐẠI HỌC HUẾ TRƢỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ -------- ĐẶNG THỊ NGỌC BÍCH PHÂN TÍCH NHU CẦU HỌC TIẾNG ANH CHUYÊN NGÀNH CỦA SINH VIÊN DƢỢC SỸ TẠI TRƢỜNG TRUNG CẤP Y TẾ QUẢNG BÌNH LUẬN VĂN THẠC SĨ LÝ LUẬN VÀ PHƢƠNG PHÁP DẠY HỌC BỘ MÔN TIẾNG ANH MÃ SỐ: 60.11 NGƢỜI HƢỚNG DẪN KHOA HỌC: TS. TRƢƠNG BẠCH LÊ HUẾ, 2018 STATEMENT OF ORIGINAL AUTHORSHIP The work contained in this thesis has not previously been submitted for a de- gree or diploma in any university. I certify that, to the best of my knowledge and belief, my thesis contains no material previously published or written by another person except where due reference is made in the thesis itself.
Signed:………………………… Dang Thi Ngoc Bich Date: ……………………… i ABSTRACT This study conducted an investigation into ESP needs of Pharmaceutical stu- dents at Quang Binh Medical School. The study aimed to: (i) find the students’ per- ceptions about the role of ESP in the process of learning and teaching (ii) investi- gate ESP needs of pharmaceutical students at Quang Binh Medical School (iii) draw on the research findings and give some suggestions for English for Pharmacy course at QMS. The subjects for this research were 110 pharmaceutical students who were chosen randomly. Additionally, 3 English teachers and 3 Pharmaceutical teachers who are taking part in teaching at Quang Binh medical schools also participated in the investigation.
The data were collected through the means of questionnaires and interviews. This study pointed out that with both current and former Pharmaceutical students, English generally and English for Pharmacy particularly played an im- portant role in accessing professional documents, communicating and serving the customers better. Hence, the students and teachers had a high agreement that ESP course should give the students opportunities to increase Pharmaceutical vocabu- lary, improve language skills, especially speaking and listening skills. Besides that, the needs about topics, material, teachers’ introduction, the activities in classroom and so on were indicated clearly by current and former students.
In summary, this study provided useful and important information for forming and designing English for Pharmacy course at Quangbinh Medical School. ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First of all, I would like to thank to my supervisor, Dr.Truong Bach Le, who gave me invaluable feedback, warm support and excelent en- couragement during the research process. I am really thankful that he has spent a great deal of his valuable time meeting with me, instructing and giving comments. Second, I am so grateful to all Pharmaceutical students and lec- tures at QMS who participated in this study.
Third, I would like to express my sincere thanks to my headmas- ter,my Head of department and my colleagues who helped me in many ways so that I could have peace of mind for my study. Last, I wish to express my deepest gratitude to my family and my friends without whose support, I could not have completed this study. iii TABLE OF CONTENT STATEMENT OF ORIGINAL AUTHORSHIP. iii TABLE OF CONTENT.
iv LIST OF FIGURES. viii LIST OF TABLES. ix LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS. Background of the study.
Scope of the study. Structure of the study .4 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW. Issues of English for specific purposes. Definition of English for specific purposes.
Types of English for specific purposes. English for Pharmacy. Definition of needs analysis. What does the word needs means in needs analysis?.
Types of needs analysis. Roles and purposes of need analysis in curriculum design. ESP in Viet Nam and at Quang Binh Medical School. ESP in Viet Nam.
ESP at Quang Binh Medical School. Instruments for data collection. Data collection procedure .28 CHAPTER IV: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS. Findings and discussions.
Students‟ perceptions of the importance of learning English. Students‟ opinions about the necessity of an ESP course. Perceptions about the necessity of an ESP course. The reasons for teaching and learning English for Pharmacy at QBMS.
Current Pharmaceutical students‟ awareness of their ability in different English skills. Language skills for ESP course. The frequency of using English language skills at work of former students. The important language skills for ESP course .1 Speaking skills for ESP course.
Listening skills for ESP course. Reading skills for ESP course. Students‟ suggestions for the topics in an ESP textbook of Pharmacy. Current students‟ preferences for learning activities and materials.
Current students‟ preferences for learning activities. Current students‟ preferences for learning materials. What English language teachers should do to help students satisfy their ESP learning needs. Students‟ perceptions about who should teach ESP.
Students‟ suggestions for teaching strategies to meet their ESP learning needs. When and how ESP courses should be held. When ESP should be offered. How long ESP should be offered to students.
How ESP courses should be held. Preferred types of assessment .54 CHAPTER V: CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS. Summary of the findings and implications. What are the students‟ perceptions about the role of ESP in the process of learning and teaching?.
What are ESP needs of pharmaceutical students?. What factors should be considered in designing the curriculum for ESP course?. For Pharmaceutical students. For administrators at Quang Binh Medical School.
67 vii LIST OF FIGURES Figure 2. Third-level subcategories of ESP (Brown, 2016, p. Current Pharmaceutical students‟ perceptions. Former Pharmaceutical students‟ perceptions of the importance of English to their current jobs.
Current and former students‟ opinions about the necessity. Current and Former students‟ reasons for learning ESP. Current Pharmaceutical students‟ assessment of the English language skills. The frequency of using English at work of the former students.
The frequency of using English language skills at work of. The important language skills for ESP course. Current students‟ preferences for learning activities. Current students‟ preferences for learning materials.
Current students‟ perceptions about who should teach ESP. Students‟ suggestions for teaching strategies to meet their ESP learning needs. When ESP should be offered. How long ESP should be offered to students.
How ESP courses should be held. Preferred types of assessment .53 viii LIST OF TABLES Table 2. Some of the important definitions of needs analysis. Questions in questionnaires based on Hutchinson and Water's framework (1987).
The framework for data analysis. Speaking skills for ESP course. Listening skills for ESP course. Reading skills for ESP course .43 ix LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS 1.
ESP : English for Specific Purposes 2. MOET : Ministry of Education and Training 3. NA : Need Analysis 4. QBMS : Quang Binh Medical School 5.
WHO : World Health Organization x CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION 1. Overview In this section, the background of the study, the rationales as well as signifi- cance of the study are going to be introduced. Besides that, the research aims, re- search questions, research scope and the organization of the study are also described in detail. Background of the study Viet Nam, as well as many other countries, considers foreign language, espe- cially English, as tool for intercultural communication.
The Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) has set a goal by 2020, most of students after graduating from vocational schools, colleges and universities will be able to use a foreign lan- guage confidently in daily communication, for their study or job, make foreign lan- guage become effective tools to industrialize and modernize for the country (MOET, 2008). Hence, the foreign language learning and teaching are prioritized in the curriculum at the vocational schools with the aim to meet the society‟s demands. World Health Organization (2003) noted “The most critical issue facing health care systems is the shortage of people who make them work” (p. In a research 2013, WHO showed that at the present, the world is short of 7.2 million health-care workers, and by 2035, this figure will reach 12.
Clearly, the shortage of health-care workers is the serious issue in every country, both in the powerful countries and in the developing countries. To offset this shortage, many countries find the human resource from the other nations. In Viet Nam, a number of healthcare workers who are collected to study and work in the field of care in the hard markets; such as German, Japan, Taiwan; increases remarkably in the recent years. In addition, the foreigners who work and live in Viet Nam are growing rapid- ly each year.
These are the good opportunities for medical students to work in the modern and professional environment. Nevertheless, every opportunity comes with challenges. To satisfy the job‟s requirements, besides the professional skills, the students are also required to have good knowledge about foreign language. And to 1 get these targets, it is necessary to have a curriculum appropriately with learners.
Rationale Quang Binh Medical School is the only place in Quang Binh province train- ing for health professional students, with more than 20 years of establishment and development, from 1998 to now. At the present time, the school is going to com- plete the profile to be recognized as a college. According to the plan, in the next school year, this educational institution will enroll the first generation college stu- dents (with the training time is from 2. And although it has not been a college, in school years 2016- 2017 and 2017-2018, at Quang Binh Medical School, under the training cooperation program with Ha Tinh Medical College, more than 200 students applied into Pharmacy College and the demand of training in these fields increases each year.
To satisfy the requirements of learning and teaching, now, the departments are continuing considering and designing the courses. English for Pharmacy is also included in these courses. However, it is not easy to have suitable curricula. Be- cause of that in each environment and each field, students have the differences about level as well as learning needs.
Meanwhile, an important rule when designing a curriculum for specific purposes is that it has to base on an analysis of the charac- teristics as well as needs of the learners. This will decide the success of the course; help the learning process become more effective and learners get more positive. Basturkmen (2006) points out that to build an ESP course, the developer has to identify the learner‟s need and design a curriculum around them. Rubin (1985) finds that "The syllabus is a small place to start bringing students and faculty mem- bers back together.56) At Quang Binh Medical School, the learners mainly come from high schools in province, their English level when entering the school is different between re- gions and it seems that their language ability is quite limited.
In fact, it is difficult to understand the language needs as well as the expectations of these objects, mean- while, at QBMS, at this time there are not any researches that study about learning needs of the students generally and needs for ESP learning particularly.