VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES ----------------------------- TRAN THI HUONG GIANG CHALLENGES FOR TEACHERS AND STUDENTS IN THE ESP COURSE FOR POLICE STUDIES (Những thách thức đối với giảng viên và sinh viên trong việc dạy và học tiếng Anh chuyên ngành cảnh sát) M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 8140231.01 HANOI, 2019 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES ----------------------------- TRAN THI HUONG GIANG CHALLENGES FOR TEACHERS AND STUDENTS IN THE ESP COURSE FOR POLICE STUDIES (Những thách thức đối với giảng viên và sinh viên trong việc dạy và học tiếng Anh chuyên ngành cảnh sát) M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 8140231. Tran Thi Thu Hien HANOI, 2019 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com DECLARATION I hereby certify that the minor thesis entitled: “Challenges for Teachers and Students in the ESP Course for Police Studies”, which is submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in English Language Teaching Methodology at Faculty of Post-Graduate Studies, University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi is the result of my own work. I have provided fully documented references to the work of others. The material in this thesis has not been submitted for any other university or institution wholly and partially.
Hanoi, 2019 Tran Thi Huong Giang i TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This research paper would not have been completed without the help of people to whom I would like to express my deep gratitude. First and foremost, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to Dr. Tran Thi Thu Hien, my supervisor, for her wholehearted support, continuous motivation and precious guidance which were decisive factors to the completion of the thesis. Also, I would like to give my warmest thanks to all of the lectures and officers working at the Postgraduate Faculty, University of Languages and International Studies, for their supporting me while I was studying and conducting this thesis.
I would like to extend my special thanks to all the research participants, my dear colleagues and students. Without their valuable opinions and ideas in the questionnaires, the study would not have been accomplished. Last but not least, I owe my family their continuous support. Their patience and love have helped me go beyond what sometimes looks like an insurmountable task.
ii TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com ABSTRACT This study was intended to investigate the challenges for teachers and students in the ESP course for police studies. More specifically, the researcher strived to (i) investigate challenges that the teachers and students encounter in teaching and studying the ESP course for police studies, and (ii) propose some suggestions to overcome these challenges. To achieve the above mentioned objectives, a survey research was conducted with the participation of 24 teachers and 100 students at an academy in Ministry of Public Security. The data came from a questionnaire for the teachers, a questionnaire for the students, and interviews with some of the participants.
The results from data analysis have shown that the teachers had such difficulties as knowledge of the subject, class organization, teaching methods, the learners’ English proficiency, time-constraint, as well as the course book and teaching materials. From the other perspectives, the students had to face up with challenges like time-constraint, the students’ English proficiency, knowledge of the subject, motivation and studying habits. On the basis of the findings, some recommendations were given to help solve the challenges met by the teachers and the students. iii TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION.
iii TABLE OF CONTENTS. iv LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS. vii LIST OF TABLE AND FIGURES. Rationale for the study.
Aims and objectives of the study. Scope of the study. Significance of the study. Structure of the thesis.
4 CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND. English for Specific Purposes. Definitions and characteristics of ESP. English for Specific Purposes vs.
Types of ESP. Features of ESP courses. ESP teaching material. The roles of ESP teachers.
The roles of ESP learners. ESP learners’ motivation. 21 iv TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail. Data collection instruments.
Data collection procedure and analysis. 24 CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION. Results of the survey questionnaires. The questionnaires for ESP teachers.
Results of the questionnaire for the students. Results of the Semi-Structured Interviews. Teachers and students’ suggestions to improve their knowledge. Teachers’ suggestions for class organization.
Teachers’ suggestions for teaching methods. Teachers and students’ suggestions to enhance students’ English proficiency. Teachers and students’ suggestions for time-constraint. Teachers’ suggestions for using the course book and teaching materials.
Teachers and students’ suggestions to motivate students. Students’ suggestions to change their studying habits. Challenges the teachers encounter in teaching ESP. Challenges the students encounter in studying ESP.
Suggestions to overcome the challenges for the teachers. Suggestions to overcome the challenges for the students. Limitations of the Study. Suggestions for further studies.
52 v TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail. VII vi TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS EAOP: English for Academic and Occupational Purposes EAP: English for Academic Purposes EFL: English as Foreign Language EGAP: English for General Academic Purposes EOP: Occupational Purposes ESAP: English for Specific Academic Purposes ESP: English for Special Purposes EST: English for Science and Technology GE: General English PPA: the People’s Police Academy vii TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES Table 3.1: Training areas the teachers want to receive .2: Challenging aspects in teaching ESP .3: Challenging aspects in studying ESP.1: Tree of ELT (Hutchinson and Waters, 1987) .2: The Division of ESP (Carter, 1983) .3: Factors Affecting ESP Course Design (Hutchinson and Waters, 1987) .1: Teachers’ ESP & GE teaching experience .2: Teachers’ subject knowledge .3: Formal training forms received by teachers .4: The use of a different teaching methods.5: Factors made the methods different .7: Students’ ESP studying experience .7: Students’ English proficiency.8: Students’ means of studying ESP .9: Teachers’ suggestions to improve their knowledge .10: Students’ suggestions to improve their knowledge of the subject .11: Teachers’ suggestions for class organization .12: Teachers’ suggestions for teaching methods .13: Teachers’ suggestions for students’ English proficiency .14: Students’ suggestions to enhance their English proficiency .15: Teachers’ suggestions for time-constraint .16: Students’ suggestions for time-constraint .17: Teachers’ suggestions for using the course book and teaching materials .18: Teachers’ suggestions to motivate students .19: Students’ suggestions to motivate their motivation .20: Students’ suggestions to change their studying habits. 39 viii TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail. Rationale for the study As a result of globalization and integration processes, English has become an essential part of international communication and exchange.
Especially, English for specific purposes (ESP) has been steadily growing to meet to the demands of people working in different fields. Thus, with the national policy of renovation and international integration, there is an increasing need for teaching and learning English in Vietnam. More importantly, the idea of adopting ESP in the classrooms at schools, colleges, and universities cannot be avoided. Having recognized the strategic necessity of ESP for its students after graduation, the academy’s teachers have applied the ESP course to its Police Studies for three years.
All freshmen enrolled at this academy have to take ESP courses despite their majors. The textbook used for the courses is “English for Police” including specialized vocabulary, topics, and knowledge related to law and police field. It helps students enrich their vocabulary and get familiar with daily situations they may encounter while working as police officers in the real life. However, several complaints that they were not considered capable of taking ESP teaching and studying responsibilities were expressed by both teachers and students at the academy.
To the teachers, it is vital that they must develop the competencies needed for the task of teaching ESP in Police Studies. This is particularly important as there are frequent complaints when they confront the realities of the classroom. To the students, it is said that they have had enormous difficulties in taking the courses of which vocabulary, topics, and knowledge are totally different from what they studied at high schools. Consequently, the students are at loss, which may create high levels of anxiety and stress among the students.
For the reasons above, it is clearly imperative to explore the challenges of ESP teaching and studying at the academy, which helps find out solutions for the teachers and students to overcome the obstacles. Thus, before sorting out suitable methods in teaching and studying the ESP course at the academy, the researcher 1 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com would like to conduct a research paper entitled “Challenges for teachers and students in the ESP course for Police Studies”. Aims and objectives of the study The general purpose of the study is to investigate what challenges the teachers and students in the researched academy may encounter while teaching and studying the ESP courses. The specific objectives of the research are as follows: - Investigate challenges that the teachers and students have to cope with while teaching and studying the ESP courses of Police Studies.
- Propose some recommendations to help both the teachers and students achieve better results in approaching the ESP course of Police Studies. Research questions This research aims at addressing the two following questions: - What challenges do the teachers and students encounter in teaching and studying the ESP courses of Police Studies? - What are possible suggestions to overcome the challenges? 4. Research method Survey research was chosen as the primary method since it met the aims and objectives of the study. This method is also justified to offer significant benefits for the researcher, who is also an EFL teacher.
Scope of the study Within the frame of this study, the researcher would like to focus on finding out challenges encountered by the teachers and students working with the ESP courses of Police Studies, and from the findings, propose some suggestions to help the teachers and students overcome and take advantages of the challenges found. All of the attempts to deal with ESP from other perspectives and other types of students in other contexts are out of the scope of this study. 2 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail. Significance of the study The study is expected to contribute to the development of teaching and learning ESP courses.
The study is meaningful in such aspect that it will provide teaching and studying implications for English as foreign language (EFL) teachers and students. In other words, this is substantial for educators in providing suggestions for overcoming the challenges and developing their teaching and studying syllabus, methods, and assessment. Lastly, this research can be used as a reference source for those who have interest in this issue and a supplement to related studies on teaching and studying ESP. Structure of the thesis The study is composed of three main parts: Introduction, Development, and Conclusion.
Part A: Introduction states the rationale, aims, objectives, research questions, research method, scope and significance of the study as well as the structure of the study Part B: Development consists of three chapters. Chapter 1: Theoretical background provides theories of ESP and teaching ESP, and previous studies related to the topic. Chapter 2: Methodology demonstrates the research methods applied in the study with details on how and why these methods were implemented. Besides, the data collection procedure and data analysis are also described in this chapter.
Chapter 3: Findings and discussion reports data analysis, the results and discussions Part 3: Conclusion summarizes the main issues covered in the paper, presents the limitations of the study and some suggestions for further studies in the research area.