VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ---------- Nguyễn Thị Mỹ Hạnh DESIGNING AN ESP READING SYLLABUS FOR THE SECOND YEAR STUDENTS OF VIETNAMESE STUDIES AT HOA LU UNIVERSITY (Thiết kế chương trình đọc tiếng Anh chuyên ngành cho sinh viên năm thứ hai chuyên ngành Việt Nam học tại trường Đại học Hoa Lư) M. Minor Thesis Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 601410 Hanoi, 2010 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ---------- Nguyễn Thị Mỹ Hạnh DESIGNING AN ESP READING SYLLABUS FOR THE SECOND YEAR STUDENTS OF VIETNAMESE STUDIES AT HOA LU UNIVERSITY (Thiết kế chương trình đọc tiếng Anh chuyên ngành cho sinh viên năm thứ hai chuyên ngành Việt Nam học tại trường Đại học Hoa Lư) M. Minor Thesis Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 601410 Supervisor: Nguyễn Thụy Phương Lan Hanoi, 2010 i ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I am greatly indebted to Mrs. Nguyen Thuy Phuong Lan, my supervisor, to whom I wish to extend my sincere gratitude for her guidance, constructive criticisms, valuable suggestions and encouragement, without which the thesis might not have been completed.
I would also like to express my gratitude to all my lecturers at the Post-graduate Department, University of Languages and International Studies – VNU for their useful lectures, comments, and suggestions. Special thanks are due to all the English staff and the second-year students of Vietnamese Studies at Hoa Lu University for their contribution to the data collection and their constructive suggestions for this research. Finally, I owe the completion of this study to my beloved family for their endless support, patience and understanding. ii DECLARATION I hereby declare that this thesis is a presentation of my original research work.
Wherever contributions of others are involved, every effort is made to indicate this clearly, with due reference to the literature, and acknowledgement of collaborative research and discussions. The work was done under the guidance of Mrs. Nguyen Thuy Phuong Lan, M., at University of Languages and International Studies-VNU. Nguyen Thi My Hanh In my capacity as supervisor of the candidate’s thesis, I certify that the above statements are true to the best of my knowledge.
Nguyen Thuy Phuong Lan Date: iii ABSTRACT As English has become the accepted international language of technology and commerce, a new generation of learners who knew specifically why they were learning a language was created. Designing English for Specific Purposes (ESP) courses to better meet these individual needs become an important task, especially when no suitable published material is available for the identified needs. This was one of the main reasons for the development of an ESP reading syllabus for the second-year students of Vietnamese Studies at Hoa Lu University (HLU). The study consists of three main parts: Introduction, Development and Conclusion.
The Introduction states the rationale, aims and objectives, research questions, scopes, methods and the design of the study. The Development which is the main part of the study consists of three chapters. Chapter 1 reviews literature on some fundamental features of ESP, syllabus design, needs analysis and reading theories. Chapter 2 takes into consideration such questions as the teaching and learning situation at HLU, the background of the study’s subjects, and the needs analysis conducted to the ESP teachers, the subject teachers and the second-year students of Vietnamese Studies with instruments of questionnaires and interviews.
The results of the needs analysis provide the basis for the ESP reading syllabus which is proposed in Chapter 3. The Conclusion summarizes the study, points out its limitations and gives suggestions for further research. The proposed syllabus is expected to meet the students’ needs as well as the training objectives of HLU and will make contribution to the improvement of ESP learning and teaching at the university. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENT.iii TABLE OF CONTENTS.
iv LIST OF ABREVIATION .vii LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES .viii PART I: INTRODUCTION. Aims and objectives. Scope of the study. Methods of the study.
Design of the study. 2 PART II: DEVELOPMENT. 4 CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW. An overview of ESP.
Definition of ESP. Types of ESP. An overview of syllabus design. Types of syllabus .1 Content-based syllabus.
Skills-based syllabus. Method-based syllabus. Approaches to ESP syllabus design. Language-centred approach.
Skills-centred approach. Learning-centred approach. Steps to design a syllabus. Theories of reading.
Reading in ESP. Reading skills and strategies in ESP. 15 CHAPTER 2: THE STUDY. The teaching and learning English situation at Hoa Lu University.
The target students. The teaching staff of the English section. Instruments for collecting data. Needs perceived by the teachers of the English section.
Needs perceived by the subject teachers. Needs perceived by the target students. 26 CHAPTER 3: DESIGNING AN ESP READING SYLLABUS FOR THE SECOND YEAR STUDENTS OF VIETNAMESE STUDIES AT HOA LU UNIVERSITY. Aims and objectives of the reading syllabus.
Selecting the type of ESP syllabus. Sequencing the content and the tasks in the syllabus. Selecting the content. Topics in the syllabus.
Reading skills and reading exercises. Grammar and structures. Grading the items in the syllabus. The organization of the syllabus.
Quantity and structures of the syllabus. Designing tests for the ESP reading course. The proposed syllabus for the second-year students of Vietnamese Studies at HLU .I vii LIST OF ABREVIATION EAP: English for Academic Purposes EGP: English for General Purposes EGAP: English for General Academic Purposes EGBP: English for General Business Purposes ELT: English Language Teaching EOP: English for Occupational Purposes ESP: English for Specific Purposes GE: General English HLU: Hoa Lu University LSP: Languages for specific purposes TALO: Text As a Linguistic Object TAVI: Text As a Vehicle of Information viii LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES Figure 1: Continuum of ELT course types .5-6 Table 1: Teachers’ expectations of the ESP reading course .XI Table 2: Teachers’ ranking of topics relating to Vietnamese Handicraft Villages….XIII Table 3: Teachers’ ranking of grammar and structures needed for the syllabus……….XIV Table 4: Reading skills and exercises needed for reading comprehension perceived by the teachers .XV Table 5: Students’ expectations of the ESP reading course.XVII Table 6: Students’ ranking of topics relating to Vietnamese Handicraft Villages .XIX Table 7: Reading skills and exercises needed for reading comprehension perceived by the students .XX 1 PART I: INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale The most significant feature of the rapidly developing field of English language teaching over the past decades has been the importance attached to English for Specific Purposes (ESP), which is part of a more general movement of teaching Languages for Specific Purposes (LSP).
In fact, the teaching of ESP was pioneered in the 1950s and 1960s (Dudley-Evans & St. However, the enterprise became a vital and innovative activity within the teaching of English in the 1970s. Today, with the globalization of trade and economy and the continuing increase of international communication in various fields, the demand for ESP is expanding, especially in countries where English is taught as a foreign language. In Vietnam, the teaching and learning of ESP are getting more and more attention in order for the learners to get the best preparation for their future career.
There are many colleges and universities in which ESP is compulsory in the curriculum. At Hoa Lu University (HLU), different ESP courses are taught to students of different majors. Students of Vietnamese studies, after completing a 150 – period General English course, will progress to the ESP stage which includes two courses, namely English for Hotels and Tourist Industry and English for Vietnamese Handicraft Villages. In preparing for this stage, teachers of the English section, especially those who are asked to teach English for Vietnamese Handicraft Villages Module, face a lot of difficulties due to the lack of an appropriate ESP teaching syllabus.
Since no really suitable published material is available for the identified needs, they have no choice but to provide the material for the course. Being one member of the ESP teachers who are in charge of this challenging task I realized that designing an appropriate ESP reading syllabus is of great necessity and significance given the time allotment of the course, the students’ English proficiency and the fact that developing reading skills for specialized texts is of great importance to ESP students. This is the main reason why the topic “Designing an ESP reading syllabus for the second-year students of Vietnamese Studies at Hoa Lu University” is chosen for my thesis. Aims and objectives The study aims at designing an appropriate ESP reading syllabus for the second-year students of Vietnamese Studies at HLU.
To achieve this aim, the following objectives are 2 established: (1) To develop a theoretical framework related to ESP reading syllabus design (2) To identify the needs perceived by the ESP teachers, the ESP students and the subject teachers toward an appropriate reading syllabus for the target students. (3) To propose a reading syllabus based on the relevant theories and the needs analysis 3. Research questions In order to attain the above aims and objectives of the study, the researcher developed the following research questions: (1) What are the students’ learning needs and target needs? (2) What should be included in the syllabus? The answer to these questions will help to develop an appropriate ESP reading syllabus for the second-year students of Vietnamese Studies at HLU. Scope of the study This study is initiated and developed from the urgent need to design an appropriate ESP syllabus for the second-year students of Vietnamese Studies at HLU.
Due to the general institutional academic situation, priority is given to reading skill. Within the scope of a minor thesis, this research paper focuses on the designing process itself; only the basic theories related to ESP, syllabus design and reading are presented. The study’s major objects are the teachers of the English section, the subject teachers, and the second-year students of Vietnamese Studies at Hoa Lu University. Methods of the study Both qualitative and quantitative methods are employed in this study.
The quantitative method, which is used to collect data by means of questionnaires, aims at identifying the needs for the ESP syllabus from a broad view. The questionnaires are administered to the teachers of the English section and the second-year students of Vietnamese Studies at HLU. Besides, the qualitative method is used to collect in-depth data through interviews with the subject teachers of the Social-Tourism Faculty as well as through informal discussions with colleagues. Design of the study 3 The study contains three main parts: Part I – Introduction presents the rationale, aims and objectives, research questions, scopes, methods and the design of the study.
Part II – Development, which is the main part of the study, consists of three chapters: • Chapter 1 reviews the literature concerning ESP, syllabus design, needs analysis and reading theories • Chapter 2 describes in details the study including its background, subjects, instruments for collecting data and the findings of the study • Chapter 3 proposes a reading syllabus for the second-year students of Vietnamese Studies at HLU Part III – Conclusion offers a summary of the study, limitations and suggestions for further research. 4 PART II: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1. An overview of ESP 1. Definition of ESP English for Specific Purposes (ESP) or English for Special Purposes arose as a term in the 1960s as it became increasingly aware that General English courses frequently did not meet learners or employers wants.
From the outset this term was already a source of contention with many arguments as to what exactly ESP was. Hutchinson and Waters (1987) define ESP as an approach rather than a product – meaning that ESP does not involve a particular kind of language, teaching material or methodology.
