VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES NGUYỄN THỊ HẢI DESIGNING A SUPPLEMENTARY READING SYLLABUS FOR GRADE 11 ENGLISH GIFTED STUDENTS AT PHAN BOI CHAU SPECIALIZING HIGH SCHOOL, NGHE AN (Thiết kế chương trình đọc hiểu bổ trợ cho hoc sinh chuyên Anh lớp 11 ở trường THPT chuyên Phan Bội Châu, Nghệ An) MA Minor PROGRAMME Thesis Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 601410 Supervisor: Phạm Minh Hiền, MA Hanoi - 2010 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com iv TABLE OF CONTENTS *Declaration………………………………………………………………. i *Acknowledgements……………………………………………………… ii *Abstract…………………………………………………………………. iii *List of tables ……………………………………………………………. vi PART A: INTRODUCTION……………………………………………… 1 1.
Rationales of the study…………………………………………………. Aims of the study………………………………………………………. Scope of the study……………………………………………………. Methods of the study…………………………………………………….
Significance of the study………………………………………………. Design of the study……………………………………………………. 2 PART B: DEVELOPMENT……………………………………………… 3 CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW………………………………… 3 I. An overview of syllabus design……………………………………….
Syllabus and curriculum……………………………………………. Definition of syllabus……………………………………………….2 Approaches to language syllabus design……………………………. Types of language syllabus…………………………………………… 4 I. Notional - functional syllabus…………………………………… 6 I.
Skilled – based syllabus…………………………………………. Steps to design a language syllabus …………………………………. Needs analysis in syllabus design………………………………. 7 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.
What is needs analysis? …………………………………………. Setting goals and objectives……………………………………. Definition of reading…………………………………………… 10 I. Reading and reading comprehension………………………….
Reading skills and comprehension skills………………………. Summary……………………………………………………………… 11 CHAPTER II: ANALYZING THE NEEDS AT PHAN BOI CHAU SPECIALIZING SCHOOL……………………………………………… 12 II. The situation of teaching English to grade 11 English gifted students at Phan Boi Chau Specializing School……………………………………………. The currents reading syllabus for grade 11……………………… 13 II.
The good points of the text book when used for reading and learning at Phan Boi Chau Specializing School II. The drawbacks of the text book when used for teaching and learning at Phan Boi Chau Specializing School II. The subjects……………………………………………………… 14 II. The instruments for collecting data……………………………… 14 II.
The questionnaire to teachers……………………………. The questionnaire to students……………………………. Data analysis and findings………………………………………. Needs perceived by teachers……………………………….
Needs perceived by students………………………………. 21 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com vi CHAPTER III: DESIGNING THE SUPPLEMENTARY READING SYLLABUS FOR GRADE 11 ENGLISH GIFTED STUDENTS AT PHAN BOI CHAU SPECIALIZING SCHOOL ……………………………………………………. Aims and objectives of the syllabus……………………………. Aims of the syllabus………………………………………….
Objectives if the syllabus……………………………………. Content specification of the syllabus…………………………… 27 III. Topics in the syllabus………………………………………… 27 III. Reading skills and reading exercises in the syllabus………… 27 III.
Grammar points in the syllabus……………………………… 28 III. Time allotment for the syllabus…………………………………. The organization of the syllabus………………………………… 28 III. The proposed syllabus for grade 11 English gifted students at Phan Boi Chau Specializing School l…………………………………….
34 CHAPTER IV: SUGGESTED TEACHING METHODS AND ASSESSMENT ……………………………………………………………………………. Suggested teaching methods…………………………………. Suggested format of assessing reading skills………………. Conclusions of the study…………………………………………… 40 2.
Limitations and recommendation for further research………. VII A SAMPLE UNIT ……………………………………………………… XI LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com vii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ESP: English for specific purposes EFL: English as a Foreign Language ESL: English as a Second Language GPE: General Purpose English MOET: Ministry of Education and Training PBCSHS: Phan Boi Chau Specializing School LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 1 PART A: INTRODUCTION 1. Rationales of the study. The new compulsory English text books have been in use since 2006.
They are quite different from the old ones. Nevertheless, the compulsory English text books ( TIENG ANH –NANG CAO) used for gifted students at Phan Boi Chau Specializing School were not actually designed for gifted students. Thus, they are not plentiful enough to meet the students’ needs as well as the demand of the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) tests for excellent students. The new compulsory English text books are abundant in contents, concerning reading skill, however, up to now there have been no supplementary reading syllabus as well as supplementary reading materials for English gifted students.
As we all know, gifted education plays a very important part in general education. Gifted students always require a different education. Being a member of the teaching staff and fully aware of the importance and necessity of a supplementary reading syllabus, the researcher of this study decided to do an intensive reseach on designing a supplementary reading syllabus for grade 11 English gifted students at Phan Boi Chau Specializing High School. Aims of the study.
The study major aims at designing an appropriate supplementary reading syllabus for grade 11 English gifted students at Phan Boi Chau Specializing High School. - To achieve this aim, the researcher set the specific objective study as follows: -To explore the current main trends in language syllabus design. -To propose a supplementary reading syllabus for grade 11 English gifted students Phan Boi Chau Specializing High School, which can meet both the MOET requirements on the curriculum for the gifted and on tests for excellent students’ needs. -To suggest teaching methods and ways of assessment appropriate to the teaching and learning situation at Phan Boi Chau Specializing High School.What are the current trends of language syllabus design? 2-.What is the students’ expectation of reading syllabus ? 3-.How is the supplementary reading syllabus for grade 11 English gifted students Phan Boi Chau Specializing High School designed ? 4-What teaching methods and ways of assessment can be suggested ? LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.
Scope of the study Within its scope, this research paper mainly focuses on designing a supplementary reading syllabus, which is suitable to the local situation of Phan Boi Chau Specializing High School, it aims at only students in grade 11. Methods of the study Both quanlitatives and quantatives methods are employed in this study. The quantitative method, which is used to collect data by questionnaires, aims at exploring the needs of the students, their expectations and opinions about the ESP course. The qualitative method is used as the supporting method to collect information for the study through the discussion, informal interviews with students, teachers and academic specialists.
Significance of the study The study is hoped to provide English gifted students and the teachers at Phan Boi Chau Specializing High School with an appropriate and interesting supplemetary syllabus based on which reading materials can be systematically selected and developed. Design of the study The study consists of three parts: Part A: Introduction: It gives an overview of the study in terms of rationales aims, research questions, scope, method, significance and the design of the study. Part B: Development: it contains 4 chapters Chapter I: provides an overview of the language syllabus design and reading skill Chapter II: is concerned with an analysis of the situation of teaching English Phan Boi Chau Specializing High School and an analysis of grade 11 English gifted students’ needs in terms of reading skill. Chapter III: focuses on proposing a supplementary syllabus with the description of aims and objectives, and the specification and sequencing of content into each unit.
Chapter IV: suggests a teachng method and testing format that are suitable to the syllabus. Part C: Conclusion: - It gives a summary of the study, limitations and some suggestions for the future research. LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 3 PART: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW I. An overview of the syllabus design I.1 Syllabus and curriculum This sudy bases its theoretical background on the syllabus design, theories given by Nunan (1985), Yalden (1987), Dubin & Olshtain (1985), White (1988), whose concepts and procedures for designing syllabus have paved the ways for those who are concerned with the art of language teaching material development and syllabus design.
What these researchers have in common in the theories of syllabus design is that the work must be based on the analysis of learners’ needs, objectives of the course, the methodology and material for the course.2 Definition of syllabus “What do we mean by a syllabus ? “- This seems to be regarded as an unimportant question to most language teachers. But in fact, it is not an easy task to attain a perfect definition of “syllabus” in current literature because of the disagreement about the nature of “the syllabus”. All the same, the notion of “syllabus” has been defined in some different ways by many different authors. As an advocate of the broad view, Yalden (1984: 14) pointed out that: “syllabus replaces the concept of “ method” , and the syllabus is now seen as an instrument by which the teacher, with the help of the syllabus designer, can achieve a degree of “ fit” between the needs and the aims of the learners (as social being and as individual), and the activites which will take place in the class room.” On the other hand, some other authors (for example, Nunan, 1988; Allen, 1984; Hutchinson and Waters, 1987), who adopted the narrow view, argued that there should be the distinction between syllabus and methodology: “syllabus is concerned with a specification of what units will be taught” (Allen 1984,:49).
In addition, Nunan, another narrow view supporter defines syllabus as follows: “syllabus design is seen as being concerned essentially with the selection and grading of content, while methodology is concerned wirh the selection of learning task and activities.” With the aim of designing a supplementary reading for the gifted, the term “Syllabus” is used in its restricted sense. LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Approaches to language syllabus design. Synthetic approach Specialists often group these approaches into two distinct types of approach.
Which are labelled synthetic and analytic. The terms”sythetic” refers here to structural, lexical, notional, functiomal and most situational and topical syllabus, in which acquisition is a process of gradual accumulation of seperately taught parts, building up to the whole structure of the language. The learner is exposed to a deliberately limited sample of language at any time and has to “re- synthesize” the language that has been broken down into a large number of small pieces with the aim of making this learning task easier” ( Wilkins,1976: 2) I. In “analytic”prior analysis of the total language system into a set of discrete pieces of language is largely unnecessary: “Analytic approaches are organized in terms of purposes for which people are learning language and the kinds of the language performance that are necessary to meet those purposes” (Wilkins,1976:13.
Thus “analytic” refers not to what the syllabus designer does, but to the operations required of the learner. “Since we are inviting the learner, directly or indirectly, to recognize the linguistic components of the language he is acquiring, we are in effect basing our approach on the learner’s analytic capabilities” (Wlkins,1976:14). Analytic syllabuses are presented inchunks, without linguistic interference or control, and rely on the learner’s ability to induce and infer language rules, as well as on innate knowledge of linguistic universals. Procedural, process and task syllabus are example of the analytic syllabus (Long& Crookes, 1993: 11).
In practice, however, any course and syllabus could be placed somewhere on the continuum between the wholly synthetic and the wholly analytic. And this proposed syllabus tends towards analytic syllabus. Types of language syllabus A language teaching syllabus is the linguistic and subject matter that makes up the teaching. It is agreed that the choice of an appropriate syllabus is a major decision in language teaching and it should be considered and made as carefully consciously and with much information as possible.
LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Grammatical syllabus/ structural syllabus Historically, this is the most prevalent type for the teaching of a language in which the selection and grading of the content is from frequent to less frequent or from easy to difficult. The focus is on the outcomes or the product, so the learner is expected to master each structural step and add it to his grammar collection. However,”structurally graded syllabus misrepresented the complex nature of the language as a system and tended to focus on only one aspect of language, that is, formal grammar” ( Nunan, 1988:30).
A popular feature of the structural syllabus is that it is “supposedly” generative.