VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST - GRADUATE STUDIES ************************* ĐỖ THỊ HUYỀN DESIGNING AN ESP READING SYLLABUS FOR THE STUDENTS OF LAND MANAGEMENT AND USE AT BAC GIANG UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURE AND FORESTRY THIẾT KẾ CHƯƠNG TRÌNH ĐỌC HIỂU TIẾNG ANH CHUYÊN NGÀNH CHO SINH VIÊN NGÀNH QUẢN LÝ VÀ SỬ DỤNG ĐẤT, TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NÔNG - LÂM BẮC GIANG M.A MINOR THESIS Field: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY Code: 601410 Supervisor: KHOA ANH VIỆT, M. Hanoi - 2012 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION. iii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS. iv LIST OF CHARTS AND TABLES.
v TABLE OF CONTENTS. vi PART A: INTRODUCTION. Aims and objectives. Scope of the study.
Methods of the study. Design of the study. 4 CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW. An overview of ESP.
Definition and characteristics of ESP. Classification of ESP. An overview of syllabus design. Definition of syllabus.
Approaches to ESP syllabus design. Language-centred approach. Skills-centred approach. Learning-centred approach.
Types of syllabus. Structural/grammatical syllabus. 12 4 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Functional-notional syllabus.
Topic or content-based syllabus. Skills-based syllabus. Task-based syllabus. Shapes of syllabus.
Steps to design a syllabus. Goals and objectives setting. Reading in ESP. Definition of reading.
Reading skills in ESP. 22 CHAPTER 2: NEEDS ANALYSIS AT BUAF AND THE RESEARCH 23 METHODOLOGY. The ESP teaching and learning context at BUAF. The target students.
The English staff at BUAF. Instruments for collecting data. 27 CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION. Needs perceived by the English teachers, the subject teachers and 28 the target students.
Attitude towards the necessity of an ESP reading syllabus for the 28 second year students of Land Management and Use. 5 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Opinions on the objectives of the ESP reading course. Opinions on needed topics in the ESP reading syllabus.
Opinions on needed grammar items in the ESP reading syllabus.5 Opinions on needed reading skills and reading exercises in the ESP 30 reading syllabus. Opinions on types of reading skills and reading exercises in each 31 unit. Opinions on the number of units in the ESP reading syllabus 32 3. 32 CHAPTER 4: THE PROPOSED SYLLABUS FOR THE STUDENTS OF LAND MANAGEMENT AND USE AT BUAF.
Aims and objectives of the ESP reading syllabus. Type of the ESP reading syllabus. Content in the ESP reading syllabus. Topics in the syllabus.
Reading skills and reading exercises in the syllabus. Grammar and structures in the syllabus. Time allocation of the ESP reading syllabus. Organization of the ESP reading syllabus.
The proposed ESP reading syllabus for the second-year students of 38 Land Management and Use at BUAF. Suggestions for further study. I 6 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS EAP: English for Academic Purposes EBE: English for Business and Economics EEP: English for Educational Purposes EFL: English as a foreign language EOP: English for Occupational Purposes ESP: English for Specific Purposes ESS: English for Social Sciences EST: English for Science and Technology GE: General English BUAF: Bac Giang University of Agriculture and Forestry 7 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com LIST OF CHARTS AND TABLES Chart 1: The English teachers, the subject teachers and the target students‟ attitude towards the necessity of an ESP reading syllabus Chart 2: The English teachers‟ and the target students‟ opinions on types of reading skills and reading exercises in each unit Chart 3: The English teachers‟ opinions about the appropriate number of lessons for the syllabus Table 1: The English teachers and the target students‟ opinions on the objectives of the ESP reading course Table 2: The English teachers, the subject teachers and the target students‟ choice of topics relating to Land Management and Use Table 3: The English teachers‟ choice of the grammatical structures in the reading ESP syllabus Table 4: The English teachers and the target students‟ choice of reading skills and reading exercises in the ESP reading syllabus Table 5: The proposed ESP reading syllabus for the second-year students of Land Management and Use at BUAF 8 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com PART A: INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale for choosing the topic English is now considered to be one of the most popular languages in the world.
In Vietnam, it has been more and more widely used and occupied an especially important status in the development of international relationship. More importantly, English has an influence on our education curriculum as a compulsory subject. English for Specific Purposes (ESP) has developed as an independent discipline apart from general English, and it has gained popularity throughout the world, especially in tertiary education where there is a great variety of majors. Fully aware of the importance of the English language teaching and learning in general and ESP in particular, BUAF has introduced ESP courses into the curriculums of four undergraduate programs, including Accounting, Animal Science and Veterinary Medicine, Crop Science, and Land Management and Use.
In the context of BUAF, 4 year program students with university training level take the compulsory General English (GE) course with 7 credits. After finishing their GE course, they are supposed to take the ESP course of 2 credits. According to the training curriculum, the ESP is to be delivered in the fourth semester of the second academic year after three semesters of GE. At this time the students majoring in Land Management and Use at BUAF are at the end of their second semester and our ESP teachers are facing a lot of difficulties due to the lack of an appropriate ESP teaching syllabus.
In fact, there is not an available ESP syllabus of Land Management and Use for our ESP teachers. As far as I know, at other institutions providing the Land Management and Use major, the materials used for the ESP course are selected by teachers of English from different sources and they use these materials as their syllabus for lesson plans. As an English teacher, I was in charge of designing a syllabus and teaching materials for students of Land Management and Use. It is clear that a syllabus contributes to the success and fulfills the objectives of 9 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com an ESP course.
Therefore, designing an appropriate ESP syllabus for the students of Land Management and Use at BUAF is an urgent task. More importantly, it is believed that the ability to read and comprehend the written documents is considered as one of the most important factors of success at tertiary education level. Accepting the fact that reading skill is of great importance for all students, ESP teachers have been paying attention to the reading skill as it is the most important skill needed for ESP students‟ future academic career. Seeing the point, the author is encouraged to undertake this study entitled “Designing an ESP Reading Syllabus for the students of Land Management and Use at Bac Giang University of Agriculture and Forestry”.
Aims and Objectives The study aims at designing an appropriate ESP reading syllabus for the second-year students majoring on Land Management and Use at Land Resources and Environment Department at BUAF. To achieve this aim, three following objectives are set to be obtained. - To get an overview of the theories related to ESP reading and syllabus design; - To conduct a needs analysis to identify the students‟ learning situation, the learning needs perceived by the teachers who are responsible for the ESP course, the subject teachers, and the second-year students of Land Management and Use; - To propose an appropriate ESP syllabus for the target students based on the relevant theories and the needs analysis. It is hoped that the findings of this study will be of some benefits to the teaching ESP to the second year students of Land Management and Use at BUAF.
Scope of the study The scope of this study is limited to a study on designing an ESP reading syllabus for the second - year students of Land Management and Use at BUAF. It is conducted with the second year students of Land Management and Use, subject teachers and English teachers within BUAF context. Within the scope of a minor 10 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com thesis, only the basic theories related to ESP reading and syllabus design are presented. Other approaches to syllabus designs intended for students and other subjects at any other levels of English language proficiency would be beyond the scope.
Methods of the study For this study the following approaches were adopted. First, relevant literature and studies were reviewed in order to get in-depth information. Second, the results were surveyed through questionnaires. Finally, the information obtained from the survey was analyzed and checked against information obtained from literature and other sources.
Design of the study The thesis is organized into: Part A, introduction, presents the rationale, aims and objectives, scope, methods and the design of the study. Part B, development, includes three chapters: Chapter 1 reviews theoretical backgrounds relevant to the research topic including the overview of ESP, syllabus design, needs analysis and reading theories; Chapter 2 deals with the methodology describing situational analysis, subject of the study and instruments for collecting data; In chapter 3 the findings and analysis of the results collected from the survey are presented; Chapter 4 proposes a reading syllabus for the second-year students of Land Management and Use basing on the findings of the study. Part C, conclusion, presents conclusion of the study, points out some limitations and proposes some further suggestions for research on the topic. 11 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.
An overview of ESP 1. Definitions and characteristics of ESP Although ESP now is a really familiar concept in English Language Teaching, there is not a universal applicable definition of ESP. It has been defined by different researchers and scholars from different points of views. Hutchinson and Walter argue that ESP should be seen as an approach to language learning, which is based on learner need, not as a product.
They mean ESP does not involve a particular type of language, teaching material or methodology. It is the view of these authors that the foundation of ESP involves the learners, the language required and the learning context, which are based on the primacy of needs in ESP. According to them “The foundation of all ESP is the simple question: Why does this learner need to learn a foreign language? From this question will flow a whole host of further questions, some of which will relate to the learners themselves, some to the nature of the language the learners will need to operate, some to the given learning context” (Hutchinson and Walter, 1987: 19). On the whole, they conclude ESP is “an approach to language teaching in which all decisions as to content and method are based on the learner's reason for learning"(Hutchinson and Walter, 1987:19).
Needs analysis is also mentioned in many authors‟ definitions of ESP. Robinson (1991:3), while discussing the criteria of ESP, mentions the element of students‟ needs. She believes that ESP courses develop from a need analysis “which aims to specify as closely as possible what exactly it is that students have to do through the medium of English” (cited in Dudley-Evans and St John, 1998: 3). Supporting these ideas, Richards et al.
(1992:125) define the parent discipline of ESP as „the role of English in a language course or programme of instruction in which the content and aims of the course are fixed by the specific needs of a particular group of learners‟. 12 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.