VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE NGUYỄN THỊ MINH TRANG DESIGNING AN ESP READING SYLLABUS FOR THE THIRD- YEAR STUDENT OF PHYSICS AT THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY OF EDUCATION. (THIẾT KẾ CHƯƠNG TRÌNH ĐỌC HIỂU TIẾNG ANH CHUYÊN NGÀNH CHO SINH VIÊN NĂM THỨ 3 KHOA VẬT LÝ, TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC SƯ PHẠM THÁI NGUYÊN) MA MINOR THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60.10 HA NOI, 2012 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE NGUYỄN THỊ MINH TRANG DESIGNING AN ESP READING SYLLABUS FOR THE THIRD- YEAR STUDENT OF PHYSICS AT THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY OF EDUCATION. (THIẾT KẾ CHƯƠNG TRÌNH ĐỌC HIỂU TIẾNG ANH CHUYÊN NGÀNH CHO SINH VIÊN NĂM THỨ 3 KHOA VẬT LÝ, TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC SƯ PHẠM THÁI NGUYÊN) MA MINOR THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60.10 Supervisor: Kim Văn Tất, MA HA NOI, 2012 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com TABLE OF CONTENTS Pages Declaration……………………………………………………. ii Abstract………………………………………………………… iii Table of contents……………………………………………….
iv List of abbreviations…………………………………………… v Part I: INTRODUCTION……………………………………… 1 1. Rationale of the study……………………………………. Aims of the study…………………………………………. The scope of the study…………………………………….
Organization of the thesis…………………………………. 2 Part II: DEVELOPMENT……………………………………… 4 CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW………………………. An overview of ESP………………………………………. Definition of ESP…………………………………….
Types of ESP…………………………………………. Definitions of syllabus………………………………. The importance of syllabus design…………………… 8 1. Approaches to language syllabus design…………….
Types pf ESP syllabus………………………………… 10 1. Stages in syllabus design……………………………… 12 1. Goal setting (Aims and objectives setting)……… 13 iv TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail. Selecting and grading content…………………… 14 1.
Definition of reading…………………………………. 17 CHAPTER II: THE STUDY……………………………………. The teaching/learning situation at Thai Nguyen University of Education…………………………………………………. The target students and English teachers……………… 19 2.
The research questions………………………………… 20 2. Instrument for collecting data…………………………. 29 CHAPTER III: DESIGNING AN ESP READING SYLLABUS FOR THE THIRD- YEAR STUDENTS OF PHYSICS AT TUE……………………. The selection of the type of syllabus for the third-year students of Physics at TUE……………………………….
Aims and objectives…………………………………………. The selection of content of the ESP reading syllabus for the third-year students of Physics at TUE……………… 31 v TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail. Time schedule of the syllabus………………………………. The proposed ESP reading syllabus for the third-year students of Physics at TUE……………………………………….
35 Part III: CONCLUSION…………………………………………. 36 REFERENCES…………………………………………………… 38 APPENDICES (LUAN.Education vi TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.Education LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS TUE: Thai Nguyen University of Education ESP: English for specific purposes EAP: English for Academic Purposes EOP: English for Occupational Purposes EST: English for Science and Technology EBE: English for business and economics ESS: English for Social Studies ELT: English Language Teaching GE: General English (LUAN.Education vii TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.Education PART I: INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale for the study: The Thai Nguyen University of Education, trains students of different fields of science including physics. Here, English is a compulsory subject for all students.
Therefore, every student has to take and pass the English course before finishing university. However, the students are mainly from mountainous provinces where the students do not have many chances to improve their English, so their English level is low. Even some of them have never studied English before. This is considered the biggest problem for all English teachers at this university.
In order that the students are able to read materials on their major in English, they have to study English well. So as to accomplish this target, every student at Thai Nguyen University of Education studies English for three terms, - The first two terms (90 class hours) are for General English covering the textbook New Cutting Edge Pre-intermediate by Sarah Cunningham. During this period, the students should acquire the basic English communication skills, common vocabulary, and grammar structures. - The third term (60 class hours) is for ESP in which the students are provided with different ESP courses according to their majors.
However, up to now, there has not been any suitable ESP syllabus for physics. That is why it is an urgent task for all ESP teachers at TUE to design ESP course to fulfill the language target set by the University Management. Moreover, this ESP course also need to fit the students’ learning needs and target needs in order to facilitate their study. Fully aware of the situation, I decide to carry out an investigation to propose a suitable ESP syllabus to help improve the effectiveness of teaching ESP reading comprehension to students of physics and to provide necessary information for the development of effective ESP reading materials for the future generations of physics students.Education 1 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.
Aims of the study: The study aims at designing an ESP reading syllabus for the third-year students of physics at TUE. In order to achieve this aim, the following objectives will be carried out: - To investigate the students’ learning needs and target needs. - To propose an ESP reading syllabus suitable to the third-year students of physics at TUE. - To give suggestions about material selection, teaching methodology as well as student assessment.
The scope of the study: The study limits itself to designing an ESP reading syllabus for the third-year students of physics at TUE. The author of the study is concerned with the importance of reading skills for the students of physics in this proposed syllabus because reading helps enrich their vocabulary in the specific field and also helps students obtain information about the subject they are studying so that it can give students both authentic reading materials and authentic reading purposes. Research questions: The study is to find out the answers for the following research questions: 1. What are the target needs and learning needs of the third-year students at TUE? 2.
What is a suitable ESP reading syllabus for the third-year students of physics at TUE? 1. Organization of the thesis The research will be organized into three parts, a list of reference and appendices. Part I, Introduction, presents the rationale, aims and objectives, the scope of the study, the research questions as well as the organization of the study. Part II, Development, consists of Chapter I, “Literature Review” reviews such the relevant theories for ESP reading materials as an overview of ESP, syllabus design, and reading.Education 2 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.Education Chapter II, “The study” describes and comments on learning and teaching situation at TUE, subjects of the study, the instruments for collecting data, and the findings of the study resulting from a statistical analysis of the collected data.
Chapter III presents some recommendations for “designing an ESP reading syllabus for students at TUE”. Part III, Conclusion, offers a summary of the study, limitations and suggestions for further research.Education 3 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.Education `PART II: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW As the study aims at designing an ESP reading syllabus for the students of physics, in this chapter the writer will have a careful look at the theoretical background information of issues relevant to the thesis topic. First, an overview of ESP, including the definition of ESP, its types and its characteristics, will be discussed. Second, an overview of reading theories will provide reading theories in general and ESP reading in particular.
Then, syllabus design and ESP syllabus design will be presented with definition of syllabus, types of syllabus, which will function as the major bases for the study. Finally, need analysis in syllabus design will be mentioned to show needs analysis and how to conduct needs analysis. An overview of ESP 1. Definition of ESP There have been many researchers and scholars trying to answer the question what ESP is? They have different points of view.
Hutchinson and Waters (1987) regard ESP as an approach rather than a product, by which they meant that ESP does not involve a particular kind of language, teaching material or methodology. They suggest that “the foundation of ESP is a simple question: Why does this learner need to learn a foreign language?” The answer to this question relates to the learners, the language required and the learning context, and thus establishes the primacy of need in English. Robinson (1991) also accepts the primacy of needs analysis in defining ESP. Her definition is based on two key defining criteria: (i) ESP is “normally goal-directed”, (ii) ESP courses develop from a needs analysis to specify as closely as possible what exactly the students have to do through the medium of English.
Streven defined ESP by identifying its absolute and variable characteristics, and Streven’s definition (1988) makes a distinction between four absolute and two variable characteristics: (LUAN.Education 4 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail. Absolute characteristics: ESP consists of English Language Teaching which is: (1) designed to meet specified needs of the learner; (2) related to content (i. in its themes, topics) to particular disciplines, occupations and activities; (3)centered on language appropriate of those activities in syntax, lexis, discourse, semantics, etc, and analysis of the discourse; (4)in contrast with General English. Variable characteristics: ESP may be, but is not necessarily: (1) restricted as to the language skills to learn (e.
reading only); (2) not taught according to any pre-ordained methodology. In 1998, Dudley-Evans and St John modified Streven’s definition. The revised definition they postulate is slightly different from Streven’s one. They have removed the absolute characteristic that in contrast with General English and added more variable characteristics.
They assert that ESP is not necessarily, either at a tertiary level institution or in a professional work situation, although it could be used with young adults in the setting of a secondary school. But that is not all. They also note that ESP is generally designed for intermediate or advanced students; that is, most ESP courses assume basic knowledge of the language system, but it can be used with beginners.4-5) In short, each linguistic has his own point of view but most authors have agreed that an ESP course would have the following features: it is purposeful and aims at the successful performance of occupational or educational roles by an individual or a group; it is based on an analysis of the students’ needs; it may differ from another general language course in its selection of skills, topics, situations, language and methodology. However, as for the strong points of Dudley- Evans and St John above, it will act as the working definition in this study.
Types of ESP: There are many types of ESP and many acronyms. According to Hutchinson and Waters (1987) in the “Tree of ELT”, ESP is broken into three branches: English for (LUAN.Education 5 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.Education Science and Technology (EST), English for business and economics (EBE) and English for Social Studies (ESS). Each of these subject areas is divided into two branches: English for Academic Purposes (EAP) and English for Occupational Purposes (EOP). The former is related to the English needed in an educational context, usually at a university level or in a similar institution, and may be at a school level.
The later is concerned with professional purposes such as those of working lawyers, doctors, bankers or business people. According to Robinson (1991) and Munby (1978), there is a major distinction between English for Occupational Purposes (EOP) involving work-related need and training and English for Academic Purposes (EAP) with the involvement to academic study needs. To make the difference from the occupational / educational distinction that can be found in most taxonomy of ESP, Munby (1978) developed the other kind of ESP classification; figure 1 presents two other categories: English for Science and Technology (EST) and other distinction as follows: Pre-experience Occupational Post-experience EST Teachers’ conversation ESP Pre-study Discipline-based Other In-study/ post-study Educational Independent School subject Integrated Figure 1: Types of ESP (LUAN.Education 6 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.Education According to Strevens (1988), the learners whose purposes are concerned with science and technology are usually referred to EST.