1 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ***************** NGUYỄN THỊ LÝ DESIGNING A TASK-BASED ESP SYLLABUS FOR THE SECOND- YEAR STUDENTS OF ACCOUNTING AT TUYEN QUANG ECONOMIC AND TECHNICAL SECONDARY SCHOOL THIẾT KẾ CHƯƠNG TRÌNH TIẾNG ANH CHUYÊN NGÀNH THEO NHIỆM VỤ CHO HỌC SINH NĂM THỨ HAI CHUYÊN NGÀNH KẾ TOÁN TRƯỜNG TRUNG HỌC KINH TẾ KỸ THUẬT TUYÊN QUANG M. MINOR THESIS Field: English Teaching methodology Code: 60 14 10 HANOI – 2011 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com 2 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ***************** NGUYỄN THỊ LÝ DESIGNING A TASK-BASED ESP SYLLABUS FOR THE SECOND- YEAR STUDENTS OF ACCOUNTING AT TUYEN QUANG ECONOMIC AND TECHNICAL SECONDARY SCHOOL THIẾT KẾ CHƯƠNG TRÌNH TIẾNG ANH CHUYÊN NGÀNH THEO NHIỆM VỤ CHO HỌC SINH NĂM THỨ HAI CHUYÊN NGÀNH KẾ TOÁN TRƯỜNG TRUNG HỌC KINH TẾ KỸ THUẬT TUYÊN QUANG M. MINOR THESIS Field: English Teaching Mehodology Code: 60 14 10 SUPERVISOR: LÊ VĂN CANH, Ph.D HANOI – 2011 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com 6 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ESP: English for Specific Purposes GE: General English TQETSS: Tuyen Quang Economic and Technical Secondary School ESS: English for the Social Sciences EST: English for the Science and Technology EAP: English for Academic Purposes EOP: English for Occupational Purposes TBLT: Task- Based Language Teaching TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com 7 LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES Page Figure 1: Bases for language syllabus design. 8 Table 1: Students‟ reasons for learning English.
21 Table 2: Students‟ opinions on prospective job and workplace. 22 Table 3: Students‟ anticipated possibilities to use English at work in the future. Ex-students‟ situations of using English at work. 25 Table 5: Students‟ opinions on tasks which should be included in the course book.
Ex-students‟ opinions on tasks which should be included in the course book. 28 Table 7: Students‟ evaluation of the current ESP course book. 29 Table 8: The proposed syllabus for the second-year students of Accounting at TQETSS (see Appendix 1). TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com 8 TABLE OF CONTENTS Declaration.
iii List of abbreviations. iv Lists of figures and tables. v Table of contents. vi PART A: INTRODUCTION.
Aims and objectives of the study. Scope of the study. Method of the study. Structure of the study.
4 CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW. Definition of ESP. Types of ESP.1 Definitions of syllabus. Approaches to ESP Language Syllabus Design.
Language- centred approach. Skills- centred approach.3 Learning- centred approach. Types of syllabus. Structural /grammatical syllabus.
Functional Notional syllabus. Topic-based syllabus. Skills-based syllabus. 10 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.
Task-based Syllabus. Definition of „task”. Task-based syllabus. Characteristics of Task-based Syllabus.
Theoretical Advantages of Task-based Syllabus. Limitations of Task-based Syllabus. Rationale of choosing Task-based Syllabus. Needs analysis in syllabus design.The important of needs analysis .Target needs and learning needs.
17 CHAPTER 2: NEEDS ANALYSIS OF STUDENTS OF ACCOUNTING AT 18 TUYEN QUANG ECONOMIC AND TECHNICAL SECONDARY SCHOOL. The teaching and learning ESP at TQETSS. Instruments for collecting data. Data analysis and major findings.
Data from survey questionnaires. Results from the interviews with ESP teachers. 33 CHAPTER 3: THE PROPOSED SYLLABUS CONTENT FOR THE SECOND- 34 YEAR STUDENTS OF ACCOUNTING AT TQETSS. Aims and objectives of the syllabus.
Type of syllabus. Tasks in the syllabus. The proposed syllabus. 35 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.
The organization of the syllabus. Teaching and assessment methodology. Limitations and suggestions for further study. I Appendix 1: The proposed syllabus for the second-year students of accounting at I TQETSS.
Appendix 2: A sample unit. V Appendix 3: Questionnaire for students. XI Appendix 4: Questionnaire for ex-students. XIV Appendix 5 : Questions for interviews with ESP teachers.
XVI Appendix 6 : Transcript for interviews with ESP teachers. XVII TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com 11 PART A: INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale Nowadays, with the development of Science and Technology and integration and globalization of the world economy, the demand for English in general and English for Specific Purposes (ESP) in particular is increasing. ESP has become an insensible branch in English language teaching in Vietnam to meet the growing demand for professional communication and the job market in the period of international economic integration.
At Tuyen Quang Economic and Technical Secondary School, English is a compulsory subject which are being taught to all students of all majors. It consists of two parts: General English (GE) and English for Specific Purposes (ESP). According to the training curriculum, the ESP course is to be delivered after students finish GE course. However, teaching ESP has encountered a number of problems such as inappropriate materials, content burden, lack of experience ESP teachers.
The most concern of ESP teachers is the course books. The current ESP course book for students of accounting is compiled by the teachers of English section. After few years of implementing, it has revealed a number of limitations in terms of content and methodology. This is because the materials are based on the syllabus which was developed without reference to learner needs.
This gives rise to the need of developing a syllabus which is task-based and learner- centred. And this is the motivation of this study. Aims and objectives of the study The study aims at designing a task-based ESP syllabus for the second-year students of accounting at Tuyen Quang Economic and Technical Secondary School. To achieve this aim, the major objectives of the study are: - to identify the rationale for a task-based syllabus design.
- to identify the learning needs of the second-year students of accounting through a needs analysis. - to develop a task-based ESP syllabus which based on the learners‟ needs at Tuyen Quang Economic and Technical Secondary School. Research questions With the aim stated above, the author proposed the three following questions for the study: TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail. What are the undergraduate students‟ perceived needs of ESP? 2.
To what extent are the students‟ perceived needs different from those of the teachers and ex-students? 3. How are the needs of all stakeholders transferred into tasks which are integrated in an ESP syllabus? 4. Scope of the study In this thesis, the author only focuses on designing a task-based ESP syllabus for the second- year students majoring in Business accounting at TQETSS. Method of the study In order to achieve the aim mentioned above, two survey questionnaires for undergraduate students and ex-students who were working as accountants in different companies were used as one of the tools to collect information about the students' needs as well as to identify tasks which should be included in the syllabus for the second-year students of accounting.
Also, informal interviews with ESP teachers were conducted in order to know about their opinions of tasks to be included in the syllabus and their experience in doing needs analysis. Thus, both quantitative and qualitative methods were employed in this study. Structure of the study The study is divided into three parts: Part A is the introduction including the rationale, the aims, the research questions, the scope, the method and the structure of the study. Part B is the development that consists of 3 chapters: - Chapter 1 is about literature review of ESP and syllabus design - Chapter 2 presents situational analysis of ESP teaching and learning at TQETSS and gives descriptions of subjects of the study, instruments for data collection and analysis of the results from two questionnaires and interviews.
- Chapter 3 proposes an ESP task-based syllabus for the second- year students of accounting at TQETSS with the methodology of teaching and assessment and syllabus evaluation. Part C is the conclusion that consists of concluding ideas, limitations and suggestions for further study. TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail. Summary This part presents the rationale of designing a task-based syllabus for the second-year students of accounting at Tuyen Quang Economic and Technical secondary school.
Also, the aims, the research questions, the scope, the methodology and the structure of the study are presented. The Literature review, Needs analysis and the Proposed syllabus will be presented in the part B below. TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com 14 PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1. Definitions of ESP There are many definitions of ESP.
Hutchinson and Waters (1987) see ESP as an approach rather than a product, by which they mean that ESP is not a particular kind of language or methodology. They point out that ESP is an approach to language learning, which based on learner need “ESP is an approach to language teaching which aims to meet the needs of particular learners” Hutchinson and Waters (1987:21). The foundation of all ESP is the simple question: Why does this learner need to learn a foreign language? They include: “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”. Taking the same point of view, Robinson (1991) also accepts the primary of need analysis in defining ESP.
She considers “ESP is normally goal directed”, and that ESP course is based on a need analysis, which „aims to specify as closely as possible what exactly is it that students have to do through the medium of English‟ (Robinson, 1991:3). In more detailed approach to characteristics, Streven (1988) defines ESP by identifying and making a distinction between its absolute and variable characteristics: Absolute characteristics: are that ESP consists of English language teaching, which is (1) designed to meet specified needs of the learner; (2) related in content (i. in its themes and topics) to particular disciplines, occupation and activities; (3) centred on the language appropriate to those activities in syntax, lexis, discourse, semantics, etc., and analysis of this discourse; (4) in contrast with General English. Variable characteristics: are that ESP may be, but is not necessarily: (1) restricted as to the language skills to be learned (e.
reading only); (2) not taught according to any pre- ordained methodology. Dudley- Evans and St John (1998: 4-5) assert that ESP is likely to be used with adult learners, either at tertiary level institution or in a professional work situation, although it could be used with young adults in the setting of a secondary school. Additionally, they note that ESP is generally designed for intermediate or advanced students and most ESP course assume some basic knowledge of the language system, but it can be used with beginners. TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.
Types of ESP According to Hutchinson and Waters (1987:16) ESP is divided into three branches, namely English for the Science and Technology (EST), English for Business and Economics (EBE) and English for the Social Sciences (ESS). Each of these subject areas is further divided into two branches: English for Academic Purposes (EAP) and English for Occupational Purposes (EOP). Nevertheless, Hutchinson and Waters do emphasize that there do not exist a clear distinction between EAP and EOP because: “people can work and study simultaneously, it is likely that in many cases the language learnt for immediate use in a study environment will be used later when the students take up, or return to , a job”. Carter (1983) identifies three types of ESP as: English as a restricted language, English for Academic and Occupational Purposes, English with specific topics.
He states the first type of ESP is English as a restricted language. The language used by engineers or by businessmen is examples of English as a restricted language. The second type of ESP is English for Academic and Occupational Purposes. Taking the same point of view with Hutchinson and Waters (1987), there is not a clear distinction between EAP and EOP.
He groups EAP and EOP together in the same type of ESP. The final type is English with Specific topics which is concerned with anticipated future English needs.