A study on congruence between ESP course objectives and students’ needs at business management department, vietnam forestry university

1 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background to the study Vietnam Forestry University offers English for Environmental Science which is a compulsory course for the third year students of Business Management Department The course book was compiled by teachers at Foreign Language Department and has been published only for students of the university since the academic year 2005 – 2006 During the academic year, around 200 students of the third year study this course The researcher had the opportunity to teach English for Environment Science to those students half of academic year But do all ESP course designers try to gain insight into learners’ perceived needs, wants, and lacks? “Teachers may rely more often on intuition when making course planning than on informed assessment of learners’ needs” (Barkuizen 1998, Spratt 1999 as cited in Davies 2006) Since certain chapters of the books seem to have been designed without involving learners in the course design process, it is quite likely that they may not reflect the needs and interests of any particular learner groups The readymade book is prescribed for all students of any background of English; it is the responsibility of the ESP practitioner to evaluate the congruence between the ESP course objectives and learners’ needs and to make any adaptation suitable to better enable learners to learn effectively and meet the learners’ needs 1.2 Rationale From the early 1960's, English for Specific Purposes (ESP) has grown to become one of the most prominent areas of EFL teaching today With the globalization of trade and economy and the continuing increase of international communication in various fields, the demand for English for Specific Purposes is expanding, especially in countries where English is taught as a Foreign Language In Vietnam, the ESP movement is a young and developing branch of EFL ESP has shown a slow but definite growth over the past few years Its development is reflected in the increasing number of universities offering BA and MA in ESP (e.g Hanoi University) and in the number of ESP courses offered to overseas students in English speaking countries In particular, increased interest has been spurred 2 since Vietnam opened its doors and recently entered WTO with a lot of well-paid job opportunities for English competent employees This has led to a rapid growth in English courses aimed at specific disciplines, e.g English for Forestry, in place of the more traditional 'General English' ones Even though ESP courses have become popular recently in Vietnam and many institutions and universities offer ESP courses for senior students, for years ESP courses are given with already made books or ESP materials compiled without students’ needs analysis Such approach fundamentally ignores the learners’ personal interests This often leads to low motivation in their English studies and, in turn, poor performance later when they use English in their future profession In response to these problems, it is important that university English faculties need to design or adapt ESP courses in the way that students’ needs are paid attention to This means that ESP course objectives should be congruent with learners’ needs and therefore best prepare learners for future professional communication However, to do this, it requires a complete understanding what are students’ needs and ESP course objectives How can teachers develop a new course whose objectives congruent with learners’ needs? Where should they start? What are the ways that best find out students needs? What are the objectives that can best congruent with students’ needs? What should be included in an ESP course? These are some of the questions that ESP course designers or ESP instructors should answer and they help to improve the quality of the ESP courses This is the reason that inspired me to conduct this study in a hope that the study can help at least improve the quality of ESP course at Business Management Department of Vietnam Forestry University 1.3 Aims of the study The writer intends to centre this study on the following major aims:  To find out learners’ needs (third term students who are studying ESP course at Business Management Department of Vietnam Forestry Industry)  To study ESP course objectives of English for Environmental Science book designed by teachers at Foreign Language Department to be applied for third year students at Business Management Department of Vietnam Forestry University; 3  To investigate the congruence between the ESP course objectives and learners’ needs in Vietnam Forestry University;  To suggest any adaptation suitable to better enable learners to learn effectively and meet the learners’ needs 1.4 The scope and the significance of the study This study cannot cover all the aspects of needs analysis and course objectives The study just investigates the stated ESP course objectives in the ESP materials, the book English for Environmental Science, designed by teachers at Foreign Language Department and tries to find out learners’ needs at Business Management Department of Vietnam Forestry University The subjects of the study are the third-year students at Business Management Department of Vietnam Forestry University The current ESP reading textbook is “English for Environmental Science” The findings of the study will hopefully serve as a back-up for the improvement of the ESP syllabus Practically, those findings are believed to be beneficial to teachers, course designers as well as students at Business Management Department of Vietnam Forestry University 1.5 The overview of the study The study comprises four chapters: Introduction, Literature Review, Methodology, Data analysis and Findings, and Recommendations and Conclusion Chapter 1; Introduction, provides information on the background to the study, the rationale, the aims as well as the scope and significance of the study and the outline of the study Chapter 2, Literature Review, reviews the literature related to three main areas First, it is a brief overview of different writers’ opinions on ESP Second, It looks at the theory of course objectives And finally, theory of needs analysis and related issues are discussed 4 Chapter 3, Methodology, Data analysis and Findings, includes the research questions, the description of the subjects, and the description of data collection instruments, and the findings of the study Chapter 4, Suggested adaptations and Conclusion, presents the writer’s suggestions for adaptation suitable to better enable learners to learn effectively and meet the learners’ needs After that, there will be the conclusion of the thesis 5 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW This chapter, literature review, will look at the three main issues that are relevant to the study: the conception of ESP, need analysis and course objectives In the first section, the author would like to present briefly an overview of ESP which tackles several prominent definitions of the term as well as some differences between ESP and general English The second section will discuss the issues of needs analysis And finally, the theory of course objectives will be reviewed in the last section of this chapter 2.1 An overview of ESP 2.1.1 What is ESP? According to Hutchinson and Waters (1997) ESP is one important branch of EFL/ESL (English as a Foreign/Second Language) system that functions as the main branch of English language teaching ELT Therefore, ESP is not a particular kind of language or methodology, but rather an approach to language learning whereby the contents and methods are based on the learner’s particular needs to learn the language Since its emergence, much effort has been made to give an exact definition of ESP There are almost as many definitions of ESP as the number of scholars who have attempted to define it Many others have tried to define ESP in terms of what it is not rather than in terms of what it really is But for the purpose of exploring what ESP really means these definitions will not be looked at Mackay and Mountford (1978) defined ESP as the teaching of English for clearly utilitarian purposes (p 2) The purposes they refer to are defined by the needs of the learners, which could be academic, occupational, or scientific These needs in turn determine the contents of ESP curriculum to be taught and learned Mackay and Mountford also defined ESP as a special language that is taught in specific settings by certain participants They stated that those participants are usually adults They focused on adults because adults are usually highly conscious of the reasons to attain English proficiency in a determined field of specialization, and because adults make real use of special language in the special settings in which they work Strevens (1977, p 90) said: “ESP courses are those in which the aims and the 6 contents are determined, principally or wholly, not by criteria of general education…but by functional and practical English language requirements of the learners” Robinson (1980) defined ESP courses as the ones in which participants have specific goals and purposes (again, academic, occupational, and scientific) She cited Strevens (1977) to emphasize that the purposes language learners have for using language are of paramount importance She stated that those purposes must be understood as the driving force of the curriculum in a way that would help teachers and learners to not let irrelevant materials be introduced into the course She also placed the learners in the role of curriculum designers in order to make the curriculum more learner-centered Strevens also argued that ESP courses are those that are almost strictly based on the analysis of the participants’ needs - a key and crucial element - in order to tailor the curriculum to meet its true purposes Dudley-Evans (Dudley-Evans and St John, M.T 1998, p.56) took a general approach in defining what ESP really is in terms of ‘absolute’ and ‘variable’ characteristics as follows: ESP Absolute Characteristics 1 ESP is defined to meet specific needs of the learners 2 ESP makes use of underlying methodology and activities of the discipline it serves 3 ESP is centered on the language appropriate to these activities in terms of grammar, lexis, register, study skills, discourse and genre Variable Characteristics 1 ESP may be related to or designed for specific disciplines 2 ESP may use, in specific teaching situations, a different methodology from that of General English 3 ESP is likely to be designed for adult learners, either at a tertiary level institution or in a professional work situation It could, however, be for learners at secondary school level 4 ESP is generally designed for intermediate or advanced students 5 Most ESP courses assume some basic knowledge of the language systems The definition Dudley-Evans was clearly influenced by that of Strevens (1988), although he has improved it substantially by removing the absolute characteristic that ESP is “in contrast with ‘General English’” and has included more variable characteristics The 7 division of ESP into absolute and variable characteristics, in particular, is very helpful in resolving arguments about what is and is not ESP According to Widdowson (1983) ESP is viewed as parasitic in nature because it largely depends on the demands and requirements of the other disciplines and areas of expertise and activities While Hutchinson and Water (1987) considered ESP as an approach, not product in which all decisions as to content and method are based on the learner’s reason for learning This means ESP does not involve any particular kind of language, teaching material or methodology, but it is an approach to language learning, which is based on learners’ needs They claim that “ESP is not a matter of etching “specialized varieties of English” and “ESP is not different in kind from any other form of language teaching” (Hutchinson, T and Water, A., 1987) From the definition, we can see that ESP can but is not necessarily concerned with a specific discipline (subject), nor does it have to be aimed at a certain age group or ability range or in other words ESP can be applied to any subject and any learner ESP should be seen simple as an ‘approach’ to teaching, or what Dudley-Evans describes as an ‘attitude of mind’ This is a similar conclusion to that made by Hutchinson et al (1987:19) who states, “ESP is an approach to language teaching in which all decisions as to contents and method are based on the learner’s reason for learning” The last definition of ESP is the definition that this study will definitely employ in the process of examining the congruence between the course objectives stated in the current teaching material and the studying needs of the learners at Business Management Department of Vietnam Forestry University 2.1.2 Is ESP different from GE? The above definitions have shown how broad ESP really is In fact, one may ask ‘What is the difference between the ESP and GE approach?’ Hutchinson et al (1987:53) answer this quite simply, “in theory nothing, in practice a great deal” When their book was written, the Hutchinson’s answer was quite true At the time, teachers of General English courses, while acknowledging that students had a specific purpose for studying English, would rarely conduct a needs analysis to find out what was necessary to actually achieve it Teachers nowadays, however, are much more 8 aware of the importance of needs analysis, and certainly materials writers think very carefully about the goals of learners at all stages of materials production Perhaps this demonstrates the influence that the ESP approach has had on English teaching in general Clearly the line between where General English courses stop and ESP courses start has become very vague indeed Rather ironically, while many General English teachers can be described as using an ESP approach, basing their syllabi on a learner needs analysis and their own specialist knowledge of using English for real communication, it is the majority of so-called ESP teachers that are using an approach furthest from that described above Instead of conducting interviews with specialists in the field, analyzing the language that is required in the profession, or even conducting students’ needs analysis, many ESP teachers have become slaves of the published textbooks available, unable to evaluate their suitability based on personal experience, and unwilling to do the necessary analysis of difficult specialist texts to verify their contents In conclusion, English for Specific/Special Purposes (ESP) and General English (GE) are the two branches of English Language Teaching (ELT) General English and English for Specific Purposes share the same principles of language teaching, having effective and efficient learning as a main objective The main difference between ESP and GE lies in the awareness of a need ESP learners are current or future specialists who need English for their specific area and who are aware of their need; they know what exactly they need English for, they know what the ESP course should offer them (Hutchinson and Waters (1987) 2.1.3 Characteristics of ESP courses The characteristics of ESP courses identified by Carter (1983) are discussed here He states that there are three features common to ESP courses: a) authentic material, b) purpose-related orientation, and c) self-direction Dudley-Evans’ (1998) claim that ESP should be offered at an intermediate or advanced level, use of authentic learning materials is entirely feasible Closer examination of ESP materials will follow; suffice it to say at this juncture that use of authentic content materials, modified or unmodified in form, are indeed a feature of ESP, particularly in self- 9 directed study and research tasks For Language Preparation for Employment in the Health Sciences, a large component of the student evaluation was based on an independent study assignment in which the learners were required to investigate and present an area of interest The students were encouraged to conduct research using a variety of different resources, including the Internet Purpose-related orientation refers to the simulation of communicative tasks required of the target setting Carter (1983) cites student simulation of a conference, involving the preparation of papers, reading, note taking, and writing At Algonquin College, English for business courses have involved students in the design and presentation of a unique business venture, including market research, pamphlets and logo creation The students have presented all final products to invited ESL classes during a poster presentation session For our health science program, students attended a seminar on improving your listening skills They practiced listening skills, such as listening with empathy, and then employed their newly acquired skills during a fieldtrip to a local community centre where they were partnered up with English-speaking residents Finally, self-direction is characteristic of ESP courses in that the “ point of including self-direction is that ESP is concerned with turning learners into users” (Carter, 1983, p 134) In order for self-direction to occur, the learners must have a certain degree of freedom to decide when, what, and how they will study Carter (1983) also adds that there must be a systematic attempt by teachers to teach the learners how to learn by teaching them about learning strategies Is it necessary, though, to teach high-ability learners such as those enrolled in the health science program about learning strategies? I argue that it is not Rather, what is essential for these learners is learning how to access information in a new culture 2.2 Learner Need- Need analysis 2.2.1 Learner Needs Learner needs is an important aspect in determining the success of an ESP course therefore, it has drawn attention from numerous scholars who want to explore what the term is all about Among them Berwick Brindley, Mountford, and Widdowson have discussed different meanings of needs First, according to Widdowson (1983, p.2) needs 10 refers to students’ study or job requirements, that is, what they have to be able to do at the end of their language course This is a goal-oriented definition of needs Needs in this sense “are perhaps more appropriately described as “objective” (Berwick 1989, p.57) Second, needs can mean “what the user-institution or society at large regards as necessary or desirable to be learnt from a program of language instruction” (Mountford (1981, p.27) Third, needs is defined as “what the learner needs to do to actually acquire the language” This is a process-oriented definition which bears the meaning of learning (Widdowson (1983, p.2) Fourth, needs is also viewed as what the students themselves would like to gain from the language course This view of needs implies that students may have personal aims in addition to (or even in opposition to) the requirement of their studies or jobs Berwick (1989, p.5) notes that such personal needs may be (and often are) devalued by being viewed as “wants or desires” Finally, Berwick concluded needs is interpreted as lacks, that is, what the students do not know or cannot do in English Some of these views of needs have been paired, and the members of each pair seen as polar opposites, although the distinctions are not as clear cut as might be supposed This parings indicated the differences between what is believed to be the needs and what is the really needs The pairings of contrasted views of needs include perceived versus felt needs (perhaps covering the same ground as objective and subjective needs), the terms products and process have a range of uses as well as equating product with a target view of needs and process with a learning view, we can try to identify the target-level products and processes which students will need to control at the end of an ESP course In this study the writer will discus the pair target needs and learning needs (covering the same ground as goal-oriented and process-oriented needs) in 2.2.1 and 2.2.2 because it is more relevant to the teaching and learning of ESP course in the study setting 2.2.2 Needs analysis “Needs analysis is generally regarded as criteria to ESP, although ESP is by no means the only educational enterprise which makes use of it” Robinson, P.C (1991) Needs analysis is the process of identifying the students' reasons for studying a language It refers to the procedure for identifying general and specific language needs of students so that appropriate goals, objectives, and contents in courses can be developed (Hutchinson & Waters, 1987) In these researchers’ points of view it is imperative to carry out a needs 29 activities of the text but none voted for post-reading Lesson plan Question 3: As lesson plan is one of the requirements of the teaching syllabus in the University, all teachers said that they followed general lesson plan Pre-reading activities Question 4: Answering about the purposes of the use of pre-reading activities, all three teachers voted for "To deal with the difficult vocabulary present in the reading” and “To deal with difficult grammatical structures” with high frequency and only 1 teacher said she sometimes used it “To introduce the general theme of the reading” Question 5: Regarding to the kinds of activities in this pre-reading stage, all teachers said they dealt with vocabulary by giving students a list of the difficult words and ask them to look up in a dictionary Question 6: Referring to the time devoted for pre-reading activities, all teachers added 1015% as an answer Reading activities Question 7: Concerning about the kinds of activities used in reading stage, all teachers picked up skimming, scanning, content comprehension Only 1 teacher said that she sometimes had discourse comprehension activity Question 8: Referring to the group work and pair work in the reading, none of the teachers said that they applied them Question 9: answering about the sequence of the activities listed, teachers ranked them: Skimming, scanning, content comprehension and other Post reading activities Question 10: Referring to the purposes of using post-reading activities, teachers said that they used it to summarize the contents of the unit 3.4.3 Data collected from document analysis 30 After researching the book “English for Environmental Science’ complied by Foreign Language Department, Vietnam Forestry University, the writer of the study found out the following features related to the objectives of the course: Firstly, the book stated the target learners as “those students who are interested in the environment science” meanwhile the targeted learners of the ESP course are all the second year students of Vietnam Forestry University The course is compulsory as a requirement of the graduation, where the students like the environment science or not Secondly, the book said it was “designed for the pre-intermediate and intermediate students” This was in fact the right level for the students of the ESP course as in the need analysis question 4 of previous learning experience 97 students said their reading was at pre-intermediate level and the rest 67 students believed their reading skill was at intermediate level.( sees the appendix for the numbers) Thirdly, the book stated the objectives of the course in very general way through such wordings as: “It integrates the basic skills especially reading and writing skills Its objective is to improve readers’ basic English and to prepare students to comprehend and use college-level science material for environmental aspects The textbook is always focuses on language rather than science No-previous science knowledge is needed by the teacher and students” Tran et all (2006) It is obvious that the book was designed for reading only therefore it could not reach the target of “it integrates the basic skills especially reading and writing skills” as it said in the objectives Furthermore, the objectives are not clearly stated by just saying “to prepare students to comprehend and use college-level science material for environmental aspects” With such a kind of objectives, both instructors and students do not get any guide to fulfill their tasks during the course, and do not have clear target to reach Fourthly, the following table shows the structure and content of the book The book consists of 5 chapters each one contains 5 lessons except for the chapter 5 which holds only 4 lessons The texts are of variety topics related to the environmental issues The 31 exercises designed in the book were the same from chapter to chapter and from lesson to lesson with 5 types: Gap filling; Synonym; True-False; Answering the question and Translation 32 Lesson 1 Lesson 2 Chapter 1 Ggeneral knowledge of environmental science What is environmental science Public opinions and environmental protection Lesson 3 Environmental careers Lesson 4 Renewable nonrenewable resources Environmental protection - Gap filling - Synonym - True-False - Answering question - Translation Lesson 5 Exercise Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Human- Environment Environmental interaction technology Chapter 4 Environmental economics Chapter 5 International organizations and policies Population growth Use of solar energy The economic cost Greenpeace of environmental pollution Land use, How to avoid waste The economic International urbanization and of energy? impact on pollution organizations and ruralization control environmental policies Green house effect How to reduce it? Green business Defining environmental policies and What threatens Clean production Ecological Issues concerning biodiversity? economics less affluent nations Tropical Treatment sewage Eco-taxation deforestation - Gap filling - Gap filling - Gap filling - Gap filling - Synonym - Synonym - Synonym - Synonym - True-False - True-False - True-False - True-False the - Answering the - Answering the - Answering the - Answering the question question question question Translation Translation Translation Translation 33 3.5 Major findings on the congruence between the ESP course objectives and learners’ needs The evaluation of the congruence between the ESP course objectives and learners’ needs will be presented in the form of the similarities between ESP course objectives and learners’ needs, differences between ESP course objectives and learners’ needs and difficulties in matching ESP course objectives and learners’ needs 3.5.1 Similarities between ESP course objectives and learners’ needs The first congruence between the ESP course objectives and learners’ needs is the grammar, vocabulary development and reading skills that the ESP provided for the students Students in the ESP course were mainly at pre-intermediate students and they ranked themselves at this level too Their grammar should be focused and strengthened, their vocabulary should be enriched and their reading skill should be developed As a matter of fact, the course objectives “to improve readers’ basic English and to prepare students to comprehend and use college-level science material for environmental aspects” meet the students demand Supporting for this congruence between the ESP course objectives and learners’ needs was the teachers’ exploitation of the book Data from the questionnaire for the teachers showed that managed well to enrich students’ vocabulary and grammar structure as well as develop students’ reading skills including skimming, scanning and reading comprehension The second match of ESP course objectives and learners’ needs was that the course provided the English in environmental science without requiring learners or teachers to have special knowledge of the subject matter to do well in the course This objective was kept on the right track by the teachers’ efforts Teachers did it well when they focused on the English language used to express the idea, notion and concept of the subject matter but not the focus on the subject matter itself This is clearly stated in the teachers choosing on the vocabulary explanation rather than the theme of topic as they answered the questionnaire The finally meeting between the ESP course objectives and learners’ needs lied in the contents of the text book As majority of students said in the need analysis, they wanted to learn English for their study purposes (see the questionnaire result), the book served quite 34 well for this purpose In fact, the book not only served as the resource to learn English language but also covered the wide range of topics as well as basic knowledge that helped students to have general picture of the environment issues The topics were not so specialized and presented in a very reader-friendly way and systematically so that the general readers could understand the content without difficulties Through the content of the book students could learn a lot about the environment science which served the thirst for knowledge of learners Despites some congruence’s mentioned above, the objectives of the ESP course did miss some important needs of learners which were presented as the differences between ESP course objectives and learners’ needs in the next part 3.5.2 Differences between ESP course objectives and learners’ needs The most striking difference between ESP course objectives and learners’ needs was that students wanted to learn much more than what the ESP could offer Data from the students’ needs analysis showed that students wanted to learn English to be able to communicate in English This meant that they should be able to use English in both written and spoken form The later was absent in the objectives of the ESP course at Vietnam Forestry University It was so clear that the ESP course only focused on the reading materials and this was not communicative at all The second gap between ESP course objectives and learners’ needs was that students wanted to have different activities in the lesson to motivate them and exploit the text book better The research into the text book and the data from the teachers’ questionnaire showed that there were no such activities The textbook presented the text then the exercises with no group or pair activities suggested The teachers themselves did not approach the text in the communicative ways but they just used the traditional method of explaining the new words, then reading the text and do the exercises Furthermore, the exercises were the same in all 24 lessons that gave students a bore The last distance between ESP course objectives and learners’ needs that the writer wanted to highlight was the resources available for the ESP course While students wanted to learn communicatively and they needed variety of resources available, what they could found from the course were just teachers and 1 text book, no tape, no video, no suggested 35 reference books or sources Data from the teachers’ questionnaire showed that teachers themselves did not expand the lesson or gave students any handouts for developing the topic further 3.5.3 Difficulties in matching ESP course objectives and learners’ needs The differences were found but it could not be solved overnight due to some limitation or difficulties in matching ESP course objectives and learners’ needs The first gap – the students wanted to learn more than what the course could offer- is difficult matter to deal with and it takes time The whole system runs like this: each subject could take certain amount of time in the whole curriculum and it was decided centrally, not by English Department of Vietnam Forestry University or by the teachers of the course The new text book takes time to be designed and approved In fact, no one wanted to make a change The second difference between ESP course objectives and learners’ needs could be settled with the teachers’ willingness to change However, the difficulties raising here are that teachers are facing the pressure from time limitation of the lesson and the quality of the course If the apply the new techniques they have to devote a lot of time preparing for choosing the activities and prepare for it This is what the teachers are reluctant to try The last gap was not difficult to solve but difficult to control With the development of Information technology nowadays, the resources are never easier to access to However, it takes time to decide which one is worth using as the information is flooded with variety of qualities and reliabilities Sometimes, the teachers themselves are not “IT man” to be able to make advice or control the resources that students might use 3.6 Discussion The author of this study has found some of the reasons that led to the gap between ESP course objectives and learners’ needs as follows The most striking reason was that the objectives of the ESP course at Vietnam Forestry University were too ambiguous to act as a guide for a successful course First, the ESP course focused on familiarizing the student with decoding texts, while identifying elements and applying certain reading strategies were taking small parts General and detailed 36 reading as well as grammar knowledge was the main activities through out the reading sessions Second, there was no instruction about what a text is or even what the reading comprehension process consists of, no teacher manuals or guides And finally, there were signs that the objectives the book presented were not coherent with the contents in the material For example, the objectives stated the improve students “reading and writing skills” meanwhile it provided only reading lessons without touching any thing with writing In short, objectives of the ESP in fact drive the course to no where with clear direction, leaving the instructors and students finding ways themselves It was also evident that the book did not seem to have been built on any needs analysis First, previous students’ knowledge on the topic as well as English was not considered in the course as a base of designing material or promoting learning There were no activities that develop the student’s proximal development zone, such as reflection, meaningful learning or inner processes of knowledge and meaning construction Real challenges for students were not presented Second, all exercises were mechanical and consist of contentfilling The course was only focused on the literal level of reading comprehension, without considering inference or critical reading or promotion of students’ creativity or imagination And finally, the weak points of students were not attacked by any of the activities In conclusion, the differences between ESP course objectives and learners’ needs have not been unidentified In fact, they have been there and recognized by both teachers and students of the course However, the most crucial problem was that there was no research in language learning at Vietnam Forestry University and that no one was willing to do it The other equal important was that, even if the research can be done, the decision for the changes does not only lie on the result of the research but also on the complicated policy procedure 37 CHAPTER 4: RECOMMENDATIONS AND CONCLUSION 4.1 Recommendations Based on the researcher’s insights into current ESP practice in terms of students’ need analysis, teachers’ implementation of the course and ESP materials described in the previous chapter, the writer of this study would like to make recommendations relating to the ESP course at the Business Management Department, Vietnam Forestry University as follows: Firstly, the syllabus and course objective writer should build the material based on the needs analysis It is evident that need analysis is the basis of ESP curriculum design and setting objectives, and target situation analysis and study needs should be determined as the basis to develop the objectives of the ESP course As part of the needs analysis, an analysis of the learner’s language ability is necessary in order to get to know what type of language they already know and what type of language they lack The result from this needs analysis would not only allow curriculum designers and instructors of the course decide what and how to teach but also decide on whom they will teach and how to cater for a myriad of learning styles preferred by the course students The curriculum designers of the Vietnam Forestry University could revise their ESP objectives considering students needs to match course objectives with students’ needs The course-designers should conduct need analysis before they write the book for learners Second, the syllabus and course objective designer should choose the skills for ESP course carefully The ESP syllabus must encourage students’ life-long learning and autonomy Students of ESP course have clear target to use the English language in their particular condition such as professional work, communication in the real life… therefore, developing a basic and a habit of continuous learning skill is very important for learners Teaching methodology could no longer depend on teachers and consider teaches as ‘Mr Know-it-all” and by spoon –feeding students with grammar and vocabulary In stead, the objectives of the course should also focus on skills such as problem-solving, critical thinking and researching so that students would be able to study by themselves right from the time they are taking the ESP course and later on in their life This solution also help to deal with the present limited ESP resources as students could access the other rich 38 resources such as internet to satisfy their needs of resources It is obvious that learning a foreign language, use of procedural knowledge (learning to learn) is the basis for efficient and autonomous life long learning of language after school The last recommendation focused on solving the present situation at the Business Management Department, Vietnam Forestry University It is still a good idea to utilize the existing textbook whenever sensible and possible Changing the textbook takes time and seems more complicated than one should think of However, the teachers are not prohibited to adapt available authentic material (course books, radio and video recording, media publication and internet resources) to give their students a more meaningful and practical lessons to really meet their study needs Making attempts to create new teaching materials appropriate to the current needs of students is also a rewarding thing for the teacher as it helps develop his or her career in the process of self-improvement as well as it would bring a better output of his or her lessons Internet is a great source for authentic and updated materials that teachers of the course could think of And finally, teachers could use communicative approach to improve students’ communicative skills and make their lessons more interesting 39 4.2 Conclusion The study has proven to be both a learning and a rewarding experience having analyzed the data on students’ needs, the course objectives, the teacher implementation of the course and the text book of the course The study has given the writer a broader understanding of the importance of taking account of students’ needs in the ESP course design and has given students a chance to expresses their wants and needs as well as a chance to look at English study more deeply Having an insight of how learners need and what they need from an ESP course is vital in designing and piloting of every ESP course By doing this, curriculum designer can learn first hand what students really need to improve and be able to use English in their specialized fields to help ESP instructors determine their own strengths; directing them in writing the course objectives, syllabus and materials and test related to the students needs On the other hand, the process also helped students to look at and think what they really need and see the picture of outcome clearer so that they could imagine the road they have to go From the study the researcher also came to conclusion that the level of students’ communicative skills was low while the demand for those skills was high This stressed the importance of considering the students’ needs in designing course syllabus and course objectives The ESP curriculum and objectives so far have not been relevant to the students’ needs especially their professional needs and relevant to the target situation in which ESP students will function as an English communication users or specialists The present ESP teaching curriculum as well as its objectives focusing only on the reading skill had a very big hole in order to meet students’ learning needs This gap could be somehow filled by the teachers’ approach to the text and teacher’s hand outs or extra-materials to fulfill students’ thirst for communication skills More activities should be organized so that students could have chance to practice the language and exchange their knowledge with others on the process of learning 4.3 Suggestions for further study This study has looked into the congruence between ESP course objectives and learners needs The results of the study showed that despite come coherence there are still some gaps between them and left the curriculum designers as well as instructors the question of 40 how to solve the matter Due to the limitations such as time constraint, scope of the study, the researcher could not cover some areas that could make the study more reliable and valuable There are still some questions the researcher cannot answer Firstly, how do the administrators think about considering and taking needs analysis in designing an ESP curriculum? 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Forestry University It was so clear that the ESP course only focused on the reading materials and this was not communicative at all The second gap between ESP course objectives and learners’ needs was... goals and objectives, a program may have no clear purpose and direction With goals and objectives, at least a tentative definition exists of what the program has to offer the students and what