Designing an esp reading syllabus for the second year students at the faculty of urban planning hanoi architectural university (HAU)

This study aims at designing an ESP reading syllabus for the second-year students at the Faculty of Urban Planning, Hanoi Architectural University HAU to meet the demand for an appropria

On the completion of this thesis, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Dr Duong Thi Nu, who gave me precious guidance, comments, suggestions and encouragement throughout my research

My special thanks go to all my teachers of the Post-graduate course 13 at Vietnam National University, College of Foreign Languages, Hanoi, for their interesting and useful lectures

I also wish to convey my sincere thanks to all my colleagues and the second-year students at the Faculty of Urban Planning, Hanoi Architectural University, for their contribution to the data collection and their constructive suggestions for this research

Finally, I am grateful to my friends and my family who gave me support and encouragement during the time of fulfilling this work

I certify my authority of the Study Project Report submitted entitled

In total fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Master of Arts

Tr n Th Dung September 2007

This study aims at designing an ESP reading syllabus for the second-year students

at the Faculty of Urban Planning, Hanoi Architectural University (HAU) to meet the demand for an appropriate ESP course of the students at this faculty

The study consists of three main parts: Introduction, Development and Conclusion The Introduction states the rationale, aims and objectives, scope, methods and design of the study

In the main part of the study, the Development, there are three chapters Chapter 1 presents the review of relevant theories for designing an ESP reading syllabus, namely definition of syllabus, the role of the syllabus, types of ESP syllabus, approaches to syllabus design, steps in syllabus design, needs analysis and reading theories In chapter 2, basing on an overview of the teaching and learning situation at HAU and the background

of the target students, the need analysis was conducted with instruments of questionnaires and interviews to gather information on students’ target needs and learning needs The data were collected from various sources: the second-year students, the ex-students, the ESP teachers and the subject teachers The results of the needs analysis provide the basis for the researcher in choosing the appropriate syllabus type, determining the objectives, selecting and sequencing the content of the syllabus The proposed syllabus for the target students is presented in the last chapter of this part - chapter 3

The Conclusion summarizes the thesis, points out its limitations and proposes suggestions for further study

The proposed syllabus is expected to meet the students’ needs as well as the training objectives of HAU and will make contribution to the improvement of ESP learning and teaching at this university

Pages

Acknowledgement i

Declaration ii

Abstract iii

Table of contents iv

List of abbreviations vi

1 Rationale 1

2 Aims and objectives of the study 2

3 Scope of the study 2

4 Methods of the study 2

5 Design of the study 2

! " ! # $ " 1.1 Syllabus design 4

1.1.1 Definition of syllabus 4

1.1.2 The role of the syllabus 5

1.1.3 Types of ESP syllabus 6

1.1.3 1 Grammatical or structural syllabus 6

1.1.3.2 Notional/functional syllabus 6

1.1.3.3 Situational syllabus 7

1.1.3.4 Topic-based syllabus 7

1.1.3.5 Skill-based syllabus 7

1.1.3.6 Task-based syllabus 7

1.1.4 Approaches to syllabus design 8

1.1.4.1 The language-centered approach 8

1.1.4.2 The skills-centered approach 8

1.1.4.3 The learning-centered approach 9

1.2 Needs Analysis in ESP 10

1.2.1 Needs Analysis 10

1.2.2 Types of Needs 11

1.2.2.1 Target Needs 11

1.2.2.2.Learning Needs 11

1.3 Reading 12

1.3.1 Reading in ESP 12

1.3.2 Reading skills/ strategies 13

1.4 Summary 14

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2.1 Introduction 15

2.2 The teaching and learning situation at HAU 15

2.3 The target students 17

2.4 The teaching staff of the English section 17

2.5 A critical look at the existing syllabus 18

2.6 The study 19

2.6.1 The subjects 19

2.6.2.Instruments for collecting data 19

2.6.3.The findings 20

2.6.3.1 The findings of the questionnaires 20

2.6.3.1.1 Needs perceived by the teachers of the English section 20

2.6.3.1.2 Needs perceived by the subject teachers 24

2.6.3.1.3 Needs perceived by the target students 24

2.6.3.2.Results from the interviews with the graduates 25

2.7 Summary 26

! ( !! ! & )& & * + , * %-3.1 Aims and objectives 27

3.2 Selecting a type of syllabus for ESP students at the Urban Planning Faculty, HAU 28

3.3 Sequencing 29

3.3.1 Selecting the content 29

3.3.1.1 Specific topics in the syllabus 29

3.3.1.2 Reading skills and reading exercises 29

3.3.1.3 Grammar and structures 30

3.3.2 Grading the items in the syllabus 31

3.3.3 The organization of the syllabus 32

3.3.3.1 Time allocation 32

3.3.3.2 Quantity and structure of the syllabus 32

3.4 Designing tests for the ESP reading course 32

3.5 The proposed syllabus for the second-year students at the Faculty of Urban Planning, HAU 33

3.6 Summary 33

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HAU: Hanoi Architectural University

ESP: English for Specific Purposes

UPF: Urban Planning Faculty

1 Rationale

There is no doubt of the importance role that English plays in our society, especially in the process of regional and global integration People with a good command of English are needed in many fields This results in the great demand of learning English, manifested by the boom of English centers across the country At universities, students now realize the importance of English to their future work and they have paid more attention to the study

of English, especially English for Specific Purposes as this young branch of English is rarely taught outside their universities

For these students, reading is by far the most important skill as they hardly have opportunity to use communicative English outside the classroom However, they need to get access to a great number of specialized documents written in English so as to broaden their knowledge about their speciality as well as to obtain up-to- date information in their fields of study Reading is also very necessary in their future work Therefore, designing a syllabus focusing on improving students’ ESP vocabulary and their reading skills in ESP is

of great importance in order to prepare the students for their future job

At Hanoi Architectural University (HAU), English is a compulsory subject for students

of all faculties It is taught within 2 stages In the first stage, students learn General English (150 periods) according to Headway Pre-intermediate course book written by John & Liz Soars (1987) After 2 semesters learning General English, they progress on to the ESP (English for Specific Purposes) stage in which they learn 60 periods in their second year at HAU At this stage, students as well as teachers of English have faced a lot of difficulties due to the lack of an appropriate ESP teaching syllabus There are 5 faculties at HAU; each has its own specialist characteristics However, students of these different facilities have to study the same course book “English for Architecture, Civil Engineering, Urban Planning and Urban Infrastructure Techniques” (2002), written by a group of teachers of English at HAU Unlike what its name suggests, this course book only focuses on Architecture and Civil Engineering, and it is certain that it cannot satisfactorily meet the needs for an ESP course of students coming from 5 different faculties Therefore, designing an appropriate ESP syllabus for the students of each faculty is necessary

The faculty of Urban Planning is one of the main faculties at HAU, so it is one of the

faculty in which the job of designing an ESP reading syllabus should be carried out first For the above-mentioned reasons, I decided to choose the topic “Designing an ESP reading syllabus for the second-year students at the Urban Planning Faculty, HAU” as the topic of my thesis

2 Aims and objectives of the study

This study aims at designing an ESP reading syllabus for the second-year students at the Urban Planning Faculty, HAU In order to achieve this aim, the following objectives are set to follow:

- To get an overview of the theories related to ESP reading and syllabus design

- To identify the needs perceived by the ESP students, the ESP teachers and the subject teachers toward an appropriate reading syllabus for the ESP students of the Urban Planning Faculty

- To propose a reading syllabus based on needs analysis

3 Scope of the study

This study is initiated and developed from the urgent need to design an effective ESP syllabus for the second-year students at the Urban Planning Faculty, HAU It is conducted within HAU and focuses on Urban Planning, one of the major professions at the university Due to the general institutional academic situation, priority is given to reading skill Within the scope of a minor thesis, this study focuses on the designing process itself; only the basic theories related to ESP reading and syllabus design are presented

4 Methods of the study

In this study, both quantitative and qualitative methods are used The quantitative method is used to collect data by means of questionnaires There are three kinds of questionnaires, one aims at the second-year student population learning ESP, another aims

at the ESP teachers of the English section and the last aims at the subject teachers at the Urban Planning Faculty, HAU so as to identify the needs for an ESP syllabus from a broad view The qualitative method is used to collect data through interviews with ex-students of the Urban Planning Faculty as well as through informal discussions with colleagues

5 Design of the study

This study contains three main parts

Part A- Introduction presents the rationale, aims and objectives, scope, methods and the design of the study

Part B- Development, which is the main part of the study, consists of three chapters

- Chapter I reviews the literature concerning syllabus design, needs analysis and reading theories

- Chapter II describes in details the study including its background, subjects, instruments for collecting data as well as the findings of the study

- Chapter III proposes a reading syllabus for the second-year students at the Faculty

of Urban Planning basing on the findings of the study

Part C- Conclusion includes a summary of the study, limitations and suggestions for further research

1.1 Syllabus design

1.1.1 Definition of syllabus

In language teaching, syllabus is a common notion and many teachers consider it as

a document which says what will (or at least what should) be learnt But in fact, there have been several different ways in which a syllabus can be defined Some authors who advocate the narrow view believe that syllabus and methodology should be kept separate whereas some others who adopt a broader view argue that it is difficult to make a distinction between content and tasks

As a supporter of the narrow view, Nunan (1988: 5) draws a clear distinction between syllabus design and methodology:

“Syllabus design is seen as being concerned essentially with the selection and grading of content, while methodology is concerned with the selection of learning tasks and activities”

Allen (1984: 49) shared this view with Nunan in claming that “Syllabus… is concerned with a specification of what units will be taught (as distinct from how they will

be taught, which is a matter for methodology)”

Different from these scholars, one of the broad view advocators, Yalden (1984: 14) stated that:

The 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 activities which will take place in the classroom

Another definition belonging to the broad view was given by Dubin and Olshtain (1986: 28): “Whatever it is called, it is a document, which ideally describes:

• What the learners are expected to know at the end of the course, or the course objectives in operational terms

• What is to be taught or learned during the course, in the form of an inventory of items

• When it is to be taught, and at what rate of progress, relating the inventory of items

to the different levels and stages as well as the time constraints of the course

• How it is to be taught, suggesting procedures, techniques, and materials

• How it is to be evaluated, suggesting testing and evaluating mechanism”

This might be the most detailed definition of a syllabus and also acts as a guideline for the researcher during the process of syllabus design in this study

1.1.2 The role of the syllabus

It is obvious that a syllabus is an important component in the process of course design Therefore, it is useful to consider the role it plays in the teaching and learning process so as to use it most effectively Hutchinson and Water (1987: 83-84) stated the following roles of a syllabus:

The syllabus, in defining the constituent parts of language knowledge, provides a practical basis for the division of assessment, textbooks and learning time This is a very important role of the syllabus as language is a complex entity and cannot be learnt in one

go Therefore, in order to teach and to learn effectively, we have to break it down into manageable units

In addition to its practical benefits, a syllabus also gives moral support to both the teacher and the learner in that it makes the language learning task appear manageable

If we consider learning as a journey, then, the syllabus can be seen as a statement of projected routes, so that teacher and learner not only have an idea of where they are going, but how they might get there

A syllabus is an implicit statement of views on the nature of language and learning

It will normally be expressed in terms of what is taken to be the most important aspect of language learning, thus, it tells the teacher and the student not only what is to be learnt, but, implicitly, why it is to be learnt

A syllabus also provides a visible basis for testing, an important part in language learning and teaching

Apart from its advantages, a syllabus also hides some dangers:

• A syllabus can never be more than a statement of a teaching ideal It can only constitute an approximate statement of what will be taught, but can predict very little about what will be learnt

• Syllabuses cannot express the intangible factors that are essential to learning such

as emotions, personalities, subjective views, motivation

• Syllabuses cannot take account of individual differences Just as they are a statement of the ideal in language terms, they also implicitly define the ideal learner

It can be seen from the above list that the role of the syllabus is very complex Therefore, it is important to be aware of the different roles that the syllabus plays, so that it can be used most appropriately

1.1.3 Types of ESP syllabus

1.1.3 1 Grammatical or structural syllabus

It is based on a theory of language that assumes that the grammatical or structural aspects of language form are the most basic or useful The syllabus input is a selection of grammatical structures and structures (e.g tenses, grammatical rules, sentence patterns) which occur in a language and the sequence of those items for convenience in teaching The main advantage of this syllabus is that it is based on the principle of working from the familiar to the unfamiliar and using the familiar to teach the unfamiliar, as stated by McDough (1981: 21): “the transition from lesson to lesson is intended to enable material

in one lesson to prepare the ground for the next; and conversely to grow out of the previous one” On the other hand, one weak point of this type of syllabus is that it only focuses on one aspect of language, that is, formal grammar and “it is difficult to isolate and present discrete items outside a context and the links of grammatical structures can be rather tenuous” (Nunan: 1988: 30)

1.1.3.2 Notional/functional syllabus

A functional-notional syllabus is based on learning to recognize and express the communicative functions of language (informing, agreeing, apologizing, requesting, etc.) and the notions that language is used to express (size, age, colour, comparison, time, and so on) Unlike the grammatical one, this type of syllabus produces a communicative competence without losing sight of grammatical factors However, it is confined to short utterances or exchanges involving the functions in questions and the complexity of grading content input is another problem

1.1.3.3 Situational syllabus

In this type of syllabus, the content of language teaching is a collection of real or imaginary situations in which language occurs or is used Examples of situations include: seeing the dentist, complaining to the landlord, buying a book at the book store, meeting a new student, and so on The primary purpose of a situational language teaching syllabus is

to teach the language that occurs in the situations The main advantage of this type of syllabus is that the content is highly relevant to the needs and interests of the learners, though there are still unpredictable situations and “there is principle no way to grade situations in terms of difficulty or as to which ones need to be learned before others” (Long and Crookes, 1993)

1.1.3.6 Task-based syllabus

The task-based content is a series of complex and purposeful tasks that the students want or need to perform with the language they are learning (Tickoo, 1988: 175) Examples include: applying for a job, talking with a social worker, getting housing information over the telephone, and so on This type of syllabus is clearly significant for ESP since the basic need of ESP students is that: “using the medium of English, they should successfully perform a work or study task” (Robinson, 1991: 40) However, task-

based design is considered demanding, time and effort consuming as according to Shavelson & Stern (1981) in designing this syllabus many things should be taken into account such as subject matter, materials, activities, goal, needs, interests and ability of learners

In short, there are many types of syllabus that can be found in ESP Each one has its own strong points and weak points and it is difficult to say which one is better than the others As Robinson (1991) suggests the decision as to which syllabus type or types to employ will result from a judicious consideration of the students’ needs and the objectives

of the course, together with the situational bias of the teaching situation

1.1.4 Approaches to syllabus design

Approaches to syllabus design is an important factor that must be taken into account when designing a language course According to Hutchinson and Waters (1987), approaches to syllabus design are divided into three main kinds, namely: language-centered, skill-centered and learning-centered

1.1.4.1 The language-centered approach

The language-centered approach “aims to draw as a direct connection as possible between the analysis of the target situation and the content of the ESP course” (Hutchinson and Waters, 1987: 65) Although this approach seems to be logical and straightforward, it also reveals its weaknesses Firstly, it starts from the learners and their needs, but is not a learner-centered approach The learner is used to identify the target situation but their learning needs are not accounted for at all Only a restricted area of language is taught Secondly, it can also be criticized for being a static and inflexible procedure, taking little account of the conflicts and contradictions that are inherent in any human endeavor Moreover, it gives no acknowledgement to factors which must play a part in the creation of any course Lastly, the language-centered analysis of target situation data is only at the surface level, revealing very little about the competence that underlines the performance

1.1.4.2 The skills-centered approach

The basic theoretical hypothesis of this approach is that: “underlying any language behaviour are certain skills and strategies, which the learner use in order to produce or comprehend discourse” (Hutchinson and Waters, 1987: 69) This approach shows more advantages than the language-centered one in that it can take the learner more into account

than the former; it aims to get away from the surface performance data and look at the competence that underlies the performance However, despite its concern for the learner, the skills-centered approach still regards the learner as a user of language rather than as a learner of language and it is concerned with the processes of language use, not of language learning

1.1.4.3 The learning-centered approach

The learning-centered approach aims at maximizing the potential of the learning situation It is based on a recognition of the complexity of the learning process The advantage of this approach over the two above-mentioned ones is that it fully takes the learner into account The learner is considered at every stage of the learning process, whereas the language-centered approach and even the skills-centered one, in spite of its emphasis on the learner, only use the learner to identify the target situation and to analyze the learning situation, then the learner is discarded in the process of determining the content of the course

The above discussion on approaches to course design leads the researcher of this study to the decision of choosing the learning-centered approach as the basis for designing

an ESP reading syllabus for the second-year students at the Faculty of Urban Planning, HAU

1.1.5 Steps in syllabus design

Designing a language syllabus is no doubt a complex process Different researchers look at the issue in different ways Hughes (1983: 7) suggests that the first important steps must be the choice of aims and objectives while Long and Crookes (1993:12) considers tasks as the point of departure in syllabus design Other researchers share the view that needs analysis should be the initial step For example, Munby (in John A.S.Read, 1984: 58) proposes that

“syllabus design involves a logical sequence of three stages: Needs Analysis, Content specification and Syllabus organization” Nunan (1988) provides a more detailed model including the following steps:

• Needs analysis

• Goal setting

• Selecting and grading content

+ selecting grammatical component

+ selecting functional/notional component

+ relating grammatical, functional, notional component

+ relating functional to notional components

• Selecting and grading tasks

The syllabus for the target students at the Faculty of Urban Planning, HAU, will be designed by working out on three steps: Needs analysis, Goal setting (Aims and Objectives setting), Selecting and grading content

Since needs analysis is usually seen as a crucial step for designing an ESP course, it will be further discussed in the next part of this study

1.2 Needs Analysis in ESP

1.2.1 Needs Analysis

There are many definitions of needs analysis given by several researchers Brown (1995: 35) defines: “Needs analysis refers to the activities involved in gathering information that will serve as the basis for developing a curriculum that will meet the learning needs of a particular group of students”

A very thorough description of needs analysis is presented in Developments in ESP (Dudley-Evans & Jo St John, 1998:125) and covers the following areas:

A target situation analysis & objective needs

B wants, means, subjective needs

C present situation analysis

D learners’ lacks

E learning needs

F linguistic and discourse analysis

G what is wanted from the course

H means analysis

According to Dudley-Evans & Jo St John (1998:125), the interpretation of these points is as follows: ‘A includes professional information about learners: what they will be using English for; B includes personal information about learners: attitude to English, previous experiences C includes English language information about learners: their current skills and experiences in language use; D defines the gap between C and A; E includes language learning information: effective ways of learning the skills and the language; H includes information about the environment in which the course will be run’

Discussing the significance of needs analysis, Richards (1993: 5) points out:

“Needs analysis serves three main purposes: it provides a means of obtaining wider input into the content, design and implementation of a language program; it can be used in developing goals, objectives and content; and it can provide data for reviewing and evaluating an existing program”

The main data collection methods for needs analysis are questionnaires, discussions, interviews, observations, assessment (Dudley-Evans & Jo St John, 1998:132)

In other words, the main sources for needs analysis are the learners themselves However,

in the ESP research fields, relevant documentation and information received from colleagues are also important

a Necessities: The type of need determined by the demands of the target situation, that is, what the learner has to know in order to function effectively in the target situation

b Lacks: The gap between the target proficiency and the existing proficiency of the learners

c Wants: What the students perceive to be important for their language development

Dickinson (1991: 91) also makes a distinction between needs, wants and lacks:

“Needs are those skills which a learner perceives as being relevant to him; wants are a subset of needs, those which a learner puts at a high priority given the time available; and the lack is the difference a learner perceives between his present competence in a particular skill and the competence he wishes to achieve”

1.2.2.2.Learning Needs

Learning needs is defined by Hutchinson and Waters (1987:54) as: “what the learner needs to do in order to learn” To be more specific, they use the analogy of the ESP course as a journey in which “lacks” is regarded as the starting point, “necessity” as the destination and “how we are going to get from the starting point to the destination

indicates “learning needs” They also mention many factors that must be considered on the route to get to the destination successfully:

“The target situation analysis can determine the destination; it can also act as a compass

on the journey to give general direction, but we must choose our route according to the vehicles and guides available (i.e the conditions of the learning situation), the existing roads within the learner’s mind (i.e their knowledge, skills and strategies) and the learners’ motivation for travelling.”

Both target and learning needs are taken into account when determining the aims and objectives of the syllabus

1.3 Reading

1.3.1 Reading in ESP

No one can deny the importance of reading in both GE and ESP Discussing this issue, Carrel (1988: 1) affirms: “for many students, reading by far is the most important of four skills in a second language, particularly in English as a second or foreign language” Reading plays a significant role in ESP as it is assumed that ESP students are learning to use English as a study tool or research language Therefore, reading plays a crucial role in helping them to be familiar with specialized terms and concepts necessary for their future jobs through a variety of reading materials written in English such as periodicals, scientific and technical journals, etc In addition, reading in ESP can motivate study more than other skills because it is the easier and can be done at any time, anywhere, with available, easy-to-find materials

When it comes to the issue of reading in ESP, besides mentioning its significance role, one cannot help mentioning its purpose In general, the aim of any reading program is “to enable students to enjoy (or at least feel comfortable with) reading in the foreign language, and to read without help unfamiliar authentic texts, at appropriate speed, silently and with adequate understanding” (Nuttal, 1996: 31) Reading in this purpose is no more than a means of language development But, for ESP learners “extracting information accurately and quickly is more significant than language details; that understanding the macrostructure comes before language study; and that application of the information in the text is of paramount importance The reader first processes the language and then links the ideas to what is already known.” (Dudley-Evans & Jo St John, 1998:96) Clarifying the purpose of reading in ESP is necessary because there exists a relationship between reading

skills and reading purposes as suggested by Kenedy and Bolitho (1991:70): “It is important to define a reader’s purpose in coming to a text as this will dictate the skills and strategies to be adopted by the reader and the level of comprehension he is operating at” The reading component of an ESP course requires a balance between skills and language development Dudley-Evans and St John (1998: 96) propose some of the key skills as follows:

- selecting what is relevant for the current purposes;

- using all the features of the text such as headings, layout, typeface;

- skimming for content and meaning;

- scanning for specifics;

- identifying organizational patterns;

- understanding relations within sentence and between sentences;

- using cohesive and discourse markers

Although ESP reading relates to a particular field or discipline, the recent trends in ESP seem to share the assumption that general reading strategies should be taught to ESP students because according to Hutchinson and Waters (1987), ESP is not different in kind from any other form of language teaching and ESP teaching should be based on the principles of effective and efficient learning

1.3.2 Reading skills/ strategies

The terms reading skills and reading strategies are used interchangeably and classified differently by many researchers According to Nuttal (1996) there are two kinds

of macro-reading skills: word-attack skills and text-attack skills Word-attack skills are sub-divided into morphological information; structural clues; inference or guessing the meanings of unfamiliar words from context; active, receptive and thrown-away vocabulary; learning to ignore difficult words and using a dictionary Text-attack skills include understanding sentence syntax; recognizing and interpreting reference and substitution; interpreting discourse markers; recognizing implications and making inference; and prediction

Broughton et al (1978: 211) classify reading skills into two groups: lower order mechanical skills and higher order comprehension skills The first group consists of recognition of letter shapes; recognition of linguistic elements (phoneme/ grapheme, word, phrase, clause pattern, sentence, etc.); recognition of sound/letter spelling pattern

correspondence (ability to “bark at print”) and lower reading speed The second group is composed of understanding plain sense (lexical, grammatical, rhetorical); understanding significance (logical, author attitude/purpose, cultural relevance/setting, reader reaction); evaluation (content, form) and flexible reading speed

Munby (1994: 179) provides the list of important reading skills, namely:

- Deducing the meaning of unfamiliar lexical terms;

- Recognizing indicators in discourse;

- Extracting salient points to summarize;

- Using basic reference skills;

- Skimming to get general information;

- Scanning to locate specifically required information;

- Transcoding information to diagrammatic display

When reading the text, the reader can neither use the reading skills separately nor use all reading skills at the same time He/she has to select some of the reading skills that are appropriate with his or her reading purposes Therefore, ESP teachers should familiarize their students with necessary reading skills suitable to their reading purposes to deal with texts in their field of study Some necessary reading skills of the ESP reading course for the second-year students at the Faculty of Urban Planning, HAU, will be selected to conduct the needs analysis in this study

1.4 Summary

This chapter presents the literature review of the theories related to all essential aspects for designing an ESP reading syllabus, including definitions of the ESP syllabus, types of ESP syllabus, approaches to syllabus design, steps in syllabus design, reading in ESP and reading skills/ strategies Also, a special attention is paid to need analysis, an initial and crucial stage for an ESP course Hopefully, in the light of this literature, an appropriate ESP reading syllabus will be designed for the target students

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2.1 Introduction

The starting point in syllabus design, according to Nunan (1988) and Yalden (1983), is the needs analysis This chapter presents the results of the needs analysis which lays the foundation for designing an ESP reading syllabus for the second-year students at the Faculty of Urban Planning, HAU To obtain information through a variety of sources with an aim to identify the needs from a broad view, two means of data collection were chosen, questionnaires and interviews The interviews aimed at the ex-student population who graduated from the Faculty and are doing a job related to their field of study Three questionnaires were designed and administered to the students, the subject teachers and the teachers of the English section All these sources of information then were analyzed and the findings were drawn out to design an appropriate syllabus

Moreover, in order to conduct a useful analysis of learner needs, a syllabus designer also has to take many factors into account, such as the teaching and learning situation, the learners’ background, the physical constraints present in the teaching situation, the teaching staff, etc as pointed out by Hutchinson and Waters (1987: 61) :

“The needs, potential and constraints of the route (i.e the learning situation) must also be taken into account, if we are going to have any useful analysis of the learner needs” All these factors will also be presented in this part of the study

2.2 The teaching and learning situation at HAU

The foreign language department at HAU contains two sections: the English section and the French one, of which the English section plays a dominant role with 19 teachers of English in comparison with only 3 teachers from the French section Since

1993, English has been a compulsory subject at HAU The English section is in charge of teaching general English as well as ESP for students coming from 5 different faculties of the University, namely faculty of Architecture, faculty of Rural and Urban Planning, faculty of Civil Engineering, faculty of Infrastructure Technique and Urban Environment, faculty of Urban Management

From 1993 to 2005, students at HAU were allowed to attend 300 periods (45 minutes each) of General English and 60 periods of ESP However, since 2006, the number

of General English periods has been cut down to 150 periods in order to prepare the

students and the teachers as well for the new system of learning and teaching, that is, the credit system, which focuses on self-study Currently, the whole curriculum of English is divided into 2 stages:

- Stage 1: Students learn 150 periods of General English in their first year of study

at the university This stage aims at providing students with basic general knowledge of English The textbook that has been used in this stage is Headway Pre-Intermediate by Liz

& Soars

- Stage 2: Students learn 60 periods of ESP in their second year of study When starting this stage, they have reached Pre-Intermediate level of English (equal to B level) after finishing their General English course One of the purposes of this stage is to enable students to read books and materials related to their specialism so that they will be able to use English effectively for their study and their future careers “English for Architecture, Civil Engineering, Urban Planning and Urban Infrastructure Techniques” (2002), written

by a group of teachers of English at HAU, has been used as the only textbook for the ESP course

In the first stage, with the time allotment of only 150 periods to cover the whole Headway Pre-Intermediate textbook, both the teachers and the students have to face a great deal of difficulties The teachers have to select only some important parts of the textbook

to teach in class time Some others are assigned as homework for students’ self-study at home Several reading texts and listening exercises have to be removed due to their unsuitability However, despite the teachers’ efforts in making the textbook suitable to the students’ level as well as the time allotment for the course, the result of study is still unsatisfactory since the students’ level of English was very low when they were admitted into the university and they still haven’t been accustomed to self-study

For the ESP course, teaching materials is the biggest problem All of the five faculties at HAU have to use the same course book for years The contents of this book (as discussed in 2.5) only focus on Architecture and Civil Engineering Needless to say, it cannot perfectly meet the needs of the students coming from the five faculties Given time constraint and students’ needs to get access to ESP reading materials with an aim to develop their specialist knowledge, the purpose of teaching ESP at HAU as perceived by the teachers here is to focus on teaching reading Designing an appropriate ESP reading

syllabus for each faculty is, therefore; an urgent task to enhance the quality of learning and teaching ESP at HAU

2.3 The target students

The second-year students at the Faculty of Urban Planning are the ones who already finished one year of General English The majority of them are male students This

is a typical feature of all faculties at HAU English class size ranges from 25 to 30 students They attend 6 periods of ESP per week

In general, almost all of them were beginners of English when they entered the university because at high school, many of them considered English a minor subject and didn’t learn it seriously After only one year of General English at the university, their English cannot improve very much

Like students of other faculties at HAU, the students at the Faculty of Urban Planning come from different parts of the country Some of them come from cities and towns and have quite a good proficiency in English while others who come from rural areas only stand at a very low level To make matter worse, there are some students who can hardly pronounce an English word, as they were taught another foreign language other than English at high school Due to administrative constraints, these students cannot be assigned to different classes according to their level of English This results in mixed-ability classes which create a great challenge on the part of the teachers In the same class, some students can follow the teacher quite easily and actively take part in the lessons, whereas for some others, their low level of English makes them become passive Therefore, it is hard for the teachers to meet the needs of all students in the same class As

a result, the students’ English proficiency is still low in comparison with the requirements

of the syllabus

As far as learning motivations are concerned, the students at the Faculty of Urban Planning now become more aware of the importance of English, especially ESP, in their study as well as in their future jobs given the context of global integration This is a good condition for the successful implementation of the new ESP syllabus for the target students

2.4 The teaching staff of the English section

The teaching staff of the English section consists of 19 teachers whose ages range from 25 to 55 Among them, eight teachers have Master degree in TESOL (teaching

English for speakers of other language); one is studying for the M.A degree at Hanoi National University The others have Bachelor degree in English All of them are in charge

of teaching General English and ESP for students of five faculties at HAU Although the majority of them have many years of experience in teaching General English, no one has received any training in ESP teaching Like many ESP teachers in Vietnam, lack of knowledge about the specialist field make the teachers of the English section at HAU have

to encounter a lot of difficulties in comprehending the subject matter This problem might even be more serious for ESP teachers at HAU because they are in charge of teaching ESP for students coming from 5 different faculties, which means that they have to deal with the specific knowledge of different fields To solve this problem, they are being assigned to design the teaching syllabus for each faculty, so that in the very near future, they can be divided into 5 groups in charge of 5 different faculties of the university

2.5 A critical look at the existing syllabus

In order to design a good syllabus, it is worth having a look at the existing one to identify its strengths and weaknesses so that the strengths can be enhanced and the weaknesses can be limited in the new syllabus, as pointed out by Dubin & Olshtain (1986: 27): “Only by understanding the strengths and weaknesses of the existing program can a better one be developed” Personally, the current syllabus has some shortcomings in terms

of materials and time allotment

Regarding teaching materials, it can be said that the official textbook fails to fulfill the purposes of an ESP syllabus for the students at the Faculty of Urban Planning The current textbook used for the ESP course, “English for Architecture, Civil Engineering, Urban Planning and Urban Infrastructure Techniques” (2002), written by a group of teachers of English at HAU, contains 15 units However, due to the time constraint of the course, only the following 12 units are chosen to teach ESP students coming from 5 faculties: History of Architecture, Housing in Britain, The Procedure of Building Construction, Design of Houses for Tropical Climates, Structures, Foundations, Building Materials, Site Investigations and Soil Mechanics, Site Labour, Planning Design Process, Water Supply and Current Environmental Situation As can be seen, the topics in this textbook mainly focus on Architecture and Civil Engineering None of them relates to the field of Urban Planning Given the purpose of an ESP syllabus as to enable students to use

English as a means to develop their specialist knowledge, the current textbook is totally inappropriate for the ESP students at the Urban Planning Faculty

As far as time allotment is concerned, the imbalance between the timeframe (60 teaching periods) and the quantity (12 units) makes the teachers have no other choice but

to leave out many items such as graphs, tables, diagrams regardless their importance to the students’ future jobs Besides, the decision as to which items should be left out in each unit depends on the subjective view of each teacher, leading to difficulties in the final assessment

Despite these shortcomings, the current syllabus still has its own strengths in terms

of the variety and diversity of exercises and activities to reinforce students’ basic grammar and structures as well as to develop their reading skills/strategies

2.6 The study

2.6.1 The subjects

The subjects of the study are 15 teachers of the English section at HAU who have many years of experience in ESP teaching, 12 subject teachers of the Urban Planning Faculty, 8 ex-students who graduated from the Urban Planning Faculty and 100 second-year students coming from 4 groups of this Faculty These students have finished their Pre-Intermediate course in General English at HAU

2.6.2 Instruments for collecting data

According to Robinson (1991), needs analysis should try to obtain information from a range of sources and viewpoints so that the result of needs analysis will be worth meeting the needs of the learners With this aim in mind, the researcher decided to choose questionnaires and interviews as the main instruments for collecting data in this study because using questionnaires, it is easy to get information from a large number of people very quickly and “individual interviews allow for gathering personal responses and views privately” (Brown, 1995)

The first questionnaire for the teachers of the English section at HAU contains 4 sections

Section 1 aims at eliciting opinions on designing an ESP reading syllabus for the second-year students at the Faculty of Urban Planning, HAU and expectations for the ESP reading course in terms of purposes

Section 2 deals with grammar and structures which should be consolidated in the syllabus

Section 3 is about the reading skills and reading exercises to be included in the syllabus

Section 4 asks for opinions on time allotment for the course

The second questionnaire is designed and written in Vietnamese for the subject teachers at the Faculty of Urban Planning with an aim to collect their opinions on the topics needed for the syllabus

The third questionnaire which aims at the target students is written in Vietnamese and divided into 3 sections

Section 1 focuses on students’ expectations of the ESP course

Section 2 deals with the needed topics for the syllabus

Section 3 looks for students’ opinions on the reading skills and reading exercises to

be included in the syllabus

Besides, the interviews with 8 ex-students from the Urban Planning Faculty seek for valuable information concerning the importance of English reading in their current jobs, the reading skills they often use in their work, their comments on the strengths and weaknesses of the current reading syllabus for the ESP students at the Faculty and their opinions on the topics which should be included in the new ESP reading syllabus

2.6.3.The findings

2.6.3.1 The findings of the questionnaires

This part of the study presents the results of the questionnaires collected from the teachers of the English section, the subject teachers and the target students The main issues discussed here include some ideas on the current textbook, the need of designing a new ESP reading syllabus, expectations about the ESP reading course, topics, grammatical structures, reading skills and exercises needed for the course The ESP teachers’ ideas on the time allotment for the course are also mentioned in this part

2.6.3.1.1 Needs perceived by the teachers of the English section

2.6.3.1.1.1 ESP teachers’ ideas on the current textbook and their opinions on designing a new ESP reading syllabus

As can be seen from Chart 1, the majority of the ESP teachers thought that the current textbook used for the ESP course at HAU is not very appropriate and useful to the

students at the Faculty of Urban Planning (80%) None of them (0%) considered it very appropriate and useful; 6, 7% stated that it is appropriate and useful and 13,3% gave no idea The reasons for these results can be explained by the inappropriateness of the topics

in the current textbook to the subject study of the ESP students at this Faculty as well as the imbalance between the timeframe and the quantity of units in the textbook as discussed

in 2.5

In terms of the necessity of designing the new ESP reading syllabus, Chart 2 shows that most of the ESP teachers (86, 7%) agreed with the idea of designing an ESP reading syllabus for the students at the Faculty of Urban Planning (60%: very necessary; 26,7%: necessary), none of them (0%) thought that it is unnecessary and two of them (13,3%) gave

no responses It can be concluded that they are fully aware of the inappropriateness of the current textbook to the students at this Faculty and the importance of ESP in the future careers of their students Designing an appropriate ESP reading syllabus will help both the teachers and the students to improve the quality of ESP learning and teaching

2.6.3.1.1.2 ESP teachers’ expectations of the ESP reading course

This part of the questionnaire is designed to seek for ESP teachers’ expectations about the ESP reading course in terms of objectives The teachers were asked to rank the objectives in order of importance from the most important to the least importance The results of the teachers’ responses are presented in Table 1 (Appendix 5)

Teachers' opinions on designing a new

No idea

As can be seen from Table 1, item 1 is considered to be the most important objective of the reading course as it receives the highest percentage in the first priority (33,3%) and is ranked in the second, third and fourth priority with rather high percentages

of 26,7%, 20% and 20% respectively Item 2 ranks the second priority with 40% of the responses The third priority is given to item 4 with 46,7% of the responses Item 6 could also be considered to be among the important objectives with the total percentage of 20%

in both the second and the fourth priority The items which receive little attention are items

3, 5 and 7 with low percentages in all the three first priorities

The above results reveal that the ESP teachers expect their students to be able to comprehend the concepts as well as the reading materials related to urban planning after the reading course by means of building up specific terms They also pay attention to grammatical structures because the students’ level of English is still low after the General English course

2.6.3.1.1.3 Needed topics perceived by the ESP teachers

This section aims at finding out the topics needed for the syllabus from the perspective of the ESP teachers They were asked to rank 14 topics from very necessary to not necessary Table 2 (Appendix 6) indicates the number and the percentage of the responses to each topic The results show that the topics which receive the highest percentage of positive responses (very necessary and necessary) include topics 3 and 8 (100%) Other topics considered to be important for the syllabus are topics 4, 6, 9, 10, 14 with more than 70% of positive responses (very necessary and necessary) It can be suggested that these topics should be included in the syllabus On the contrary, topics 1, 12 should be excluded from the syllabus as they receive rather high percentages of negative responses (not necessary) with around 33,3% each The rest topics (topics 2, 5, 11, 13) can either be included in the syllabus or in the supplementary reading materials

2.6.3.1.1.4 Needs perceived by the teachers’ choice of grammatical structures Basing on the basic grammar phenomena that the students have learned in their General English course at HAU and the grammatical structures that frequently appear in the reading texts on urban planning, the designer chose 15 grammatical structures to ask the ESP teachers to choose the important ones for the syllabus The results can be seen in Table 3 (Appendix 7)

It is apparent from the table that the teachers find almost all these items important for the course except items 2, 13, 15 with the percentages of negative responses (not important) ranging from 66,7% to 93,9% This can be easily understood because these three items rarely appear in the reading texts on urban planning Therefore, they should be taken out from the syllabus The rest items should be dealt with in the syllabus with the focus on items 5, 6, 7, 12, which receive very high percentages of positive responses (93,3%, 93,3%, 86,7%, 86,7% respectively)

2.6.3.1.1.5 Needs perceived by the teachers’ choice of reading skills and exercises for the course

With the aim to find out the reading skills and exercises to be focused in the syllabus, the designer formed a list of the most popular reading skills and exercises needed for developing reading comprehension to ask the ESP teachers because they are the very people who know exactly which ones are necessary for the course The results are shown

2.6.3.1.1.6 Time allotment for the course perceived by the teachers

This section is intended to find out the suitable total number of teaching periods and the time frequency for the course The results show that none of the teachers (0%) chose 30 periods (each period lasts 45 minutes) and only two of them (13,3%) were in favour of 45 periods The reason is that these two total numbers of teaching periods could not be sufficient enough for both the teachers and the students to fully exploit the syllabus Three out of fifteen teachers (20%) believed that 75 periods is a suitable number to help the students practise all the reading skills and exercises necessary to develop their reading comprehension The majority of the informants- 10 teachers (66,7%) – thought that 60 periods is the time allotment for the course The reason lies here is the tendency towards a new system of learning and teaching, that is the credit system, which reduces the number

of teaching hours and increases students’ time of self-study This seems to be a reasonable time allotment because the teachers can choose those skills and exercises which they believe to be the most important for the students to practise in class and assign the others

as homework In terms of time frequency, the majority of the teachers (66,7%) were in favour of 2 lessons per week (3 periods each lesson), which means that the whole ESP course will cover 10 weeks

2.6.3.1.2 Needs perceived by the subject teachers

2.6.3.1.2.1 Subject teachers’ ranking of topics relating to urban planning

The questionnaire for the subject teachers at the Urban Planning Faculty, HAU, only seeks for their opinions on the necessary topics to be included in the syllabus Like the teachers of the English section, they were asked to rank 14 topics from very necessary

to not necessary Table 5 (Appendix 9) presents the results of the questionnaire collected from the subject teachers

From the table, it is interesting to note that the topics which are chosen with the highest percentage of positive responses (very necessary and necessary) are also topics 3 and 8 (100%) This confirms the utmost importance of these two topics in the field of urban planning In contrast, the topics that receive the highest percentages of negative responses (not necessary) ranging from 50% to 66,7% are topics 1, 5, 11, 12,13 It is note worthy at this point that the subject teachers were very determined in making their decision because they have more experience in the subject matter than the teachers of the English section Therefore, they put much higher percentages of negative responses for the topics which they consider unnecessary The rest topics with rather high percentages of positive responses should be put into the syllabus

2.6.3.1.3 Needs perceived by the target students

2.6.3.1.3.1 Students’ expectations of the reading course in terms of objectives Table 6 (Appendix 10) shows the results of the students’ responses to the part of the questionnaire which is designed to find out their expectations of the reading course in terms of objectives As can be seen from the table, the three most important items from the students’ perspective are items 1, 2, 4, 6 which receive rather high percentages (around 20%) in all of the three first priorities From the above analysis of the teachers’ responses

to the same question, it can be seen that these items are also considered to be important by the ESP teachers, thus, they should be centered on in the syllabus Besides, the students

add another important objective, item 3, with the percentage of 25% in the third priority Items 5 and 7 receive little attention, which indicates that speaking skill would be of minor importance in the course

2.6.3.1.3.2 Needed topics perceived by the students

As shown in Table 7 (Appendix 11), the choice of the students is nearly the same as that of the ESP teachers and the subject teachers, although the percentage of negative responses (not necessary) is lower, for example, for topic 1, the students’ percentage is 25% whereas that of the ESP teachers and the subject teachers are 33% and 66,7% respectively This can be explained by the fact that the students are fully aware of the importance of English to their study and future work, therefore, they find all the topics attractive and want them to be included in the syllabus The items (topics) which receive high percentages of positive responses and should be put into the syllabus include topics 2,

3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 14 The rest topics should be taken into account in the supplementary reading materials

2.6.3.1.3.3 Needs perceived by the students’ choice of reading skills and exercises for the course

In terms of students’ choice of reading skills and exercises, Table 8 (Appendix 12) shows that the students find almost all the items necessary and should be consolidated in the syllabus, except items 2a, 2b, 5, 8a, 10b2 which receive the percentages of lower than 30% This indicates that the students wish to deal with a variety of reading skills and reading exercises to enhance their reading comprehension Besides, there are several items considered to be of special importance from the students’ viewpoints such as items 4b (80%), 7b (100%), 8d (85%), 9d (80%)

2.6.3.2.Results from the interviews with the graduates

In order to collect some more information for designing an appropriate syllabus, the researcher conducted the interviews with 8 ex-students who are working as researchers in Institutes for Urban and Rural Planning, as urban planners in Consulting Offices for Construction, or as subject teachers at the Faculty of Urban Planning The content of the interview can be seen in Appendix 4 Interestingly, all the informants highly appreciated the role of English reading skill in their jobs (6 responded that it is very important and the rest thought that it is important) because they often have to use English to read materials related to urban planning to get necessary information The sub-reading skills they often