Nghien cuu cach thuc giang vien su dung giao tring tieng anh chuyen nganh trong viec day hoc tai khoa quan he cong chung, hoc vien bao chi va tuyen truyen

A qualitative research with datacollection procedures has been describled in the second chapter of this thesis: first,questionnaire information on the leaners’ attitude toward their text

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERISTY – HANOICOLLEGE OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES

DEPARTMENT OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES

-PHAM HAI CHUNG

HOW TEACHERS USE THE CURRENT ESP MATERIALS AT

PUBLIC RELATION FACULTY, ACADEMY OF

JOURNALISM AND COMMUNICATION

NGHIÊN CỨU CÁCH THỨC GIẢNG VIÊN SỬ DỤNG GIÁO TRÌNH TIẾNG ANH CHUYÊN NGÀNH TRONG VIỆC DẠY HỌC TẠI KHOA QUAN HỆ CÔNG CHÚNG, HỌC VIỆN BÁO

CHÍ VÀ TUYÊN TRUYỀN

M.A MINOR THESIS

FIELD: METHODOLOGY CODE: 601410

SUPERVISOR: TO THI THU HUONG, Ph.D

HANOI - 2008

DECLARATION

I certify that the work contained in this thesis is the result of my own research and thesubstance of this thesis has not, wholly or in part, been submitted for degree to any otheruniverisity or institution.

Signature

Pham Hai Chung

ABSTRACT

This study is aimed at finding out how teachers use current ESP materials at Public RelationFaculty, Academy of Journalism and Communication It is organized as following:

The study starts with the brief introduction of rationale, scope, methods and design of thestudy Originated from the learning teaching situation and through data collection and analysis

at PR Faculty, Academy of Journalism and Communication, this study has been proposed andimplemented

The first chapter is literature review on definition of ESP, roles of teaching materials and ESPteachers, materials evaluation and materials exploitation A qualitative research with datacollection procedures has been describled in the second chapter of this thesis: first,questionnaire information on the leaners’ attitude toward their textbook, supplementary andtheir teachers’ exploitation of current ESP materials, followed by in-depth interviews with twoteachers in charge of teaching this course to find out their difficulites in exploiting current ESPmaterials and their suggestions to improve the situation The last chapter discusses somerecommendations of methods for teaching the current ESP materials as well as the guide forthe material users and designers to make better decisions on the improvement of the course forfuture use

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to send my thanks to all those who have helped to shape the ideas that have gone into this minor thesis

First of all, i would like to convey my gratitude to Ph.D To Thi Thu Huong for her critical and constructive supervision, valuable guide and encouragement throughout

my research It is impossible to numerate the number of tasks she has so kindly taken on.

I also would like to convey my sincere thanks to all my teachers of the post – graduate course, whose knowledge and enthusiasm are of great help to the achievement of my academic study.

I am grateful to teachers of Foreign Languages Faculty and all the students of PR faculty at Academy of Journalism and Communication for their cooperation, suggestions as well as assistance in the completion of this thesis.

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

Table1: Techniques for adapting depending on teacher’s purpose and learning context Table 2: Topics of PR textbook

Table 3: Teachers’ exploitation of teaching materials

Tables 4: Teaching techniques teachers use in the class

Chart 1: Learners’ opinion of the textbook

Chart 2: Learners’ interest of supplementary materials

TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER I:LITERATURE REVIEW

1 Definition of ESP 8

2 Roles of teaching materials and ESP teachers 10

2.1 Roles of textbook 11

2.2 Roles of supplementary materials 13

2.3 Roles of ESP teachers 13

3 Materials evaluation 14

4 Materials exploitation 14

4.1 Reification of textbooks 14

4.2 Materials Adaptation 15

CHAPTER II: METHODOLOGY 1 Participants and settings 19

2 Research methods 21

3 Data Collection Procedure 22

CHAPTER III: RESULT AND DISCUSSION 1 The relevance of current ESP PR materials 24

2 The extent of teachers’ exploitation of current PR materials 25

2.1 Teachers’ exploitation of textbook 25

2.2 Teachers’ use of supplementary materials 27

3 Difficulties of the teachers in exploiting the current PR material 28

3.1 The difficulties of the teachers in using the textbook 30

3.2 The difficulties of the teachers in using the supplementary materials 31

4 Teachers’ suggestions to difficulties when exploiting the current ESP 31

4.1 Making some changes in the current textbook……….31

4.2 Increasing leaners’ interest in tasks and other activities by encouraging marks… 32

4.3 Designing variable tasks in the supplementary materials………32

5 Conclusion……… 32

CHAPTER IV: RECOMMENDATION FOR TEACHING AND

CONCLUSION

1 Recommendation of methods for teaching ESP reading materials 34

2 Conclusion 37

REFERENCES

1 Rationale

As an international language, English nowadays plays an important role in academic studies,professional success and personal development in the world of economic integration andglobalization The number of learners of English increases quickly day by day In fact, allcourses of English usually start with the question “Why do these learners need to learnEnglish?” These courses are based on a perceived need of some sort Otherwise why wouldEnglish find its way on to a school or college timetable: “someone at sometime must havedecided there was a need for it” Most learners have realized their core need to learn Englishfor their current or future job Thus, English for Specific Purposes has become more in demandthan General English

Public Relation, a new field in Vietnam, is still seen as more reactive than proactive Thenumbers of public relations agencies are still miniscule for a country with a population of overeighty million The only training place for PR has just been established for three years at theAcademy of Journalism and Communication with the purpose of training a number of PRofficers for the whole country in the new context of social and economic integration

In training, materials are very important in teaching and learning Many types of materials can

be used during the process of teaching and learning to provide basic knowledge to students andimprove their knowledge about and skills in the subject matter In terms of training at the PRFaculty, as PR materials in Vietnamese are rather limited, ESP materials of PR is even moreimportant for students of the PR Faculty Both teachers and students face many difficulties inteaching and learning ESP The most outstanding one is the design and development of PRmaterials for use in the PR ESP program The materials are developed solely by teachers ofGeneral English, Academy of Journalism and Communication while they should be jointlydeveloped by an expert team comprising both teachers of English and teachers of PR As thePublic Relation Faculty is a new one, the teachers teaching ESP course are young andinexperienced in this effort Additionally, all teachers are trained to be teachers of GeneralEnglish and they lack knowledge of PR and so they have to study by themselves when they

teach ESP in Public Relations They make a great effort to help students improve theirlanguage skills by adapting the textbooks or teaching materials Students start learning ESP of

PR at the fifth semester, so only 32 students learnt the first ESP course of PR Thus, therewould be many questions to be answered about the effectiveness of this course My research,therefore, aims to study how the teachers at PR faculty use the current ESP material in order tosuggest effective implications on teaching methods and ESP materials design at PR faculty

2 Aims of the study:

By carrying out this research, I would like to fulfill the following aims:

1- Investigating teachers’ use of the current PR teaching materials including the requiredtextbook and the supplementary reading materials This aim is split into two sub-aims of:

+ finding out students’ opinions on their teachers’ exploitation of the current PR teachingmaterials;

+ finding out teachers’ reported ways of using PR teaching materials and their suggestions onhow to make better use of the materials;

2- Proposing the implications for teachers so that they can make better use of the materials

3 Research question

This study is implemented to find answers to the following question:

 How do teachers use the current ESP PR materials? This question is broken down into

three sub-questions:

1 Do students think that their teachers use the current PR materials appropriately?

2 What do teachers say about their use of the current PR materials?

3 What do they suggest for better use of the materials?

4 Scope of the study

Due to the limitation of time, this study has no ambition to cover all aspects of ESP materialuse The scope of this thesis is limited to the teachers’ exploitation of the textbook andsupplementary materials only As the teaching of ESP is mostly concerned with teaching thereading skill, in this study, the focus is teachers’ methods of exploiting textbook (mostlyreading material) in teaching reading ESP PR materials to the third year students

5 Organisation of the study

This study is organized as following:

Introduction

Chapter I: Literature review

Chapter II: Methodology

Chapter III: Results and Discussions

Chapter IV: Recommendation for teaching and conclusion

CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW

1 Definitions of ESP

The term "specific" in ESP refers to the specific purpose for learning English Studentsapproach the study of English through a field that is already known and relevant to them Thismeans that they are able to use what they learn in the ESP classroom right away in their workand studies The ESP approach enhances the relevance of what the students are learning andenables them to use the English they know to learn even more English, since their interest intheir field will motivate them to interact with speakers and texts

ESP assesses needs and integrates motivation, subject matter and content for the teaching ofrelevant skills

Streven’s (1988) definition of ESP makes a distinction between four absolute characteristicsand two variable characteristics

 Absolute characteristics of ESP

ESP consists of English language teaching which is :

- Designed to meet specified needs of the learners

- Related in content (ie, in its themes and topics) to particular disciplines, occupations andactivities

- Centered on the language appropriate to those activities, in syntax, lexis, discourse,semantics, etc

 Variable Characteristics of ESP:

ESP may be, but is not necessarily:

- Restricted as to the language skills to be learners (e.g.: reading only; speech recognition only,etc)

- Taught according to any pre- ordained methodology (i.e., ESP is not restricted to anyparticular methodology although communicative methodology is very often felt to be the mostappropriate)

Definition of ESP (Dudley-Evans, 1997)

Absolute Characteristics

- ESP is defined to meet specific needs of the learners

- ESP makes use of underlying methodology and activities of the discipline it serves

- ESP is centered on the language appropriate to these activities in terms of grammar, lexis,register, study skills, discourse and genre

Variable Characteristics

- ESP may be related to or designed for specific disciplines

- ESP may use, in specific teaching situations, a different methodology from that of GeneralEnglish

- ESP is likely to be designed for adult learners, either at a tertiary level institution or in aprofessional work situation It could, however, be for learners at secondary school level

- ESP is generally designed for intermediate or advanced students

- Most ESP courses assume some basic knowledge of the language systems

The definition Dudley-Evans offers is clearly influenced by that of Strevens (1988), although

he has improved it substantially by removing the absolute characteristic that ESP is "in contrastwith 'General English'" (Johns et al., 1991: 298), and has included more variablecharacteristics The division of ESP into absolute and variable characteristics, in particular, isvery helpful in resolving arguments about what is and is not ESP From the definition, we cansee that ESP can but is not necessarily concerned with a specific discipline, nor does it have to

be aimed at a certain age group or ability range ESP should be seen simple as an 'approach' toteaching, 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 state, "ESP is an approach to languageteaching in which all decisions as to content and method are based on the learner's reason forlearning"

Hutchinson and Waters (1987) see ESP as an approach rather than a product by which theymean that ESP does not involve a particular kind of language, teaching material ormethodology They suggest that the foundation of ESP is the simple question Why does thislearner need to learn a foreign language ?

The need can vary from study purposes to work purposes These purposes are the starting pointwhich determines the language to be taught

The situation ought to be, the nature of the learners’ needs should determine the teaching given

to him Such views form the basis for teaching English for specific purposes – ESP

2 Roles of teaching materials and ESP teachers

- Brian Tomlinson (2001) defined materials as anything “used help to teach language learners.Materials can be in the form of a textbook, a workbook, a cassette, a CD Rom, a video, aphotocopied handout, a newspaper, a paragraph written on a whiteboard: anything whichpresents or inform about the language being learned ” thus ESP teaching materials are thingsused for teaching English for Special Purpose

- Tomlinson also defined supplementary materials as material designed to be used in addition

to the core materials of a course

2.1 Roles of textbook

Jack C Richards (2001) find out the roles of textbooks depend on how they are used and thecontexts for their use

 They provide structure and a syllabus for a program

Without textbooks a program may have no central core and learners may not receive a syllabusthat has been systematically planned and developed

 They help standardize instruction

The use of a textbook in a program can ensure that the students in different classes receive similar content and therefore can be tested in the same way

 They maintain quality

If a well developed textbook is used students are exposed to materials that have been tried andtested, that are based on sound learning principles, and that are paced appropriately

 They provide a variety of learning resources

Textbooks are often accompanied by workbooks, CDs and cassettes, videos, CD ROMs, andcomprehensive teaching guides, providing a rich and varied resource for teachers and learners

 They are efficient

They save teachers' time, enabling teachers to devote time to teaching rather than material'sproduction

 They can provide effective language models and input.

Textbooks can provide support for teachers whose first language is not English and who maynot be able to generate accurate language input on their own

 They can train teachers.

If teachers have limited teaching experience, a textbook together with the teacher's manual canserve as a medium of initial teacher training

 They are visually appealing.

Commercial textbooks usually have high standards of design and production and hence areappealing to learners and teachers

Richards (2001) also explained that textbooks are a key component in most languageprograms In some situations they serve as the basis for much of the language input learnersreceive and the language practice that occurs in the classroom They may provide the basis forthe content of the lessons, the balance of skills taught and the kinds of language practice thestudents take part in In other situations, the textbook may serve primarily to supplement theteacher's instruction For learners, the textbook may provide the major source of contact theyhave with the language apart from input provided by the teacher In the case of inexperiencedteachers textbooks may also serve as a form of teacher training - they provide ideas on how toplan and teach lessons as well as formats that teachers can use Much of the language teachingthat occurs throughout the world today could not take place without the extensive use ofcommercial textbooks Learning how to use and adapt textbooks is hence an important part of ateacher's professional knowledge

2.2 Roles of supplementary materials

Tomlinson (1998:p.xiii) explains that supplementary materials are usually related to thedevelopment of skills of reading, writing, listening or speaking rather than to the learning oflanguage items

Thus, useful and effective supplementary materials can provide great assistance to teachers inteaching

2.3 Roles of ESP teachers

Good teachers show that they are the masters of their subjects The first law of teaching is to

"know your stuff," to be exceptionally knowledgeable in a subject area This task never ends, because the flow of important research never stops Staying current in one’s field is exacting yet crucial Teachers must feel comfortable with a subject if they are going to succeed at explaining it They should know how to talk about their subject from several starting points, prompted by a variety of questions

According to Tom Hutchison and Alan Waters (1987), we should ask ourselves three

questions?

a Does the content of ESP materials need to be highly specialized?

b Why do so many ESP teachers find it difficult to comprehend ESP subject matter?

c What kind of knowledge is required of the ESP teacher?

3 Materials evaluation

According to Tom Hutchinson and Alan Waters (1987), “evaluation is a matter of judging thefitness of something for a particular purpose”, thus a good evaluation of materials can saveexpense

Hutchinson and Alan Waters divide the evaluation process into four major steps

- Selecting from existing materials: material evaluation

- Write your own materials: materials development

- Modify existing materials: materials adaptation

Madsen and Bowen (1978) claimed that “every teacher is in a very real sense an adapter of thematerial he uses He or she may employ one or more of a number of techniques:

supplementing, editing, expanding, personalizing, simplifying, modernizing, localizing ormodifying cultural/situational content” or “the good teacher is constantly adapting He adaptswhen he adds an example not found in the book or when he telescopes an assignment”

There are various techniques for adapting depending on teacher’s purpose and learning context,

Omit because…  Learners are clear about a language point

 Learners are competent in a skill

 There are too many tasks on a particular area/point

 The item/area concerned is not a priority

 The item/task is not well designed

 The item/task is not well-suited to its aims

 The topic is not appropriate for learnersRe-order or combine

to…

 Match my aims

 Use a practice task for lead – in and elicitation

 Revise an area earlier than the textbook does

 Compare and contrast areas

 Provide thematic unity

 Provide an appropriate follow – upReplace because…  Texts are of inappropriate length

 Materials are inappropriate to the aim

 Materials are inappropriate to the learners’ age/experience

 Materials are unclear/confusing/misleading

 Tasks are badly designedAdd because…  Area are not covered sufficiently

 Texts/pictures/tasks are not provided

 Text/pictures/tasks are fewer than needed

Table 1: Techniques for adapting depending on teacher’s purpose and learning context

(Adapted from Gabrielatos, 2004) (cited in ELT methodology III)

Once material have been evaluated, potential problem areas can be identified: what thematerials offer can not be exactly what our learners’ need; The materials methodology may notmatch our own; Our general aims may not match the aims of the materials; The aims of a

particular lesson/unit in the materials may not match our lesson-by-lesson aims We will have

to prioritize and select We may need to supplement the materials

There are 5 main ways of modifying materials:

- Adding, including expanding and extending

- Deleting, including subtracting and abridging

- Modifying, including restructuring and rewriting

 Deleting:

Obviously, deletion is the opposite process to that of addition As we know, materials can beadded both quantitatively (extending) and qualitatively (expanding), the same point applieswhen omitting materials

Addition and deletion often work together Material may be taken out and then replaced withsomething else For example, a fill – in exercise can be replaced with summarizing exercise

 Modifying

Modifying can be sub-divided under two related - headings The first is rewriting, when some

of the linguistic content needs modification, the second is restructuring, which applies toclassroom management

- rewriting relate to activities closer to learners’ own background and interest,

- Restructuring: for many teachers who are required to follow a course book ratherstrictly, changes in the structuring of the class are sometimes the only kind ofadaptation that is possible

 Simplifying

This is one type of modification Text, most often reading passages are applied this technique.Usually, the emphasis has been on changing various sentences – bound elements to match thetext more closely to the proficiency level of a particular group of learners.

 Re- ordering

This refers to process of putting parts of a course book in a different order This can adjust theresult of presentation within a unit or taking units in a different sequence intended

The ability to be able to adapt is an essential skill for teachers to develop Through the process

of adaptation the teacher personalizes the text making it a better teaching resource as well asindividualizes it for a particular group of learners Normally this process takes place gradually

as the teacher becomes more familiar with the book since the dimensions of the text whichneed adaptation may not be apparent until the book is tried out in the classroom When anumber of teachers in a program are teaching from the same textbook it is useful to build inopportunities for teachers to share information about the forms of adaptation they are making

SUMMARY

Chapter one has presented the major roles that teaching materials including textbook andsupplementary materials play in the process of teaching and learning as well as the roles ofESP teachers It also focuses on the key concepts of “materials evaluation” and “textbook,textbook exploitation” The last section of this chapter especially deals with theoretical views

on materials adapting techniques

The reviewed literature shows that material adaptation is a must for teachers Within thecontext of the PR Faculty, with the ESP PR materials developed solely by teachers of GeneralEnglish, the need for material adaptation is much greater Thus, it is very important to find outhow teachers are using the current PR materials so that strengths can be enhanced andweaknesses minimized, the main aim of the study reported in this thesis In the next chapter,the methodology for the investigation for answers to this question is described

CHAPTER II: METHODOLOGY

This chapter presents a description of the methodology implemented in this study It

particularly provides a discussion on how to conduct the research on teachers’ exploitation of teaching materials The learning and teaching settings in which the study was undertaken will

be featured in the early part of this chapter This will be followed by a reiteration of the

research question and then research methods Finally, data collection procedure with desciption

of stages in which data was collected will be presented at the end of the chapter

1 Participants and Settings

The Public Relation Faculty under the Academy of Journalism and Communication enrolls 32students each year The majority of third – year students are aged 20 They are from differentprovinces in the North and Center of Vietnam All of them took the English test at theUniversity entrance exam in D group, thus their English especially their grammar is atintermediate level For these students, learning ESP is supposed to be beneficial from the basicknowledge of General English learning At the same time, the students who have been exposed

to good English instruction at their secondary school can suffer from the drag of no futherlanguage teaching in class Therefore, their level of proficiency may be deterred affecting theirmotivation in ESP learning The mixed ability of the students in terms of their Englishproficiency is clearly an obstacle to the effort to motivate the students to study ESP at theuniversity

Additionally, some of them have geographical disadvantage and unsystematically formaleducation of foreign language at secondary school, they, theoretically, have taken theuniversity entrance exam with English test in D group, their problem lies in the fact that theirlanguage skills, esp reading skills are not well-developed enough to be transferred into theirlearning of ESP Meanwhile, some of them studied in gifted school in Hanoi with Englishmajor Thus their ability of English is different levels

They took the ESP course of PR at the fifth semester with a total of 36 periods, 3 periods perweek This course mainly deals with the reading materials The aim and objectives of thiscourse is to help students consolidate, widen, and perfect their command of English for PublicRelation so that they can read ESP materials in Public Relation This text book of readingmaterials has 12 topics for 12 units based on one textbook of Public Relation of UTS

Student of PR Faculty at AJC (Academy of Journalism and Communication) are characterized

by their strong motivation, both instrumental and integrative, to learn ESP since they are aware

of the benefits of the course to their academic study, future profession and social life

Two teachers in charge of this course designed all exercises as well as their exploitation of theteaching materials They are the teachers of PR faculty but their background knowledge isEnglish teaching not PR expert

The textbook of PR includes 12 topics:

Unit1 What is public relation?

Unit 2 Ethical practiceUnit 3 Research and evaluationUnit 4 Strategy, planning and schedulingUnit 5 Tactics

Unit 6 Information and communication technologiesUnit 7 Media relations

Unit 8 Internal and community relationsUnit 9 Crisis and issues managementUnit 10 Sponsorship and event managementUnit 11 Public Relation in business

Unit 12 Public Relation in government