Luận văn thạc sĩ VNU ULIS an exploratory study on the teachers and students’ perceptions of an ESP course at the infantry officer training college number one

Aims of the study

English language skills are required in most specific contexts worldwide

Consistent with the aims of ESP education in IOTC No.1, ESP courses should be designed to equip students with adequate English ability to meet their needs

It is necessary to understand the expectations of teachers and students, as well as student needs and difficulties, before applying ESP courses The present study is designed to investigate IOTC No.1 teachers’ and students’ perceptions of their ESP course with the following purposes: (1) To understand their perceptions of the importance of ESP course, to explore student expectations toward ESP course; (2) to understand student needs and difficulties.

Research questions

Based on the purposes of the study, two major research questions are addressed as follows:

1 What are the students’ perceptions of their English ability, difficulties, and expectations toward ESP?

2 What are the teachers’ opinions and perceptions of ESP courses and their expectations of future ESP pedagogy?

Scope of the study

The study is focused on the teachers and students’ perceptions of ESP teaching and learning at IOTC No.1, and the participants were ESP teachers and

The subjects of the study were chosen at random and various among 330 second year students of IOTC No.1 Yet, the study results cannot be true to all Vietnamese learners Thus, my suggestions for ESP teaching and learning difficulties might work well only for IOTC No.1teachers and for the ones who are teaching at such colleges with similar English syllabus or education training or for the ones who concern.

Significance of the study

Previous studies (Bacha & Bahous, 2008; Braine, 2001; England, 2006;

Jasso-Aguilar, 1999; Kavaliauskiene, 2003; Shi, Corcos, & Storey, 2001; West,

1994) indicated that potential problems affect the effectiveness of ESP courses

The significance of the present study, therefore, lies for its exploration of the students’ perceptions of their ESP learning, the teachers’ perceptions of ESP teaching The findings of the present study provide pedagogical implications and suggestions for prospective ESP teaching and curriculum application at IOTC No.1 It also provides a closer look at student problems, needs, and expectations

The researcher hopes that the methods and findings of this study can make a contribution to ESP teaching and learning.

Organization of the study

This thesis is structured into three parts: Introduction, Development, and Conclusions Part A presents the introduction and background to the study, the purposes of the study, the scope of the study, and its significances and limitations Part B consists of three chapters Chapter one presents relevant literature in the areas of ESP teaching and learning, issues and problems involved in ESP, ESP materials and curriculum design, as well as the perceptions of both the teachers and students were reviewed Chapter two provides the teaching context; the research methods, the instruments of data collection, and the data analysis Chapter three reports the findings of the qualitative and quantitative data analysis based on the questionnaires of the student-participants and interview questions of the teacher-participants, then gives the recapitulation Part C gives conclusion, and offers suggestions for pedagogical applications and further research

PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER ONE: LITERATURE REVIEW

The purpose of this chapter is to review the literature relating to the research issues, in order to provide input into the construction of the framework for the present study The background of ESP and the previous studies related to ESP are addressed in the first section, which includes the development of ESP, the definitions of ESP, and the characteristics of ESP and military English The following section covers Needs Analysis in ESP Materials and curriculum in ESP are addressed in the third section, while the fourth section talks about the problems and challenges involved in ESP, including student English competence and difficulties with ESP, and the qualifications of ESP teachers In the final section, learner and teacher perceptions of ESP courses, and research related to the perceptions of ESP courses is presented

I.1 English for Specific Purposes and military English

After the Second World War scientific, technical and economic activity increased tremendously worldwide As the United States played the key role in the post-war economy, the English language became the accepted international language of technology, science and commerce The situation, in its own turn, created the need for learning English and this time the learners knew exactly what they needed and why they needed it (Hutchinson and Waters 2001: 6)

ESP, as an area of teaching English as a foreign language, emerged in the late 1960s (Ibid 5) In the case of teaching ESP the stress is rather on the language in context than learning grammar or language structures Another important point is that ESP learners learn the language that is really important and necessary for them

Nowadays ESP has an important part in learning and teaching the English language and it has undergone many changes When traditionally the aim of linguistics has been to describe the rules of English usage and grammar then the new idea of ESP is to analyze the linguistic characteristics of learners’ specialist areas of work or study and to determine the specific needs of learners (Ibid 8)

Hutchinson and Waters (Ibid.8) point out that “learners were seen to have different needs and interests, which would have an important influence on their motivation to learn and therefore on the effectiveness of learning.” It was also understood that particular groups of learners use language, which have different specific linguistic characteristics

Military English has also some specific characteristics One of the characteristics is that the military use the imperative to issue orders, commands and instructions Imperatives are used when a position of authority is involved as is the case in the military Polite forms such as “Would you”, “Could you” are not commonly used Instead “You are to” is the form to issue orders For example, instead of a polite response to a knock on the door and the reply to the knocking “Will you, please, come in!” A military person would say “Come in!”

Another characteristic is that the passive voice is avoided in many cases as it usually shows that the person who performs some action is not important or that one wishes to avoid responsibility In the military there is always someone who has to take responsibility for actions, and that is why the military prefer the active voice instead of the passive For example, instead of writing in a report that “The safety instructions were not followed (by Cpl Smith) it would be Cpl Smith did not follow the safety instructions.” Nonetheless, the students need to know the passive voice as well in order to pass the examinations after the courses

In terms of military documents, everything must be direct and laconic

There are no long descriptions; instead simple tenses and short sentences are used Everything should be short, simple, and to the point On the other hand, when the military give an oral description of something, such as a situation or a picture as a task in the lesson, the descriptions are full of detail, and the students like to add their own experience to the descriptions For example, describing two soldiers talking to each other, the students start with the description of the background and the soldiers And then, based on their experience, they explain why they are carrying exactly this type of weapon and, what can be done with the weapon, etc The higher the level of language command, the more detailed the descriptions are

Military English can also be characterized by the abundant use of abbreviations, acronyms and military slang The use of abbreviations and acronyms is mandatory rather than recommended For example, Standard Operating Procedure C01 (SOP C01 Application of New Standard) from the U.S Army Civilian Personnel Management department contains 873 words, 100 of which are either acronyms or abbreviations (26 different acronyms and abbreviations repeated 100 times in the document)

Another characteristic feature of military English is the NATO phonetic alphabet It is mainly used during radio transmissions to ensure the clarity of the message and to avoid misunderstandings when it comes to similar-sounding words Also, it is used instead of the civilian spelling alphabet in the case of difficult words The NATO alphabet is not only used by the military but also by the civilians when two nations need to cooperate and communicate with each other (e.g airline pilots)

Telling time is also different in the military context The military, but also aviation, meteorology, astronomy, emergency services, hospitals, etc use the 24-hour clock to avoid ambiguity of the 12-hour system For example, “3:00 am” is “0300 hours” and is pronounced oh three hundred hours or zero three hundred hours; and “3:00 pm” is “1500 hours”, pronounced fifteen hundred hours Written military time does not separate hours and minutes, that is, 1430 vs regular time 14:30 Also the leading zeros are pronounced every time (0100 is pronounced oh one hundred hours or zero one hundred hours) Hours is added at the end, even if it is not written (1800 is pronounced eighteen hundred hours)

Military jargon is also an important aspect of military language Rich of military acronyms, abbreviations, secret meanings and obscure nuances, military jargon can confuse someone who is unfamiliar with it (Scasny 2004) Different military branches may use different military jargon, which can, in its turn, cause ambiguities

One of the differences between GE and ESP, according to Hutchinson and Waters (2001:16), is that GE is usually studied for exam purposes whereas ESP for work, study or training It does not imply that in specific situations we need to study only ESP “Though the content of learning may vary there is no reason to suppose that the process of learning should be any different for the ESP learner than for the General English learner.” (Ibid 18)

Hutchinson and Waters (Ibid 9) suggest that ESP must be seen as an approach rather than a product and that the foundation of all ESP is one simple question-why does this learner need to learn a foreign language? For the military, the answer is simple-without the knowledge of English they cannot take part in international training exercises and military missions and without the experience of international cooperation they cannot make a career

Needs analysis in ESP

Needs refer to necessities, lacks or wants (West, 1994) Brindley (1984) defined needs as students’ study or job requirements Robinson (1991) further illustrated needs as linguistic deficiency They are goal-oriented and can be regarded as “objective”

Needs Analysis (NA) is a defining feature of ESP NA is a necessary step in designing ESP syllabus, tasks and materials (Belcher, 2006; Flowerdew &

Peacock, 2001) It is seen as a starting point for identifying goals, and communicative and linguistic needs for students in the language courses (Ferris,

1998) It therefore should be applied before implementing English courses to ensure an effective English learning experience

Needs analysis is significant as it is a fundamental basis of the ESP course design Basturkmen (2006) argued that a key feature of ESP course design is that the syllabus should be based on an analysis of the learners’ needs

Without the consideration of learner needs, the teachers, curriculum developers, and materials designers often tend to perceive the future needs of the students using their intuitions, which may lead to a limited success in the subsequent ESP course (Braine,2001; John, 1991) Thus, ESP course designers should engage in analyzing learner needs before designing courses, and to fulfill those needs within the context of the relevant ESP course

Shaaban (2005) conducted a needs analysis survey to help program administrators identify the objective communicative needs and expectations of the employees in the personnel office at the American University of Beirut (AUB).One hundred twenty-two participants consisting of university employees including janitors, gardeners, security guards, library staff, and comptroller’s office staff, were chosen to participate in a 10-week ESP program The English course for AUB employees was developed to address the identified needs and expectations The content analysis of responses showed that the teachers highly valued the experience and were satisfied with the course design, student attitudes, student performance, and instructional materials

An ESP course can be tailor-made to meet the specific needs of learners by appropriate analysis Shi, Corcos, and Storey (2001) investigated six sessions of clinical ward instruction They identified the linguistic skills the students needed in order to achieve various learning objectives, such as using appropriate terms to translate information form doctor-patient to doctor-doctor discourse, using verb tenses correctly to establish chronology in case reports, and describing location and procedure accurately in reporting physical examinations

The study reported that the authentic data can be employed to construct a tightly focused curriculum addressing students’ needs of the ward session The data derived from the needs analysis helped ensure a practical and useful instruction

Edwards (2000) conducted a case study in a specialized context, a bank, which involved three German bank officers (one man and two women) The researcher conducted a prior needs analysis on the first day of the course The overall objective of the course was to improve the speaking confidence of female students in a native-speaking setting It concluded that the learners gave positive feedback on this course and asserted that they learned how to use English speaking in specific meeting or negotiating situations It also suggested that current authentic texts could be used selectively and efficiently when adapted to the specific needs of particular learners in ESP context

However, obstacles to needs analysis exist.ESP programs vary in length of time and in focus, in class size, in language level, and in goals and objectives

Therefore, teachers may not have easy access to gain information about student proficiency levels beforehand, and learning goals may not be individually specified In some cases, the curriculum and materials might have been prepared by administrators or sponsors before the key information is obtained Even when the results of the NA are obtained; they may not be acceptable to the sponsoring institutions in terms of careful timing and administering of directions (Yogman

Furthermore, ESP teachers are unwilling or unable to conduct the necessary analysis when faced with some specialist texts that require more time and energy in the practical teaching context This inevitably fails to prepare learners to meet their requirements academically or vocationally (Crosling &

Ward, 2002; Ferris, 1998, Jasso-Aguilar, 1999) Crosling and Ward (2002) examined the workplace needs of oral communication and language use of business employees who graduated from Monarch University, Australia They found that the oral communication training failed to prepare the business undergraduates to meet their needs in the work context That failure may be due to the oral communication curricula not being developed based on student needs

They suggested that a prior analyzing is necessary before the language class.

Materials and curriculum in ESP

ESP instruction is learner-centered and curriculum development is goal- oriented ESP course should be tailored to the specific learning and language use needs of identified groups of learners, yet, must also be sensitive to the socio- cultural contexts in which these learners will use English for specific purposes (Johns and Price-Machard, 2001) Once the goals have identified by prior analysis and the syllabus of ESP has been established based on the language needs of the learners, the teaching materials should be developed or selected

The key concept in developing or selecting teaching materials for ESP is authenticity The tasks and materials which are presented in the learning situations should be authentic (Robinson, 1991) It is hard for many ESP teachers to make a choice between published materials and materials tailored specifically to the targeted situations

This is a wide range of course types in ESP, and the timetables may vary from one to another It is impossible for a ready-made material or a book to be useful across a wide range of ESP courses Even when suitable materials are available, exchange rates or import restrictions may remove them from consideration (Hutchinson & Waters, 1987) One solution is for ESP teachers to produce the in-house materials to fulfill the needs of particular learners in the specific subject area It could be both time-consuming and exhausting, but producing materials may help to make teachers themselves more aware of what is involved in teaching and learning

Troy, Chrimes (2002) explored the role of homegrown ESP materials in meeting the immediate academic reading demands that EFL engineering majors face in their major courses They concluded that the homegrown materials can supplement the students’ major courses Further, they found that in-house material developers can present authentic materials which are highly focused on the learners’ particular needs

However, producing of teaching materials is time-consuming, and few ESP teachers are trained in the skills and techniques of material production (Hutchinson & Waters, 1987) In addition, in-house materials produced by the ESP teacher alone may not be able to ensure teaching quality Collaboration with subject teachers can remedy the weakness, and teachers can complement each others’ expertise (Salsbury, 2005) Further, ESP instructors’ expertise affects the materials selection, teaching practice, and teaching techniques

No matter what kind of material is chosen, one thing that should be born in mind is that the contents of ESP should be authentic, and specific to the goals and needs of particular learners.

Problems and challenges of ESP

Students’ competence and difficulties toward ESP

ESP is designed to meet the specific needs of learners Learners are expected to perform with adequate language skills in target situations at the end of the ESP courses However, the performances of ESP learners have been considered unacceptable or poor in many cases (Bacha & Bahous, 2008; Jasso- Aguilar, 1999) Students’ overall English language competence has usually been considered the indicator of the success or failure of English learning (Shi, Corcos, & Storey, 2001) Some teachers imputed the low achievement of ESP to the students’ poor English language skills They argued that the students’

English language skills were inadequate to cope with the ESP courses, and made ESP courses inefficient

By contrast, the students often declare themselves to be suffering from learning difficulties, which makes them perform badly in ESP class Some researchers also reported that students suffer from learning difficulties relating to the content of ESP (Gatehouse, 2001), the instruction of ESP (Bacha &

Bahous, 2008; Leki& Carson, 1994), and the tasks involved in the ESP courses (Ferris & Tagg, 1996 a/b) The students had difficulties participating in class discussion, asking and responding to questions, and general listening comprehension Learners have difficulty coping with the ESP courses because of weak English skills (Jacksons, 2004)

The content of ESP is also regarded as one of the factors affecting the ESP learning The difficulty level of the content should be accessible and acceptable to learners, as most learners lack general English skills (Basturkmen, 1998; Jackson, 2004) Further, the activities in the ESP class should be applied based on the learning goals and should be meaningful in relation to the specific purpose of their target subject area (Flowerdew& Peacock, 2001).

The qualification of ESP teachers

The capability of the ESP teachers has often been considered one of the factors affecting the effectiveness of ESP Without well-prepared teachers, ESP classes are often low in quality and ineffective (England, 2006) Qualified ESP teachers are required to be professional in English language teaching and to have a higher level of subject knowledge

Further, ESP teachers often have to carry out other roles than that of an English teacher Hutchinson and Waters (1987) pointed out that, in addition to be a normal function of a teacher, the ESP teacher will have to deal with the prior analysis of learner needs, syllabus design, materials provision, and evaluation In some EAP situations, teachers must be able to co-operate with subject teachers (Flowerdew & Peacock, 2001) As a result, a great workload is imposed on ESP teachers

ESP teachers are expected to play five key roles (Dudley-Evans & St John, 2001): teacher, course designer, and materials provider, collaborator, researcher, and evaluator To carry out the above roles, ESP teachers should be trained in language teaching competence and subject-specific knowledge

However, there are no certain answers to how well an ESP teacher should be Prepared and trained, or how much subject knowledge the ESP teacher should be required to master Looking at the level of ESP teachers’ subject knowledge, Hutchinson and Waters (1987) required just three things:

1 A positive attitude toward the ESP content

2 Knowledge of the fundamental principles of the subject area

3 Awareness of how much they probably already know

In other words, the ESP teachers should be willing to: (1) adjust teaching activities and materials to student needs,(2) be familiar to some extent with the students’ specialized area,(3) be interested in and (4) acquire knowledge of the students’ specialized area Furthermore, they have to foster independent study habits among the students, but do not need to become a teacher of subject matter However, ESP teaching is different from EGP teaching The great majority of ESP teachers have not been well-trained Thus, they need to orientate themselves to the new teaching environment

There are not ready-made or straightforward answers to the problems that ESP teachers may expect to encounter The ESP teachers should always stay open- minded and flexible Hutchinson and Waters (1987) indicated that “All ESP teachers are an effect pioneers who are helping to shape the world of ESP”

The goal of ESP learners is to learn English for the purpose of carrying out certain roles in a specific context, such as studying in an English-medium institution They are also required to develop the skills of studying alone outside the classroom and promoting independent study habits Thus, if the teachers neglect to foster student ability to be independent, they are considered to have failure.

Perceptions and expectations toward ESP

ESP is designed based on the learners’ needs and wishes Through needs analysis, learners perceive their needs and express their expectations of ESP class, while ESP practitioners perceive learner needs and expectations, and develop authentic materials to fulfill the specific needs of learners in particular contexts Student perceptions of the requirements and needs of their target situations strongly influence their receptiveness to ESP learning

Student needs are perceived by teachers based on their expertise in either their knowledge of English and subject areas, or their working experience in the real world

However, there are always gaps produced between teacher and the student perceptions, or between the instructions and the requirements as they actually happen in the real classroom context Therefore, courses as they are finally devised may be different from the analyses and be regarded as inauthentic

Furthermore, learner perceptions of their own needs may be ill-found, inaccurate or incomplete (West, 1994) This may occur because learners are too young to be insightful about what they need, or they are not aware the factors affecting the ESP teaching and learning

Bacha and Bahous (2008) indicate that faculty and students did not hold similar views of student English abilities or needs Ferris (1998) explored 768 ESL students’ perceptions of the language skill requirements in their subject- matter courses, their difficulties in meeting their expectations, and the importance of specific language skills and tasks in academic setting Further, the similarities and differences in light of the perceptions between instructors and ESL students were observed Their findings show that there was considerable variation in student responses regarding the difficulties they encountered and the importance of specific language tasks and skills across students’ majors, class levels, status, mother tongues, and gender In addition, student responses were dramatically different from those of instructors in ranking specific language skills

One explanation for the variation between teachers and students may be the differing requirements across different class levels and class types which make the students perceive their needs and expectations differently from their teachers

Further, students may have their own views and their own preferences for language skills and classroom activities where the teachers may have different opinions Basturkmen (1998) reports that students with engineering specialties perceived their speaking to be inadequate, and identified listening as the most important language skill On the other hand, the teachers considered reading and listening as almost equally important in that many reading activities were involved in engineering classes However, the students did not always hold views that were the opposite of their teachers’

The results presented above explained that student perceptions of the significance of ESP vary from person to person in light of their specialized development and individual needs Further, it shows that such variation is probable inevitable given the differing needs and pressures on students and teachers

This chapter provides background information about ESP teaching and learning at the Infantry Officer Training College Number One The information presented here includes the reality of English language teaching and learning, the learners and teachers’ profile, and a description of the current ESP course of the College The research methods and techniques for the data collection are also presented The chapter will provide information about the subjects exploited for the study This is followed by a discussion of the instruments of the research and the procedure of the data collection, data analysis and comments.

The teaching context

The English teaching and learning situation at IOTC No.1

Until 1990, little attention was paid to the teaching and learning of English at IOTC No.1 The dominant foreign languages taught at that time were Russian and Chinese However, in 1990s, English took over the dominant position of Russian, Chinese and became the most popular foreign language to be taught in IOTC No.1 Since then, the teaching and learning of English has received greater attention and interest

ESP has been taught at IOTC No.1 However, due to the limited time, the students at IOTC No.1 have 90 periods of learning ESP The English program in the College is divided into two stages: General English (Elementary), and ESP

The time allocated for the first stage is 150 class hours Therefore, the whole curriculum of English is as follows:

Stage 1: General English with 150 periods Stage 2: ESP with 90 periods

With such a timeframe, the students cannot learn much but just come to know a number of technical terms or concepts in English All the teachers could do is to help students develop their ESP learning skills with focus on how to read specific document; how to write letters, reports, and so on.

The teaching staff of the Department of Foreign Languages at IOTC No.1

The Department of Foreign Languages is staffed with 29 teachers aged are English teachers Among the teachers of English, four have M.A Degree in TESOL (teaching English for speakers of other language); one has M.A Degree in Linguistics; another one is studying for M.A degree at Hanoi National University; two are studying for M.A degree at Hanoi University; and four are studying for M.A degree at Military Science Academy The others have Bachelor degree in English

One of the most obvious difficulties is that these teachers lack a language environment to develop their communicative abilities Another problem is that none of these teachers has been trained in teaching ESP All of the teachers at the Department of Foreign Language have been teaching GE for a long time with a little or no specialist knowledge of the military field…They sometimes find it difficult to deal with the content area

Teachers of the Department of Foreign Languages share the same problem with many other ESP teachers in the world These problems are described by Ewer (1976: 10) when he writes about the difficulties that a teacher of English for General Purposes may encounter when transferring to ESP These are “attitudinal, conceptual, linguistic, methodological and organizational” problems.

The students of IOTC No.1

Most of the students who enter IOTC No.1 are aged 18-20 and are male students (100%) This is a typical feature of the College Each class consists of about 30 to 33 students

Most of them are beginners although English has been introduced into the high school curriculum for years This is especially true for those from the rural areas who account for a large proportion of the total number of students each year Only a small number of the students who come from cities or towns have learned English for long at secondary school or at English center

This mixed ability has caused certain problems to the teaching and learning of English at the College In the same class, some students find classroom activities relaxing while others find them too hard In such a situation, it is obviously a challenge for teachers to satisfy all the needs of the students

The typical learning style of the students at IOTC No.1 is quite dependent on the teachers This learning style is characterized as rote learning of vocabulary and rules Another aspect of their learning style is that they prefer written work and private reading which means that in class students work individually Besides, they are profoundly influenced by their past learning experience For example, they prefer everything being translated It results in the fact that they pay more attention to forms than functions and meanings.

The ESP materials of IOTC No.1

II.1.4.The ESP material at IOTC No.1

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 Department of Foreign Languages The current textbook used for the ESP course, “Command

English”, which is the old course-book published in 1994 by Longman It is comprised of a student book, a teacher’s book and supplementary exercises published by the Defense University in Budapest The level of language in

“Command English” is quite low (low pre-intermediate); there is not enough practice of grammar and vocabulary It is not communicative enough-the speaking exercises usually consist of two discussion questions The exercise types are the same in every unit For example, for vocabulary practice the students have to fill in the blanks with the given words, or after the presentation of the topic or the reading text there is an exercise in the form of comprehension questions “Command English” does not contain any listening exercises But still there are some topics such as military uniform and military equipment, which are quite often used in the classes and which the students like because they are clearly presented Also, the book contains progress tests following every fifth unit The progress tests are always welcomed by the teachers and the students as the teachers (and the students) can check the progress the students have made.

Methodology

Participants

A total of 165 student-participants and 5 instructor-participants were from the Infantry Officer Training College Number one The student-participants involved in this study had taken ESP courses at IOTC No.1 for a semester The instructors involved in the present study are the teachers with English teaching experience ranging from one to twelve years The demographics of both student- participants and teacher-participants are shown in Table 1 and Table 2 To protect their privacy, the ESP teachers involved in the present study are identified by codes

Demographic data of student- participants

The Infantry Officer Training College Number One

Demographic data of teacher- participants

The Infantry Officer Training College Number

Methods of the study

The research utilizes a qualitative approach The qualitative orientation was important because it is relevant for the exploratory nature of this study (Marshall & Rossman, 1999)

However, the statistical data is to provide an overall look on the matter studied Both questionnaires and in-depth interviews were employed to provide both “hard” and “thick, rich” data about the phenomenon and to lessen potential limitations in the study’s internal validity caused by relying on only the qualitative or quantitative approach (Nunan, 1992)

A questionnaire is designed to explore students’ perceptions toward their English ability, difficulties, and expectations toward ESP The interviews with five teachers of this course are conducted to explore teachers’ opinions and perceptions of ESP courses and their expectations of future ESP pedagogy.

Instruments of the study

The instruments of the present study are: questionnaires for the students and interviews for the teachers

- The questionnaire for the students:

The student-questionnaire consists of five sections (see Appendix A)

Seven items in Section A were used to collect student demographics, including major, gender, English learning experience, work experience, concept of ESP and ESP needs analysis Section B comprised a student self-evaluation of their English proficiency, which the researcher used to understand how students perceived their English proficiency level, their difficulties with English, and how they perceived the importance of ESP learning Student views of the present ESP course were explored in the ten items of Section C Students’ expectations toward prospective ESP courses were collected in the Section D, which included eleven items Section E asked about English activities involved in ESP class, with the twelve items in this portion of the questionnaire divided into four groups in terms of reading, writing, listening, and speaking

- The interviews for the teachers:

The interviews were asked to find out teachers’ perceptions of ESP courses and their expectations of future ESP pedagogy In order to accomplish this purpose, five teacher-participants were asked to answer the questions by the interviews

The interview questions for the teachers (Appendix C) were respectively distributed to the participants The teacher questions consisted of six questions: three questions related to student English proficiency and performance, and ESP pedagogy, and one question designed to find out teachers’ views of student difficulties The remaining two questions asked for the teachers’ views and suggestions regarding ESP courses

Table 3: Distribution of Teacher-participants of interviews

The Infantry Officer Training College Number One

Procedures of the study

The procedures of the formal study were presented in this section First, a total of 165 students who had taken ESP courses of the college would answer the questionnaires Second, the interview questions were administered to 05 teachers relating to perceptions of ESP issues They were asked to give their opinions in English Further, the research data were collected, processed, and analyzed Finally, conclusions and suggestions were formulated based on the findings of the study.

Data analysis

Percentages of agreement and disagreement were calculated for all questionnaire items Descriptive statistics were applied for data analysis

Descriptive statistics were used to answer the questions about the students’ perceptions of ESP teaching and learning in the formal study The results were statistically presented in the forms of tables, and charts They were utilized to answer the first research question

CHAPTER THREE: DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS

This chapter reports the results of the data analysis of the present study

The present study consists of one set of questionnaires and the interview questions on teachers’ perceptions of ESP course in IOTC No.1 were administered to provide data for the findings of the study In the initial section, the findings of the questions about students’ perceptions of their English ability, difficulties, and expectations toward ESP are drawn from the results of data analysis Then, teachers’ opinions of the interview questions were presented

The statistical results of the questionnaires are displayed in Tables 4 to 7

III.1.Analysis of Research Question 1: What are students’ perceptions of their English ability, difficulties, and expectations toward ESP?

Tables 4 to 7 present the frequencies of the students’ responses to the 48 items, which reveals how the students perceive their English competence, the issues in the existing ESP course, their expectations toward future ESP courses, and the English activities involved in the ESP classes The results are shown in Sections B, C, D, and E.

Students’ self- evaluation of English competence…

Section B presents the statistical results of the students’ self-evaluation of their overall English competence as well as the most difficult task of ESP learning and the most important skill of English in the view of the students

Most of the students held a neutral or negative attitude toward their English competence; some students felt that they had learning difficulties in listening, speaking, reading and writing, and a majority of the students perceived that to master one of English skills was important to their future career The analysis of each item in Section B is presented below

Table 4: Distribution of Frequency of Student Questionnaire- Section B

B1 My English listening comprehension is good

B2 My English speaking ability is good

B3 My English reading is good

B4 My English writing ability need to

6.1% 6.7% 9.1% 46.1% 32.1% be improved B5 I have adequate English vocabulary

B6 My grammar of English needs to be improved

B7 I am satisfied with my English competence

B8 English listening task is the most difficult to me

B9 English speaking task is the most difficult to me

B10 English reading task is the most difficult to me

B11 English writing task is the most difficult to me

B12 English listening ability is the most important to my future career

B13 English speaking ability is the most important to my future career

B14 English reading ability is the most important to my future career

B15 English writing ability is the most important to my future career

Chart 1: The rating of the students' answers to the questions- Section B

Question B1: 51.5% of the students held negative attitudes toward their English listening comprehension Only 10.9% of the students thought their listening ability was good In short, English listening was too difficult for the students and this could be explained that they had to concentrate on their major military subjects and so they did not practice it regularly

Question B2: 54.5% of the students felt their speaking ability was not good enough Only 6.7% of the students thought that their speaking ability was good This was understandable because most of them had little opportunity to practice Speaking skill in class, in their units, and were afraid of speaking English in public

Question B3: 40% of the students did not think their reading comprehension was good, 46.7% of the students held neutral attitude, only 13.3% had the confidence in their reading ability This revealed that although reading skill was improved better than listening and speaking, the students needed to try more

Question B4: This item was a reversed question, which served as the role of distractor item In this item, 78.2% of the students thought that their writing ability needed to be improved, but 12.8% did not think so This indicated that they did not practice this skill in class and in their unit regularly

Question B5: When asked whether or not they thought their vocabulary was adequate, 65.5% of the students admitted that they did not have adequate vocabulary, and only 4.8% thought that they had adequate vocabulary This could be explained that they were the non- English majored military students, and they focused on the military subjects more than English So, most of them were tired of revising and writing vocabulary

Question B6: This item also served as a distractor 77.6% of the students felt that their grammar needed to be improved; only 9.1% of the students held different views This indicated that their grammar was very weak and the teachers needed to focus on it more

Question B7: 63% of the students were not satisfied with their overall English competence, and only a few of them (7.9%) felt satisfied with their English performance Most of the students had not been very interested in English before they became the students of the college and so, their English level was quite low

Question B8-11: The major of the students (74.5%) thought that writing was the most difficult part of English learning followed by speaking (46%) and then listening (40%) Reading (36.4%) was regarded as the least difficult for students This was explainable because most of them felt that writing skill was very difficult in style, expression and lack of vocabulary

Question B12-15: When asked what the most important English skill is for their future career, an overwhelmingly majority of the students (90.3%) gave the answer as speaking, followed by listening (84.8%), then reading (73.9%) and writing (64.2%).

Students’ opinions about current ESP course

The results of Section C present the student opinions concerning existing ESP courses, including the difficulties of current ESP courses, the advantages of ESP instruction, and the differences between ESP class and general English class

Table 5: Distribution of Frequency of Student Questionnaire- Section C

C1 The difficulty of the ESP course is moderate

C2 The content of the ESP course is practical

C3 The ESP course is interesting

C4 The pace of the ESP instruction is moderate

C5 The ESP instruction benefits my future career

ESP course and GE course

C7 The ESP course benefits the most to my English listening

C8 The ESP course benefits the most to my English speaking

C9 The ESP course benefits the most to my English reading

C10 The ESP course benefits the most to my English writing

Chart 2: The rating of the students' answers to the questions- Section C

Question C1: 32.1% of the students felt that the difficulties of the existing ESP courses were moderate, 16.9% of them thought of that the present ESP courses were difficult, and more than half of the students chose to take a neutral view of this item This indicated that the ongoing ESP courses were not too difficult for many of them, and some of them found them difficult because their English was still weak

Question C2: 45.5% of the students agreed or strongly agreed that the current ESP courses were practical, while 20% of the students disagreed This could be explained that the current course-book presented military aspects and helped many students to realize its practice

Question C3: When asked if the current ESP courses were interesting, 43.1% of the students agreed or strongly agreed, while 30.9% of the students disagreed The other 26.1% of the students did not show a preference for any sides This was understandable because all of them were soldiers and the military issues and daily-used military objects presented in the course- book made many students (43.1%) find it interesting

Question C4: 39.4% of the students agreed that the pace of ESP instruction was moderate, but 19.3% did not agree This indicated that the ESP teachers did not teach with fast pace because they understood their students’

English level was very limited

Question C5: 54.5% of the students thought that ESP instructions benefited their future career; only 15.7% did not think so This indicated that a lot of students (54.5%) highly appreciated benefit of ESP instructions for their future career because after the graduation, most of them usually read the military materials to serve in their job, and some have to communicate with foreign officers in English

Question C6: This was a reversed item, which served as a distractor in this section 47.3% of the students thought the ESP courses were different from the general English courses (GE), only 20% thought that there were no differences between the two This revealed that many of them (47.3%) thought ESP courses might only focus on the military aspect and they were completely different from

Question C7 to C10: When asked which language skill benefits the most from ESP courses 52.7% of the students thought that ESP courses benefited their reading ability the most; followed by listening (40.6%), speaking (40.2%), and writing (30.9%) This could be understood because “Command English” course-book was being taught focused on reading comprehension most.

Students’ expectations toward future ESP course…

Students’ expectations of future ESP courses are analyzed in the Section

D, including ESP instruction and learning in the future, the planning of ESP courses and around whom the ESP curriculum should be centered

Table 6: Distribution of Frequency of Student Questionnaire- Section D

D1 ESP course should be required

D2 More time should be given to English instruction

D3 The content of ESP should be easier

D4 ESP course should focus on the specialized field

D5 ESP course should focus on the general skills of English

D6 More efforts should be done to help students with listening

D7 More efforts should be done to help students with speaking

D8 More efforts should be done to help students with reading

D9 More efforts should be done to help students with writing

D10 An ESP curriculum should be developed based on teachers’ decision

D11 ESP curriculum should be developed based on students’ needs

Chart 3: The rating of the students' answers to the questions- Section D

Question D1: When asked whether or not the ESP courses should be required, an overwhelming 70.9% of the students agreed that ESP should be a requirement, while 9.1% of the students disagreed with this idea This could be understood because they needed to learn military English to help them read the military materials and objects

Question D2: 53.4% of the students agreed with the idea that more instruction time should be provided for ESP; 35.8% of the students were neutral, but 10.9% of the students presented opposite opinions on this item They had only 90 periods for the ESP course, and many of them (53.4%) found that ESP learning in class was not enough

Question D3: 22.4% of the students considered that the difficulty of the content of current ESP was acceptable, 47.9% of them were neutral, and 29.7% of them thought of that the content of ESP should be easier This indicated that the content of current ESP was not very difficult but not easy for the students

Question D4 to D5: In these two items, more students approved that the content of ESP curriculum should focus more on specialized text than on the general English skills, by 83% (D4) to 66.7% (D5)

Question D6 to D9: 88.1% of the students thought that more effort should be made to help the students with their English speaking; 87.3% of the respondents identified listening; reading was picked by 80.6%, and writing was 72.7% This could be explained that the students’ speaking and listening were the weakest and need to make most effort

Question D10 to 11: On the question of when planning the ESP curriculum, whose needs should be considered most, the teachers’ or the students’ 89.7% of the students agreed that students’ needs should be considered prior to the teachers’ before developing the ESP curriculum.

Students’ English activities involved in ESP class

The purposes of Section E were to understand what activities occurred most in ESP classes, to investigate whether those activities were effective in helping students succeed in their subject area and to match student needs with their future career Four subsections were included in Section E: English reading activities, English writing tasks, English listening and speaking activities applied during the instruction of ESP

Table 7: Distribution of Frequency of Student Questionnaire: Section E

E1 Read the instruction of the English assignment

E2 Read the prompt 6.7% 17% 35.2% 35.2% 6.1% of the English test E3 Read the journal articles of the specialized field

E6 Write the answer of a test

E7 Listen to teacher instructions in English

E8 Listen to teacher inquiries in English

E9 Response to teacher inquiries in English

E10 Understand peer oral report in English

E11 Give oral report in English

E12 Participate in discussion session in English

Strongly Disagree Disagree neutral Agree Strongly Agree

Chart 4: The rating of the students' answers to the questions- Section E

The frequencies of item E1 to E3 in Table 7 present the answers the reading activities involved in the ESP class, including reading the instruction of the English assignment (34.5%), reading the prompt of the English test (41.3%) and reading journal articles in the specialized field (16.3%) The results showed that reading the prompt of the English test was involved the most in ESP class; reading the instruction of the English assignment ranked second; and reading the journal articles of the specialized field ranked the lowest

The second subsection (E4 to E6) presents the results of items asking about writing activities in ESP class, including writing excerpts (27.8%), writing subject assignments (22.4%), and writing the answers to tests (32.1%) As can be seen from the results, approximately one third of the students felt that writing the answers of a test was the most common activity in ESP class, while relatively fewer students claimed that they had participated in other writing activities during the ESP class, meaning that students obtained very few chances to practice their writing in ESP class

In the third part, items E7 to E12 present the frequencies of the activities used in both listening and speaking These include listening to teacher instructions in English (36.4%), listening to teacher inquiries in English (37%), responding to teacher inquiries in English (21.8%), understanding peer oral reports in English (21.8%), giving oral reports in English (17.5%) and participating in discussion sessions in English (16.9%) Among those activities, listening to teacher inquires in English had the highest percentage of 37% followed by listening to teacher instructions in English (36.4%), while participating in discussion sessions in English was the lowest (16.9%) The results imply that listening activities involve are more common than speaking activities in ESP classes.

Analysis of research question 2: What are the teachers’ opinions and

The skill was involved in the most in ESP class, the skill the students

Question: Of the four skills of English (listening, speaking, reading and writing), which skill was involved in the most in ESP class? Which one does the students need improvement in the most? Which one is the most important in ESP learning?

According to teachers’ responses, reading was the most common activity involved in ESP class, but speaking was regarded as the most important language skill by students and the top priority for improvement Though most of the teachers knew that speaking was the most important to students, they did not seem to offer adequate opportunities for students to practice One of the teachers explained that most of the students lack confidence or they were too shy to open their mouth in front of their classmates and teachers They were afraid of making mistakes in public

III.2.3 The opinions, strengths and weaknesses of the current ESP course

Question: What is your opinion of the current ESP course, their strengths and weaknesses?

The teachers’ point of views varied from one another according to their professional background and the language skill they focused on For advantages of ESP, some teachers claimed that ESP instruction benefited students’ future career; some of them though that ESP classes offer students’ chances to keep up their abilities and opportunities to work in the international work context; still others felt that ESP required limited vocabulary and sentence structures which made ESP a more effective way of language learning than GE As to the disadvantage of ESP, some teachers argued that limited instruction time makes ESP instruction ineffective Further, the insufficient language skills of students led to a low achievement in ESP The most pressing problem was that the content of ESP textbook was too difficult for most of the students To solve this problem, one of the teachers believed that a placement test before ESP class was necessary

III.2.4 The situations encountered in ESP instruction

Question: What situations have you encountered in ESP instruction?

Teachers confront a number of problems in ESP courses, including poor student basic language skills, insufficient instruction hours, and indifferent participation As some of the teacher participants said, the students’ poor English competence and insufficient instruction time makes ESP a skin-deep course

III.2.5 The prerequisites for an ESP teacher from a teacher’s perspective

Question: From your perspective, what should be the prerequisites for an ESP teacher?

Most of the teacher respondents agreed that a good command of both specialized knowledge and English skills was a must Other aspects such as passion and patience for ESP Teaching, and constant self-learning and self- improvement in ESP teaching techniques were also seen as the prerequisite An instructor with years of ESP teaching experiences suggested that a qualified ESP teacher had to be specialized and should be well-trained in GE teaching because an effective teaching approach for GE could also work for ESP Another teacher respondent also said that it would be better for an ESP teacher to have years of practical experiences in certain contexts other than GE teaching experiences so that the ESP instruction could be tailored to the needs of particular learner groups

III.2.6 The expectations and suggestions for prospective ESP courses according to a teacher’s professional background

Question: According to your professional background, what are your expectations and suggestions for prospective ESP courses?

Teachers’ expectations and suggestions for future ESP courses are as follows:

1 Student needs should be fully understood before developing the ESP courses

2 University ESP courses should be systematically designed from the first year to the fourth year

3 ESP courses should be domain oriented and flexible

4 The objectives of the ESP courses should be clear and specific to students’ needs

5 Class sizes should be smaller.

The situations encountered in ESP instruction…

Question: What situations have you encountered in ESP instruction?

Teachers confront a number of problems in ESP courses, including poor student basic language skills, insufficient instruction hours, and indifferent participation As some of the teacher participants said, the students’ poor English competence and insufficient instruction time makes ESP a skin-deep course.

The prerequisites for an ESP teacher from a teacher’s perspective

Question: From your perspective, what should be the prerequisites for an ESP teacher?

Most of the teacher respondents agreed that a good command of both specialized knowledge and English skills was a must Other aspects such as passion and patience for ESP Teaching, and constant self-learning and self- improvement in ESP teaching techniques were also seen as the prerequisite An instructor with years of ESP teaching experiences suggested that a qualified ESP teacher had to be specialized and should be well-trained in GE teaching because an effective teaching approach for GE could also work for ESP Another teacher respondent also said that it would be better for an ESP teacher to have years of practical experiences in certain contexts other than GE teaching experiences so that the ESP instruction could be tailored to the needs of particular learner groups.

The expectations and suggestions for prospective ESP courses according

Question: According to your professional background, what are your expectations and suggestions for prospective ESP courses?

Teachers’ expectations and suggestions for future ESP courses are as follows:

1 Student needs should be fully understood before developing the ESP courses

2 University ESP courses should be systematically designed from the first year to the fourth year

3 ESP courses should be domain oriented and flexible

4 The objectives of the ESP courses should be clear and specific to students’ needs

5 Class sizes should be smaller

6 Collaborative instruction could make up the short-coming of ESP

7 The students’ GE ability should be promoted first Then gradually the content of ESP should be introduced into the courses

8 The General English Proficiency Test (GEPT) could be a prerequisite for ESP enrollment.

Summary

Major findings from the questionnaires indicated that the absolute majority of the students were not satisfied with their overall English competence Among the four English language skills, writing was regarded as the most difficult task and speaking was considered the most important language skill to their future career

Approximately half of the students considered the current ESP course practical and beneficial to their future career Among the four English language skills, reading benefited the most from ESP instruction in the view of the students In the future, students expected that ESP would be a required subject and more instruction hours should be applied to ESP

Further, they suggested that the content of ESP courses should focus more on the knowledge of the specialized field than on fostering general English language skills They also suggested that the administrators should work harder on improving the speaking ability of students Moreover, they hoped that students’ needs should be taken care of prior to those of teacher when planning ESP curriculum According to the students, the most common activities involved in ESP class were reading the prompts for the English test, writing the answers to a test, and listening to teachers’ inquires in terms of reading, writing, and listening and speaking, respectively Speaking activities received relatively less attention than the others in the class Though speaking was less often involved in ESP class, it was regarded as the top priority of ESP learning by the majority of the students

A majority of teachers agreed that Basic English language skills were critical to students’ ESP learning An overwhelmingly majority of them thought that students’ overall English competence was not good enough to meet their academic needs Among the four English language skills, speaking was ranked the most important for their future careers

The teachers suggested a more suitable teaching environment with a smaller class size and sufficient instruction hours As to the content of ESP, the teachers thought that more attention should be paid to the specialized content rather than GE In addition, they perceived that student needs should always take

General English language skills have long been regarded as the foundation of English education Thus, students’ overall English language competence has usually been regarded as the indicator of the success or failure of English learning in previous studies According to the major findings of present study, both the teachers and the students perceived the students’ overall English competence to be inadequate, which was considered a critical factor in their poor outcomes in ESP learning Thus, they also perceived their need to improve their Basic English language skills apart from their knowledge of the specialized field From the results of present study, we can come to conclusion that the ESP students perceived their weakness in English, and most of the students showed a high degree of motivation to improve their English language skills to obtain a better performance than in their current ESP learning situations

In addition to students’ English competence, most of the students noted that ESP was important and beneficial for not just their academic studies but their future career, which agreed with the findings of previous study (Chia et al,

1999) The students claimed that speaking and listening were the most important skills needed to meet their professional demands

During the ESP learning process, as the students reported, they often suffered from learning difficulties caused by the content of the subject matter, the instructional pace of ESP, and the tasks involved in the ESP courses The findings of present study indicated that writing was seen as the most difficult task by the students in this study These learning difficulties mostly resulted from their lack of the fundamental ability of English, such as inadequate vocabulary and grammar Another reason for writing difficulty may be due to insufficient practice Though most of the students believed that their writing ability needed to be improved, in the present study, writing activities were reported as appearing the least in ESP classes The students seldom had the opportunity to receive writing instruction and applying writing practice during ESP class

The present study suggests that the ESP practitioners should always look into the factors to avoid producing gaps between ESP learning needs and actual instruction Moreover, the teachers should always keep the content and the instruction pace as flexible as possible to diminish the learning difficulties

ESP is more problematic and complicated than its counterpart (EGP) in English education In the present study, both the teachers and the students agreed that ESP courses had positive effects on students’ professional careers and fields of study, though there were potential problems with ESP as well The problems that both teachers and students confronted in the present study were extracted from the questionnaires and the interview questions In the present study, the teachers encountered several negative situations, such as insufficient student language skills, insufficient instruction hours, and large class sizes

On the other hand, students also confronted problems other than insufficient English language skills, such as the low achievement in ESP, the mismatched teaching materials and methodologies, and the ineffective instruction They also questioned the capability of ESP instructors

This study offers several suggestions aimed at the problems found First, the poor achievement and lack of confidence in ESP among students could be associated with their poor foundation of Basic English skills According to previous studies, insufficient student language skills are major factors in the inefficiency of ESP To reduce this problem, the administrators as well as ESP practitioners should reconsider the goals and objectives as well as the course design

In the present study, both the teachers and the students understood that Basic English language ability is the key factor in the success of ESP learning, and they felt that some teachers made too much effort on fostering their general English skills rather than in the specific subject area Thus, in the present study, the students strongly asserted their needs to focus on content relevant to their specialized area, not on knowledge of general English skills

In the future, they suggested that their needs be fully understood before the course design They wanted ESP courses to be domain-oriented, teaching materials and instruction to be more flexible, and above all, they wanted qualified ESP teachers with practical experience

The teachers, on the other hand, wanted ESP courses to be a requirement in the university They suggested that a placement test should be conducted before the enrollment of ESP class to avoid large differences in student proficiency levels coming up in the same class To make up for the shortcomings of EPS instruction, they suggested a collaborative teaching model for future ESP courses The findings imply that ESP teachers are aware of the weaknesses in their ESP instruction and attempt to make up for the shortcomings of present ESP instruction.

Pedagogical implications…

Knowing the benefits and shortcomings of ESP instruction based on the findings, the present study would like to provide some suggestions for future ESP pedagogy

First, both administrators and ESP practitioners should put more effort into improving the foundation of Basic English skills among their students They should reconsider the learning objective based on the learner ability and provide ESP courses specific to learners’ proficiency levels Second, learning materials should be relevant to learners’ specific needs, and the teaching pace should be flexible Thus, the ESP teachers should work hard to provide authentic materials to the learners

In addition, a placement test should be administered to groups of students by language level before applying for ESP courses When the learners work with others of similar language level, capable learners can advance at their own rate; while less capable learners can work at a slower pace without too much pressure The class size should be moderate to allow the teachers to provide sufficient practice in English language skills The length of time spent receiving ESP instruction should be expanded, as it impacts the effectiveness of ESP instructions

Finally, the ESP teacher, as both the teachers and students participating in the study agreed, should be knowledgeable with a good command of the English language and to some extent familiar with specialized knowledge If this demand cannot be achieved in short term, the English teachers and subject teachers working together will solve the pressing need of the shortage of eligible ESP teachers.

Limitations of the study and suggestions for further study…

The present study is limited as it examined the ESP courses only within a military college setting In addition, the subjects were limited to a small number of the students (165) and instructors (05) The situations probed in a single learning setting might be too narrow to robustly describe ESP instruction at all military colleges in Vietnam Therefore, the results cannot be generalized to the majority of populations in other cultures or educational contexts Further, the items of the questionnaires and the interview questions were restricted to the purposes of the present study only They did not cover all aspects of ESP situations Thus, many other aspects of ESP issues remain for further investigations

Suggestions for further research include: (1) involving participants of different contexts; (2) examining the factors shaping the effectiveness of ESP and proposing possible solutions to problems; (3) investigating the impact of collaborative teaching in different learning contexts; and (4) clarifying whether students in the military colleges in Vietnam are ready for ESP courses

ESP is problematic and complex It is hoped that more researchers will contribute their efforts to understanding ESP and proposing suggestions for the academics, ESP administrators and the Ministry of Education officials who make policies for English education

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APPENDICES Appendix A: Questionnaire for the students (Vietnamese)

3 Bạn đã học tiếng Anh được bao lâu rồi? năm

4 Bạn đã hoàn thành bài kiểm tra tiếng Anh nào chưa?

□Hoàn thành rồi (Cụ thể:……….) □Chưa hoàn thành

5 Bạn có kinh nghiệm làm việc trong lĩnh vực quân sự không?

6 Bạn có biết tiếng Anh chuyên ngành là gì không?

7 Đầu học kỳ trước, giáo viên có khảo sát nhu cầu của học viên trước khi tiến hành giảng dạy tiếng Anh chuyên ngành không?

B Tự đánh giá của học viên về năng lực tiếng Anh

1= Hoàn toàn không tán thành; 2= Không tán thành; 3= Thái độ trung lập;

4= Tán thành; 5= Hoàn toàn tán thành

1 Khả năng nghe hiểu tiếng Anh của tôi rất tốt □□□□□

2 Khả năng nói tiếng Anh của tôi rất tốt □□□□□

3 Khả năng đọc tiếng Anh của tôi rất tốt □□□□□

4 Khả năng viết của tôi cần được cải thiện □□□□□

5 Tôi có đủ vốn từ vựng tiếng Anh □□□□□

6 Ngữ pháp tiếng Anh của tôi cần được cải thiện □□□□□

7 Tôi hài lòng với năng lực tiếng Anh của mình □□□□□

8 Bài nghe tiếng Anh là khó nhất đối với tôi □□□□□

9 Bài nói tiếng Anh là khó nhất đối với tôi □□□□□

10 Bài đọc tiếng Anh là khó nhất đối với tôi □□□□□

11 Bài viết tiếng Anh là khó nhất đối với tôi □□□□□

12 Khả năng nghe tiếng Anh là quan trọng nhất đối với nghề nghiệp tương lai của tôi □□□□□

13 Khả năng nói tiếng Anh là quan trọng nhất đối với nghề nghiệp tương lai của tôi □□□□□

14 Khả năng đọc tiếng Anh là quan trọng nhất đối với nghề nghiệp tương lai của tôi □□□□□

15 Khả năng viết tiếng Anh là quan trọng nhất đối với nghề nghiệp tương lai của tôi □□□□□

C Quan điểm của học viên về khóa học tiếng Anh chuyên ngành hiện tại

1= Hoàn toàn không tán thành; 2= Không tán thành; 3= Thái độ trung lập;

4= Tán thành; 5= Hoàn toàn tán thành

1 Độ khó của khóa học tiếng Anh chuyên ngành là vừa phải □□□□□

2 Nội dung khóa học tiếng Anh chuyên ngành là thực tiễn □□□□□

3 Khóa học tiếng Anh chuyên ngành là thú vị □□□□□

4 Nhịp độ giảng dạy tiếng Anh chuyên ngành là vừa phải □□□□□

5 Việc giảng dạy tiếng Anh chuyên ngành có lợi cho nghề nghiệp tương lai của tôi □□□□□

6 Không có sự khác biệt nào giữa khóa học tiếng Anh chuyên ngành và tiếng Anh thông dụng □□□□□

7 Khóa học tiếng Anh chuyên ngành đem lại nhiều lợi ích nhất cho khả năng nghe của tôi □□□□□

8 Khóa học tiếng Anh chuyên ngành đem lại nhiều lợi ích nhất cho khả năng nói của tôi □□□□□

9 Khóa học tiếng Anh chuyên ngành đem lại nhiều lợi ích nhất cho khả năng đọc của tôi □□□□□

10 Khóa học tiếng Anh chuyên ngành đem lại nhiều lợi ích nhất cho khả năng viết của tôi □□□□□

D Sự mong đợi của học viên về khóa học tiếng Anh chuyên ngành tương lai

1= Hoàn toàn không tán thành; 2= Không tán thành; 3= Thái độ trung lập;

4= Tán thành; 5= Hoàn toàn tán thành

1 Khóa học tiếng Anh chuyên ngành nên là môn bắt buộc □□□□□

2 Giảng dạy tiếng Anh chuyên ngành cần nhiều thời gian hơn □□□□□

3 Nội dung tiếng Anh chuyên ngành nên dễ hơn □□□□□

4 Khóa học tiếng Anh chuyên ngành nên chú trọng vào lĩnh vực chuyên ngành □□□□□

5 Khóa học tiếng Anh chuyên ngành nên chú trọng vào các kỹ năng tiếng Anh thông dụng □□□□□

6 Học viên cần nỗ lực nhiều hơn để cải thiện kỹ năng nghe □□□□□

7 Học viên cần nỗ lực nhiều hơn để cải thiện kỹ năng nói □□□□□

8 Học viên cần nỗ lực nhiều hơn để cải thiện kỹ năng đọc □□□□□

9 Học viên cần nỗ lực nhiều hơn để cải thiện kỹ năng viết □□□□□

10 Chương trình tiếng Anh chuyên ngành nên được phát triển dựa vào quyết định của giáo viên □□□□□

11 Chương trình tiếng Anh chuyên ngành nên được phát triển dựa vào nhu cầu học viên □□□□□

E Các hoạt động tiếng Anh trong lớp tiếng Anh chuyên ngành

1= Hoàn toàn không tán thành; 2= Không tán thành; 3= Thái độ trung lập;

4= Tán thành; 5= Hoàn toàn tán thành

Các hoạt động tiếng Anh được thực hiện trong đọc và viết

1 Đọc hướng dẫn bài làm của giáo viên □□□□□

2 Đọc gợi ý bài kiểm tra của giáo viên □□□□□

3 Đọc các bài báo về lĩnh vực chuyên ngành □□□□□

5 Viết bài làm được giao □□□□□

6 Viết câu trả lời của bài kiểm tra □□□□□

Các hoạt động tiếng Anh được thực hiện trong nghe va nói

7 Nghe hướng dẫn của giáo viên □□□□□

8 Nghe yêu cầu của giáo viên □□□□□

9 Đáp lại yêu cầu của giáo viên □□□□□

10 Hiểu được báo cáo của học viên khác □□□□□

Appendix B: Questionnaire for the students (English version)

3 How long have you been studying English? years

4 Have you passed any of the English test:

5 Did you have any working experience in the military field?

6 Do you know what ESP is?

7 In the beginning of the semester, did the teacher do the needs survey before conducting the ESP instruction?

B Students’ self-evaluation of English competence

1= Strongly Disagree; 2= Disagree; 3= Neutral; 4= Agree; 5= Strongly Agree

1 My English listening comprehension is good □□□□□

2 My English speaking ability is good □□□□□

3 My English reading is good □□□□□

4 My English writing ability need to be improved □□□□□

6 My grammar of English needs to be improved □□□□□

7 I am satisfied with my English competence □□□□□

8 English listening task is the most difficult to me □□□□□

9 English speaking task is the most difficult to me □□□□□

10 English reading task is the most difficult to me □□□□□

11 English writing task is the most difficult to me □□□□□

12 English listening ability is the most important to my future career

13 English speaking ability is the most important to my future career

14 English reading ability is the most important to my future career

15 English writing ability is the most important to my future career

C Students’ opinions about current ESP course

1= Strongly Disagree; 2= Disagree; 3= Neutral; 4= Agree; 5= Strongly Agree

1 The difficulty of the ESP course is moderate □□□□□

2 The content of the ESP course is practical □□□□□

3 The ESP course is interesting □□□□□

4 The pace of the ESP instruction is moderate □□□□□

5 The ESP instruction benefits my future career □□□□□

6 There are not any differences between ESP course and GE course

7 The ESP course benefits the most to my English listening □□□□□

8 The ESP course benefits the most to my English speaking □□□□□

9 The ESP course benefits the most to my English reading □□□□□

10 The ESP course benefits the most to my English writing □□□□□

D Students’ expectations toward future English course

1= Strongly Disagree; 2= Disagree; 3= Neutral; 4= Agree; 5= Strongly Agree

1 ESP course should be required □□□□□

2 More time should be given to English instruction □□□□□

3 The content of ESP should be easier □□□□□

4 ESP course should focus on the specialized field □□□□□

5 ESP course should focus on the general skills of English □□□□□

6 More efforts should be done to help students with listening □□□□□

7 More efforts should be done to help students with speaking □□□□□

8 More efforts should be done to help students with reading □□□□□

9 More efforts should be done to help students with writing □□□□□

10 An ESP curriculum should be developed based on teachers’ decision

11 ESP curriculum should be developed based on students’ needs

E English activities involved in ESP class

1= Strongly Disagree; 2= Disagree; 3= Neutral; 4= Agree; 5= Strongly Agree

English activities are used in reading and writing

1 Read the instruction of the English assignment □□□□□

2 Read the prompt of the English test □□□□□

3 Read the journal articles of the specialized field □□□□□

6 Write the answer of a test □□□□□

English activities are used in listening and speaking

7 Listen to teacher instructions in English □□□□□

8 Listen to teacher inquiries in English □□□□□