Rationale
English is undoubtedly considered a golden key to open the door of such fields as commerce, science and technology throughout the world Therefore, it is necessary to teach this language in educational establishments of all levels One of the most important purposes of learning English is to communicate with other people especially native speakers while communication is mainly based on speaking in which intonation is an important aspect Therefore, how to speak English smoothly and fluently with an accurate intonation is essential to any learners of English including Vietnamese learners However, during the course of the research‘s study and teaching practice, it is found that little or even no attention is paid to the teaching and learning of communicativeness In addition, among many aspects of the teaching and learning English, communicativeness is often neglected at non-major language colleges Students are taught about this issue when they are in university or college; so many of them find it difficult to communicate because of their pronunciation or because they can‘t pronounce an utterance with accurate intonation As a result, their English does not sound native-like Similarly, students always have troubles in listening and understanding native speakers This leads to the fact that a lot of them feel shy and lack of confidence in speaking English
During the past 20 years, the explosion in business and communications technology has revolutionized the field of English language teaching, and has radically shifted the attention of course designers from teaching English for Academic purposes to teaching English for more specialized purposes In the last few years, first (L1) and second (L2) language acquisition research into language teaching have led to an increased interest in investigating the most effective ways of improving the ability of workers in using English for specific purposes in the workplace (Li So-mui and Mead, 2000; Louhiala-Salminen 1996) Several recent studies of ESP have provided evidence of the importance of teaching English for specific purposes (Li So-mui and Mead, 2000; Edwards, 2000; Lohiala-Salinen,
1996; Huchinson and Waters, 1987) For example, it has been observed that the type of language used by each worker is influenced by the worker‘s working instrument (see for example, Pogner, 2003; Zak and Dudley-Evans, 1986), by his aims and professional constraints, as well as by his specialization and the type of duties assigned to him, and by the texts the worker produces and deals with (e.g., Edwards, 2000; Macintosh, 1990) These educational studies have been developing in tandem with a recognition that learning English for specific purposes play important roles in workers‘ and administrators‘ success in their fields of work and business environments
Over the last few years, many researchers have offered a number of books and articles bringing out new insights and approaches from different theoretical perspectives For instance, an important survey was conducted in Finland in 1998 by the National Board of Education on the language and communication skills in the fields of industry and business It studied language/ communication needs of industry and business employees and was aimed at showing how language teaching could best equip students with the skills required in professional life The survey has revealed that compared with engineers, employees in production jobs, installation and repair workers do not need to use foreign languages as much as the members of the other group However it is clear that they have to read instructions, socialize and travel They rarely get involved with writing formal papers, giving presentations or negotiating The study thus has shown that the need for oral communication overrides written skills (reading and writing) in the first group, while the discrepancy in the second is smaller (Reported in Viel 2002:1)
Similar studies have been carried out in other European and Asian countries (see Perrin, 2003; Ponger, 2003; Edwards, 2000; Le So-Mui and Mead, 2000) In his study on writing and interacting in the discourse community of engineers, Pogner (2003:865) has concluded that writing in the discourse community of engineers cannot be isolated from its contexts, from the chains of communication of which it is a part, or from the interaction between the writers (consultants) or readers (Clients) On this issue, Pogner also adds:
Text production and revision by consultant engineers are not only cognitive problem-solving and communication processes … but also means of negotiation professional standards and roles; defining strategic functions of texts and genres; establishing, maintaining or changing the text’s and interaction’s context by helping the readers/users of the text carry out their own complex technological and business tasks
In like manner, in a study which took place in a specialized business context involving senior German bankers, Edwards (2000) has observed that there is a correlational relationship between the place of work and the effective needs of workers in terms of language skills practiced, terminology used, and syllabus design and materials preparation for the workers
This work arose from a long-standing association between the on-going process of research in the field of teaching/learning English for Specific purposes in General, and the study plan towards a Bachelor of Arts degree from the Department of English for Applied studies at the University of Labor and Social Affairs (ULSA) More specifically, it developed from an attempt to revise the study plan continuously based on the results of other studies on ESP along with an authentic analysis of learners' perceptions of needs, wants and lacks in the workplace in the future The rationale behind choosing these two areas of students‘ future work (accounting and insurance) for the purpose of investigation is because they are two of the most important fields in which English is used extensively
So, for a better understanding of the day-to-day activities and the ‗real world‘ needs of these students, an empirical investigation was carried out so as to see whether the type of material and skills being taught to our students suit their needs or not Another aim of this study is to see whether there is a need to modify our objectives or to update our programs in light of the results of this investigation
So this study will concern itself partially with studying language use, and the workers‘ perceptions of ESP in light of their abilities and ‗real world‘ need.
Scope of the study
The research is based on data collected from thirty respondents in four different classes at University of Labor and Social Affairs in Hanoi, Vietnam The participants in the survey were students in the major of accounting and insurance
This paper is an exploratory study of the use of English by accounting and insurance students It attempts to examine the communication needs of the students in the workplace by shedding light on their perceptions of needs, wants and lacks.
Aims of the study
This study was conducted for the purpose of achieving a better understanding of the communication needs placed upon Vietnamese accounting and insurance students Moreover, this study was to identify the students‘ needs, wants, lacks of English for the purpose of including in our curriculum what is needed by our students and excluding what deemed to be less important to them
This study also was carried out so as to see whether the type of material and skills being taught to our students suit their needs or not Another aim of this study is to see whether there is a need to modify our objectives or to update our programs in light of the results of this investigation.
Subjects and Methodology of the study
The design of this investigation is based on the work of Hutchinson and Waters (1987), and Dudley-Evans and Jo ST John (1998), in which they define needs in terms of ―target needs (i.e what the learner needs to do in the target situation) and Learning needs (i.e what the learner needs to do in order to learn).‖
The main concern of this investigation will be an analysis of the target needs of the subjects in these two areas of workplaces However, as all the subjects of this study are university undergraduates, no attempt will be made here to investigate their learning needs To understand the undergraduates‘ preferred ways of learning, it is highly recommended that such investigation to be conducted at the University of Labor and Social Affairs in Hanoi, Vietnam, where several ESP courses are taught to the university students
According to Hutchinson and Waters (1987), and Dudley-Evans and Jo ST John (1998), the best methodology for studying the target needs of any particular group of students is to use such methods as Questionnaires, follow-up interviews, collection of authentic workplace texts, and visits to the workplace
The corpus of this study was collected with the assistance of three ESP students enrolled in the Department of English for Applied Studies at University of Labor and Social Affairs (ULSA) by means of a questionnaire and interviews Data collection methods used in this study include calculating percentage of answers in the questionnaire Details of methodology applied in the study are discussed in part
Some of the interviews were conducted by me The present research is based on data collected from thirty respondents in leading positions in four different classes: accounting and insurance The participants in the survey were students in the major of accounting and insurance, all of whom are Vietnamese-English balanced bilinguals capable of using English for different purposes Fifteen of them study in the field of accounting and the other fifteen in the field of insurance The sample is composed of twenty-two males and only eight females.
Research question
The main purpose of the study is to investigate the students‘ communicative needs in the workplace by shedding light on their perceptions of needs, wants, lacks of English and the use of English in the workplace To achieve this objective, the study seeks the answers to the following questions:
1 What are the students’ perceived English communicative needs?
2 How to they self-evaluate their ability to communicate in English?
3 What is the gap between their perceived communicative needs and their self-evaluated communicative ability?
Design of the study
The research is divided into three parts as follows:
Part A is the INTRODUCTION to the research This includes the rationale, the objectives, the scope, the methodology and the design of the study
Part B - the DEVELOPMENT, the most significant part of the study, consists of two chapters:
Chapter 1 provides theoretical background knowledge of the studied issue touched upon in the research There are seven sub parts in this chapter This part outlines the evolving definitions of Communicativeness, and Communicative competence and performance, Needs, Needs analysis, Changing the communicative
Chapter 2 covers methodology applied in the study The research question comes first, followed by an introduction to the subjects of the research, the data instruments and the procedures and methodology used for data collection In this chapter, the discussion and interpretation of the collected data is given to find out errors made by the subjects of the research in producing the glide up based on an analysis of their performance in the listening and pronunciation tests
Part C is the CONCLUSION, the summary of major findings of the research, followed by implications and suggestions for teachers and learners of English Limitation of the study and suggestions
THEORETICAL BACKGROUND
What is ―communicativeness‖?
' Communicativeness' is a widely used word, often signifying rather vague notions.Ellis (1982) states the term "has no clearly understood and received meaning" (p.73)
Similarly, 'communicative competence' is a concept still evolving in definition towards recognizing language use, following its solidly linguistic background To avoid the multifarious "myths" surrounding these terms, we must
"clarify which version of 'communicative' is being referred to"
(Johnson,1996.p.173), and determine what constitutes competence
Allwright's (1979) succinct enquiry "Are we teaching language (for communication)? or Are we teaching communication (via language)?" (p.167) centralizes this critical issue.
Communicative competence
Widdowson's(1978) assertion that acquisition of communicative competence is "the ultimate aim in language learning‖(p.67), necessitates reconciling these distinctions for practical classroom purposes Widdowson usefully and pertinently recognized that communicative competence is ―not a list of learnt items, but a set of strategies or procedures 'for realizing the value of linguistic elements in contexts of use” (1979a, p.248)
In answer to Allwright, it is probable that both are essential Richards and Rogers (1986) assert "communicativeness involves acknowledging the interdependence of language and communication" (p.66) However, materials have traditionally focused on the first concept, that linguistic knowledge is central to communication Chomsky (1956), Hymes (1971), Canale and Swain(1980) and Canale (1983) all separated knowledge and actual use Unlike Chomsky, who posited that knowledge of grammar alone was sufficient, Hymes recognized a sociolinguistic importance, stating "There are rules of use without which the rules of grammar would be useless" (in Brumfit and Johnson,1979.p15)
Canale's assertion that a primarily knowledge-oriented focus is "an exercise in futility and frustration [which fails] to help learners to master the necessary skills in using knowledge" (1983,p.15) advanced a more interactive model, inclusive of discoursal and strategic competencies However, he excluded performance, assuming preparation to communicate rather than communication, or "actual use"
(p.5), constituted competence, “the main goal is to prepare and encourage learners to exploit in an optimal way their limited communicative competence in the second language in order to participate in actual communication.”
Conversely, Halliday (1973) highlighted the functional importance of language, recognizing knowledge (or potential ability), and use (actualised potential) as being interdependent This accords with Krashen and Terrell's (1983) Acquisition-Learning Hypothesis, which recognized two separate processes, that of learning, through conscious studying; and acquisition, through the subconscious processes of comprehending language "that is a little beyond our current level of
(acquired) competence" (p.32) Here knowledge and learning, and use and acquisition can be viewed as the separable components of communicative competence as defined by Chomsky, Hymes and Canale Widdowson's (1978) assertion that acquisition of communicative competence is "the ultimate aim in language learning" (p.67), necessitates reconciling these distinctions for practical classroom purposes Widdowson usefully and pertinently recognized that communicative competence is ―not a list of learnt items, but a set of strategies or procedures 'for realizing the value of linguistic elements in contexts of use' (1979a, p.248)
Communicative performance
Communication has become fully accepted as an essential and major component of the “product' of language teaching, but it has not yet been given more than a token place, as an essential and major component of the 'process' A logical extension of the argument would suggest that if communication is THE aim, then it should be THE major element in the process
Allright's call for the centrality of performance is fundamental to teaching language communicatively Brown (1994) recognizes "students' eventual need to apply classroom learning to heretofore unrehearsed contexts in the real world"
(p29) Materials need to provide the contexts in which knowledge and use, or learning and acquisition can be tested, applied and evaluated, as Ellis recognized,
Communicative opportunity is both necessary and sufficient for acquisition to take place; the contribution of language teaching materials must be to provide this
Performance identifies for learners how pronunciation and successful communication are mutually dependent, through breakdowns in communication These create immediate, focused and relevant teaching opportunities to "bring students to the point where they can utilize the outside world" (Krashen,1982.p.183) Similarly, Widdowson urges learners do the things they will recognize as purposeful and have some resemblance to what they use their own language to do (1990, p.160)
This combination of competence (knowledge) and performance is termed
"communicative performance" by Canale and Swain, or "the realization of competencies and their interaction in the actual production and comprehension of utterances" (1980,p.6) They succinctly encapsulate the essence of communicativeness,
The primary objective of a communication-oriented second language programme must be to provide learners with the information, practice, and much of the experience needed to meet their communicative needs in the second language
Performance also necessitates intelligible pronunciation, also essential to communicative competence (Morley,1987) This provides clear interactive goals and requires actual use Pennington (1996) states "no communication can take place without a certain level of mutual intelligibility" (p.220) Celce-Murcia et al (1996) cite evidence indicating a threshold level of phonological competence, below which intelligibility and communication will suffer regardless of grammatical and lexical proficiency.
Needs
The first, essential, point to make is that needs do not have themselves an objective reality (Brindley, 57.p.65) ―What is finally established as a ―need‖ is a matter for agreement and judgement not discovery‖ (Lawson, 75.p.37) quoted in Brindley (57 p 65) The needs that are established for a particular group of students will be an outcome of a needs analysis project and will be influenced by the ideological preconceptions of analysts A different group of analysts working with the same group of students, but with different views on teaching and learning would be highly likely to produce a different set of needs
A number of people, for example Berwick (55), Brindley (57), Mountford 81),Widdowson (326) have discussed the different meanings or types of needs
First, needs can refer to students‘ study or job requirements that is what they have to be able to do at the end of their language course This is a goal-oriented definition of needs (Widdowson, 326, p.2) needs in this sense are perhaps more appropriately described as ―objectives‖(Berwick, 55 P 57) Second, needs can mean ―what the user-institution or society at large regards as necessary or desirable to be learnt from a program of language instruction‖ (Mountford, 81 P 27) Third, we can consider what the learner needs to do to actually require the language This is a process- oriented definition of needs and relate to transitional behavior (Widdowson, 326 p
2) Fourth, we can consider what the students themselves would like to gain from the language course This view of needs implies that students may have personal aims in addition to (or even in opposition to) the requirements of their language course (Berwick, 55 p 57) is that such personal needs may be another devalued by being viewed as wants or desires Finally, we may interpret needs is what the students do not know or cannot do in English.
Needs analysis
―From each according to his abilities to each according to his needs‖
We have defined ESP as an approach to course design which starts with the question ―Why do these learners need to learn English?‖, but it could be argued that this should be the starting question to any course: General or ESP all courses are based on a perceived need of some sort Otherwise, why would English find its way on to a school or college timetable: someone at some time must have decided there was a need for it What then, in the terms of our definition, is the difference between ESP and General English?
The answer to this very reasonable question is in theory nothing, in practice a great deal, it is often argued that the needs of the General English learner, for example the schoolchild, are not specifiable This is an assumption that owes more to instructional inertia and the weight of tradition than to any reality, but it is a powerful force nevertheless In fact, this is the weakest of all arguments, because it is always possible to specify needs, even if it is only the needs to pass the exam at the end of the school year There is always an identifiable need of some sort
What distinguishes ESP from General English is not the existence of a need as such but rather an awareness of the need If learners, sponsors and teachers know why the learners need English, that awareness will have an influence on what will be acceptable as reasonable content in the language course and on the positive side, what potential can be exploited Thus, although it might appear on the surface that the ESP course is characterized by its content ( Science, Medicine, Commerce, Tourism, banking, etc.), this is, in fact, only a secondary consequence of the primary matter of being able to readily specify why the learners need English Put briefly, it is not so much the nature of the need which distinguishes the ESP from the General course but rather the awareness of a need
This being said we would still maintain that any course should be based on and can have an useful effect on General English and indicates once more the need for a common approach The answer to the analysis will probably be different, but the questions that need to be asked are the same Nevertheless, for the time being, the tradition persists in General English that learner needs can‘t be specified and as a result no attempt is usually made to discover learners‘ true needs Thus, if we had to state in practical terms the irreducible minimum of an ESP approach to course design, it would be needs analysis, since it is the awareness of an target situation- a definable need to communicate in English-that distinguishes the ESP learner from the learner of General English.
Changing the communicative needs
Discusses on testing of English as an international language have been shaped by the discourse on colonization and postcolonial orientations to English
We have to consider the changes in the communicative order to examine whether these discourses are still relevant
Colonization was influenced by what Stuart Hall (1997) called modernist globalization In this form of geopolitical relationship, communities related to each other in a hierarchical and unilateral fashion The dominant communities assumed the superiority of their cultural and social systems, even that of their language, and attempted to spread their influence at the cost of local traditions However, the new social and technological forces unleashed by this form of globalization have generated a new relationship between communities
Some have labeled this position the International English perspective (Davies, Hamp-Lyons, & Kemp, 2003) But this is a misnomer Making a case for standard British or American English as the norm for testing cannot be treated as being international in any meaningful sense of the term Besides, the school of lingua franca English (Jenkins, 2006; Seidlhofer, 2004) holds a position at variance with the International English perspective It is therefore important to distinguish these two perspectives.pora groups; the Internet; transnational production and economic relationships; and the compression of time and space through travel, media, and communication account for what Hall called postmodern globalization
This social context is marked by traits that are different from those of previous social formations: The first is the interaction between communities is multilateral— that is, international involvement at diverse levels is needed in today‘s economic and production enterprises The second is national boundaries have become porous—people, goods, and ideas flow easily between borders The third is languages, communities, and cultures have become hybrid, shaped by this fluid flow of social and economic relationships English enables, and is in turn shaped by, these trans-cultural flows To understand the radical implications for English, we need to re-examine the assumptions of the World English model which was introduced by Kachru in 1986 This model raises disturbing questions for assessment practices: It brought into crisis our previous assumptions on the nature of English language; and with all the other communities increasingly using English as a foreign language, primarily for international purposes, labeled the expanding circle and positioned further in the periphery More important, the model established the legitimacy of the new varieties of English in the outer circle, affirming their norms and usage The model thus pluralized the English language
We are now unable to treat English as a homogeneous language characterized by a uniform norm or grammatical system However, the conditions featuring postmodern globalization call into question some of the assumptions behind the Kachruvian model (Kachru, 1986): firstly the model legitimizes each variety in the outer circle in terms of its national identity Thus, Indian English is valid for India, Nigerian English for Nigeria, and Singaporean English for Singapore, and so on
However, these varieties of English have started to leak outside their national borders in postmodern globalization Indian English is relevant not just for Indians anymore Personnel from the outsourced companies in Madras or Bangalore use their variety of English when they conduct business with people from other countries More important, British or American nationals cannot be satisfied with their prestigious varieties anymore Americans now have to transact many important types of domestic and personal business with companies outside their border Indian English is now necessary for Americans They should at least have receptive skills in World English to transact business with outsourced companies
On the other hand, speakers in the expanding circle do not use English solely for extra-community relations For countries such as China, Vietnam, Philippines, and Brazil, English performs many important functions within borders What about the importance of international news, popular culture, and advanced education in these countries? There have been reports in scholarly literature on how hip-hop music in English is appropriated and re-created in a range of communities-Belgium, Japan, Holland-for local consumption These considerations call into question the ESL/EFL (English as a second language–English as a foreign language) distinction and demand that we take account of the increasing currency of English in expanding-circle countries More important, we are learning that expanding-circle communities are developing new norms as they use English for lingua franca communication We cannot treat them strictly as norm dependent, as Kachru labeled them Multilingual speakers do not seem to defer to inner-circle norms when they communicate with each other in English Lastly if there is still a grudging acceptance in the Kachruvian model that the inner-circle countries enjoy ownership over English—that is, although Kachru labeled the other two circles norm developing and norm dependent, he called the inner circle norm providing— the spread of English questions this assumption The oft-cited statistics by Graddol
(1999) and Crystal (1997) have shown that speakers outside the inner circle have grown in number In terms of the currency and usage of the language, there is clearer evidence that English is used more in multinational contexts by multilingual speakers than it is in homogeneous contexts of monolingual speakers These considerations raise questions about the periphery status of the outer and expanding circles in the Kachruvian model The latter communities are quite central to the character and currency of English today
These developments demand a re-conceptualization of the relationship between the diverse varieties of English It is not necessary to announce the death of the native speaker and usher in the dominance of the periphery in theorizations of English language We have to at least move closer to the position that English is a heterogeneous language with multiple norms and diverse grammars We have to start working with Crystal‘s notion of English (2004) as ―a family of languages‖ (p
49) or McArthur‘s egalitarian model (1987) where the different varieties relate to each other on a single level (and not on three hierarchies, as in Kachru‘s model
In a context where we have to constantly shuttle between different varieties and communities, proficiency becomes complex To be really proficient in English today, one has to be multidialectal This does not mean that one needs production skills in all the varieties of English One needs the capacity to negotiate diverse varieties to facilitate communication The passive competence to understand new varieties is part of this multidialectal competence Therefore, we have to move from the ―either–or‖ orientation in the testing debate to a ―both and more‖ perspective
Let me spell out what proficiency in English entails in the postmodern context of communication: first, although I am in sympathy with the need to assess outer- circle speakers according to endogenous norms, this is not enough They must be ready to engage with inner-circle and expanding-circle communities in order to accomplish important communicative and socioeconomic functions Second, proficiency in communicating with inner-circle communities is not enough for outer-circle and expanding-circle communities, because much of the communication in English happens among multilingual speakers in nonnative interactions Researchers on English as a lingua franca point out that when speakers in the outer and expanding circles speak to each other, they are able to negotiate their differences in their own terms and accomplish their communicative e needs effectively without deferring to inner-circle norms (Jenkins, 2006; Seidlhofer,
2004) Standard American or British English does not have any relevance to many communicative activities of millions of multilingual speakers outside the inner circle Third, proficiency means, then, the ability to shuttle between different varieties of English and different speech communities In this sense, the argument becomes irrelevant whether local standards or inner-circle standards matter We need both and more—that is, the ability to negotiate the varieties in other outer- and expanding-circle communities as well Last, this orientation to globalization does not mean that speakers of English today have to be proficient in all the varieties under the sun What we find from research on English as a lingua franca is the importance of negotiation skills—such as speech accommodation—for shuttling between English varieties and speech communities Such realizations suggest the need for an important shift in assessment practices From focusing overly on proficiency in grammar or in abstract linguistic features, we have to focus more on proficiency in pragmatics Sociolinguistic skills of dialect differentiation, code switching, style shifting, interpersonal communication, conversation management, and discourse strategies are important for shuttling between English varieties (McKay, 2005) We have to be open to the fact that although interlocutors may use convergence strategies to facilitate communication, they can adopt divergence strategies to distance themselves from each other (Jenkins, 2006) In such cases, we cannot treat the breakdown in interaction as miscommunication but as a creative rhetorical act
In effect, in our attitude to proficiency, we have to shift our emphases from language as a system to language as social practice, from grammar to pragmatics, from competence to performance Of course, these constructs are not exclusive
However, the bias in language teaching and testing circles is still very much on the first construct in each pair Defining language use as performative involves placing an emphasis on the second construct in each pair and considering how language diversity is actively negotiated in acts of communication under changing contextual conditions In other words, it is not what we know as much as it is the versatility with which we do things with English that defines proficiency What implications does the aforementioned communicative scenario hold for norms? We realize that norms are relative, variable, heterogeneous, and changing Posing the options as either ―native English norms‖ or ―new English norms‖ is misleading A proficient speaker of English in the postmodern world needs an awareness of both He or she should be able to shuttle between different norms, recognizing the systematic and legitimate status of different varieties of English in this diverse family of languages
More interesting, research on English as a lingua franca has shown that there are new norms developing when multilingual people communicate with each other The search is on for the lingua franca core (Seidlhofer, 2004) As multilingual speakers focus more on intelligibility rather than on grammatical correctness, they are developing new norms of English that are different from both the local and the metropolitan varieties
All this leads to the view of English as a heterogeneous language with multiple norms, with each norm coming into play at different levels of social interaction Proficiency in the world of postmodern globalization requires the ability to negotiate this variability We might have to address the fact that there are different norms that come into play at different levels of social interaction
The impact of integrated language skills in communication
The proposed model ESP syllabus is basically skills based syllabus integrated with the types of personal group and mass communication and interrelating with the types of speaking and writing activities The students should be engaged in interactional communication activities to improve speaking skills
Engaging the students in interpersonal communication activities like providing self-introduction, small talk, extempore, conversation, chatting, interview and role play; group communication activities like conducting business meetings, group discussions, panel discussions, brain storming and problem solving; and mass communication activities like delivering lectures, public speaking, seminars, symposiums, conferences will make the students to participate and perform in the interactive tasks The students will be able to execute oral tasks with sheer confidence and attempt to display fluency in both language and communication
Working in pairs, groups and acting as an audience to witness the activities will help the students to realize themselves about their level of participation and performance The comments and the feedback provided by both the colleagues and faculties will make them to understand to perform better in subsequent oral tasks
Teachers should train the students in the speaking activities like greeting and wishing one another, introducing and briefing oneself, presenting about oneself, revealing personal profile, presenting a short lecture, public speaking, presenting on any topic of interest, engaging in informal chatting with short dialogues, participating in mock interviews, performing a role play, presenting a business or technical paper, participating in meetings with an agenda of scrutinizing business developments, thinking logically and critically on any business or technical issues, providing a solution to the problem will make the students to literally develop their professional and technical communication The students should be specifically given tasks to improve speech on discourse and rhetoric (Widdowson, 1983) They should be able to engage in narrative, descriptive, explanative and interrogative mode of language tasks Narrating an ordeal or experience, describing a process or any graphical representations like graphs, diagrams, pictures and maps, providing an explanation on a given situation and analyzing a case through oral questionnaire will make the students to improve their communicative ability to engage in rhetorical discourse
Speech on rhetoric and discourse should be trained through practicing to question variedly and to prepare questionnaires on any inquiries on any desirable subject, will improve interrogative skills to process arguments and to precede judgment on any issues.They should be able to frame questions like to put tag questions in conversations, yes/no type and wh‘ type for extracting inquiries in discussions
Writing skills should be adequately improved by providing tasks in writing composition, letters and reports They need to be given practice to write error-free sentences They should be able to think and organize their ideas in a logical sequence and should use discourse markers for ascertaining coherence in their thought and writing They should be able to write with good spelling and punctuation They should also be given practice to identify and distinguish the international use of English language styles like MLA, APA and LSA
Students should be able to practice both formal and informal letter writing to correspond on any official and administrative letters, business mails and report writing They should be able to write official letters, memoranda, inter-office memo, circular, agenda, minutes and notices They should be acquainted with the vivid practice of writing business letters and e-mails They should be able to understand the distinctive use of formalized informal mails, informal formalized mails, formal and informal mails They should be given an adequate training on calling quotations, placing orders, complaining on any issues, appreciating on any services, asking for clarification and explanation on any new products, giving suggestions, instructions, directions, seeking recommendations and reference letters on any context Letters of application with CV, writing personal and professional profile should be encouraged to practice
Writing a proposal on any project, writing the layout of the project, writing project reports, industrial reports, and business reports should be often practiced to improve their project and research writing Students should be assigned to engage in individual, pair or a group to undertake some mini projects and to do some field survey to improve their research skills and subsequently to put the report in writing
Research skills are highly scholastic and eventually it leads to impart high degree of speaking and writing ability to enhance professional and technical communication.
THE STUDY
Data and Methodology
The design of this investigation is based on the work of Hutchinson and Waters (1987), and Dudley-Evans and Jo ST John (1998), in which they define needs in terms of ―target needs (i.e what the learner needs to do in the target situation) and Learning needs (i.e what the learner needs to do in order to learn).‖
The main concern of this investigation will be an analysis of the target needs of the subjects in these two areas of workplaces However, as all the subjects of this study are university undergraduates, no attempt will be made here to investigate their learning needs To understand the undergraduates‘ preferred ways of learning, it is highly recommended that such investigation to be conducted at the University of Labor and Social Affairs in Hanoi, Vietnam, where several ESP courses are taught to the university students The target needs, the focus of this work, are further broken down into the necessities, wants and lacks of the students For more clarification of these three elements an attempt will be made here to examine the students‘ attitudes toward English in general and English for specific purposes in particular According to Hutchinson and Waters (1987), and Dudley-Evans and Jo
ST John (1998), the best methodology for studying the target needs of any particular group of students is to use such methods as Questionnaires, follow-up interviews, collection of authentic workplace texts, and visits to the workplace
The corpus of this study was collected with the assistance of three ESP students enrolled in the Department of English for Applied Studies at University of Labor and Social Affairs (ULSA) by means of a questionnaire and interviews
Some of the interviews were conducted by me The present research is based on data collected from thirty respondents in leading positions in four different classes: accounting and insurance The participants in the survey were students in the major of accounting and insurance, all of whom are Vietnamese-English balanced bilinguals capable of using English for different purposes Fifteen of them study in the field of accounting and the other fifteen in the field of insurance The sample is composed of twenty-two males and only eight females The unbalanced distribution of the sample by sex is due to the fact that the chances of females in Vietnamese society in occupying these areas of working All of respondents are supposed to have studied English as a foreign language for eight to ten years and their education for the university degree (B.A., M.Sc.) was English medium Also it is worth noting that all those students have studied for duration of two to three years in their respective fields of study
The linguistic questionnaire utilized in this research was largely influenced by those used in previous works on needs analysis, language use, function and attitudes (e.g., Huthinson and Waters, 1987; Dudley-Evans and Jo ST John, 1998;
Louhiala-Salminon, 1996; Li So-mui and Mead, 2000; Perrin, 2003; Alm, 2003; among others) However, the questionnaire was modified in a way so as to better serve the purposes of this study with these particular workplaces The questionnaire was designed to elicit different types of data on the students‘ target needs, wants, lacks, use of English in the workplace for different purposes One section of the questionnaire is designed to elicit some evaluative attitudinal data toward the use of both English and Vietnamese in general, and English for specific purposes, in particular
Additionally, the assistances were asked beforehand to note down any additional information they might get from the subjects, whether in direct or an indirect way By so doing, they were quite able to provide us with some extra information of great value on both language use To verify the truthfulness of some of the collected data, the respondents were asked to provide us with authentic workplace texts and correspondence In this way, we were able to check on such matters as the type of English being used, the most common channel(s) of communication, and the extent of English usage.
Results and Discussion
The results of this study are reported and discussed under three main headings:
2.2.1 Students’ Needs and Actual Use
The responses below were given by the personnel in answer to the following question: What I need English for? To answer this question each subject was asked to say whether he/she needs English for any of the purposes shown in table 1 below
Also, based on their answers we ranked their needs in priority as shown in the table
A I Words related to my future job
Instructions on what to do and how to do it
General English words, phrases and text
Native speakers of English at work
Radio, films and TV programs
Table 1: Students’ needs of listening by type of major
From Tables 1 we can observe that for both groups of students listening English is needed for certain purposes much more often than others For example, in both groups the personnel have reported that listening English is needed much for words related to their future job, for instructions on what to do and how to do it and for general English words, phrases and text However, the percentage scores shown in tables 1 indicate that the two groups of students are distinct from one another by their needs for and use of English For instance, while the accounting students see listening English needed for words related to their future job: 66.7% for most important, 26.7% for very important and only 6.7% for important, insurance students choose 13.3% for most important and very important but they choose 66.7% for important; For instructions on what to do and how to do it, while the accounting students choose 86.7% for most important, 13.3% for very important but they don‘t choose any percentage for important, insurance students only choose 26.7% for most important and very important but they choose 46.7% for important;
And for general English words, phrases and text, we can see that both groups have no choice for most important, only accounting students choose very important but with a very little percentage: only 13.3% while accounting group occupies high percentage for important and insurance group is for less important
Discuss issues informally with others
Have daily conversation with others
Table 2: Students’ needs of speaking by type of major
From Tables 2 we also observe that for both groups of students speaking English is needed for certain purposes much more often than others For instance, accounting students have reported that speaking English is needed much for exchange information with others, discuss issues informally with others and make phone calls, they choose 93.3%, 66.7% and 93.3% for most important However, insurance students don‘t choose for most important, only 26.7% for exchange information with others While accounting students don‘t choose less important and not important at all, insurance students choose these with quite high percentage
A I Understand advertisements, catalogues and magazines
Understand materials related to my future work
Improve my knowledge about my future work
Get information I am interested in on the internet
Table 3: Students’ needs of reading by type of major
From Tables 3 we can observe that for both groups of students have no choice for understanding advertisements, catalogues and magazines at the level of most important and very important but they choose level less important and not important at all with very high percentage In both groups the personnel have reported that English is needed much for understanding materials related to my future work, improving my knowledge about my future work and getting information they are interested in on the internet However, the percentage scores shown in tables 3 indicate that the two groups of students are different from one another by their needs for and use of English For instance, the accounting students see reading English needed for understanding materials related to their future work, improving their knowledge about their future work and getting information they are interested in on the internet much more than insurance students
Fill out applications and forms
Write reports of my work
Write short essays about my work
7 Write personal letters to my foreign friends
7 Write emails with my friends overseas
Table 4: Students’ needs of writing by type of major
From Tables 4 we observe that for both groups of students writing English is needed for the purposes of filling out applications and forms, and writing resumes much more often than others while both groups think that they mostly don‘t need writing skill to take notes in class, to write short essays about their work or write personal letters or emails to their foreign friends However, while the accounting students see writing English needed for writing reports of their work, insurance ones think that they have no need of this
From Tables 1,2,3 and 4 we observe that for both groups of students English is needed for certain purposes much more often than others depends on their work‘s characteristics, their working environment, the people they will have to contact with frequently, etc
In asking the students about their wants (What kind of English training courses do you like to be enrolled in?) they reported the answers indicated in table 5 below A closer examination of Table 5 below reveals that the assertion that the students are quite aware of their wants is a valid one For example, the great majority of both groups of students believe that improving their conversation skills in English, how to ask and to understand directions, learning more English words and English grammar, and improving their English pronunciation should be given more attention and emphasis in designing any training courses for them These results appear to be in line with those arrived at in other sections of the paper, where the students were found to be in need for more practice to improve their abilities in speaking, writing and listening Comparing the percentage scores of the two groups across their wants, we notice that they are still differentiated from one another by their responses to the included items For example, only 33.3% of the insurance sector students want to improve their conversation skills in English in comparison to 73,3% of the accounting students want that And out of 86.7% of the accounting students who wanted to improve their pronunciation skill and speaking skill, only
33.3% and 26.7% of the insurance students wanted that The same also is true with regard to item two and four, where more than 60% and 70% of the accounting students wanted to know how to ask and to understand directions and to learn more English grammar, only 53,3% and 66.7% of the insurance students wanted to do that Meanwhile, accounting students still consider improving their writing and listening skill as an important skill, insurance students think that they are not important anymore
I want to improve my conversation skills in English
I want to know how to ask and to understand directions
I want to learn more English words
I want to learn more English grammar
I want to improve my English pronunciation
I want to improve my speaking skills
I want to improve 73.3 33.3 26.7 46.7 0 0 0 6 0 13. my reading skills 7 3
I want to improve my writing skills
I want to improve my listening skills
Table 5: students’ wants by type of major
To explain this, one must take into consideration the effect of activities being carried out in the workplace which also seem to interact with language proficiency in influencing the type of wants being specified by the students
Generally speaking, all evidence suggests that the accounting students, due to a wealth of factors discussed below, are more proficient in English than their insurance counterparts This is because they are heavier user of the language than their insurance students, and having more positive orientation toward the language
Thus it is highly likely that these elements put together are the factors most responsible for the type of wants being identified by each group and also for the distinction existed between the two student groups in their responses to the questionnaire
Students‘ lacks are reflected in their assessment of their proficiency in the different language skills on a five grade scale as shown below as well as in their actual use of the various skills in the workplace Table 6 below reveals that, as expected, the accounting students were more likely to assess their proficiency in the various skills as more proficient in all four skills than the insurance students
Table 6 Response percentages: Language proficiency (self-assessment) by type of major
Comparing the percentage scores of the two working groups across their perceived proficiency in the four language skills, it becomes clear that the two groups of students appear to be differentiated by their proficiencies in all language skills, although the greatest distinction between them seems to exist mostly in their proficiency in speaking and listening Even though the type of work has obviously influenced the two groups of students, the insurance students, no doubt due to their limited use of the language, appear to be lagging behind, showing lower percentages in their assessment of their proficiency in all four language skills
Also in asking the question of (Which of the following English language skills do you think is more important than the others for the success of your future work?) their responses, as shown in Table 7 below revealed that not all skills are equally used by the students Students‘ responses to this question have shown that writing and speaking are the skills used most often in the workplace, though to varying degrees
Table 7 Response percentages: skills used in the workplace by type of major
From table 7 it is also evident that the type of work, as said previously, plays a significant role in determining the amount and degree of use made by the students
Conclusions and implications
This multi-faceted study was conducted for the purpose of achieving a better understanding of the communication demands placed upon Vietnamese insurance and accounting senior officials The rationale behind this study was to identify the students‘ needs, wants, lacks of English for the purpose of including in our curriculum what is needed by our students and excluding what deemed to be less important to them This is because, as Kavaliauskiene and Daiva (2003) put it,
―keeping learner needs in mind, teacher can use textbooks and supplement additional information from the Internet and other media sources, thus creating updated and interesting for students materials."
The sample comprised 30 students who were evenly distributed by type of work The students in these two workplaces demonstrated a great desire to use English extensively for the purpose of communication, though to varying degrees
Also, it has been observed that the type of work plays a significant role with regard to evaluating and using English by the students, as the accounting executives appeared to be more aware of the importance of English as a means of communication than their insurance counterparts This could be because the most common reasons for communicating for accounting students were dealing with the clients, writing and sending email messages and faxes in the language, browsing the internet, booking, arranging for car rentals, etc An examination of a huge a number of authentic documents in both places of work, we conclude that more than 90% of documentation in the accounting is conducted in English, whereas only 60% of the insurance work is conducted in the language In addition, in-office interaction in both places of work is conducted mostly in both languages, though both types of workers use Vietnamese much more often than English
Three main conclusions, then, can be drawn from this research:
First, accounting students are heavier users of English than their insurance counterparts and this is clearly manifested through their uses of the four language skills; Reading (49%, 61%), writing (37%, 80%), speaking (33%, 61%), and listening (36%, 63%) by the insurance and accounting students respectively
Second, asking about their needs the great majority of the respondents prefer getting information themselves, improving listening skills and sharpening their ability in speaking
Third, in responding to a considerable number of questions on students‘ wants the accounting students showed a great deal of desire for improving language skills and competence for the future usage than insurance students because English is considered as an important skill as well as an instrument for achieving multi- purpose activities
This detailed study into the use of English in the workplace by two types of students recommends that course designers and the developers of teaching and learning materials should provide more specifically focused English courses to learners in their respect fields of work The study also helps us establish realistic measures for treatment which would be incorporated in the design of a particular type of courses and textbooks to ESP students in the Department of English for Applied Studies at University of Labor and Social Affairs
The implications of this research for language teachers and for the administration in large institutions such as insurance and accounting among other workplaces is to find the ways of motivating both students and workers to lifelong learning, to negotiate with them on their priorities for various skills to be sharpened, to incorporate activities that trainees prefer, and to design courses that suit the needs of the concerned groups of learners
Teachers should train the students in the speaking activities like greeting and wishing one another, introducing and briefing oneself, presenting about oneself, revealing personal profile, presenting a short lecture, public speaking, presenting on any topic of interest, engaging in informal chatting with short dialogues, participating in mock interviews, performing a role play, presenting a business or technical paper, participating in meetings with an agenda of scrutinizing business developments, thinking logically and critically on any business or technical issues, providing a solution to the problem will make the students to literally develop their professional and technical communication.
Limitation and suggestion for further study
There is an urgent need for materials to adopt an approach which fully reflects and promotes students‘ perceptions of communicativeness It is a consistent, simple and user-friendly pedagogical linguistic tool, which fully reflects the cognitive and interactive elements of communicative language teaching, appropriate to twenty- first century learner needs Outdated theories of language and learning incommensurate with the professed communicative nature of the courses suggest pronunciation is of token inclusion and value within the overall syllabus The virtual total lack of opportunity for students to observe, practice and communicate, means students will not progress beyond a superficial understanding of what communicativeness entails students and novice teachers (a significant proportion of course-book users) will remain blinkered as to the true nature of communication and its fundamental relationship to discourse and communication Sheldon notes the pressures of market forces, which is perhaps the largest restraining factor to progress in communication, ―Course-books are often seen by potential customers - teachers, learners as market ephemera requiring invidious compromises between commercial and pedagogical demands.” (1988, p.237)
A self-perpetuating industry conservatism and need for financial survival maintains an anachronistic status quo However, change needs to occur at all levels for communication to be truly reflected as a pillar of spoken English From a macro perspective, the audio-lingualism institutionalized by publishers needs subjecting to greater leaps of faith and incorporates research and communicative theory into their courses This must see a parallel adoption by teacher-training centers to adopt more proactive policies in focusing on questions of communication, intelligibility and so create greater demand from publishers Only then can communication become an equal and integrated skill to empower teachers to approach it as a meaning-focused and syllabus-wide function of communication At the micro level, course-books need to embody decisions, which focus at the very least on the traditional stalwarts of Communicative Language Teaching (the paradigm) even to begin to do justice to communication A focus on communication would do much to connect many of the fragmented exercises and activities which compromise the communicative efficiency of course-books, and thus make the teaching of language more cohesive and more globally communicative Its focus on rules of use and meaning constitute a consistent thread throughout a single course-book, or whole series, necessary to maintain momentum in acquiring phonological, and therefore communicative competence Materials must be engaging and interactive enough to motivate students to recognize this communicative importance and so invest more in their learning and increase learner independence This is particularly so for those students (and teachers) whose educational backgrounds have convinced them that sound and articulation are most important In introducing communication, materials must avoid the danger of maintaining their structural theory of learning and applying it to the dynamic and interactive theory of language and communication represented
Learners simply by reciting and copying neatly transcribed discourse segments along structural lines, while ignoring the choice of prominence or tone, is a style similar to the structural approach on which it is intended to improve Change must not be cosmetic and choices need to be real
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The aim of this survey questionnaire is to help my research on examining the communicative needs of the students at the University of Labor and Social Affairs (ULSA) Your assistance in completing the following items is greatly appreciated
Thank you very much for your cooperation!
1 Can you evaluate your ability in the English language skills?
Good Average Weak Very weak
2 Which of the following English language skills do you think is more important than the others for the success of your future work?
Not importa nt at all
3 Which of the following items do you think is more important than the others for the need of listening?
Words related to my future job
Instructions on what to do and how to it
General English words, phrases and text
Native speakers of English at work
Non-native speakers of English at work
Radio, films and TV programs
4 Which of the following items do you think is more important than the others for the need of speaking?
Discuss issues informally with others
5 Which of the following items do you think is more important than the others for the need of reading?
Understand advertisements, catalogues and magazines
Understand materials related to my future work
Improve my knowledge about my future work
Get information I am interested in on the internet
6 Which of the following items do you think is more important than the others for the need of writing?
Fill out applications and forms
Write reports of my work
Write short essays about my work
Write personal letters to my foreign friends
Write emails with my friends overseas
7 Do you agree with the following statements?
I want to improve my conversation skills in English
I want how to ask and to understand directions
I want to learn more English words
I want to learn more English grammar
I want to improve my English pronunciation
I want to improve my reading skills
I want to improve my reading skills
I want to improve my writing skills