An exploratory study on the teachers and students’ perceptions of an ESP course at the infantry officer training college number one

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ********************* KIỀU TRÍ DŨNG AN EXPLORATORY STUDY ON THE TEACHERS AND STUDENTS’ PERCEPTIONS OF AN ESP COURSE AT THE INFANTRY OFFICER TRAINING COLLEGE NUMBER ONE (Nghiên cứu thăm dò nhâ ̣n thức của giáo viên và ho ̣c viên đố i với khóa ho ̣c tiếng Anh chuyên ngành trường Sỹ quan lục quân 1) M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Language Teaching Methodology Code: 60.14.10 Hanoi- 2013 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ********************* KIỀU TRÍ DŨNG AN EXPLORATORY STUDY ON THE TEACHERS AND STUDENTS’ PERCEPTIONS OF AN ESP COURSE AT THE INFANTRY OFFICER TRAINING COLLEGE NUMBER ONE (Nghiên cứu thăm dò nhâ ̣n thức của giáo viên và ho ̣c viên đố i với khóa ho ̣c tiếng Anh chuyên ngành trường Sỹ quan lục quân 1) M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Language Teaching Methodology Code: 60.14.10 Supervisor: PhD Dương Thi Nu ̣ ̣ Hanoi - 2013 CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY I certify my authorship of the minor thesis submitted entitled: AN EXPLORATORY STUDY ON THE TEACHERS AND STUDENTS’ PERCEPTIONS OF AN ESP COURSE AT THE INFANTRY OFFICER TRAINING COLLEGE NUMBER ONE In terms of the statement of requirements for the thesis and the field study reports in Masters’ programs is the result of my own work, and that this minor thesis or any part of the same had not been submitted for a higher degree to any other universities or institutions Kieu Tri Dung i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am grateful to many people who have supported me and encouraged me all the time Without their assistance, I could not have accomplished my thesis First of all, I would like to express my sincere appreciation to my thesis supervisor, Dr Duong Thi Nu During the journey of working my thesis, she never hesitated to make profound comments and provided me a lot of suggestions and insightful advice It is impossible for me to complete this thesis without her support and assistance I would like to show my deepest gratitude to her My special thanks also go to all my teachers of the Post-graduate course 20 at Vietnam National University, Hanoi, University of Languages and International Studies, for their interesting and useful lectures Moreover, I greatly appreciate the members of the Department of Foreign Languages at the Infantry Officer Training College Number One, for their contribution to the data collection and their constructive suggestions for this research Additionally, I am truly grateful to both the teacher-participants and student-participants It is impossible to complete my research without their participation Finally, I would like to extend my thanks to my beloved family for their love and unhesitating supports ii ABSTRACT This study was designed to investigate the teachers and students’ perceptions of an ESP course at the Infantry Officer Training College Number One (IOTC No.1) The investigation aims to explore: (1) The students’ perceptions of their English ability, difficulties, and expectations toward ESP; (2) the teachers’ opinions and perceptions of ESP courses and their expectations of future ESP pedagogy The participants involved in this study were 165 non-English major military students who had taken ESP course for a semester and 05 instructors who were ESP teachers in the Infantry Officer Training College Number One The major findings of the present study were summarized as follows: First, the students perceived that their English language competence was inadequate, they were aware of the importance and the difficulties as well as their future needs toward ESP courses Second, several potential issues arose concerning with ESP, such as instruction time, content of ESP, and ESP teachers’ qualification Last, the results of this study suggested that a collaborative teaching could be an alternative of present ESP instruction to partially solve the problems Finally, pedagogical implications and suggestions for future research were provided in the last part of the study iii LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS Table 1: Demographic data of the student-participants Table 2: Demographic data of the teacher-participants Table 3: Distribution of the teacher-participants of interview questions Table 4: Distribution of frequency of student questionnaire- Section B Table 5: Distribution of frequency of student questionnaire- Section C Table 6: Distribution of frequency of student questionnaire- Section D Table 7: Distribution of frequency of student questionnaire- Section E Chart 1: The rating of the students' answers to the questions- Section B Chart 2: The rating of the students' answers to the questions- Section C Chart 3: The rating of the students' answers to the questions- Section D Chart 4: The rating of the students' answers to the questions- Section E ABBREVIATIONS AUB: American University of Beirut EAP: English for Academic Purposes EFL: English as a Foreign Language EGP: English for General Purposes ESL: English as a Second Language ESP: English for specific purposes GE: General English IOTC No.1: The Infantry Officer Training College Number One M.A: Master of Arts NA: Needs analysis NATO: North Atlantic Treaty Organization SOP: Standard Operating Procedure TESOL: Teaching English for Speakers of Other Language iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Certificate of originality …………………………………… i Acknowledgements………………………………………………….…… ii Abstract……………… ………………………………………………… iii List of tables, charts and abbreviations ………….…………… … ………… …iv Table of contents…………………………………………… .v PART A: INTRODUCTION .I Background to the study…………… ………………………………….1 Aims of the study……………….…………………………………… Research questions………… ………………… .…………………… Scope of the study…………………………….………………… Significance of the study……………………………… .………… Organization of the study……………………… .…………… PART B: DEVELOPMENT……………….……………………………… .II CHAPTER ONE: LITERATURE REVIEW I.1 English for specific purposes and military English…………….…… I.2 Needs analysis in ESP……………………… …………………… I.3 Materials and curriculum in ESP…………………….……………… … I.4 Problems and challenges of ESP…………………….……………… ….10 I.4.1 Students’ competence and difficulties toward ESP……… 10 I.4.2.The qualification of ESP teachers…………… .11 I.5 Perceptions and expectations toward ESP……………… 12 CHAPTER TWO: METHODOLOGY II.1.The teaching context……………………………………………….… 14 II.1.1.The English teaching and learning situation at IOTC No.1…… 14 II.1.2.The teaching staff of the Department of Foreign Languages at IOTC No.1………………………………………………………………… 14 II.1.3.The students of IOTC No.1…………………………… 15 II.1.4.The ESP materials of IOTC No.1……………………… .16 II.2 Methodology………………….………………………………… 16 II.2.1 Participants……………………………… …………… 16 II.2.2 Methods of the study………………………………………… 17 II.2.3 Instruments of the study…………………………………………… 18 II.2.4 Procedures of the study……………………………….…………… 19 II.2.5 Data analysis……………………….…………………… .19 CHAPTER THREE: DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS v III.1.Analysis of research question 1: What are student perceptions of their English ability, difficulties, and expectations toward ESP? .20 III.1.1 Students’ self- evaluation of English competence… 20 III.1.2 Students’ opinions about current ESP course……………………… 23 III.1.3 Students’ expectations toward future ESP course… 25 III.1.4 Students’ English activities involved in ESP class……………………27 III.2 Analysis of research question 2: What are the teachers’ opinions and perceptions of ESP courses and their expectations of future ESP pedagogy? 29 III.2.1.The correlations between general English competence and ESP learning .29 III.2.2.The skill was involved in the most in ESP class, the skill the students need improvement in the most, and the most important skill in ESP learning .30 III.2.3.The opinions, strengths and weaknesses of current ESP courses 30 III.2.4.The situations encountered in ESP instruction… ………………… 31 III.2.5.The prerequisites for an ESP teacher from a teacher’s perspective 31 III.2.6.The expectations and suggestions for prospective ESP courses according to a teacher’s professional background 31 III.3 Summary ……… ……………………………………………… 32 PART C: CONCLUSION……………………………………………………… III I Recapitulation ……….………………………………………………… 33 II Pedagogical implications….………………………………… ……… 34 III Limitations of the study and suggestions for further study… ….… 35 REFERENCES… …………………………………………………………… 37 APPENDICES Appendix A: Questionnaire for the students (Vietnamese) Appendix B: Questionnaire for the students (English version) Appendix C: interview questions for the teachers vi PART A: INTRODUCTION Rationale English has gradually achieved its significant identity as the world language during the globalization process Why English? According to Hutchinson and Waters (1987), the United States achieved its role of the most significant political/economic power in the world after World War Two, thus its language became commonly perceived as a language of opportunity and empowerment Crystal (2003) presented several factors to explain the world status of English today: (a) English is the only or one of the official languages of many important international organizations, such as the United Nations, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and the European Free Trade Association; (b) a quarter of the world’s periodicals and most academic journals with an international readership are published in English, and more than 90 percent of international organizations carry on their proceedings entirely in English; (c) English has been taught as a foreign or second language in over 100 countries He further pointed out that approximately one in four of the world’s populations are now already fluent or capable of communicating to a useful level in English, and the figure is steadily growing The ESP programs exploded in Vietnam in the past few years as an increasing number of adult students were eager to learn ESP or academic English in order to pursue their careers or study in English-medium educational institutions To be fluent in a world language like English has become a pressing matter for individuals to survive in the globally competitive job market This has resulted in employers and educational institutions all over the world searching for ESL/EFL instructors with solid ESP backgrounds (Johns & Price-Machado, 2001) As the “new knowledge economy” (Dovey, 2006) has arisen, problems and issues of transferability from academic to professional contexts have emerged Dovey pointed out that when “new vocationalism” arises out of a change in the world’s work contexts, it will in turn lead to a change in the orientations of higher education in certain contexts Those universities which perceive themselves as vocational, and believe themselves to be providing an education for the real world will be affected the most Most authorities and institutions are aware that well-organized ESP curricula can prepare students for the encounter with globally competitive world That is, English courses should be designed to meet learners’ needs in a specific context However, ESP practitioners have found that there are underlying problems which make ESP courses problematic and inefficient Some ESP teachers impute the inefficiency of ESP courses to the poor quality of student language skills Although low student proficiency levels may lead to poor ESP course outcomes, negative teacher attitudes toward ESP courses (Braine, 2001), lack of ESP training (England, 2006), inappropriate instructions and poorly designed syllabi (Braine, 2001), and student ignorance or inability to foresee their needs and rights regarding ESP are potential problems (Kavaliauskiene, 2003) In the view of these issues, this study investigate the teachers’ and students’ perceptions of their ESP course, explores student needs and expectations of an ESP course at the Infantry Officer Training College Number One (IOTC No.1) The findings of the study may provide ESP practitioners and institutional authorities with a clearer view of existing ESP courses, enabling them to rethink the objectives of current ESP curricula Similarly, it may also help students to build up their awareness of goals, needs, and responsibilities through ESP learning Suggestions for a prospective ESP teaching and curriculum for the students of specific contexts are provided based on the results of the study 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: What are the students’ perceptions of their English ability, difficulties, and expectations toward ESP? 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 second year students who have learned ESP for one semester at IOTC No.1 ... of the minor thesis submitted entitled: AN EXPLORATORY STUDY ON THE TEACHERS AND STUDENTS’ PERCEPTIONS OF AN ESP COURSE AT THE INFANTRY OFFICER TRAINING COLLEGE NUMBER ONE In terms of the statement... teachers? ?? and students’ perceptions of their ESP course, explores student needs and expectations of an ESP course at the Infantry Officer Training College Number One (IOTC No.1) The findings of the study. .. 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 second