Thiết kế chương trình đọc hiểu tiếng Anh chuyên ngành Sử học cho sinh viên năm thứ ba Khoa Xã hội, Trường Cao đẳng Sư phạm Bắc Nin

Needs perceived by the 3rd year – students of History at the SD 26 Chapter III: Designing an ESP reading syllabus for the 3rd year students of History at the SD, BTTC III.1.. Accordingly

* * * * * * * * *

NGUYỄN VĂN THUẬT

designing an esp reading syllabus for

third - year students at the social department,

bac ninh teachers’ training college

THIẾT KẾ CHƯƠNG TRÌNH ĐỌC HIỂU TIẾNG ANH CHUYÊN NGÀNH SỬ HỌC CHO SINH VIÊN NĂM THỨ BA

NGUYỄN VĂN THUẬT

designing an esp reading syllabus for

third - year students at the social department,

bac ninh teachers’ training college

THIẾT KẾ CHƯƠNG TRÌNH ĐỌC HIỂU TIẾNG ANH CHUYÊN NGÀNH SỬ HỌC CHO SINH VIÊN NĂM THỨ BA

 List of abbreviation

 List of tables and figures

Part one: Introduction Page

Part two: Development Chapter I: Literature review 4

I.1.3 General English vs English for special purpose 7

I.2.3.1.2 Notional / functional syllabus 9

II.1 Situation analysis 17

II.1.1 The teaching and learning situation at BTTC 17

II.3.1 Needs perceived by the teachers of the English Department 20 II.3.2 Needs perceived by the 3rd year – students of History at the SD 26

Chapter III: Designing an ESP reading syllabus for the 3rd year students of History at the SD, BTTC

III.1 Aims and objectives of the expected reading syllabus 31 III.2 Selecting a type of syllabus for ESP students at the SD, BTTC 32

III.3.4 Designing tests for the ESP reading course 35 III.4 The proposed syllabus for the third - year students at the SD, BTTC 35

III.5 Suggestions for the implementations of the proposed syllabus 37

Part three: Conclusion

Appendix 1: TEACHERS SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE

Appendix 2: STUDENTS SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE

REFERENCE

EAP: English for Academic Purposes

EH: English for History

ELT: English Language Teaching

EOP: English for Occupational Purposes

ESP: English for Specific Purposes

GE: General English

NA: Needs Analysis

SD: Social Department

Chart1: ESP teachers’ ideas on the current textbook and their opinions on designing a new ESP reading syllabus

Chart 2: Teachers’opinion about the objectives of the syllabus

Chart 3: Teachers’opinion about the consolidation of grammar in the syllabus

Table1: Teachers’ ranking the objectives of the syllabus in order of importance

Table 2: Teachers’ rating the topics relevant to English for History

Table 3: The teachers’ attitudes to the language and reading exercises

Table 4: Students’ ideas on objectives expected at the end of the reading syllabus

Table 5: Students’ rating the appropriateness of the topics relevant to the syllabus

Table 6: : Students’ opinions of the language and reading exercises

Part one: Introduction

1 Rationale for the study

Over the last few decades, together with the development of General English (GE), English for Specific Purposes (ESP) has become an indispensable branch in English Language Teaching (ELT) in Vietnam to meet the growing demand for communicating with foreigners and updating information as well as technology in the fields of computer science and engineering, electronics, telecommunications, tourism, etc

Besides, the spread of English as a result of globalization has brought impacts to the world As an international language, it is instrumental in enhancing economic, political, social and diplomatic relations and scientific exchanges between many countries, providing access to advanced technology and information According to Crystal (1997), 85% of international organizations in the world make official use of English, at least 85% of the world film makers are in English and approximately 90% of published articles in some academic fields are written in English For these reasons, the fever of learning English in the world as well as in Viet Nam has never been abated

Although people in the above - mentioned areas all speak the same language, they use

it in different environments and for different purposes English learners need to learn English for their specific purposes and ELT, therefore, has been showing an inevitable tendency of shifting from GE to ESP

In addition to his specific purposes, each learner starts an ESP course with his own background knowledge of the subject matter and his own available competence Learners of different - target needs really have different necessities, lacks and wants These require the design of special syllabus and special materials for a specific target group of learners

The syllabus is designed on the ground of the 15th decision made by the Ministry of Education and Training which focuses on renovating the methods of teaching and learning It

is also based on the plans for the academic school year 2003 - 2004 of Bac Ninh Teacher Training College (BTTC), one of which aims at changing and improving teaching and learning methods between teachers and students

Accordingly, designing an ESP reading syllabus for the third – year students has been

an urgent task for the development of ESP teaching and learning at BTTC

2 Aims and objectives of the study

The study aims at choosing an approach to designing an ESP reading syllabus for a group of history students who are learning to become teachers of history at lower secondary schools and who are learning English as a foreign language with a view to reading English materials

The researcher defined the major objectives of the study as follows:

- to identify the needs of the third - year history students of the Social Department (SD)

at BTTC

- to design an ESP reading syllabus for the target students which is relevant to their needs and requirements for their future jobs

3 Scope of the study

The study mainly focuses on the designing of an ESP reading syllabus for a group of students of history at BTTC - SD, who are at pre - intermediate level of English proficiency

4 Methods of the study

In order to successfully fulfill the tasks and achieve the objectives of the study, attention should firstly be paid to the kind of syllabus, which would be appropriate for the target students Qualitative method is employed in the research by means of survey questionnaires, informal interviews and document analysis

To identify students‟ needs and expectation, the useful topics and appropriate learning tasks and activities in the ESP course to facilitate the design of an ESP reading syllabus for the third - year of students of history, two questionnaires are employed to the targeted students and the teaching staff of BTTC, English Department

To clarify the information collected through the survey questionnaires and to get a thorough picture of the actual learning and teaching of English at BTTC, informal interviews with the target students as well as the teachers will be conducted

Last but not least, constant discussion with the supervisor and colleagues are of great significance

5 Organization of the study

The study is divided into three parts which are briefly presented as follows:

Part I is the introduction which presents rationale, aims, scope, research method and organization of the study

Part II is the development of the study, consisting of the three chapters

- Chapter 1 provides the theory of ESP, course and syllabus design

- Chapter 2 presents the background to the study Need analysis, including learning needs and target needs, with data analysis of the study

- Chapter 3 proposes an ESP reading syllabus based on the findings of the study Part III is the conclusion which summarizes the overall study and states its limitations and suggestions for further research

Part two: Development

Chapter I: Literature review This chapter will present different definitions of ESP to highlight the characteristics of

an ESP course and factors to be taken into account in designing an ESP course This chapter also discuses needs analysis in the syllabus designs

I.1 An overview of ESP

I.1.1 Definitions of ESP

In fact, there have been a number of definitions for ESP defined by different people because different people have given different emphases to the variety of elements that characterize ESP

Fitzjohn (in Robinson 1980: 9) mentions the time factor as a characteristic feature of ESP He states:

The very concept of ‘special purposes’ implies that foreign language study is a subsidiary contribution to another, main interest, and that there will normally

be pressure to achieve the required level of linguistic competence in the minimum time

Pauline Robinson (1991) shared the same idea One of her features is that ESP courses

are generally constrained by a limited time period That is the objectives must be achieved

within a short period of time, the learners must obtain the required level of linguistic competence

Hutchinson and Waters typically stated:

An ESP syllabus is expressed in terms of aspects language which (a) are important and appropriate to a specific academic or occupational situation and (b) meet the needs of the learner (Hutchinson and Waters, 1987: 13)

Robinson‟s another characteristic is that ESP is taught to adults homogeneous classes in terms

of their work or specialist study Most of learners in an ESP course are to be adults, not children Long cited Robinson (1980: 9) points out:

The number of people wanting to learn English for Special purposes is spiraling

By any large these people have been students in tertiary education, and adults

Dudleys - Evans and St John, in a more recent study, have modified Streven‟s definition and exposit their revised view on the essence of ESP from the following two perspectives: absolute and variable characteristics

i Absolute characteristics:

- ESP is defined to meet specific needs of the learner;

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

serves;

- ESP is centred on the language (grammar, lexis and register), skills, discourse and

genres appropriate to these activities

ii Variable characteristics:

- ESP may be related to or designed for specific disciplines;

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

general English;

- ESP is likely to be designed for adult learners, either at tertiary level institution or in

a professional work situation It could, however, be for learners at secondary school level;

- ESP is generally designed for intermediate or advanced students

- Most ESP courses assume some basic knowledge of the language system, but it can

be used with beginners (Dudleys - Evans and St John 1998: 4-5)

In short, all the above presented definitions show that ESP belong to the English language teaching and that meeting the needs of the learners is the first priority in the teaching of ESP For this obvious focus, ESP course designers should base on learners‟ needs to determine the content of the syllabus, the materials and the teaching method to make the course valuable

I.1.2 Types of ESP

Traditionally, ESP has been divided into two main areas: English for Occupational Purposes (EOP) and English for Academic Purposes (EAP) Kennedy and Bolitho (1984: 4) explain the two areas quite clearly as the followings:

EOP is taught in a situation in which learners need to use English as part of their work

or profession Instances of EOP students would be doctors in casualty or technicians servicing equipment They need English, in the first case, to talk and respond to patients and other staff, and, in the second, to read technical manuals

EAP is taught generally within educational institution to students needing English in their studies The language taught may be based in particular discipline at higher levels of education when the student is specializing (in - study) or intends to specialize (pre - study) in particular subject

Sharing the same view of dividing ESP into EOP and EAP, Robinson (1991: 3 - 4) shows us the following tree diagram:

Figure1 ESP classification by experience

It is obvious that the division of ESP into EOP and EAP is of great importance, as they

will affect the degree of specificity that is appropriate to the course (Dudley - Evans and St

John, 1998: 6) A pre - experience or pre - study course will probably rule out any specific work related to the actual discipline or work as students do not have required familiarity with the content, while course of in - service or in - study will provide the opportunity for specific

As a school subject

Pre - study In- study Post - study

Independent Integrated

In short, studying various types of ESP is an important step for ESP teachers because it provides them with an overall picture of the group of learners they are going to work with Accordingly, it is helpful for ESP teachers to conduct needs analysis, to choose teaching materials as well as to design an appropriate ESP course for their target students

I.1.3 General English vs English for special purposes

In his definition, Streven (1988) pointed out in the absolute characteristic that ESP is in contrast with GE In fact, it may raise a matter of concern for the readers „What is the difference between the ESP and GE approach?‟ Hutchinson and Waters (1987: 53) summed

up the difference between the ESP and GE approaches as „in theory nothing, in practice a

great deal’ ESP makes use of an underlying methodology and activities of the discipline it

serves, both the methodology and activities used in the ESP classroom, therefore, are different from that of GE ESP is also different from GE in that it is centred on the language that is appropriate to these activities especially with respect to grammar, lexis, register, skills, discourse and genre, all of which are different when compared to GE

I.2 An overview of syllabus design

I.2.1 Definitions of syllabus

The notion of „syllabus‟ in current literature, has been defined in several different ways

by different authors

Traditionally, the notion of „syllabus‟ was seen simply as a statement of content Hutchinson,

in his book (1987: 70), defined syllabus as follows:

At its simplest level a syllabus can be described as a statement of what is to be learnt It reflects an official assumption as to the nature of language and linguistic performance

This is a rather traditional interpretation of syllabus focusing as it does on outcomes rather than process Regarding the matter in the same point of view, Yalden (1983: 87) also defined a syllabus as an approximation of what will be taught and that it can not accurately

predict what will be learnt, a summary of the content to which learners will be exposed

Yalden‟s another view on syllabus which is concerned with the „fit‟ between learners‟

needs and purposes of learning from a social and biological perspective: The syllabus replaces

the concepts of ‘method’, and the syllabus is now seen as an instrument by which the teacher, with the help of the syllabus design, can achieve a degree of ‘fit’ between the needs and the aims of the learners (as social being and individual), and the activities which will take place

in the classroom (Yalden 1984: 14)

Obviously, the syllabus in Yalden‟s and some other authors‟ view must be the combination of „what‟ and „how‟ language will be instructed to the learners More importantly, the „who‟ was paid much attention to when constructing language - teaching materials, especially materials for ESP learners?

In summary, syllabus could be broadly or narrowly defined by different authors, the issue is that whatever the designer must combine the appropriate language content for the target - learners and the methodology which can help the learners perceive the most of what the syllabus means to be Additionally, the needs of the learners must be taken into account due to the fact that syllabus is designed in respond to what the learners wish to gain

I.2.2 Syllabus design

According to Webb (1976), syllabus design is understood as the organization of the selected contents into an ordered and practical sequence for teaching purposes His criteria for syllabus design is as follow: progress from known to unknown matter; appropriate size of teaching units; a proper variety of activity; teachability; and creating a sense of purpose for the students

Sharing the same view with Webb, Munby (1984) states that syllabus design is seen as

a matter of specifying the content that needs to be taught and then organizing it into a teaching syllabus of appropriate learning units

From the above explanations on syllabus design, it can be concluded that syllabus design involves a logical sequence of the following stages:

1 Needs analysis

2 Aims and objectives

3 Content selecting and grading

4 Teaching methods suggesting

5 Testing and evaluation forming

I.2.3 Types of syllabus

According to Robison (1991: 35), the students specialist subject area is a key issue to ESP, he pointed out three main types of syllabus: content - based syllabus, skill - based syllabus and method - based syllabus

I.2.3.1 Content – based syllabus

I.2.3.1.1 Structural syllabus (Grammar syllabus)

A structural syllabus is one which the content of language teaching is a collection of the forms and structures, usually grammatical, of the language being taught Examples of structures include: verbs, nouns, adjectives, questions, complex sentences, past tense, subordinate clause, and so on

I.2.3.1.2 Notional / functional syllabus

This is best known syllabus type of contemporary language teaching Nunan distinguishes the two terms „notion‟ and „function‟ as follows:

In general, functions may be described as communicative purposes for which we use language, while notions are the conceptual meanings (objects, entities, states of affairs, logical relationship and so on) expressed through language (Nunan 1988:35)

According to Wilkins (1997), the notional / functional syllabus has a main concern about the teaching of meaning and the communicative use of patterns This type of syllabus emphasizes what speakers communicate through language and its content is derived from an analysis of the learner‟s need to express certain meaning

I.2.3.1.3 Situational syllabus

A situational syllabus focuses on the language used in society In Wilkins‟ view (1997:

16), the assumption is that language is always used in a social context and can not be fully

understood without reference to that context Therefore, in most situational syllabuses, the

prediction of what situations the learners will have to deal with is the basis for the selection of content

I.2.3.1.4 Topic - based syllabus

With content - based syllabus, learners are helped to acquire language through the study of a series of relevant topics with each topic being exploited in systematic ways and

from different angles Typically, the topics are selected by the syllabus designer on the basis

of his or sense of the importance of the topics or themes to the lives or any specific purposes

of the learners from whom the syllabus is designed

Topic - based syllabus has a big advantage, as stated by Robinson (1991: 37), that it

can motivate the students and as a basis for the ‘real syllabus’ of the language forms,

functions or whatever the course designers wish to focus on This is the main advantage of this

syllabus, which is also claimed by Brown (1994: 222) that it can serve the multiple interests of

students in a classroom and can offer a focus on content while adhering to institutional needs for offering a language course

However, this type of syllabus presents a problem of grading as Nunan (1988: 49)

pointed out: the logic of the subject may provide a non - linguistic rationale for the selecting

and grading content” Besides, Brown and Yule (1983: 7) also claimed that “topic is broad, difficult to define and semantic construct

I.2.3.2 Skill – based syllabus

According to Hutchinson (1987: 69) the assumption of this type is underlying any

language behavior are certain skills and strategies, which the learner uses in order to produce

or comprehend discourse

Skill - based syllabus focus “exclusively or principally on one of the four traditional

language skills However, the actual content of the course might be the language forms or functions, as in content - based syllabuses” (Robinson, 1991: 37) The main advantage of this

syllabus is that it makes ESP course more responsive to the development of reading skills and strategies for the students

I.2.3.3 Method – based syllabus

I.2.3.3.1 Task – based syllabus

Task - based syllabus regards activities or tasks as the main organizing principle The syllabus becomes a list of tasks rather than language or topics A task, here, is perceived as anything that learners are given to do (or choose to do) in the language class room to further the process of language learning

Robinson (1991: 39) identifies the assumption of this syllabus types as follow:

The procedural or task syllabus, consisting of a set of tasks or activities ordered according to cognitive difficulty Class time is devoted to performance of the tasks and attention is only consciously directed to language if this is necessary for completion of the task A major concern throughout is that students understand the task and what they are doing, and do not act in mechanical way

The syllabus becomes a list of tasks rather than language or topics For ESP, this type

of syllabus has proved to be of great significance because using English as a medium, the

learners should successfully carry out a work or study task (Robinson, 1991: 40)

In Summary, In order to decide which type of the syllabuses will be chosen, designers have to consider a judicious consideration on the students‟ needs and the objectives of the course as well as the institutional bias of the teaching situation (Robinson, 1991: 41)

I.2.3.3.2 Process syllabus

Negotiation between the students and the teacher is the key characteristic of this syllabus type (Robison, 1991: 38) Unlike language form and skill - based syllabus, the process syllabus look beyond the competence that enables someone to perform, this approach seeks the answer to the question what the competence is and how to acquire that competence Process syllabus can be seen as innovative one for it is largely focused on project work and problem - solving tasks and activities In the process syllabus the course materials, content and teaching methods are negotiated between the teacher and the students thus ensuring its innovative nature

I.3 Needs analysis in syllabus design

It is very necessary and important to begin the course - developing process with an analysis of the target group of students Quite many problems in second language classes are

as a result of teachers not paying attention to the learners‟ interests and ignoring learners as a source of essential information

Today, needs analysis is crucial to conduct an in - depth needs assessment before

planning and implementing a curriculum and material (Johns, 1991; Robinson,1991),

especially in the context of ESP, in which ESP is viewed as a cover term for teaching and learning English for multiple specific purposes

I.3.1 Needs analysis

There are many definitions of needs analysis given by different researchers Brown

(1995: 35) defines: Needs analysis refers to the activities involved in gathering information

that will serve as the basis for developing a curriculum that will meet the learning needs of a particular group of students

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

A- target situation analysis and objective needs

B- wants, means, subjective needs

C- present situation analysis

D- learners‟ lacks

E- learning needs

F- linguistic and discourse analysis

G- what is wanted from the course

H- means analysis

In order to meet the needs of particular learners, to design an appropriate course for them and

to motivate them in their learning, the important thing that any course designer has to do is to analyze the learners‟ needs Richard (1984: 5) also points out that the significant role of needs analysis is not only to provide a means of obtaining wider input into the content, design and implementation of a language program, to develop goals, objectives and content but also to provide data for reviewing and evaluating an existing program

I.3.2 Types of needs

Needs are divided into two types: target needs and learning needs

I.3.2.1 Target needs

According to Hutchinson and Waters (1987: 54) target needs is what the learner needs

to do in the target situation that is the situation the learners will use the language they are learning

It is more useful to look at the target situation in three more specific terms: necessities, lacks and wants

- Necessities: The type of need determined by the demands of the target situation, that is,

what the learner has to know in order to function effectively in the target situation

- Lacks: to identify necessities is not enough, since the concern in ESP is with the needs of

particular learners We also need to know what the learner knows already, so the course designers can then decide which of the necessities the learner lacks For example One target situation necessity might be to read texts in particular subject area Whether or not the learners need instruction in doing this will depend on how well they can do it already In other words;

the target proficiency needs to be matched against the existing proficiency of the learners The gap between the two can be referred to as the learner’s lacks (Hutchinson and Waters, 1987:

56)

- Wants: Target needs are considered not only in terms of necessities and lacks but also in

terms of wants To put it more simply, the learners also have a view as to what their needs are Their wants include their goal (for future job, for study, for status and promotion ), their objectives (for instance, at the end of the course, they will be able to understand materials and books relating to the content of the course), and what they want to learn (skills, topics and language) Discussing learners‟ needs, Hutchinson and Waters (1987: 56) quote a comment

from Richterich (1984:29): a need does not exist independent of a person It is people who

build their images of their needs on the basis of data relating to themselves and their environment

Learners may have a clear idea of the „necessities‟ of the target situation, of their lacks and their views may conflict with perceptions of other interested people, for example: course designers and teachers Target needs, therefore, will not be reliable if it is gathered from only one source What is important is that the ESP course designer or teacher is aware of such differences and takes accounts of them in materials and methodology Thus, a satisfactory syllabus should meet the needs of target needs This is a challenge to the syllabus designer

I.3.2.2 Learning needs

Learning needs is defined by Hutchinson and Waters (1987: 54) as: what the learner

needs to do in order to learn To be more specific, they compare an ESP course with a journey

in which „lack‟ is considered as the starting point, „necessities‟ as the destination and „wants‟

as certain dispute in the process to the destination, and the way to get from the starting point to the destination indicates learning needs Learning needs, therefore, can be compared to the route Otherwise, to reach the destination successfully, Hutchinson (1987: 61):

The target situation analysis can determine the destination; it can also act as a compass on the journey to give general direction, but we must choose our route according to the vehicles and guides available (i.e the condition of the learning situation), the existing roads within the learner’s mind (i.e their knowledge, skills and strategies) and the learners’ motivation for travelling

So, basing on these theories, when doing Needs Analysis for the ESP reading syllabus

at BTTC, attention will be paid at both, target needs and learning needs

I.4 An overview of reading

I.4.1 Reading skills in ESP

No one can deny the importance of reading in both GE and ESP Discussing this issue,

Carrel (1988:1) affirms: For many students, reading by far is the most important of four skills

in a second language, particularly in English as a second or foreign language Reading plays

a significant role in ESP as it is assumed that ESP students are learning to use English as a study tool or research language Therefore, reading plays a crucial role in helping them to be familiar with specialized items and concepts necessary for their future jobs through a variety

of reading materials written in English such as periodicals, scientific and technical journals, etc In addition, reading ESP can motivate study more than other skills because it is easier and can be done at any time, anywhere, with available, easy - to - find materials

When it comes to the issue of reading in ESP, besides mentioning its significance role,

one can not help mentioning its purpose In general, the aim of any reading program is to

enable students to enjoy (or at least feel comfortable with) reading in the foreign language, and to read without help unfamiliar authentic texts, at appropriate speed, silently and with adequate understanding (Nuttal, 1996:31) Reading in this purpose is no more than a means of

language development But for ESP learners “extracting information accurately and quickly is

more significant than language details; that understanding the macrostructure comes before language study; and that application of the information in the text is of paramount

importance The reader first processes the language and then links the ideas to what is already known.” (Dudley - Evans & St John, 1998: 96)

Clarifying the purpose of reading in ESP is necessary because there exists a relationship between trading skills and reading purposes as suggested by Kennedy and Bolitho

(1991:70): It is important to define a reader’s purpose in coming to a text as this will dictate

the skills and strategies to be adopted by the reader and the level of comprehension he is operating at

The reading components of an ESP course requires a balance between skills and language development Dudley - Evans & St John (1998: 96) propose some of the key skills as follow:

- selecting what is relevant for the current purposes

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

- skimming the content and meaning

- scanning for specifics

- identifying organizational patterns

- understanding relations within sentence and between sentence

- using cohesive and discourse makers

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

of effective and efficient learning

I.4.2 Reading skills/ strategies

The terms reading skills and reading strategies are used interchangeably and classified

by many researchers According to Nuttal (1996), there are two kinds of macro - reading skills: word - attack skills and text - attack skills Word - attack skills are sub - divided into morphological information; structural clues; inference or guessing the meanings of unfamiliar words from context; active, receptive and thrown - away vocabulary; learning to ignore difficult words and using a dictionary Text - attack skills including understanding sentence syntax; recognizing and interpreting reference and substitution; interpreting discourse makers;

recognizing implications and making inference; and prediction

Broughton et al (1978: 211) classify reading skills into two groups: lower order mechanical skills and higher order comprehensive skills The first group consists of recognition of letter shapes; recognition of linguistic elements (phoneme/ grapheme, word, phrase, clause pattern, sentence, etc); recognition of sound/letter spelling pattern correspondence (ability to „bark at print‟) and lower reading speed The second group is composed of understanding plain sense (lexical, grammatical, rhetorical); understanding significance (logical, author attitude‟ purpose, cultural relevance/setting, reader reaction); evaluation (content, form) and flexible reading speed

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

- Deducing the meaning of unfamiliar lexical terms;

- Recognizing indicators in discourse;

- Extracting salient points to summarize;

- Using basic reference skills;

- Skimming to get general information;

- Scanning to locate specially required information;

- Transcoding information to diagrammatic display

When reading the text, the reader can neither use the reading skills separately nor use all reading skills at the same time He/She has to select some of the reading skills that are appropriate with his or her reading purposes Therefore, ESP teachers should familiarize their students in their field of study Some necessary reading skills for the ESP reading course for the third - year students at the Social Department, BTTC, will be selected to conduct the needs analysis in this study

I.5 Summary

This chapter presents an overview of the theories related to all essential aspects for designing

an ESP reading syllabus, including definitions of ESP syllabus, types of ESP syllabus, approaches to syllabus design, reading in ESP and reading skills Also a special attention is paid to need analysis, an initial and crucial stage for an ESP course Hopefully, in the light of this literature, an appropriate ESP reading syllabus will be designed for the target students

Chapter II: The study The purpose of this study is to give an overall picture of the present situation of the teaching and learning GE as well as English for History (EH) at BTTC More importantly, this chapter is designed to describe the participants of the study, and then the instrument for gathering data including two questionnaires for the teachers and a questionnaire for the students

II.1 Situation analysis

II.1.1 The teaching and learning situation at Bac Ninh Teachers’ Training College

At the Bac Ninh Teachers‟ Training College, English is a compulsory subject in the curriculum for non - English major students with 150 periods divided through 3 years of studying, each semester with 30 periods English, like many others subjects, is taught in a formal setting (a classroom) without language environment and is divided in three stages In the first two stages, GE is taught with 120 periods, focusing on four language skills; listening, speaking, reading and writing These two stages last for the first two years In the third stage, when students are at the third - year, they have 30 periods left studying ESP ESP at BTTC includes English for History, English for Mathematics, English for Computer, English for Literature, English for Geography, English for Library, etc

The physical condition in BTTC can provide a supportive environment for language teaching and learning with favorable conditions such as available rooms equipped with overhead projectors, screens, video, CD and cassette players, big boards, etc in an area which

is not distracted by surroundings like sudden noises or movements

II.1.2 Resources and administrative constraints

Designing and writing an ESP syllabus is a rather difficult task In order to implement the syllabus successfully, a number of factors should be analyzed First, the teaching and

learning environment should be taken into account before designing a course because “it is the

factor that will determine whether the aims of a language program defined with reference to the learners’ needs and characteristics are feasible and realistic” (Donough, 1993: 8)

What constraints that we are working under can not change These might include class size, time allotment and textbooks The average class size is from 35 to 40 students As mentioned above, English is taught in a formal setting (a classroom) without language environment The textbooks being used now for stage 1 and stage 2 are GE I and GE II

simplified by the teachers of English Department, mostly based on Headway by John & Liz Soars and Lifelines by Tom Hutchinson These two books have to be simplified in order to suit

the students‟ level The ESP textbooks students are using for stage 3 are EH, English for Mathematics, English for Computer, English for Literature, English for Geography, English for Library, The teachers of English Department at BTTC have designed all the ESP textbooks They met a lot of difficulties in designing ESP textbooks and syllabuses as well because they are not specialized in designing them All these constraints have negative effects

on the quality of English teaching and learning at BTTC

II.1.3 The teachers

The English Department in BTTC has 10 teachers, aged from 32 to 45 and they all graduated from CFL, HNU and experienced between 10 and 22 years in teaching One is doing her PhD degree, five of them have got MA degrees and the rest are MA learners Their qualifications are quite good They enjoy teaching and spend all of their enthusiasm and efforts making their teaching lessons interesting and attractive to the students

However, none are experienced in teaching ESP because nobody has worked as ESP teachers before Besides, they have to teach GE together with ESP They, therefore, have to face with many difficulties in terms of knowledge of the specific field they have to teach and the teaching methodologies appropriate to ESP

Actually, all ESP teachers, the author included, have to make further efforts to be able

to develop good ESP courses in order to meet the requirements of the new teaching situation

II.1.4 The students

The subjects of the study are the third year - students of history aged from 22 - 24 and most them are female students This is a typical feature of BTTC The English class has 40 students (36 females and 4 males) They have experienced the two stages of GE and they have

30 periods of ESP ahead in the last stage (2 periods per week)

Most of the students have experiences of at least three years learning at high schools and two years at BTTC However, they do not have good command of English because they did not learn English seriously What is more, students‟ knowledge and linguistic competence related to the field of history are not sufficient Due to limited timeframe for ESP learning and teaching; the students can not learn much but just come to know a few of history terms and concepts in English This certainly leads to the fact that it is hard to acquire and develop their English communicative competence to meet the demand of their future employment

II.2 The study

II.2.1 The participants

The study is carried out with the participants of ten teachers of English who are in charge of teaching both GE and ESP, all of them have been teaching English for more than ten years, and forty students of history who are at the first semester of their third year and have finished a GE course

II.2.2 Instrument for collecting data

According to Hutchinson and Waters (1987: 59), various ways can be used for collecting data such as questionnaires, interviews, observation etc This study uses questionnaires as the main tool for investigating learners‟ need Hutchinson and Waters also

point out „It is obviously necessary to obtain answers to the questions from a variety of

sources and then try to negotiate a satisfactory compromise‟

To achieve the aims of the study, qualitative approach bas been used by means of two survey questionnaires conducted to both the teachers of English Department and the students

of history of the SD and informal interviews to gain the necessary information for Data Analysis

- Questionnaire1: (see Appendix 1) given to ten teachers of English is divided into four

sections

Section I (3 questions) aims at eliciting opinions on designing an ESP reading syllabus for the third - year students and expectations for the ESP reading course in terms of purposes

Section II deals with the topics needed for the syllabus

Section III explores teachers‟ opinion about the consolidation of grammar

Section IV (7 questions) looks for tasks and sub - reading skills that should be consolidated in the syllabus

- Questionnaire 2: (see Appendix 2) given to 40 students of the SD This questionnaire

consists of three main sections

- Section I finds out students attitude and ideas toward EH

- Section II (1 question) concerns with needed topics perceived by students

- Section III (7 questions) refers to reading skills and exercises

- Informal interviews:

Beside the two questionnaires, the data needed for the study has also been gathered by means of interviewing and discussion with the target students and teachers to gain more validity of information Informal interviews were conducted several times when the researcher had difficulty in analyzing data and information from the survey questionnaires Both teachers and students‟ responses in the informal interviews would surely help the researcher clarify and confirm information for the study

II.3 The findings and discussions

This part of the study presents the results of the questionnaires collected from the teachers of the English Department, the subject teachers and the target students, the main issues discussed here included some ideas on the current textbook, the need of designing a new ESP reading syllabus, expectation about the ESP reading course, topics, grammatical structures, reading skills and exercises needed for the course

II.3.1 Needs perceived by the teachers of the English Department

II.3.1.1 ESP teachers’ ideas on the current textbook and their opinions on designing a new ESP reading syllabus

As can be seen from Chart 1, the majority of the teachers thought that the current text

book used for the ESP course at SD is not quite appropriate and useful to the students at the

SD (70 %) None of them (0%) considered it highly appropriate and useful; 20% stated that it

is appropriate and useful and 10% gave no idea The reasons for these results can be explained

by the inappropriateness of the topics in the current textbook to the subject of the ESP students

at this Department as well as the imbalance between the timeframe and the quantity of units in the textbook

In terms of the necessities of designing the new ESP reading syllabus, Chart 2 shows

that most of the teachers (90%) agreed with the idea of designing an ESP reading syllabus for the students at the SD (60% very necessary; 30% necessary), none of them (0%) thought that

it is not quite necessary and one of them (10%) gave no responses It can be concluded that they are fully aware of the inappropriateness of the current textbook to the students at the Department and the importance of ESP in the future careers of their students Designing an appropriate ESP reading syllabus will help both the teachers and the students to improve the quality of ESP learning and teaching

Teachers' attitude toward the current

no idea

Teachers' opinion on designing

a new ESP syllabus

0% 10%

60%

30%

very necessary necessary not quite necessary

no idea

Chart 1 Chart 2

II.3.1.2 Teachers’ opinion about the objectives of the syllabus

In terms of the objectives of an ESP reading syllabus, the teachers were asked to evaluate and rank the five items in order of importance (from the most to the least important)

It can be seen from the table that 80% of the teachers consider Item 3 - To read and

understand written English materials and books relating to history to be the most important

objective From teachers‟ points of view, reading skills and activities should be regularly given and practised both inside and outside the class The ESP designer must use reading lessons to develop students‟ reading proficiency rather than linguistic competence The second

priority is given to Item 2 - To read and understand concepts of history field (50%) Item 1 -

To build up English terms of history used in books, document and newspapers with the