Designing an ESP reading syllabus for first-year students of Architecture at Hanoi University of Business and Technology = Thiết kế chương trình đọc hiểu t

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ------ TRẦN NGUYỆT MINH DESIGNING AN ESP READING SYLLABUS FOR FI

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

- -

TRẦN NGUYỆT MINH

DESIGNING AN ESP READING SYLLABUS FOR FIRST-YEAR STUDENTS OF ARCHITECTURE

AT HANOI UNIVESITY OF BUSINESS AND TECHNOLOGY

THIẾT KẾ CHƯƠNG TRÌNH ĐỌC HIỂU TIẾNG ANH

CHUYÊN NGÀNH CHO SINH VIÊN THỨ NHẤT KHOA KIẾN TRÚC,

TRƯỜNG ĐH KINH DOANH VÀ CÔNG NGHỆ HÀ NỘI

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology

Code: 60.14.10

Supervisor: Dr Ngô Hữu Hoàng

HA NOI – 2013

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

- -

TRẦN NGUYỆT MINH

DESIGNING AN ESP READING SYLLABUS FOR FIRST-YEAR STUDENTS OF ARCHITECTURE

AT HANOI UNIVESITY OF BUSINESS AND TECHNOLOGY

THIẾT KẾ CHƯƠNG TRÌNH ĐỌC HIỂU TIẾNG ANH

CHUYÊN NGÀNH CHO SINH VIÊN THỨ NHẤT KHOA KIẾN TRÚC,

TRƯỜNG ĐH KINH DOANH VÀ CÔNG NGHỆ HÀ NỘI

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii

ABSTRACT iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS iv

LIST OF TABLES vi

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS vii

PART A INTRODUCTION……… 1

1 Rationale of the study 1

2 Previous related studies 3

3 The aim of the study 4

4 Research questions 4

5 Methodology 4

6 Scope of the study 4

7 Significance of the study 5

8 Organization of the thesis 5

PART B DEVELOPMENT………6

CHAPTER I THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 6

1.1 English for specific purposes 6

1.2 Reading in ESL/EFL and ESP 7

1.3 Syllabus design 11

1.4 Needs analysis 15

CHAPTER II RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 17

2.1 Research methods 17

2.2 Data collection instruments 17

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2.3 Data collection procedure 21

2.4 Method of data analysis 22

CHAPTER III DATA ANALYSIS 23

3.1 Target needs 23

3.2 Learning needs 29

3.3 Discussion of findings 36

CHAPTER IV THE PROPOSED ESP READING SYLLABUS 39

4.1 Introduction 39

4.2 The goals and objectives of the ESP reading course 39

4.3 Content selection and gradation 39

4.4 Suggested teaching methodology 41

4.5 Time allotment 42

4.6 A proposed ESP reading syllabus for first-year Architecture students at Hanoi University of Business and Technology 42

PART C CONCLUSION………43

1 Conclusion 43

2 Research limitations and suggestions for further study 44 REFERENCES………I APPENDICES……….III APPENDIX 1 FIRST-YEAR STUDENT QUESTIONNAIRE III APPENDIX 2 THIRD-YEAR STUDENT QUESTIONNAIRE VI APPENDIX 3 ARCHITECT QUESTIONNAIRE VIII APPENDIX 4 INTERVIEW FOR ESP TEACHERS X APPENDIX 5 Teachers’ suggested teaching techniques XII

APPENDIX 6 A proposed ESP reading syllabus XIV

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LIST OF TABLES

Table 3.1 Architects’ jobs, working places, and frequency of reading 24

Table 3.2 Text genres 25

Table 3.3 Source of materials 25

Table 3.4 First-year students’ expectations towards the ESP reading course 28

Table 3.5 First-year and third students’ purposes of attendance 31

Table 3.6 Word-attack strategies 33

Table 3.7 First-year students’ preferences on topics of reading text 34

Table 3.8 Third-year students’ attitudes towards the current reading syllabus for first-year students 34

Table 3.9 Third-year students’ suggestions for improving ESP training quality 35

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PART A INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale of the study

Globalization has made English an international language of communication that is used by an increasing number of people from a wide range of occupational contexts Reading in English is particularly an essential skill for Vietnamese architects since a large number of high-quality specialist materials such as books and periodicals are written in this language Therefore, it is no doubt that ESP reading instruction of would-be professionals at the tertiary level is of great importance

Hanoi University of Business and Technology (HUBT) is a private university founded in 1996 From the first days of establishment, the Management Board has given a top priority to English instruction Accordingly, the English program makes

up a large proportion of the university’s curriculum for students from all departments, including students from Architecture Department The English program for Architecture majors is divided into two stages: General English (GE), and English for Specific Purposes (ESP) The GE stage is implemented in the first two academic years, while the ESP in the third-year

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It is the fact that the ESP syllabus plays a significant part in the whole English program However, from academic year 2013-2014, due to some factors, the whole time for the English program will be cut short to only two years If the ESP reading instruction lasts for one academic year only, it would not be a sufficient time to train students the language for Architecture purpose

In addition, during the time teaching EGP and ESP to Architecture students, from first-year to third-year ones, the researcher recognizes two major issues First, whereas they are quite confident with English grammar exercises, they struggle a lot when dealing with the four language skills, particularly reading Third-year students prove to be ineffective readers, with weak reading skills although they have taken one academic year studying GE with a four-skill integrated course Secondly, quite

a few teachers have made complaints about our Architecture students’ lack of focus and motivation in reading GE texts, mostly because they find them uninteresting and irrelevant, so the effectiveness of the class is often low

In conclusion, it is the fact that the current syllabus has not yielded the teachers’ desired results and has proved inadequate in addressing the students’ needs To improve the students’ reading skills, it is suggested that a separate reading course should be introduced earlier from the first academic year, because reading takes considerable time and resources to develop, and it cannot be taught in one or two courses (Grabe, 1991) Apart from that, in order to make the syllabus accommodate the Architecture students’ immediate and long-term needs, an ESP approach to syllabus design should be adopted

With consideration of the whole context, I decided to carry out the research entitled

“Designing an ESP reading syllabus for first-year students of Architecture at Hanoi

University of Business and Technology”

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2 Previous related studies

Together with the economic integration into the global market, the need of learning English and especially ESP is ever increasing So far, there have been a number of studies on ESP syllabus design for ESP courses Among those, there are ESP theses for different disciplines Among them are the ESP reading syllabuses designed by Doan Van Giao (2005, cited in Ha, 2008) for students of Civil Engineering, Tran Thi Dung for students of Urban Planning (2007), Dinh Thi Thu Ha for students Informatics (2008) and Dora Chostelidou for students of Accountancy (2010) They did a needs analysis suitable for the context at their working place

Giao (2005) carries out a needs analysis on current students, ex-students, ESP teachers, teachers and employers This is expected to help improve the teaching and learning of ESP reading at his university However, he only uses questionnaires as a data collection instrument, which is not enough to achieve objective results of his students’ needs In Dung’s thesis, what is notable is an in-depth analysis of needs from various sources, including ESP teachers, subject teachers and second-year students However, the questionnaire items concerning reading skills and exercises are a bit too lengthy and complicated for the students Ha (2008)’s thesis was done with ex-students apart from ESP teachers, subject teachers and second-year students This helps the author get a wider view on what reading skills, types of English specialist materials learners should be in touch with at work, which is a reliable source about target needs What is emphasized in Chseostelidou (2010)’s study is that a needs analysis is a key to identifying learners’ needs, learning competence and competence required of them in their future job Therefore, needs analysis plays a crucial role in designing an ESP course

A common feature of these studies is the use of needs analysis in the process of designing or redesigning an ESP syllabus Thanks for that, they are used by the writer of this thesis as an important source of reference Seeking to design an ESP syllabus appropriate for the first-year students of Architecture at HUBT, this study

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is also expected to contribute its distinguished features to the whole research scenario of ESP teaching in general

3 The aim of the study

The main aim of the study is to investigate the learning needs, wants and lacks of the first-year students of Architecture in ESP reading learning, and expectations of ESP teachers, which serve as the foundation for designing an appropriate ESP reading syllabus To achieve the aim, a needs analysis was done to identify the target needs and learning needs of the students because, as Basturkmen (2008) puts

it, a key feature of ESP syllabus design is that the syllabus is based on an analysis of the needs of the students

4 Research questions

This study aimed to address the following research questions:

1 What are the perceptions and attitudes of Architecture students, ESP teachers at HUBT, and architectural professionals towards ESP reading?

The answer to question 1 leads to the next question:

2 Is it necessary to introduce an ESP reading syllabus to first-year students of Architecture at HUBT? And if yes,

3 How should such an ESP reading syllabus be designed?

5 Methodology

Survey research is employed in this study with the use of questionnaire and interview as the means of collecting data about first-year Architecture students’ target needs and learning needs (For more details, see chapter II, Part B)

6 Scope of the study

The study is done based on the circumstances for first-year Architecture majors at

Hanoi University of Business and Technology (HUBT) Due to the scope of the

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thesis, a needs analysis of the students was focused, which serves as the foundation

to put forwards an ESP reading syllabus for them

7 Significance of the study

Within the limited scope based on the HUBT circumstances, the study will hopefully, to some extent, make ESP reading instruction at HUBT more effective and responsive to the first-year Architecture students’ desires, the ESP teachers’ expectations in line with the university training goals and the labor market’s demands Besides, the researcher also considers this M.A minor thesis as an opportunity to make an improvement on her own ESP teaching practice

8 Organization of the thesis

The thesis consists of three main parts, followed by a list of references and appendices

Part A: Introduction, presenting the rationale, the aims, scope and significance of

the study, previous related studies, and the organization of the thesis

Part B: Development

Chapter I: Theoretical background, with the related literature being reviewed

Chapter II: Research methodology, including research method, data collection instruments, subjects, data collection procedures and data analysis methods

Chapter III: Data analysis, presenting and discussing the findings

Chapter IV: A proposed ESP reading syllabus for HUBT first-year Architecture students

Part C: Conclusion

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PART B DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER I THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

In this part, some key notions about ESP syllabus design will be addressed, with focuses on literature in ESP, reading, syllabus design and needs analysis

1.1 English for specific purposes

Hutchinson and Waters (1987, p 20) defines “ESP is an approach to language teaching which aims to meet the needs of particular learners” Dudley-Evans and St John asserts that “the main concerns of ESP have always been, and remain, with needs analysis, text analysis, and preparing learners to communicate effectively in the tasks prescribed by their study or work situation” (1998, p 1)

A question emerging here is: what is the difference between ESP and GE, and what

is the position of ESP in ELT In fact, the border between ESP and GE is not always clear Barnard and Zemach believe ESP should not be seen as a discrete division of ELT, but simply “an area (with blurred boundaries) whose courses are usually more focused in their aims and make use of a narrower range of topic” (2003, pp 306–

307, quoted in Basturkmen, 2010) As Basturkmen (2010) points out, the focus of ESP courses is narrower than ELT courses for they put emphasis on analysis of learners’ needs

The definitions show that ESP relates learners closely with their work or study, and that ESP courses center on work- or study-related needs, not personal needs or general interests They once again strengthen the researcher’s assumption that a reading syllabus designed in the ESP approach is of great benefit to her students in that it enhances their linguistic competence in the subject matter of Architecture,

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and understanding of basic architectural concepts, which are very helpful when they are involved in Architecture or construction later on As a matter of fact, this is in line with HUBT’s policy of training; accordingly, training students should be career-oriented, labor-market-oriented and practical

Hutchinson & Waters (1987, p 17) present the tree of ELT which shows the development of ESP in relation with ELT, in which basically there are two main groups of ESP: English for Academic Purposes, and English for Occupational Purposes The target ESP reading syllabus, which is expected to prepare linguistically students for their future job, can be put into the latter group

Distinguished by the nature of the learners’ specialism, three major categories are identified: English for Science and Technology (EST), English for Business and Economics, and English for Social Science (ESS) Architecture has long been considered as a trans-disciplinary domain, covering various areas such as chemistry

of materials, design, aesthetics, construction, physics etc Thus English for Architecture can belong to either the EST or ESS

1.2 Reading in ESL/EFL and ESP

In this part, the theories on reading in ESL/EFL and ESP are presented, focusing on the concepts of reading skill, reading instruction, and categories of reading sub-skills

1.2.1 Reading skill instruction

In the field of teaching and learning of foreign languages, the term skills refers to

the four main modes of performance, that is reading, listening, writing and speaking A reading skill can be described as “a cognitive ability which a person is able to use when interacting with texts” (Urquhart & Weir, 1998) While comprehension can be viewed as the product of reading a written text, skills are seen as part of the reading process

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According to Grabe (2002), comprehension strategy training has great potential for reading comprehension improvement Reading was characterized as an active process of comprehending and students needed to be taught strategies to read more efficiently For teachers, the goal of reading instruction was to provide students with a range of effective approaches to texts Specific skills and strategies, therefore, should be given high priority and practiced consistently

1.2.2 ESP reading instruction

Reading is generally seen as the most critical skill in both GE and ESP Carrel (1988, p.1) asserts that for many students, reading is by far the most important of four skills in a second language

According to Thornbury (2006), there are two types of classroom reading: reading

as skills development and reading as language study - using texts to study linguistic features (e.g vocabulary, grammar, phonetics) In most GE courses, reading is mainly instructed for both or either of the two purposes ESP reading instruction shares the same feature In fact there is no real difference between reading skills for EGP and ESP because “reading skills are not language-specific but universal” (Chitravelu, 1980, quoted in Hutchinson & Water, 1987) Therefore reading skills instruction in ESP is basically similar to EGP

On the other hand, ESP reading instruction has its own typical feature ESP reading

in particular is primarily instructed for the purpose of familiarizing students with the way the specialized English language is used in a particular subject area (e.g English for Business, Tourism and Hospitality, Information Technology), together with developing reading skills, so they can effectively deal with a possibly enormous volume of literature in their future career life Reading in ESP classes, therefore, demands a greater degree of concentration, precision and intensity than in

GE classes Thus ESP teachers should equip their students with useful reading skills and strategies, give them opportunities to get familiar with terminology in their own domain so as to reach the ultimate goal of any reading program – “to enable

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students to read without help unfamiliar authentic texts at appropriate speed with adequate understanding” (Nuttal, 1996, p.21)

1.2.3 Taxonomies of reading skills

According to Alderson and Lukmani (1989), many attempts have been made to build the taxonomies of subskills with or without experimental evidence supporting their claims (e.g Davis, 1968; Munby, 1978; Richards, 1983; Weir, 1993; Buck, Tatsuoka, Kostin & Phelps, 1997) Nonetheless, as Alderson (2000) points out, there is still no agreement on “whether separable comprehension sub-skills exist, and what such sub-skills might consist of and how they might be classified” (p 10) Although the concept of reading skill divisibility is theoretically of great controversy, in practice, it is common that language teachers and language test developers often make distinction between different comprehension sub-skills and use it as a basis for designing syllabus, materials and tests (Alderson & Lukmani, 1989; Alderson, 2000)

Munby (1994: 179) provides the list of important learning skills, among which some of the reading skills include:

- 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 specifically required information;

- Trans-coding information to diagrammatic display

His list, which though has had great influence to syllabus designer and test developer, is often criticized as based on intuition The researcher also finds it difficult to apply into a syllabus because there was no real categorization criterion

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According to Nuttal (1996), as in her reading skills book for intermediate learners, there are two kinds of macro-reading skills: word-attack skills and text-attack skills Her reading skill categories are quite systematic yet as she states inapplicable to learners at the elementary English level However, it can be a good suggestion for the syllabus designer to set a criterion for categorizing reading skills

Grabe (1991), in an attempt to review literature in ESL reading research, states that researchers propose at least six general component skills and language areas:

1 Automatic recognition skills

2 Vocabulary and structural knowledge

3 Formal discourse structure knowledge

4 Content/world background knowledge

5 Synthesis and evaluation skills/strategies

6 Meta-cognitive knowledge and skills monitoring

His list seems to be very comprehensive theoretically, but for a syllabus designer, it would be hard to put it into a practical syllabus Here, only part of the list is selected for consideration In particular, Grabe (1991) points out that the ability to use meta-cognitive skills effectively is “widely recognized as a critical component of skilled reading.” As related to reading, the skills include: using context to sort out a misunderstood segment; skimming portions of the text; previewing headings, pictures and summary; using search strategies for finding specific information; using a dictionary; using word-formation and affix information to guess word meaning; summarizing information; etc (Grabe, 1991, p 382)

Regarding the list of reading strategies, Anderson (1991) suggests that “there is no single set of strategies that significantly contributes to success” in L2 reading tasks” (p 468, quoted in Anderson, 1994) Grabe (1991) shares the same view, saying the particular skills and strategies to be emphasized in a reading syllabus depend on the educational contexts, student needs, and teaching objectives Therefore, one of the

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syllabus designer’s important tasks is to figure out the most basic reading strategies suitable for first-year Architecture students at HUBT, which serves as a major component of the syllabus, basing on the needs analysis

1.3 Syllabus design

In the onset of this section, the term “syllabus” will be discussed, with its definition, how it relates to a broader field of curriculum development, its components and organisation

1.3.1 Curriculum, course and syllabus

Richards (2001) points out the key stages in ELT curriculum development include: situation analysis, needs analysis, goal setting, syllabus design, materials development and adaptation, teaching and teacher-support, and evaluation According to Nunan (1988), a curriculum has at least three phrases: a planning phase, an implementation phase and an evaluation phase; syllabus design forms a part of the planning phase Accordingly, syllabus design is part of curriculum development

As Candlin points out (1984, cited in Nunan, 1988), curricula concern with making general statements about language teaching, learning purpose and experience, evaluation and the role relationships of teachers and learners

A syllabus is “a more detailed and operational statements of teaching and learning elements which translates the philosophy of the curriculum into a series of planned steps leading towards more narrowly defined objectives at each level” (Dublin and Olshtain, p 35) It is “more localized” and takes into consideration “what is happening at the classroom level as teachers and learners apply a given curriculum

to their own situation” (Nunan, 1988, p 3)

A course is “an integrated series of teaching-learning experiences, whose ultimate aim is to lead the learners to a particular state of knowledge” (Hutchinson and Waters 1987, p 65)

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It is important to make a distinction between a curriculum and a course since some

of the stages in curriculum development as societal needs analysis, testing for placement purposes or program-wide evaluation may be out of the hands of teachers who are developing courses (Richards, 2001)

Given the above definitions, it can be accepted to consider syllabus design as part of course design, which in turn, is part of the curriculum development as a whole Moreover, a single curriculum can be “the basis for developing a variety of specific syllabuses which are concerned with locally defined audiences, particular needs and intermediate objectives” (Nunan, 1988, p 35)

1.3.2 Components of a syllabus

Syllabus can be defined several different ways Some researchers advocating the narrow view believe that distinction should be made between syllabus content and methodology For example, Hutchinson & Waters (1987, p 80) define syllabus as

“at its simplest level, a statement of what is to be learnt It reflects of language and linguistic performance.”

Some others who adopt a broader view argue that syllabus content and methodology are inseparable Candlin (cited in Nunan 1988, p 46) wonders whether it is possible

to distinguish the content from the method and evaluation He thinks that all these factors should be combined to have a more inclusive view to what teachers are to do

in class In favor of this view, Dublin and Olshtain (1986, p 28) offer a very comprehensive view on syllabus They hold that it should contain the following ingredients:

1 What the learners are expected to know at the end of the course, or the course objectives

2 What to be taught or learnt during the course

3 When it is to be taught, and at what of progress relating to the inventory of items

to the different levels and stages as well as to the time constraints of the course

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4 How it is taught, suggesting procedures, techniques and materials

5 How it is to be evaluated, suggesting testing and evaluating mechanism

In this study, the researcher will adopt this broad view which assumes that a syllabus entails not only what to teach but also how to teach

1.3.3 Types of syllabus

There have been many ways in which a syllabus can be organized in practice, such

as grammatical or structural syllabus, notional/functional syllabus, situational syllabus, topic-based syllabus, skill-based syllabus, task-based syllabus, text-based syllabus (Hutchinson & Waters, 1987; Nunan, 1988; Richards, 2001; Robinson, 2009)

Regarding designing a reading syllabus, the researcher would like to focus only on

three syllabus types, namely skill-based syllabus, topical syllabus and integrated (or mixed) syllabus with their typical features

1.3.3.1 Topical or content-based syllabus

This type syllabus is organized around themes, topics rather situations (Brown 1995: 9) With a topical syllabus, content is the starting point in syllabus design and serves as the only criterion for organizing the framework The main advantages of coursed based on this syllabus type mentioned by Richard (2001, p 158) include:

 Content serves as the best basis for teaching the skill areas

 It can address learners’ needs and can motivate them

 It can allow for the use of authentic materials

1.3.3.2 Skill- based syllabus

This kind of syllabus is organized around different academic skills which the students will most need in order to use and continue to learn the language It just focuses on the four skills in learning English The selection of the skills may be based from the author’s perception of their usefulness, whilst their order is normally

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based on various criteria such as chronology, frequency, or relative usefulness of the skills (Brown, 1995) The role of the syllabus designer is “to draw up an inventory of the sub-skills … then sequence them, and weave them together in a principled way” (Robinson, 2009) The advantages of skills based syllabus are claimed as follows: 1) they teach skills that can be transferred to many other situations; 2) they identify teachable and learnable units (Richards, 2001, p 161)

1.3.3.3 Mixed/Integrated syllabus

There is a tendency that syllabus designers combine two or more certain types of

syllabus, which lead to the appearance of a new type of syllabus called mixed

syllabus Discussing this new type of syllabus, as Brown (1995, p 12) states,

“mixed syllabi occur when authors choose to mix two or more types of syllabi together into what looks like a different type of syllabus – at least in the table of content.” Then depending on priorities on a certain course, the course designer must make decisions between macro-level and micro-level planning units in the course

1.3.3.4 Conclusion

When it comes to deciding a suitable syllabus framework, it depends a lot on the priority in teaching rather than an absolute choice Considering the features of the above-discussed approaches that could be appropriate for designing a reading syllabus, the researcher assumes that the integrated syllabus could be the most appropriate framework for the context of teaching ESP reading to HUBT first-year Architecture students One important reason is it can integrate both the instruction

of reading sub-skills and the use of specialist texts However, a decision must be made of which type of syllabus, topical or skill-based, should be put at the macro-level of the syllabus

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1.4 Needs analysis

According to Brown (1995, p 35), “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” It is also acknowledged that “needs analysis is the cornerstone of ESP” and its proper application can result into a “focused course” (Dudley-Evans & St John, 1998, p.121) In this part, an attempt will be made to define needs and discuss the types

of needs

1.4.1 Definition of needs

The concept of needs has been considered under various perspectives with many interpretations being proposed accordingly Robinson (1991, p.7) cites different opinions about needs from Windowson (1981) and Mountford (1981) as follows: Firstly, needs refer to students’ study or job requirements, which are what they have

to do at the end of the course This is a goal-oriented definition of needs (Windowson 1981, p.2) Needs in this sense are perhaps more appropriately described as “objectives” (Berwich, 1989, p.57) Secondly, needs mean “what the user-institution or society at large regard as necessary or desirable to be learnt from

a program of language instruction” (Mountford, 1981, p 27) Needs are seen as what the learners need to do to acquire the language This is a process-oriented definition of needs (Widowson, 1981, p 2) Fourthly, needs are considered to be wants or desires, i.e what the students themselves would like to gain from the language course (Berwich, 1989, p.55) Lastly, needs are also interpreted as lacks, that is, what the students do not know or cannot do in English (Robinson, 1991, p.8)

1.4.2 Types of needs

1.4.2.1 Target needs

1.4.2.2 Learning needs

According to Hutchinson & Waters (1987), considering the destination (for the learners) is not the only factor in course design They confirm that “it is a reliable indicator of what is needed … in learning situation.” Therefore, as they put it, course designers should take into account other things such as conditions of learning situation, learners’ knowledge, skills and strategies and motivation In other words, learning needs are the factors affecting learning processes in term of learners, teachers, facilities, time, etc

In this study the learning-centered approach (Hutchinson & Waters, 1987) will be adopted for needs analysis, which provides information about the target situation needs - what people do with the language, and learning needs – how people learn to

do what they (should/will) do with the language It is the task of a course designer

to take into consideration both subjective factors, and other objective factors Only

by doing so can the syllabus bridge the gap between the objectives of the course and the benefits of the learners

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CHAPTER II RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

This chapter, the methodology applied in this research will be described A detailed description will be presented of the research methods, data collection instruments, the subjects of the study, data collection procedure and methods of data analysis

2.1 Research methods

The survey method is adopted in this study with the use of questionnaire and

interview as the means of data collection A detailed description of the data

collection instruments and the participants is presented in the following parts

2.2 Data collection instruments

One of the best methodologies for studying the target needs and learning needs of any particular group of workers/students is to use such methods as questionnaires, interviews, collection of authentic workplace texts and visits to the workplace (Hutchinson and Waters, 1987; Robinson, 1991; Dudley-Evans and St John, 1998)

In order to answer the first two research questions as stated earlier in the introduction chapter, a mixture of questionnaire and interview is used to investigate the target needs and learning needs regarding an ESP reading syllabus for first-year Architecture students at HUBT

2.2.1 Questionnaire

Questionnaires were employed as the main means of data collection because is often considered efficient at collecting information from a large number of respondents with a wide range of information can be collected Three sets of questionnaires were used in this study: a set for first-year students from Architecture department, a survey set for third-year students, and one for architects The questionnaires consist of both close-ended questions and open-ended questions The advantage of close-ended questions, as Nunan (1992) states, is that they are

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easy to collect and analyze Besides, in my opinion, they give suggested ideass, which allows for the respondents to answer some questions more easily and comfortably However, structured surveys with solely closed-ended questions may have low validity when researching affective variables Therefore, the additional use of open items can give more insightful information and reflect more accurately the respondent’s ideas Some questions are all open-ended, or close-ended, while some others combine both to reveal more in-depth information

In addition, they were all written in Vietnamese - the respondents’ mother tongue It

is to make the survey more informant-friendly and clear for them to understand the questions and thereby answer them precisely, which contributes to the reliability of the information collected

2.2.1.1 First-year student questionnaire

This questionnaire was administered to first-year Architecture majors to gather the data about their background profile and learning needs toward an ESP reading course The sample questions in this questionnaire, which is divided into two parts, can be seen in Appendix 1(p IV)

The informants of this questionnaire are 50 first-year students at the age ranging from 19 to 21 They are from the cohort 17 in the Department of Architecture, HUBT They have English learning experience ranging from 7 to 10 years Through the means of placement test at the beginning of the academic year, their English competence was judged to be at the elementary level They were in the second semester of the 2012-2012 academic year

The questionnaire consists of two parts Part A was designed to gather the data about who the learners are The questions in this part were to reveal information about first-year students’ background information such as their age, gender, and years of studying English It was also expected that these simple questions could make the students feel easy to get started with the questionnaire

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Part B was intended to uncover the students’ expectations of an ESP reading course, their awareness of the role of learning English, expected purposes of using English

at work, preferences on reading topics and learning styles

There are seven questions in total The first two are close-ended questions asking about their beliefs towards the role of English learning and their expected purposes

of using English at work Question 3 investigates their expectations towards an ESP reading course for the first academic year Questions from 4 to7 explore their preferences of the topics in a reading course, and learning styles

2.2.1.2 Third-year student questionnaire

The respondents of this questionnaire are 48 third-year Architecture students of the cohort 15 at HUBT They have spent two years learning GE and are taking an ESP course

In this questionnaire (see Appendix 2, p VII), the first two are close-ended questions asking about their beliefs towards the role of English learning and their expected purposes of using English at work Question 3 investigates third-year attitudes toward the current reading instruction for first-year students, ESP reading syllabus for first-year students Lastly, they are asked to give suggestions for improving ESP training quality

2.2.1.3 Architect questionnaire

With a view to investigating how Architectures read specialist materials as part of their work, this questionnaire entails mostly open-ended questions The sample questions in this questionnaire can be seen in Appendix 3 (p IX)

This questionnaire was administered to six architectural professionals They have been working as Architectures for at least 5 years Three of the informants were working for a private construction company in Hanoi One of the informants were looking for a new job who was once working for a foreign construction consulting

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company, one working for state-owned construction company, and another is for a foreign company, one working for his own Among them, only two are female Question 1 and 2 enquiry the architects’ jobs and working places Question 3 asks them to compare the four language skills in terms of usefulness Question 4 seeks information about their frequency in reading specialist documents Question 5 investigates the types of text in English they have read in their job Question 6 asks about the source of the specialist materials they have read Question 7 explores the topics of the specialist materials that they have read and that they think suitable for first-year Architecture students to read

2.2.2 Interview

A semi-structured interview was conducted with 10 questions asking the 5 teachers about information about themselves as well as their teaching at HUBT It was utilized to find out their attitudes, expectations towards an ESP reading course and teaching reading methods The sample questions in interviews with the teachers can

be seen in Appendix 4 (p XI) They are categorized into two main parts as follows

Part A seeks information about the ESP teachers’ age, sex, education background,

and years of teaching experience (in both GE and ESP)

Part B is divided into two sections Section I collects information perceived by the

teachers about the target needs; and section II about the students’ learning needs

Section I: Target needs

Question 5 collects information about the teachers’ awareness of their students’ linguistic competence, especially in reading In question 6, they are asked to give suggested list of reading skills that first-year students should train This is to

identify what the students’ lack Questions 7 to 8 are used to reveal the teachers’

attitudes towards an ESP reading course for first-year Architecture students To be more specific, they are asked to give their opinions on the necessity of the ESP

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reading syllabus for first-year Architecture students Question 8 enquiries the teachers’ ideas on the focus of the course

Section II: Learning needs

Questions 9, 10 ask the subjects to suggestions to conduct an ESP reading

classroom effectively This information on teaching methodology is of great

significance to the syllabus designer when selecting activities for the syllabus

2.3 Data collection procedure

During the process of construction, the questionnaires were edited by some of the researcher’s colleagues and revised based on their contributions

The student questionnaires were administered to 60 first-year students of two Architecture classes They were during the middle of the second semester of the first academic year Before they started answering the questionnaire, the researcher spent some time introducing the study, and guiding them to give answers where needed The informants had at least 10 minutes to complete their survey

The Architecture questionnaire was sent to the Architecture professionals via emails They were very busy with their work, and working for different businesses Thus to save time and energy the researcher delivered the questionnaire to the informants and received their feedback online

As stated above, the interview is semi-structured The researcher met the interviewees in person and discussed the study The researcher took notes on the key information obtaining from the teachers as the interview went on Particularly for the issue of reading skills, the interviewed teachers were given the reading skill lists by Munby's (1978), Nuttal's (1996), Yalden (1983, cited in Nunan, 1992), Grabe (1991) Then they were asked to select the most basic skills to teach the target learners Each interview lasted for about half an hour Later on, data from the conversation will be organized carefully for the analysis process

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2.4 Method of data analysis

The questionnaires and interview were analyzed based on their content There are two types of data: qualitative data obtained from open-ended questions, and quantitative data from close-ended items For closed-ended questions, the frequency

of each item was calculated Data from open-ended items were first grouped into categories and then their frequency was calculated where possible

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CHAPTER III DATA ANALYSIS

3.1 Target needs

3.1.1 Necessities

3.1.1.1 Architects’ attitudes towards English reading in their work

When asked to select the skill(s) that they found the most useful to their job, about

66 % of respondents choose Reading skill Speaking and writing are seen as most important (together with reading skill) by two respondents who work with foreign colleagues It is suggested that for most Vietnamese architects, English reading is regarded as the most useful to their work It can be implied here that for most architects reading English materials contribute a lot to the success of their performance It can be more helpful if would-be architects are trained with necessary reading strategies and have a good knowledge of specialist terms

3.1.1.2 Architects’ frequency of reading English specialist materials

Table 3.1 below shows the data collected from questions 1 and 2 It can be seen that the participants were working in various architectural sub-domains; half of them involve in designing, half involving in project management

Two architects coming from two foreign companies reported that they often read English materials This is understandable because they are working in a place where English is used as an important means of communication

For those who work for Vietnamese companies, stated-owned or private, only 2 out

of 4 admitted they rarely or sometimes read English materials, the rest two often read For them the reason they read English materials is not to communicate around their organization, but improve their expertise and learn from their foreign colleagues

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Participants

Types of company

C Architectural design Foreign often

D Project management and design Private,

Vietnamese sometimes

E Architectural technical management

for industrial building projects Foreign often

F Residential house design On his own often

Table 3.1 Architects’ jobs, working places, and frequency of reading

3.1.1.3 Types of texts that Architects often read in English

The respondents were asked to select from a list of text genres typical in the language for Architecture and civil engineering by Riejos (2011) As can be seen in table 3.2, most of the genres, except for business letters, in the given list are read by the respondents Among them, the number of people reading specifications and instructions is greater than the other genres (50% to 33.3%) One third of the respondents have read CV in English who were working for a foreign business A

possible explanation for this might be that they had to submit their CVs in English upon application to their current companies; and during the CV writing process, they had to read other CVs as references

Table 3.3 Source of materials

Architectural drawings and internet websites are read by all of the respondents Half

of them also read ebooks, which can be seen as a significant reference source for them Catalogues are also read by almost two thirds of the respondents

The data from question 3 and 4 can contribute to the later process of material selection Reading materials that are made related-to-real-world hopefully can help motivate the students

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3.1.1.5 Topics of reading suggested by architects

In questionnaire, the researcher asked them to suggest some topics of reading that they often read and think helpful and interesting to students Here is the list that is composed from the data

Curriculum Vitae of an architect

After forming the list of reading topics, the researcher put it into the first-year student questionnaire, asking their preference on the topics

3.1.2 Lacks

3.1.2.1 Teachers’ judgments on first-year students of Architecture

It is a common practice at HUBT to administer an English placement test at the beginning of the first academic year with a view to identifying the students’ level of English competence for selection of a suitable course Based on their observation of test and their teaching experience, most teachers say that HUBT first-year students’ L2 level are often ranked at the elementary level They found that although having spent at least seven years learning English at the secondary school, their grammatical knowledge is quite good whereas their language skills are not so good, not to mention being weak Regarding the reading skills in particular, the students prove not to master any basic comprehension sub-skills

3.1.2.2 Basic reading skills to teach first-year Architecture students

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The interviewed teachers were asked to suggest the most basic skills to teach the target learners Different interviewees had different points of view, yet a certain consensus can be found among them

Most of them believed that skimming to identify the main ideas of the text, scanning

to locate specific information, and reading intensively are the most basic reading

strategies which can be used by readers for various purposes We also discussed the micro reading skills using the above techniques, and based on their ideas, a list of reading micro-skills was formed as follows:

Distinguishing the main ideas from supporting details

Using reference skills to understand and use: graphic presentation, namely headings, subheadings, numbering, table of contents, dictionaries

Recognizing discourse markers

Guessing unfamiliar words from context

In this study, this list is used to investigate the first-year student's awareness of these skills based on the investigation, and make it become a component of the reading syllabus

“Exposure to specialist texts can motivate students because they feel their learning English is relevant to their major.”