Part II is the “Development” which consists of - Chapter I, “Literature Review” reviews such the relevant theories as prominent linguistic features of international news on papers, an ov
Trang 1HANOI NATIONAL UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES
DEPARTMENT OF POST GRADUATE STUDIES
***
NGUYỄN THỊ THÚY HẰNG
AN INVESTIGATION INTO LINGUISTIC BASES OF
STUDENTS OF ENGLISH FOR INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
AT DIPLOMATIC ACADEMY OF VIETNAM
NGHIÊN CỨU CƠ SỞ NGÔN NGỮ CỦA VIỆC THIẾT KẾ CHƯƠNG TRÌNH TIẾNG ANH CHUYÊN NGÀNH CHO SINH VIÊN TIẾNG ANH QUAN HỆ QUỐC TẾ NĂM THỨ 3 HỌC
VIỆN NGOẠI GIAO VIỆT NAM
MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS
FIELD: Methodology Field code: 601410
SUPERVISOR: Ass.Prof.Dr.TRAN HUU MANH
Hanoi - 2009
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
DECLARATION
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
ABSTRACT
TABLE OF CONTENTS
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
Part I: INTRODUCTION
1 Rationale
2 Aims and Objectives
3 Research Questions
5 Research methodology
6 The study is comprised of three parts
Part II: DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW
Introduction
1.1 An overview of discourse properties of international news
1.1.1 News
1.1.1.1 What is news?
1.1.1.2 International news
1.1.2 Discourse
1.1.2.1 Discourse and text
1.1.2.2 Discourse properties of international news
1.1.2.2.1 General structure
1.1.2.2.2 Linguistic features
1.2 A comparison of discourse properties of international news in English and Vietnamese 1.2.1 General structure 1.2.1.1 The headline, the time, and source of information
1.2.1.2 The lead
1.2.1.3 The body
1.2.1.4 Optional news elements
1.2.2 Linguistic features
1.2.2.1 Lexical choice
1.2.2.2 Tense
1.2.2.3 Directness and indirectness
1.2.2.4 Syntactic structures
1.2.2.4.1 The headline
1.2.2.4.2 The lead and the body
1.2.2.4.3 Cohesion devices
1.3 An overview of ESP
1.3.1 Definition of ESP
1.3.2 Types of ESP
1.3.3 Principles of ESP course design
1.4 Approaches to language syllabus design
1.4.1 Defining syllabus
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1.4.2 Approaches to language syllabus design
1.4.2.1 The structural approach
1.4.2.2 The situational approach
1.4.2.3 The notional/functional approach
1.4.2.4 Procedural/task-based approaches
1.4.2.5 The proportional approach
.1.4.2.6 Learner-led approach
1.4.3 Types of ESP syllabus design
1.4.4 Steps in syllabus design
1.5 Reading
1.5.1 Definition of reading
1.5.2 Reading process
1.6 Summary
CHAPTER 2: THE STUDY
2.1 ESP teaching and learning at Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam (DAV) 2.2 The ESP teachers
2.5.1 Needs perceived by the teachers of English
2.5.2.Needs perceived by the third-year students of Faculty of English
2.6 Summary
CHAPTER 3: DESIGNING AN APPROPRIATE ESP READING
SYLLABUS FOR 3rd – YEAR STUDENTS OF EIR
3.1.Objectives
3.2.Time allotment for the syllabus
3.3 Sequencing the content and the tasks in the syllabus
3.3.1 Topics in the syllabus
3.3.2 Reading skills and learning tasks
3.4 Suggestions for implementation of the proposed syllabus
3.4.1 To the teachers
3.4.2 To the students
3.4.3 To the future choice of materials
3.5 Summary
Part III: CONCLUSION
1 Summary of the thesis
2 Conclusion
3 Limitations of the thesis
4 Suggestions for further study
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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
ESP: English for Special Purpose
DAV: Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam
EIR: English for International Relations
EST: English for Science and Technology
EBE: English for Business and Economics
ESS: English for Social Studies
ASEAN: Association of Southeast Asian Nations
EU: European Union
UN: United Nations
APEC: Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation
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1 Rationale
Nowadays, the ESP area proves to be in great demand for a global community of people speaking different languages, where a good command of English can help to contribute to professional as well as personal development of each individual learner People with good English proficiency are extensively needed in many areas, such as business, banking, tourism, electronics, telecommunications, international relations, etc ESP therefore has become really necessary and an indispensable branch in English language teaching in Vietnam to meet the growing demand for professional communication
As we know, there are two parties involved in the implementation of any syllabus program: teachers and learners Basically, if the syllabus is to be designed realistically, its contents must be coherent with the needs and expectations of the clients Additionally, the contents should be technically, physically, and mentally conceivable and able to be implemented within the time allotted in the curriculum These requirements, when designing the ESP syllabus, in fact are still challenges for Vietnamese ESP teachers Students learning ESP in Vietnam rarely have opportunities to use English in communication outside the classroom They mainly have access to popular documents written in English through reading Hence, skills in reading English texts are naturally of special importance in teaching and learning ESP, which is not an exception for the ESP teaching at Vietnam Academy of Diplomacy (DAV)
The main objectives of ESP course is aimed at providing the students with linguistic knowledge relevant to their field and skills up to the expectation of the future employment Since the establishment of the Section of English for International Relations (EIR) in 2006 which is under the Faculty of English, no available course books are appropriate for these target students
Accordingly, designing an ESP reading syllabus for the third year students has been an urgent task for the development of ESP teaching at learning at DAV
2 Aims and Objectives
The study majorly aims at designing an appropriate ESP reading syllabus for students of EIR at DAV To achieve this aim, there are three specific objectives as follows:
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- To develop a theoretical framework to design an appropriate syllabus for students
of EIR at Vietnam Academy of Diplomacy, taking into account the reality of ESP teaching and learning as well as ESP learners at DAV
- To conduct a Needs Analysis to identify the students’ learning situations and the learning needs perceived by the ESP teachers, the third-year students of EIR at DAV
- To design a proposed ESP reading syllabus based on the analysis of the data
collected
3 Research Questions
The following research questions were raised in order to attain the above-mentioned aims and objectives of the study:
1 What are the reading needs of the ESP students of EIR at DAV?
2 What should be included in the syllabus?
The answers to these questions are to develop an appropriate ESP reading syllabus for the students of in DAV Moreover, basing on the results of the research questions, some recommendations for designing an appropriate ESP reading syllabus for the students of EIR at DAV, will be made to improve the quality of the ESP teaching and learning at DAV
4 Scope of the Study
Within its scope, this research paper mainly focuses on designing an ESP reading course book for students of EIR at DAV Its major objects are subject teachers, the teachers of ESP, and the third-year students of EIR at DAV
5 Research methodology
Both qualitative and quantitative methods are employed in this study The quantitative method, which is used to collect data by questionnaires, aims at exploring the needs of the students, their expectations and opinions about the ESP course The questionnaires are administered to the third year student population studying ESP, teachers of ESP, as well as subject teachers of EIR at DAV The tackling methods are statistic, analytical and synthetical Also, the qualitative methods is used as the supporting method to collect information for the study through the discussion with colleagues and students
6 The study is comprised of three parts
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Part I is an “Introduction” which presents the rationale, aims and objectives, research questions, scope of the study, research questions, research methodology, as well as design
of the study
Part II is the “Development” which consists of
- Chapter I, “Literature Review” reviews such the relevant theories as prominent linguistic features of international news on papers, an overview of ESP, approaches to language syllabus, reading, as well as previous studies
- Chapter II, “The study” describes and comments on situation analysis, subjects of the study, the instruments for collecting data, the theory of Needs Analysis and the findings of the study resulting from a statistical analysis of the collected data
- Chapter III presents some recommendations for “designing an ESP reading syllabus for students at the EIR at DAV”
Part III is the “Conclusion” which offers a summary of the study, limitations and suggestions for further research
Trang 812 Part II: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW Introduction
The focus of this study is to design an ESP reading syllabus for the 3rd year students of EIR at DAV who wish to gain fluency in reading and understanding English texts dealing with international affairs such as inter-relations among countries, global issues, external policies and political opinions toward other countries Therefore, international news on papers is mainly chosen as reading practice texts for intensive English courses at DAV Within this framework, this chapter deals with some concepts which set background for the study An overview of discourse properties of international news, a comparison of discourse properties of international news in English and Vietnamese; an overview of
ESP; approaches to language syllabus design and an overview of reading will be given
1.1 An overview of discourse properties of international news
1.1.1 News
1.1.1.1 What is news?
The notion of news is ambiguous In everyday usage, we usually have the general notion
of news, meaning “new information”, as we find in such sentences as “I have good news for you” Apparently, the notion of news we are dealing with is different from the notion
of news, which involves the media When asking: “Have you read the news?” or “Did you watch the news? we refer to news as an item on newspapers or a television program Here are some definitions of news from dictionaries:
“News is new information about something that has happened recently or reports of recent events”
(Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, 7th impression 2005)
“News is:
- Recent events and happenings
- A report about recent events
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- Information which was not known before.”
(Globe Modern Dictionary, 4th impression 2003)
In a nutshell, the notion of news implies three aspects of news:
New information about events, things or persons
A program type (TV or radio) in which news items are presented
A news report, i.e., a discourse on means of media in which new information is given
We concerned mostly with the third concept, in which news is considered a type of discourse published on newspapers
With this aspect of news, there is a famous cliché among journalists: when a dog bites man, it’s not news; when man bites dog, that’s news In other words, no readers want to read about ordinary events
1.1.1.2 International news
International news refers to news which focuses on international issues, which involve:
Inter-relations among countries: official visits, economic cooperation, political negotiations…
Global issues: climate change, peace, conflict, international security…
External policies and political opinions towards other countries
1.1.2 Discourse
1.1.2.1 Discourse and text
The word discourse is used differently in different subject areas therefore; it is not an easy term to define
Brown and Yule (1983) define text as “the verbal record of communication act” and discourse as “the language in use”
Widdowson (1984:24) reckons that “discourse is a communicative process by means of
interaction Its situational outcome is a change in a state of affairs: information is conveyed, invention is made clear, its linguistic product is text”
There is another approach developed by Halliday and Hasan (1976), who use discourse in relation to text These two researchers claim that a text (discourse) is a unit of meaning It
is the language that is functional and has meaning in context of situation It is realized by
a word, a phrase, a sentence, a cluster of sentences, or even a book, etc…
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According to them, text (discourse): can be defined in the simplest way perhaps by saying
that it is language that is functional.[…] So any instance of living language that is playing some part in a context of situation, we shall call a text It may be either spoken or written or indeed in other medium of expression that we like to think of
(Halliday and Hasan 1989:10)
This thesis will follow the view of Halliday and Hasan, considering discourse and text the interchangeable terms
1.1.2.2 Discourse properties of international news
1.1.2.2.1 General structure
Headline, lead, and body are considered crucial elements structuring international news Besides, there are supplementary or optional factors (the time, name of reporter, sub-headlines, or non-linguistic features)
1.1.1.2.2.1 The headline
Headlines for news in general are important, headlines for international news are much more important They perform the following two functions:
As a communicative device: The headline is the most concise summary or the
whole news By looking at the headline, readers can understand the main content and the main information addressed in the news
As a navigation device: It is possible to say that the headline is the bridge leading
readers to the full story It puts the first impression on the readers and encourages them to read for more information
1.1.1.2.2.2 Date, time of releasing the news
The news content may change as soon as the news is posted Identifying the time and date of releasing the news is accordingly very important and beneficial to the readers
1.1.1.2.2.3 Source of information
The name of the writer, the reporter or name of any news corporation that published the news is always clearly asserted Sometimes readers can refer to the reporters to find out more about the news
1.1.1.2.2.4 The lead
The international news leads often start with location where the events take place One important factor of news is proximity An event will be more important if it is related to
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the readers A conflict in a far-off land is not as interesting as one that is close to home International news covers all areas in the world, so providing information about the location is very useful for readers
The lead provides the hook to get readers interested in the story It expands on the story’s main point as introduced in the headline Basically, news is variations of “something happened” The lead’s function is to straightforwardly tell readers what the “something happened” is In terms of content, the lead captures the essence of the whole news, or it summarizes the news to draw the readers in
The lead sets the structure for the rest of the story If the lead is good, the rest of the story comes together easily
Functioning as exciting hooks for readers, the leads must be very informative and long enough to load the most newsworthy aspect of the events They are supposed to give brief answers to all the key questions: WHO, WHAT, WHERE, WHEN, WHY and HOW For example:
Mrs Clinton yesterday came to St.Louis, Missouri to seek support for the election by participating in a campaign
(The economist-26/10/2007)
1.1.1.2.2.5 The body
The headline and lead usually raise more questions than answer People generally find out what happened and one or two prominent details, but if they are interested in the subject they will want to know much more and ask such questions such: When? Where? Why? How? What effects? What significane?
If the headline and the lead are attracting enough and they decide to continue reading, the body of the news is where they find detailed information The primary and the most
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prevailing function of news body is to narrate the event While doing so, it gradually gives answers to all possible questions related to the event: WHAT, WHO, WHERE, WHEN, WHY, and HOW
Basically, the body will give readers three kinds of information:
- details of the events, by answering three kinds of information
- comments from people involved in the story
- background information to help you understand the story more deepl
1.1.1.2.2.6 Optional news elements
- Non-linguistic features: photographs besides the news makes the news mor attractive
and informative
- Sub-headlines: not all news has sub-headlines Sub-headlines are considered the hooks
that facilitate the readers’ information memorizing
1.1.2.2.2 Linguistic features
1.1.2.2.2.1 Lexical choice
Generally speaking, popular words are preferred, which ensures that everyone across the world can read and understand it By using uncomplicated words, not only the information is provided clearly and exactly but also the readers’ capacity of getting the content will obviously increase If the reporters make all efforts to think of too cute words
to transfer their ideas, users may encounter difficulties in picking up the meaning of the text
The international news covers all issues on the world: politics, economy, religion, health, education… Hereafter, there appear many term words of certain fields, relying on the main topic of the news
The neutral language is also employed in international news because international issues are very sensitive Press has unimaginably strong impact The relationship between countries may be influenced by just an unfriendly opinion revealed in the news Thus, reporters try to avoid words expressing their personal viewpoints in international news, only present the fact of the event Metaphors and modal auxiliaries are rarely found partly because these kinds of words, to some extent, can reflect the writer’s personal opinions One feature of international news is that puns absolutely do not work
1.1.2.2.2.2 Tense
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The simple present tense is the most popular form of verbs in international news, in spite
of the fact that the news may describe something that is happening, something that happens repeatedly, even something that happened already or something that is going to happen in the near future The present tense gives the subject a sense of freshness and immediately, making it more interesting to read This grammatical phenomenon often appears in the headlines In the news lead and news bodies, verb tenses are used with the consideration of happening time of the event
1.1.2.2.2.3 Directness and indirectness
To meet the requirement of direct, attractive, and true to the news content, the direct and indirect speeches are essential to news The use of directness and indirectness in international news can be classified into three types:
- Direct quotations: represent word-for-word what the speaker said Such quote
are exact words of a source written in complete sentences and are endorsed in quotation marks
- Partial quotations: are mixtures of direct and indirect quotes They may also be
referred to as modified or fragmentary quotation
- Indirect quotations: represent more or less what the speaker said, but without
using quotation marks The speakers’ idea are presented mainly but not entirely his own words
1.1.2.2.2.3 Sentence patterns
When analyzing sentence patterns of international news, we need to look closer at three segments of news The reason is that in each level of the news, the sentence patterns vary
in order to perform the certain task
- The headline: Generally, a headline may be formed from a word, a phrase, a sentence fragment or a sentence
- The lead: Taking with them a lot of information, leads apparently cannot have forms of phrases or fragments as the headlines Instead, in terms of grammatical structure, all of them are sentences More specifically, the leads are always complex sentences due to the heavy task o transferring core information of the events
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- The body: Like the leads, most of sentences in the news body are complex sentences
1.1.2.2.2.4 Cohesion devices
Cohesion devices in the news may be anything from one word to a complete sentence:
Single words: for, also, finally, furthermore, meanwhile…
Synonyms
Phrases: on the other hand, in response, in addition…
Sentences: A second factor needs to be considered…
Repeated key words, especially key words from the headline or key words from the preceding paragraphs
1.2 A comparison of discourse properties of international news in English and Vietnamese
1.2.1 General structure
In general, there is no big difference in overall generic structure of international news between Vietnamese and English, because they are of the same genre They all have to comply with basic principles of general news
1.2.1.1 The headline, the time, and source of information
Headlines in English are always the first part of the news In Vietnamese, it is flexible whether the headline or the time and date come first
Headlines in English are followed by name of the reporter or source of information This
is not the same as in Vietnamese in which the name of reporters or source of information often stands at the end of the news
News leads in English and Vietnamese share a common feature that none of them provides answer to only one question
1.2.1.3 The body
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Generally speaking, the body structure of international news in Vietnamese is similar to that in English However, while most paragraphs in English contain only one sentence, the majority of paragraphs in Vietnamese are composed of two or three sentences of the same idea
Unlike international news in English, one-sentence paragraphs with limited numbers of clause are not popular in Vietnamese This facilitates the Vietnamese readers in simplifying the information so that they feel the most understandable For example:
Theo tin nước ngoài, ngày 4-6, Tổng thống Ấn Ðộ Pratibha Patil đã trình bày trước QH những chính sách của Chính phủ do Ðảng Quốc đại đứng đầu, theo đó cam kết sẽ phục hồi tốc độ tăng trưởng kinh tế và giúp hàng triệu người nghèo bằng các khoản chi nhiều hơn cũng như các chương trình xã hội rộng mở hơn
Ðây là ca tử vong đầu tiên ở Chile do dịch cúm A (H1N1) gây nên và Chile là nước có người chết đầu tiên vì cúm A (H1N1) ở Nam Mỹ Ngày 3-6, A-rập Xê-út xác nhận người nhiễm vi-rút cúm A (H1N1) ở nước này Bệnh nhân là một phụ nữ đến A-rập Xê-út ngày 29-5 vừa qua từ Philippines trên chuyến bay của hãng hàng không vùng Vịnh và có triệu chứng cúm A (H1N1) ngày 1-6 Nhà cầm quyền A-rập Xê-út đang theo dõi những người tiếp xúc với phụ nữ này trong chuyến bay Cùng ngày, Australia đã nâng cấp báo động cúm A (H1N1) ở Victoria, bang có số người bị nhiễm vi-rút cúm A (H1N1) nhiều nhất ở nước này Theo tổ chức Y tế thế giới (WHO), đến nay có gần 19.000 người bị nhiễm cúm
A (H1N1) ở 64 nước và vùng lãnh thổ và đã có 117 người chết
(Lao động-5/6/2009)
1.2.1.4 Optional news elements
Like the English international news, the Vietnamese one also consists of some optional factors such as the sub-headlines or non-linguistic features
1.2.2 Linguistic features
1.2.2.1 Lexical choice
One crucial difference of international news between English and Vietnamese in terms of readers is: while English international news is read by people worldwide, Vietnamese one has more limited number of audience, who is only from Vietnam or know Vietnamese
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This decisive characteristic makes the linguistic features of international news in Vietnamese definitely not the same as its English counterpart
The most striking difference in terms of lexical choice between Vietnamese and English
is the level of objectiveness and neutral language from the writers Reporters of English international news always try to avoid expressing their own opinions On the other hand,
we can see a lot of ways using rhetoric in international news in Vietnamese, which may
be inferred as the reporters’ point of view For example:
Người Mỹ “ngán” hàng Trung Quốc
(Thanh niên-30/6/2007)
Instead of using a more neutral verb: do not like, or không thích in Vietnamese, the reporter chose the word “ngán” (English equivalent: be fed up with), which really conveys more than do not like
Rhetorical speech is often used in the headlines in order to attract readers This different between Vietnamese and English international news may result from the different scale
of impact Vietnamese international news has restricted scale of influence, and English international news have much wider scale Moreover, it may also be affected by the subjectiveness, which is nature of Vietnamese thinking
However, there still exist similarities in terms of lexical choice between Vietnamese and English international news That is the use of popular and comprehensible words Also, the international news in Vietnamese covers all issues: politics, economy, religion, lifestyles, health, education… So, like English international news, many term words of certain fields, relying on the main topic of the news are applied For example:
Political news:
Từ ngày 4 đến 7-6 sẽ diễn ra cuộc bầu cử Nghị viện châu Âu tại 27 nước thành viên Liên hiệp châu Âu (EU) Nghị viện châu Âu là một trong ba thể chế chính của EU và có vai trò đại diện cho các quyền lợi của công dân EU Hai thể chế chính khác là Hội đồng Liên hiệp châu Âu và Ủy ban châu Âu (EC)
(Thanh niên-30/6/2008) Economic news:
Theo Tân Hoa xã, ngày 2-6 đại diện Ðảng CS Trung Quốc (CPC) và phái đoàn Ðảng Nước Nga Thống nhất (URP), cầm quyền tại LB Nga đã có cuộc gặp tại Bắc Kinh để trao đổi ý kiến về cuộc khủng hoảng tài chính quốc tế
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(Nhân dân-2/6/2007)
1.2.2.2 Tense
The tenses in Vietnamese are not expressed via the conjugation of verbs like in English
Instead, the using of words such as đã, đang, sẽ and time expression like hôm qua, hôm
nay, tuần sau…will help to determine the Vietnamese tenses
In the English international news, the time of happenings is only clearly claimed in the news body, but present simple tense is applied with headline because that is the most concise way to convey key information By contrast, tenses in Vietnamese international news are identified very straightforwardly, even in the headlines For example:
Kinh tế thế giới có thể sẽ phục hồi vào năm 2010 .
(Nhân dân-17/5/2009)
1.2.2.3 Directness and indirectness
Similar to international news in English, directness and indirectness appear in all news in Vietnamese in three main types:
- The headline as a phrase
Most of headlines in English international news are noun phrases In the case of Vietnamese international news, phrase headlines are flexibly applied, mainly with two types: noun phrases and verb phrases Besides, adjective phrases and prepositional phrases are sometimes resorted
There are more noun phrases employed than other types because noun phrases are the most suitable to state new information Looking back to the structure of noun phrases we mentioned in the previous section, we wee that Vietnamese noun phrases have no pre-
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- The headline as a sentence
Like international news in English, sentence headlines are still the most pervasive in Vietnamese international news because they take along the amount of information that is sufficient enough for readers to continue with the rest of news
As for the four types of sentences that Quirk (1973:191) points out (statement, question, command and exclamation), almost no command and exclamation sentences are used as headlines in Vietnamese international news Statement headlines are commonly used in both Vietnamese and English international news
Comparing the appearance of simple sentences and complex sentences as headlines unveils a fact that simple sentences are more popular This is the similarity between English and Vietnamese international news
Analyzing simple sentence headlines in Vietnamese international news indicate that there are plenty of sentence structures used Like international news in English international news, SVO and SVA are of the most priority compared to the other types For example: SVO:
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In terms of sentence types, leads and bodies of international news in Vietnamese also engage the complex sentences rather than the simple ones For example:
Người phát ngôn Bộ Ngoại giao Iran Mohammad Ali Hoseini hôm qua đã lên án quyết định của Anh phong tước hiệp sĩ cho nhà văn Salman Rushdie
(Nhân dân-17/6/2007)
1.2.2.5 Cohesive devices
Like English interntional news, the mostly used cohesion device is repetitions of the key words which are presented in the headlines Take a news in Vietnamese as an illustration for the use of cohesive devices:
The headline: Taliban tuyên bố sẽ định đoạt số phận 21 con tin Hàn Quốc vào trưa 1.8 Key words from the headlines: Taliban, 21 con tin Hàn Quốc, trưa 1.8
In the lead, those key words are repeated The bold adverb “sau khi” helps to connect the
two clauses of the sentence:
Nỗ lực giải cứu những người Hàn Quốc bị các tay súng Taliban cầm giữ tại Afghanistan
đã trở nên cấp bách hơn bao giờ hết vào hôm 31.7, sau khi Taliban hạ sát con tin thứ hai
và đặt thời hạn chót mới cho số phận của 21 con tin còn lại
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1.3.1 Definition of ESP
From the early 1960's, English for Specific Purposes (ESP) has grown to become one of the most prominent areas of EFL teaching today and it has been defined differently by different authors Some people described ESP as simply being the teaching of English for any purpose that could be specified Others, however, were more precise, describing it as the teaching of English used in academic studies or the teaching of English for vocational
or professional purposes In 1997, at a Japan conference on ESP Tony Dudley-Evans gave an extended definition of ESP in terms of its 'absolute' and 'variable' characteristics
Absolute Characteristics
1 ESP is defined to meet specific needs of the learners
2 ESP makes use of underlying methodology and activities of the discipline it serves
3 ESP is centered on the language appropriate to these activities in terms of grammar, lexis, register, study skills, discourse and genre
Variable Characteristics
1 ESP may be related to or designed for specific disciplines
2 ESP may use, in specific teaching situations, a different methodology from that of General English
3 ESP is likely to be designed for adult learners, either at a tertiary level institution or in
a professional work situation It could, however, be for learners at secondary school level
4 ESP is generally designed for intermediate or advanced students
5 Most ESP courses assume some basic knowledge of the language systems
(Dudley-Evans, 1997)
The definition Dudley-Evans offers is clearly influenced by that of Strevens (1988), although he has improved it substantially by removing the absolute characteristic that ESP is "in contrast with General English" (Johns et al., 1991: 298), and has included more variable characteristics The division of ESP into absolute and variable characteristics, in particular, is very helpful in resolving arguments about what is and is
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not ESP From the definition, we can see that ESP can but is not necessarily concerned with a specific discipline, nor does it have to be aimed at a certain age group or ability range ESP should be seen simple as an 'approach' to teaching, or what Dudley-Evans describes as an 'attitude of mind' This is a similar conclusion to that made by Hutchinson
et al (1987:19) who state, "ESP is an approach to language teaching in which all
decisions as to content and method are based on the learner's reason for vocational or
professional purposes
1.3.2 Types of ESP
David Carter (1983) identifies three types of ESP:
English as a restricted language
English for Academic and Occupational Purposes
English with specific topics
The language used by air traffic controllers or by waiters are examples of English as a restricted language Mackay and Mountford (1978) clearly illustrate the difference between restricted language and language with this statement:
“ the language of international air-traffic control could be regarded as 'special', in the sense that the repertoire required by the controller is strictly limited and can be accurately determined situationally, as might be the linguistic needs of a dining-room waiter or air-hostess However, such restricted repertoires are not languages, just as a tourist phrase book is not grammar Knowing a restricted 'language' would not allow the speaker to communicate effectively in novel situation or in contexts outside the vocational environment”
The second type of ESP identified by Carter (1983) is English for Academic and Occupational Purposes In the 'Tree of ELT' (Hutchinson & Waters, 1987), ESP is broken down into three branches: a) English for Science and Technology (EST), b) English for Business and Economics (EBE), and c) English for Social Studies (ESS)
The third type of ESP identified by Carter (1983) is English with specific topics “This type of ESP is concerned with self-direction” (Carter, 1983, p 134) In order for self-direction to occur, the learners must have a certain degree of freedom to decide when,
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what, and how they will study Carter (1983) also adds that there must be a systematic attempt by teachers to teach the learners how to learn by teaching them about learning strategies
1.3.3 Principles of ESP course design
In designing an ESP course it is imperative to carryout a needs analysis to determine the specific reasons for learning the language (Hutchinson, and Waters, 1987) or to specify exactly, what students need to achieve through the medium of English (Robinson, 1991) According to Nunan, “techniques and procedures for collecting information to be used in syllabus design are referred to as a needs analysis” (Nunan, 1988: 13) In more formal terms a needs analysis is “the process of determining the needs for which a learner or group of learners requires a language and arranging the needs according to priorities”
(Richards, and Platt, 1992:242)
Before designing a course, it is very important to know why the learners are taking the
course and how they will apply that learning Also “English language teachers should know what kind of tasks and activities learners will be using English for” (Kandil, 2003:134) (Hutchinson and Waters,1987:59) suggested the following questions as a start-point to uncover relevant information: Why is the language needed?; How will the language be used?; What will the content areas be?; Who will the learners use the language with?; When/Where will the language be used?
(Hutchinson and Waters,1987:21) also put forward a point that “designing a course is fundamentally a matter of asking questions in order to provide a reasoned basis for the subsequent processes of syllabus design, materials writing, classroom teaching and evaluation.” These basic questions are as follows: Who are the learners?; Why are the learners taking the course?; How do the learners learn?; What resources are available?; When/Where will the course take place?; What level of proficiency must be achieved?; What kind of methodology will be employed?; How much time is available?
Also, the key elements which are the initial planning procedure, the content selection
and gradation, the methodology, and the evaluation in the procedures of designing any
language course syllabus are also applied to an ESP course
Trang 23and Waters (1987:80) define syllabus as follows: “At its simplest level a syllabus can be
described as a statement of what is to be learnt or it reflects language and linguistic performance”
This is a rather traditional interpretation of syllabus focusing as it does on outcomes
rather than process However, a syllabus can also be seen as a "summary of the content to
which learners will be exposed" (Yalden,1987: 87) It is seen as an approximation of
what will be taught and that it cannot accurately predict what will be learnt
1.4.2 Approaches to language syllabus design
Various types of approaches are available to course designers and the fact shows that the focus of syllabuses has shifted from structure to situations, functions and notions to topics and tasks
1.4.2.1 The structural approach
Historically, the most prevalent of syllabus type is perhaps the grammatical syllabus in which the selection and grading of the content is based on the complexity and simplicity
of grammatical items The learner is expected to master each structural step and add it to her grammar collection As such the focus is on the outcomes or the product
1.4.2.2 The situational approach
By linking structural theory to situations, the learner is able to induce the meaning from a relevant context One advantage of the situational approach is that motivation will be heightened since it is "learner- rather than subject-centered" (Wilkins,1976:16) However,
a situational syllabus will be limited for students whose needs were not encompassed by the situations in the syllabus
1.4.2.3 The notional/functional approach
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In order to establish objectives, the needs of the learners will have to be analyzed by the various types of communication in which the learner has to confront Consequently, needs analysis has an association with notional-functional syllabuses Although needs analysis implies a focus on the learner, critics of this approach suggest that a new list has replaced the old one Where once structural/situational items were used a new list consisting of notions and functions has become the main focus in a syllabus White (1988:77) claims that "language functions do not usually occur in isolation" and there are also difficulties of selecting and grading function and form Clearly, the task of deciding whether a given function (i.e persuading), is easier or more difficult than another (i.e approving), makes the task harder to approach
1.4.2.4 Procedural/task-based approaches
A task-based approach assumes that speaking a language is a skill best perfected through practice and interaction, and uses tasks and activities to encourage learners to use the language communicatively in order to achieve a purpose Tasks must be relevant to the real world language needs of the student That is, the underlying learning theory of task based and communicative language teaching seems to suggest that activities in which language is employed to complete meaningful tasks, enhances learning
1.4.2.5 The proportional approach
The proportional syllabus basically attempts to develop an "overall competence" It consists of a number of elements with theme playing a linking role through the units This theme is designated by the learners It is expected initially that form will be of central value, but later, the focus will veer towards interactional components ; the syllabus is designed to be dynamic, not static, with ample opportunity for feedback and flexibility
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being fully aware of the course they are studying it is believed that their interest and motivation will increase, coupled with the positive effect of nurturing the skills required
1.4.3 Types of ESP syllabus design
According to Nunan, although six different types of language teaching syllabi are treated here as they each occur "purely," in practice, these types rarely occur independently of each other For a given course, one type of syllabus usually dominates, while other types
of content may be combined with it Furthermore, the six types of syllabi are not entirely distinct from each other For example, the distinction between skill-based and task-based syllabi may be minimal In such cases, the distinguishing factor is often the way in which the instructional content is used in the actual teaching procedure The characteristics, differences, strengths, and weaknesses of individual syllabi are defined as follows:
1 "A structural (formal) syllabus." The content of language teaching is a collection of the forms and structures, usually grammatical, of the language being taught Examples include nouns, verbs, adjectives, statements, questions, subordinate clauses, and so on
2 "A notional/functional syllabus." The content of the language teaching is a collection
of the functions that are performed when language is used, or of the notions that language
is used to express Examples of functions include: informing, agreeing, apologizing, requesting; examples of notions include size, age, color, comparison, time, and so on
3 "A situational syllabus." The content of language teaching is a collection of real or imaginary situations in which language occurs or is used A situation usually involves several participants who are engaged in some activity in a specific setting The language occurring in the situation involves a number of functions, combined into a plausible segment of discourse The primary purpose of a situational language teaching syllabus is
to teach the language that occurs in the situations Examples of situations include: seeing the dentist, complaining to the landlord, buying a book at the book store, meeting a new student, and so on
4 "A skill-based syllabus." The content of the language teaching is a collection of specific abilities that may play a part in using language Skills are things that people must
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be able to do to be competent in a language, relatively independently of the situation or setting in which the language use can occur While situational syllabi group functions together into specific settings of language use, skill-based syllabi group linguistic competencies (pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar, and discourse) together into generalized types of behavior, such as listening to spoken language for the main idea, writing well-formed paragraphs, giving effective oral presentations, and so on The primary purpose of skill-based instruction is to learn the specific language skill A possible secondary purpose is to develop more general competence in the language, learning only incidentally any information that may be available while applying the language skills
5 "A task-based syllabus." The content of the teaching is a series of complex and purposeful tasks that the students want or need to perform with the language they are learning The tasks are defined as activities with a purpose other than language learning, but, as in a content-based syllabus, the performance of the tasks is approached in a way that is intended to develop second language ability Language learning is subordinate to task performance, and language teaching occurs only as the need arises during the performance of a given task Tasks integrate language (and other) skills in specific settings of language use Task-based teaching differs from situation-based teaching in that while situational teaching has the goal of teaching the specific language content that occurs in the situation (a predefined product), task-based teaching has the goal of teaching students to draw on resources to complete some piece of work (a process) The students draw on a variety of language forms, functions, and skills, often in an individual and unpredictable way, in completing the tasks Tasks that can be used for language learning are, generally, tasks that the learners actually have to perform in any case Examples include: applying for a job, talking with a social worker, getting housing information over the telephone, and so on
6 "A content-based-syllabus." The primary purpose of instruction is to teach some content or information using the language that the students are also learning The students are simultaneously language students and students of whatever content is being taught The subject matter is primary, and language learning occurs incidentally to the content
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learning The content teaching is not organized around the language teaching, but versa Content-based language teaching is concerned with information, while task-based language teaching is concerned with communicative and cognitive processes An example of content-based language teaching is a science class taught in the language the students need or want to learn, possibly with linguistic adjustment to make the science more comprehensible
vice-1.4.4 Steps in syllabus design
According to John (1984), syllabus design includes three stages: Need analysis, content specification and syllabus organization, while Nuan puts forward four steps to design the syllabus such as: Need analysis, goal setting, selecting and grading content, selecting and grading tasks Karl Krahnke (1994) points out ten steps to design a syllabus as following:
1 Determine, to the extent possible, what outcomes are desired for the students in the instructional program That is, as exactly and realistically as possible, defining what the students should be able to do as a result of the instruction
2 Rank the syllabus types presented here as to their likelihood of leading to the outcomes desired Several rankings may be necessary if outcomes are complex
3 Evaluate available resources in expertise (for teaching, needs analysis, materials choice and production, etc.), in materials, and in training for teachers
4 Rank the syllabi relative to available resources That is, determine what syllabus types would be the easiest to implement given available resources
5 Compare the lists made under steps 2 and 4 Making as few adjustments to the earlier list as possible, produce a new ranking based on the resources' constraints
6 Repeat the process, taking into account the constraints contributed by teacher and student factors described earlier
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7 Determine a final ranking, taking into account all the information produced by the earlier steps
8 Designate one or two syllabus types as dominant and one or two as secondary
9 Review the question of combination or integration of syllabus types and determine how combinations will be achieved and in what proportion
10 Translate decisions into actual teaching units
It is worth noticing that in making practical decisions about syllabus design, one must take into consideration all the possible factors that might affect the teachability of a particular syllabus By starting with an examination of each syllabus type, tailoring the choice and integration of the different types according to local needs, one may find a principled and practical solution to the problem of appropriateness and effectiveness in syllabus design
(Wilkins.1976: 16)
1.5.2 Reading process
Good readers understand the processes involved in reading and consciously control them This awareness and control of the reading processes is called metacognition, which means "knowing about knowing." Some students do not know when they do not know
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They continue to read even though they do not comprehend Poor readers tolerate such confusion because they either do not realize that it exists or do not know what to do about
it Poor readers focus on facts, whereas good readers try to assimilate details into a larger
sometimes multiple strategies at once, to help them make meaning from a text Those reading strategies include predicting, visualizing, questioning, drawing inferences, finding important/main ideas, summarizing, synthesizing, monitoring comprehension,
different approaches of learning, the teacher should know how to exploit all of the
Responding, Exploring, and Applying
1.6.Summary
properties of international news, a comparison of discourse properties of international news in English and Vietnamese, overview of ESP, approaches to language syllabus, steps in syllabus design, needs analysis Therefore, this chapter can frame the basic theories for the writer to design an appropriate, realistic and applicable ESP reading syllabus for the students of EIR at DAV
Trang 3034 CHAPTER 2: THE STUDY
In this chapter, the current situation at Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam (DAV) related to the study will be taken in close-up Research methodology for needs analysis will also be discussed, followed by the results of the survey questionnaires and conclusion about students’ needs
2.1 ESP teaching and learning at Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam (DAV)
At DAV, there are 4 different faculties namely Faculty of International Relations, Faculty
of International Economics, Faculty of Communications and Faculty of International Law A different ESP textbook, syllabus, and test are employed for each faculty Accordingly, teachers are divided in to 4 smaller groups in charge of teaching ESP for 4 faculties They are assigned to design the syllabus and to take the responsibility for teaching and assessing the students of respective faculty An ESP programme designer looks at the specific purposes to design the course and prepare materials for the learners
of a particular profession with special need At DAV we have used published book and also tailor-made materials or documents from Internet websites Once good texts have been selected, the activities can be written
So far, we do not have many chances to evaluate the ESP syllabus applied to the students All ESP teachers at DAV need more time to further study to design more effective syllabi for learners Since it began, ESP at DAV has become one of the most stimulating but challenging subjects Moreover, the present ESP syllabi for certain fields are selected randomly by the teachers without any consideration regarding needs analysis or syllabus design theory However, it is challenges that have created a new English learning and teaching environment at DAV They raise a motivation from teachers and learners in ESP learning development
In conclusion, having analyzed the present situation of the teaching and learning of ESP
at DAV, the researcher realized an urgent demand for the improvement of students’ reading skill Actually non-English major students at DAV should be provided with more effective ESP reading materials and reading skills so that they could better comprehend
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reading materials related to their subject matter As a matter of fact, it is a real challenge now for the ESP teachers to design an ESP reading syllabus which can serve students’ multi-interests and improve their reading skills
2.2 The ESP teachers
The teaching staff of Faculty of English consists of 14 teachers aged between 25 and 56 About a half of them are responsible of teaching general English and ESP There are only three teachers who take charge of teaching EIR Most of the ESP teachers graduated from College of Foreign Languages-Vietnam National University or Hanoi University of Foreign Studies Most of them are still very young and have finished or are doing their
MA degrees Their qualifications are quite good They enjoy teaching and spend all of their enthusiasm and effort making their teaching lessons interesting and attractive to the students
However, they are inexperienced in teaching ESP because nobody has worked as ESP teachers before Besides, they have to teach general English together with ESP They, therefore, have to face with a lot of difficulties in terms of knowledge of the specific field they have to teach and the teaching methodologies to ESP
Actually, all ESP teachers, myself included, have to work harder to be able to develop good ESP courses and to meet the requirements of the new teaching situation
2.3 The students
The subjects of this study are the third-year students of English They are the ones who have finished three semesters of Engish Most of them are female students This is a typical feature of DAV Their age ranges from 19 to 22 years old Each English class consists of about 30 students They have 6 periods of ESP per week Most of the students here have experiences of at least 3 years learning English at high school However, they
do not have a good command of English because they did not learn English seriously at high school What is more, students’ general knowledge and linguistic competence related to the fields of English are insufficient Due to limited timeframe for ESP learning and teaching the students cannot learn much but just come to know a few of English
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terms or concepts in English This leads to the fact that students find it hard to acquire and develop their English communicative competence to meet the demand of their future employment
2.4 The study
2.4.1 The subjects
The subjects of the study were divided into two groups The first one were 60 third-year students who have finished 4 semesters of English The second group taking parts in the study were 14 respondents who are currently working as teachers of English at DAV
2.4.2 Instrument for collecting data
To achieve the aims of the study, two questionnaires based on the analysis of the teaching and learning of ESP at DAV were conducted to both the teachers and the students of English
Section 2 deals with the topics needed for the syllabus
Section 3 is about language and reading exercises which should be consolidated in the syllabus
2.4.2.2 Questionnaire 2
The second questionnaire (see Appendix B) given to 150 students of Faculty of English This questionnaire consist of three main sections
Section 1 is to find out students’ attitude and ideas towards E
Section 2 concerns with needed topics perceived by students
Section 3 refers to residing skills and exercises
2.5 The findings
2.5.1 Needs perceived by the teachers of English
As presented in the previous section, this survey questionnaire was designed and administered to the teachers of the Faculty of English These 14 teachers are young ones most of whom have been teaching English for over 3 years
Trang 33Table 1 shows teachers’ ranking of objectives relating to English As can be seen
from this table, 56% of the teachers consider Item 3-to read and understand
written English materials and books relating to English to be the most important
objective From teachers’ points of view, reading skills and activities should be regularly given and practiced both inside and outside the class The ESP designer must use reading lessons to develop students’ reading proficiency rather than
improving linguistic competence Item 1-to build up English terms of
International Relations used in books, documents, and newspapers with the
percentage of 45% receives the second priority The third priority is given to Item
2-to read and understand concepts of English field (52%) The fourth priority is referred to Item 5-to translate books and newspapers (relating to English fields)
from English to Vietnamese which accounts for 47% Item 4-to consolidate basic grammar structures used in specific texts for English (49%) gets the fifth
priority)
Obviously, the findings indicate that teachers of English concerned with development of reading skills as well as enriching vocabulary used in English texts It is noticeable that these are also compatible with the objects of the syllabus design Accordingly, they should be focused on in the proposed syllabus and more leaning tasks and activities with the aim of improving reading skills and vocabulary must be written