ALIGNING ENGLISH FOR SPECIFIC PURPOSES (ESP) CURRICULUM WITH INDUSTRY NEEDS: LANGUAGE PRACTICES FOR VIETNAM’S GLOBALISED WORKPLACES

ALIGNING ENGLISH FOR SPECIFIC PURPOSES (ESP) CURRICULUM WITH INDUSTRY NEEDS: LANGUAGE PRACTICES FOR VIETNAM’S GLOBALISED WORKPLACES Thi Chau Ngan Nguyen BA English Pedagogy, MA TESOL Methodology Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Office of Education Research Faculty of Education Queensland University of Technology 2017 List of Abbreviations APEC Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation ASEAN Association of South-East Asian Nations ASEM Asia-Europe Meeting CEFR Common European Framework of Reference for Languages CLIL Content and Language Integrated Learning CLT Communicative Language Teaching EAP English for Academic Purposes EFL English as a Foreign Language EIB English for International Business ELF English as a Lingua Franca ENL English as a Native Language EOP English for Occupational Purposes EPP English for Professional Purposes ESL English as a Second Language ESP English for Specific Purposes GDP Gross Domestic Product GTM Grammar Translation Method HCMC Ho Chi Minh City IELTS International English Language Testing System LFE Lingua Franca English MOET Ministry of Education and Training TESOL Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages TFE Translingua Franca English TOEFL Test of English as a Foreign Language USSH University of Social Sciences and Humanities WE World Englishes WTO World Trade Organisation Aligning English for Specific Purposes (ESP) Curriculum with Industry Needs: Language Practices for Vietnam’s Globalised Workplaces i Keywords Alignment/Misalignment, Curriculum development, Emerging paradigm, Ethnography of communication, English as a Lingua Franca, English for Specific Purposes, Genre, Workplace demands Aligning English for Specific Purposes (ESP) Curriculum with Industry Needs: Language Practices for Vietnam’s Globalised Workplaces ii Abstract Vietnam’s import/export and customs services are growing rapidly, demanding high levels of English communication as personnel interact with clients from across the globe English language training is offered in industry-specific English for Specific Purposes (ESP) courses, but concerns exist that the courses are not meeting the communication demands of these workplaces This study drew on Blommaert’s (2010) sociolinguistics of mobility to investigate the language resources needed for communication in a large multinational import/export company and a customs office in an international airport in Vietnam The study was focused on the English language demands of the workplaces and the levels of the alignment with associated ESP courses In other words, to what extent were the curriculum, pedagogy, and assessment in the respective ESP courses aligned with the English language needs of personnel in the two workplaces? This was the key research question guiding the study To explore the communicative practices used in the two workplaces, an ethnography of communication (Hymes, 1974) approach was adopted The study employed methods of observations, semi-structured interviews, and document collection to collect data As a valuable variety of English, English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) was identified in the particular genres with different choices of registers and stylistic features adapted to communicative conditions in the fluid globalised workplaces Given the agility and unpredictability of work in globalised settings, the findings showed how the workers’ mobile language repertoire was not tied to the criterion of linguistic accuracy, but rather favoured the achievement of meanings and functions However, the adaptable and truncated ‘good enough’ language observed in the two industries did not align with the lexico-grammatical focus of the ESP courses The implication is that those language demands in the globalised workplaces were not taught in the respective ESP courses Recommendations focus on the triadic dimensions of the ESP program: first, the curriculum should be Vietnamese themed and relevant to the local industries; second, the pedagogy should develop students’ both spoken and written genres through authentic materials sourced directly from the Aligning English for Specific Purposes (ESP) Curriculum with Industry Needs: Language Practices for Vietnam’s Globalised Workplaces iii target industries; third, the assessment should promote application and communicative competence with functional priorities rather than language correctness The study is significant in documenting the types of language used in specialised and globalised workplaces Within an understanding of the sociolinguistics of mobility, ESP needs not be tied to traditional forms of language teaching governed by lexico-grammatical knowledge Rather, ESP courses should be more concerned with building students’ strategies and understandings to meet the communicative demands of their interactions in sites marked with intercultural connections The study contributes to rethinking and renovating ESP curriculum to better align with the shifting communicative practices in target industries at a time of globalisation Aligning English for Specific Purposes (ESP) Curriculum with Industry Needs: Language Practices for Vietnam’s Globalised Workplaces iv Table of Contents List of Abbreviations i Keywords ii Abstract iii Table of Contents v List of Figures ix List of Tables x Statement of Original Authorship xi Acknowledgements xii Chapter 1: Introduction 1.1 INTRODUCTION 1.2 THE RESEARCH CONTEXT 1.2.1 Global and national context of Vietnam 1.2.2 Local context of Ho Chi Minh City 1.2.3 The comeback of English in the national education system 1.2.4 English teaching in academic institutions in Ho Chi Minh City 1.2.5 Summary 1.3 BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY 1.3.1 A shift to English for Specific Purposes 10 1.3.2 Purposes of the study 11 1.3.3 Statement of research problem and questions 13 1.4 RESEARCH DESIGN 15 1.5 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY 16 1.6 STRUCTURE OF THE THESIS 17 Chapter 2: 2.1 Literature Review 19 INTRODUCTION 19 2.2 THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ESP PROGRAMS AND INDUSTRY IN GLOBALISING CONTEXTS 19 2.2.1 English for business communication 20 2.2.2 English for import/export business 24 2.2.3 Summary 25 2.3 TYPES OF LANGUAGE NEEDED AND USED IN THE WORKPLACE SETTINGS 26 2.4 MATERIAL DESIGN IN ESP PROGRAMS 30 2.4.1 ESP needs analysis 30 2.4.2 ESP genre-based pedagogy 34 2.4.3 Intercultural communication in the ESP classrooms 36 2.4.4 Types of materials in the ESP programs 38 2.4.5 Issues related to ESP teaching and learning in Vietnam 44 2.4.6 Summary 45 2.5 CONCLUSION 46 Aligning English for Specific Purposes (ESP) Curriculum with Industry Needs: Language Practices for Vietnam’s Globalised Workplaces v Chapter 3: Theoretical Framework 49 3.1 INTRODUCTION 49 3.2 UNDERSTANDING THE SOCIOLINGUISTICS OF GLOBALISATION 50 3.2.1 The sociolinguistics of globalisation 50 3.2.2 The changing linguascape of English 53 3.2.3 Summary 57 3.3 UNDERSTANDING INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION 57 3.3.1 Communication and its related meaning-making components 57 3.3.2 The pragmatics of intercultural communicative competence 61 3.3.3 Summary 66 3.4 CONCEPTUALISING ENGLISH FOR SPECIFIC PURPOSES 66 3.4.1 English for Specific Purposes 66 3.4.2 Characteristics of ESP 69 3.4.3 ESP curriculum development 70 3.4.4 Approaches to ESP teaching 76 3.4.5 Summary 79 3.5 CONCLUSION 80 Chapter 4: Research Design 83 4.1 INTRODUCTION 83 4.2 QUALITATIVE RESEARCH 83 4.2.1 Research paradigm 85 4.3 RESEARCH METHODS 87 4.3.1 Case study 88 4.3.2 Ethnography of communication 88 4.3.3 Observations 90 4.3.4 Interviews 93 4.3.5 Document collection 95 4.3.6 Reliability and validity 96 4.3.7 Summary 97 4.4 SAMPLING 98 4.4.1 Research settings 98 4.4.2 Research participants 99 4.4.3 Ethical issues 100 4.4.4 Summary 101 4.5 ANALYSING QUALITATIVE DATA 102 4.5.1 Data transcription and translation 102 4.5.2 Genre analysis and thematic analysis 105 4.5.3 Summary 113 4.6 CONCLUSION 113 Chapter 5: English Language Communicative Practices in the Vietnamese Customs Service 115 5.1 INTRODUCTION 115 5.2 ANALYSIS OF OBSERVATIONS 117 5.2.1 Description of the ethnography of communication approach employed in the observations 117 5.2.2 Summary 126 5.3 ANALYSIS OF CUSTOMS-RELATED DOCUMENTS 127 Aligning English for Specific Purposes (ESP) Curriculum with Industry Needs: Language Practices for Vietnam’s Globalised Workplaces vi 5.3.1 Customs procedure guideline document 127 5.3.2 In-house training materials 131 5.3.3 Summary 139 5.4 ANALYSIS OF INTERVIEWS 141 5.4.1 Views on the functions of English needed in the customs areas 142 5.4.2 Types of English communication: formal English versus informal English, general English versus technical register 145 5.4.3 Challenges in using English in the workplace 147 5.4.4 English proficiency in relation to the customs profession 148 5.4.5 Cultural understandings to work in the customs setting 149 5.4.6 Summary 150 5.5 COMMUNICATIVE PRACTICES IN THE CUSTOMS INTERFACE 152 5.6 CONCLUSION 156 Chapter 6: English Language Communicative Practices in the Vietnamese Import/Export Services 159 6.1 INTRODUCTION 159 6.2 ANALYSIS OF BUSINESS EMAILS 160 6.2.1 Analysis: Email Thread One 165 6.2.2 Analysis: Email Thread Two 174 6.2.3 Summary 182 6.3 PHONE COMMUNICATION IN THE IMPORT/EXPORT SETTING 183 6.3.1 Characteristics of phone calls in the Logistics Department 184 6.3.2 Summary 188 6.4 ANALYSIS OF INTERVIEW 189 6.4.1 English skills needed in the import/export services 189 6.4.2 Workplace English: general English versus technical English 191 6.4.3 Challenges in using English in the workplace 191 6.4.4 Cultural understandings implicated in work in the import/export setting 193 6.4.5 Summary 194 6.5 CONCLUSION 194 Chapter 7: The Language Demands in ESP Programs for the Import/Export and Customs Services 197 7.1 INTRODUCTION 197 7.2 ANALYSIS OF ENGLISH FOR IMPORT/EXPORT 201 7.2.1 English for Import/Export materials 201 7.2.2 Students’ written assessment 208 7.2.3 Import/Export ESP teaching practices 211 7.2.4 Summary 221 7.3 ANALYSIS OF ENGLISH FOR CUSTOMS 221 7.3.1 English for Customs materials 222 7.3.2 Students’ written assessment 225 7.3.3 Customs ESP teaching practices 226 7.3.4 Summary 230 7.4 CONCLUSION 231 Chapter 8: 8.1 Aligning ESP Programs and Globalised Workplace Needs 235 INTRODUCTION 235 8.1.1 Revisiting literature on ESP training 235 Aligning English for Specific Purposes (ESP) Curriculum with Industry Needs: Language Practices for Vietnam’s Globalised Workplaces vii 8.1.2 Revisiting theory of the sociolinguistics of globalisation 237 8.1.3 Revisiting workplace analyses 238 8.1.4 Literature on the alignment and the misalignment 240 8.2 ALIGNMENT IN ESP FOR THE CUSTOMS INDUSTRY 242 8.2.1 Summary 248 8.3 ALIGNMENT IN ESP FOR THE IMPORT/EXPORT INDUSTRY 249 8.3.1 Summary 254 8.4 IMPLICATIONS FOR THE STUDY 255 8.4.1 Implications for workplace communicative practices 255 8.4.2 Implications for ESP teaching in the College 259 8.5 RECOMMENDATIONS OF THE STUDY 260 8.5.1 Curriculum 260 8.5.2 Pedagogy 262 8.5.3 Assessment 264 8.5.4 Further research 265 8.6 CONTRIBUTIONS OF THE STUDY 266 8.7 LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY 269 8.8 CONCLUSION 270 Bibliography 273 Appendices 291 Appendix A Observational Protocol at the Customs Office 291 Appendix B Observational Protocol at the Import/Export Company 294 Appendix C Interview Protocol for Customs Officers and Import/Export Staff 297 Appendix D Interview Protocol for ESP Teachers 298 Appendix E Customs Guidelines 300 Appendix F Exemplar from In-house Training Materials 304 Appendix G Exemplar from In-house Training Materials 305 Appendix H Test A 306 Appendix I Test B 310 Aligning English for Specific Purposes (ESP) Curriculum with Industry Needs: Language Practices for Vietnam’s Globalised Workplaces viii List of Figures Figure 1.1 Import/Export turnover from 2011 to 2016 Figure 3.1 A visual representation of the theoretical framework for this study 50 Figure 3.2 ESP classification by professional areas (Dudley-Evans & St John, 1998, p.6) 67 Figure 3.3 ESP course timing in relation to learners’ work or study experience (Basturkmen, 2010, p.6) 69 Figure 3.4 A material design model (Hutchinson & Waters, 1987, pp 108109) 74 Figure 3.5 Representation of ESP course development (Basturkmen, 2010, p 143) 75 Figure 3.6 The 4Cs framework (Coyle, Hood, & Marsh, 2010, p 41) 79 Figure 4.1 The process of observing (Creswell, 2014, p 249) 92 Figure 5.1 Processing travellers on exit 118 Figure 5.2 Processing travellers on entry 119 Figure 5.3 Non-verbal interactions at the customs checkpoint 123 Figure 5.4 Customs procedure guidelines (Customs Office, 2015) 127 Figure 5.5 Examples of lookalike English (Customs Office, 2015) 129 Figure 5.6 Content of the in-house training materials (Customs Office, 2015) 132 Figure 5.7 Exemplar regarding customs inspections (Customs Office, 2015) 133 Figure 6.1 Examples from the beginning of the first email thread (The Logistics Department, 2015) 168 Figure 6.2 Examples of the second email thread (The Logistics Department, 2015) 177 Figure 7.1 An extract from the Import/Export: How to Take Your Business across Borders book (Nelson, 2009, pp 3-4), the set text for the Import/Export ESP strand 204 Figure 7.2 An extract from the Law on Customs teaching material, the set text for the Customs ESP strand (General Department of Vietnam Customs, 2014) 224 Figure 8.1 Internal and external alignment between the ESP course and workplace demands 242 Figure 8.2 The model for ESP curriculum 271 Aligning English for Specific Purposes (ESP) Curriculum with Industry Needs: Language Practices for Vietnam’s Globalised Workplaces ix Appendix D Interview Protocol for ESP Teachers OPENING Tell me about your ESP teaching experience/ your work history? BODY What curriculum is required at the college? What freedom you have? What constraints you have? (for example: time, resources, coursebooks, class size) What kinds or aspects of English you teach in your ESP classes? Reading? Writing? Listening? Speaking? Tell me about your [writing/reading/listening/speaking] program What kind of materials you choose? (Why? How you choose?) What kind of learning activities you plan? What kind of assessment you plan? What teaching practices you use? You work in a program about English for import/export/customs: How comfortable are you with these specialised areas and their English demands? How have you developed your knowledge in these areas? Do you think that the courses you teach prepare students for specialised language knowledge to work in import/export/customs industries? Why/ why not? What parts of the ESP courses are working? Which parts are not working? Why/ why not? What would you like to keep the same? What would you like to change? Appendices 298 Can you make changes? Why/ why not? If you could, what would you change? What you think about cultural understandings when working in multicultural settings such as customs offices or import/export companies? How and what materials you use to develop students’ cultural understandings? CLOSING Thank you … closing … arrangements to check transcriptions and translations Appendices 299 Appendix E Customs Guidelines Appendices 300 Appendices 301 Appendices 302 Appendices 303 Appendix F Exemplar from In-house Training Materials Appendices 304 Appendix G Exemplar from In-house Training Materials Appendices 305 Appendix H Test A Appendices 306 Appendices 307 Appendices 308 Appendices 309 Appendix I Test B Appendices 310 Appendices 311 Appendices 312 ... targets Under this Project, an expected number of 1,100 PhD candidates would be sent overseas in 2013 and 10,000 in total by 2020, of which the researcher is one To this extent, this national... ESP course delivery This practical constraint meant that it was not possible to observe the ESP classes This part of the design relied on interview data The final stage in this case study design... Statement of Original Authorship The work contained in this thesis has not been previously submitted to meet requirements for an award at this or any other higher education institution To the