An evaluation of the ESP course for third-year students at Industrial Economics and Technology College. M.A Thesis Linguistics: 60 14 0

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ********************* ĐẶNG THỊ MINH HUỆ AN EVALUATION OF THE ESP COURSE FOR THIRD-YEAR STUDENTS AT INDUSTRIAL ECONOMICS AND TECHNOLOGY COLLEGE Đánh giá khóa học tiếng Anh chuyên ngành cho sinh viên năm trường Cao đẳng Công nghệ Kinh tế Công nghiệp M.A MINOR PROGAMME THESIS FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY CODE: 60140111 Hanoi, 2015 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ********************* ĐẶNG THỊ MINH HUỆ AN EVALUATION OF THE ESP COURSE FOR THIRD-YEAR STUDENTS AT INDUSTRIAL ECONOMICS AND TECHNOLOGY COLLEGE Đánh giá khóa học tiếng Anh chuyên ngành cho sinh viên năm trường Cao đẳng Công nghệ Kinh tế Công nghiệp M.A MINOR PROGAMME THESIS FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY CODE: 60140111 SUPERVISOR: DƯƠNG THU MAI, PhD Hanoi, 2015 DECLARATION I hereby certify that this thesis is entirely my own work I have provided fully documented references to the others' work The material in this thesis has not been submitted for assessment in any other formal course I also accept all the requirements of ULIS relating to the retention and use of M.A Graduation Thesis deposited in the library Thai Nguyen, September, 2014 Dang Thi Minh Hue i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my gratitude to all who have helped me in the completion of this thesis Firstly, I am deeply indebted to my supervisor, Duong Thu Mai, Ph.D for her valuable guidance, useful suggestions, kind encouragement while I was doing my research Secondly, many thanks also go to my classmates in K21- University of Languages & International Studies- VNU, Hanoi for their support, and suggestions during the thesis Thirdly, I am grateful to my colleagues and students at Accountancy Faculty at Industrial Economics and Technology College for their willingness to participate in the research without whose support I could not complete this project Last but not least, a special note of appreciation goes to family who always supported me with their sympathy and encouragement to complete this study Thai Nguyen, September 2014 Đặng Thị Minh Huệ ii ABSTRACT Course evaluation in light of learner-centered teaching approach is found to be significantly important at Industrial Economics and Technology College where no evaluation of the ESP course has been conducted This study attempts to evaluate the Business and Economics course in the aspects: Function of content, roles of the instructor, responsibilities for learning, and processes and purposes of assessment in the perspective of students and teachers To fulfill such objectives, the study employed the instruments of questionnaires and interviews administered for 80 students and 09 English teachers respectively The data collected from the questionnaires was analyzed in graphs, tables, charts meanwhile information collected from the interview was summarized interpretively After comparing the data collected from students and teachers, inferences were made regarding the strengths and weaknesses of the course The findings show that purposes and processes of assessment were done well, some parts in responsibilities for learning and roles of the instructor should be strengthened, content of the course should be reconsidered about amount of knowledge Finally, some recommendations for improving the course's effectiveness were introduced iii TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION .i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .ii ABSTRACT iii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS vii LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES .viii PART A: INTRODUCTION 1 Rationale of the study Aims and objectives of the study Research questions Scope of the study Methods of the study Organization PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 English for Specific Purposes (ESP) 1.1.1 Definitions on English Specific Purposes 1.1.2 Characteristics of ESP courses 1.1.3 The approach in teaching ESP 1.2 Course evaluation 12 1.2.1 What is Course Evaluation? 12 1.2.2 The importance of course evaluation 13 1.2.3 The framework used for evaluation 14 CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY 22 2.1 The practical background of the study 22 2.1.1 Research site 22 2.1.2 ESP course 23 2.2 Participants 24 iv 2.2.1 Students 24 2.2.2 Teachers 24 2.3 Data collection 24 2.3.1 Data collection instrument 24 2.3.2 Data collection procedure 27 2.3.3 Data presentation and analysis procedure 28 CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 30 3.1 Course evaluation in terms of learner-centeredness from the perspective of students 30 3.1.1 Function of content 30 3.1.2 Role of the teacher 32 3.1.3 Responsibility for learning 34 3.1.4 Purposes and processes of assessment 35 3.2 Course evaluation in terms of learner-centeredness from the perspective of teachers 37 3.2.1 Function of content 37 3.2.2 Role of the teacher 39 3.2.3 Responsibilities for learning 39 3.2.4 Purposes and processes of assessment 40 3.3 Discussion 41 3.3.1 Function of the content 41 3.3.2 Roles of the teacher 42 3.3.3 Responsibilities of the learner 44 3.3.4 Purposes and processes of assessment 45 PART C: CONCLUSION 47 Summary of findings and discussions 47 Recommendations 48 Limitations 50 Suggestions for further research 50 v REFERENCES 51 APPENDICE I vi LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ESP: English for Specific Purposes IETC: Industrial Economics and Technology College vii LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES LIST OF TABLES Table 1.1: Comparison of Teacher-learner teaching and Learner-centered teaching on five key elements (Saulnier et al., 2008; Weimer, 2002) Table 1.2: The rubric role for the role of the instructor dimension of learner-centered Teaching (Blumberg P., 2009) Table 3.1: Strengths and weaknesses of the ESP course LIST OF FIGURES Figure 3.1: Students' evaluation of the course's content Figure 3.2: Student's evaluation of the teacher's role Figure 3.3: Students' evaluation on their learning responsibility Figure 3.4: Students' evaluation on the opportunities to develop self and peer assessment skills Figure 3.5: Students' evaluation on enhancing their potential to promote learning by many assessments Figure 3.6: Students' satisfaction about the course's content of the ESP course Figure 3.7: Students' satisfaction about the role of teacher in the ESP course Figure 3.8: Students' satisfaction about responsibilities for learning Figure 3.9: Students' satisfaction about the purposes and processes of the assessment viii strongly agreed that the course content could develop students' skills well However, while most English teachers evaluated highly the course's content could improve the student's learning awareness much both in content's frame and engagement in learning, students just agreed with teacher that they understood the content's frame but they did not evaluate as highly as teachers did in aspect of engagement into learning thanks to the course's content when this number accounted for only 29.63% It is understandable that high number of students at IETC were not satisfied with the amount of knowledge for its structure of the each unit In each unit, around 15 new words from a difficult reading text were adapted, practice is firmed by filling those new words into gaps, and then translation is required to ensure the meanings of the sentence and/or texts There are totally 12 units which covered various issues in the line knowledge such as: GDP, GNP, market capitalism, microeconomics, macroeconomics, inflation, inflation and growth, etc With non-major English students, it is extremely a challenge for them However, some students who owned some extent knowledge in English already are able to absorb the new words so the number of informants satisfied with amount of knowledge is nearly 15% That is also the reason why it is difficult for them to engage into their learning English teachers saw that situation They saw some mistakes with their textbook design At the time of designing materials, teachers at IETC raised some challenges for students with the very hope of achievement from their students However, those challenges are so difficult with students 3.3.2 Role of the teacher In the part of role of teachers, teachers at IETC, as mentioned above were confident with the learning environment which they provided for the class but still in consideration with the training objectives of the course, then they could align with training methods and assessments Meanwhile, the students' opinion is shown in the below figure: 42 Good + Very good 80.00% 70.00% 60.00% 50.00% 40.00% 30.00% 20.00% 10.00% 0.00% 74.07% 59.26% 44.44% 33.33% Good + Very good 25.93% Q6 Q7 Q8 Q9 Q10 Figure 3.7: Students' satisfaction about the role of teacher in the ESP course As being seen in the above figure from the question 8, and 10 which were asked about the learning environment, students highly appreciated that the teacher motivated them to learn intrinsically and provided them an environment that fostered them learning However, in students' opinion, the teacher should better in creating the environment that accommodated different learning styles On the other hand, just 25.93% of students could see clearly the alignment of objectives, training methods and assessment done by their teacher As analysis above, as students' evaluation, teacher did well their job in training methods and assessment The matter lies in the course's objective Objectives of the course are remarkably important Everything done from preparation, implementation, monitoring and evaluation was in consideration with objectives However, English teachers at IETC could not remember clearly in their mind but fortunately they understood the students' objectives They conducted their training performance towards the students' objectives rather than the course's objectives, then they could provide good environment for their students to discover knowledge The most successful thing which English teachers did in the course is motivating students to learn intrinsically Surely English teachers understood the importance of 43 intrinsically learning with the adults who would decide everything in their life They kept it in their mind when they conducted training Students also saw this feature from their teacher 3.3.3 Responsibilities of the learner In the part of responsibilities of the learner, some differences are seen in the perspective of students and of teachers Most of English teachers gave their positive evaluation on all issues: the student took responsibility for their learning, chances to practice and master some skills for future, students could self assessment of their learning and students could self-assessment of their strengths and weaknesses With students, as it can be seen in the below figure, they shared their similar opinions in two issues of responsibility for their learning (with 51.85%) and self assessment of their strengths and weaknesses (with 48.15%) However, they expected higher in two left issues, that is, chances to practice and master some skills for future and self assessment of their learning Good + Very good 60.00% 51.85% 48.15% 50.00% 40.00% 30.00% 22.22% 20.00% Good + Very good 18.52% 10.00% 0.00% Q11 Q12 Q13 Q14 Figure 3.8: Students' satisfaction about responsibilities for learning The third-year students at IETC are at the age of at least 20, they had two years learning at the college and they will be an element of a society Some of them are doing part-time jobs as sales staff, hotel receptionists, It is understandable that they could understand well their responsibilities of learning and assessment of their 44 strengths and weaknesses and they expect as many as possible the chances of practice and master some skills for future including time management skill, monitoring and assessment skill, self-assessment for their learning English teachers at IETC gained those skills in some extend and should strengthen them later on 3.3.4 Purposes and processes of assessment In the part of the purposes and processes of assessment, most English teachers at IETC evaluated highly the assessment since they successfully achieved the purposes and processes of assessment This opinion is also seen in the students' one All the numbers in the below figures are higher than others in the three part above Students evaluated highly the frequency of giving feedbacks from their teacher or encouraging them to justify their answer It means that both teachers and students agreed that the purposes and processes of assessment were done well Good + Very good 100.00% 81.48% 80.00% 60.00% 62.96% 51.85% 48.15% 44.44% 51.85% Good + Very good 40.00% 20.00% 0.00% Q15 Q16 Q17 Q18 Q19 Q20 Figure 3.9: Students' satisfaction about the purposes and processes of the assessment Among parts of Functions of content, role of the teacher, responsibilities for learning and purposes and processes of assessment, this part is done best from the perspective of students and teachers In the learner-centeredness course, assessment plays a very important role and is done formatively to see what should be done 45 additionally English teachers at IETC should keep their good performance in assessment when they understood and understand how important it is 46 PART C: CONCLUSION Summary of findings and discussions The findings and the discussion of the study will be summarized in the below table: Table 3: Strengths and weaknesses of the ESP course Content Strengs Weaknesses (High-level learner-centeredness ) (Low-level learner-centeredness) - Student's learning skills were improved - The course failed in the amount through developing some specific of the ESP course learning methodologies and soft skills - Student's engagement into the - The learner's awareness about the course should be strengthened the course's frame was successfully by developed improving the course's content Role of - The teacher strongly motivated the - The course's objectives were teacher students to learn intrinsically - The teacher not made clear by the teacher created a good - The teacher should better in environment to foster students to learn creating the environment that - The teacher understood the learner's accommodated different learning goals, then had the appropriate teaching styles techniques Respons - Responsibilities for learning were truly - Chances to practice and master ibilities understood by the students some skills for future should be for - Students could self assessment of provided more frequently learning their strengths and weaknesses - Self-assessment of students' learning should be improved Purpose s and part process es The course was evaluated well in this when students had multiple opportunities to assess themselves and of their peers, students could learn from 47 assessm their mistakes and their peers meanwhile ent teacher encouraged successfully students to justify their answers when they did not agree and teachers used various assessment methods through out the course In addition, students highly appreciated the frequency of feedback and negotiation about timeframe for the feedback from their teachers The findings and discussion show that the purposes and processes of assessment were evaluated highly in terms of learner-centeredness In addition, the content of the course developed well the learning skills and learner's awareness meanwhile the teacher created a good environment for students to foster learning and then learn intrinsically In part of responsibilities for learning, both teachers and students evaluated highly responsibilities for learning understood by students and it was students who could assess their strengths and weaknesses Besides, the course was evaluated to be successful to some extent including students' engagement into the course by the course's content or teacher's performance in creating the environment that accommodated different learning styles, chances to practice and master some skills for future and self-assessment of students The course was assessed to be failed in the amount of knowledge provided by the ESP course and the course's objectives understood by teachers and students The amount of knowledge was said to be too heavy for students to learn and apply into the reality meanwhile the course's objectives was said to be too general, not clear 48 Recommendations The recommendations of the study are drawn out from the above table: Firstly, it is undeniable that the course has many its own strengths To some extend, students of the course know why they need to learn and how to learn; they have self awareness of their learning abilities and their learning processes; they can retrieve and evaluate information English teachers at IETC should keep ongoing those teaching skills, techniques, teaching methods, learning environment, assessment to make students involve well their learning and their development process Secondly, it'd better to strengthen some activities Creating the learning environment in which students could accommodate different learning styles is one of activities teachers at IETC should fostered strongly Providing frequently chances for students to practice and master some skills and improving the self-assessment of student's learning could make students involve better in their learning By doing that, the role of the teacher and responsibilities for learning will be much better Finally, it is required that English teachers at IETC reconsider two things: the course's content and the course's objectives The amount of ESP knowledge at present is a burden for students when they learn with huge amount of vocabulary and few types of exercises Besides, it cannot be ignored some words from a teacher that some knowledge in the textbook was not updated, some of them were made in 2000, 14 years ago In addition, when reconsidering the textbook, English teachers should account the student's engagement into their learning by the course's content With the second thing of course's objectives, thought course's objectives are very important with teachers and students, teachers at IETC could not keep in their mind It means that English teachers should sit together to discuss carefully the course's objectives and make them clarify Moreover, before starting teaching the ESP course, English teachers should spend a little time to discuss the training objectives of the course and of students so that both teachers and students could understand each other and then try to achieve them In considering course' content and course's objectives, English teachers at IETC should redesign their present textbook 49 Limitations Although the study is carefully done, there are some unavoidable limitations Firstly, the study took 80 students to be samples of 300 ones from the Accountancy Faculty, then the findings and recommendations are generalized for the ESP course at the college Secondly, items in the questionnaire for students were translated from English to Vietnamese so in some cases, Vietnamese could not express fully the meanings of the origin Thirdly, during the time of answering the questionnaire, teachers monitored and assisted students to answer, reliability was not guaranteed as whole Fourthly, the part of "balance of power" between the teacher and students was not done in this study so in some extent it made the course evaluation less comprehensive However, at present it is not easy to take the right data for this part when Vietnam needs much additional time to balance this power Last but not least, it is of Vietnam culture Students were asked to give their evaluation on the things done by their teachers who were directly teaching them or the evaluator is also their teacher or their teacher's friend Being Vietnamese students, they easily evaluated higher than they actually thought Suggestions for further research Firstly, this study is just a starting point for the evaluation of an ESP course toward learner-centered teaching approach From that, teachers at IETC could see the strengths and weaknesses of the course to have some improvements, changes After that, another evaluation with same categories should be done to see how much the course is improved by doing comparison Thus, they can be done several times Secondly, this study is done internally The evaluator is the teacher of the ESP course so the course evaluation is done less objectively Therefore, it'd better to conduct evaluation of the ESP by a/some manager(s) or by the Monitoring and Evaluation Department of the college or ideally by the external agencies In such cases, students could give more honest answers for evaluation 50 REFERENCES Collins, J.W., 3rd, & O'Brien, N.P (Eds), (2003), Greenwood Dictionary of Education Westport, CT: Greenwood Brown, J.D (1995) The elements of language curriculum New York: Heinle & Heinle Belchel, D (2006), English for Specific Purposes: Teaching to perceived needs and imagined futures in worlds of work, study and everyday life, TESOL Quarterly Blumberg, P., Developing Learner-centered teaching, A Practical Guidance for Faculty, 2009, Jossey- Bass, A Wiley Company, San Francisco Dudley-Evans, T & St John, M (1998), Developments in ESP, A multidisciplinary approach, Cambridge University Press Duff, A (1994) Translation; Resource Books for Teachers Oxford: Oxford University Press Ellis, M,& Johnson, C , 1994, Teaching Business English, Oxford, OUP Germaine et al, 1992, Evaluation, Oxford University Press Graham, J.G & Beardsley, R.S (1986) English for specific purposes: Content language, and communication in a pharmacy course model TESOL Quarterly, 20(2), 227-245 10 Hutchinson, T & Waters, A., 1987, English for Specific Purposes, A learningcentered approach, Cambridge University Press 11 Lorendo, F (2005) Teaching English for specific purposes Using English.com Retrieved March 2009 from http://www.usingenglish.com/articles/teaching-englishfor-specific-purposes-esp.html 12 Marsh, Herbert W (2011) HEA Conference 19 May 2011, Students' evaluations of University Teaching: Ratings of Teachers, Universities and Departments 13 McCain, D.V, 2005Evaluation Basics, pressed by American Society for Training and Development 14 Napoli, R D What is student-centered Learning, 2004, Educational Initiative Center, University of Westminster (2004) 51 15 Neary, M 2000, Teaching, Assessing and Evaluation for Clinical Competence: A practical guide for practitioners and teachers, pressed by Stanley Thomes (Publishers) Ltd 16 Robinson, P 1991, ESP Today: a Practitioner's Guide Hemel Hempstead, Prentice Hall International 17 Leonardi, V March 2009, Teaching Business English through translation, Journal of Language and Translation 18 Weimer, M., Learner-centered Teaching, Five key changes to practice, 2002, Jossey-Bass, A Wikey Company, San Francisco 19 Many websites 52 APPENDICE APPENDIX QUESTIONNAIRE FOR COURSE EVALUATION (The first version) Thank you for taking your time to give your feedback to the course: English for Economics and Business User feedback is of immense help in refining and improving the course No personal information is required so feel free to fill in this evaluation form For each statement below, circle the extent to which you disagree or agree with each statement (1) Not at all (2) A little (3) Average (4) Good (5) Very good No Criteria Function of Content Content of the course made me engage in most of the content to make it their own In addition to building a knowledge base, the content facilitated me to build an appreciation for value of content In addition to building a knowledge base, the content facilitated me to build specific learning methodologies Content could help students developing an organizing framework or way to learn Content is framed so that I saw how it could be applied in the future Roles of the instructor The instructor explicitly aligned objectives, teaching methods and assessment consistently The instructor created an environment that fostered me learning The instructor created an environment that accommodated different learning styles The instructor utilized many different teaching techniques which were appropriate for my learning goals I 12345 10 The instructor designed activities in which students interacted with the material, the teacher and each other 11 The instructor motivated students to learn intrinsically 12345 Responsibility for learning 12 To what extent I involved in learning process thanks to creating and maintaining climates conductive to learning 13 I was learned how to take responsibility for learning including some skills which they must learn, practice and master The purposes and processes of assessment 14 The instructor gave formative feedback for the purposes of fostering improvement 15 I had multiple opportunities to assess themselves and their peers 16 I could learn from their mistakes and then demonstrate mastery 17 The instructor encouraged me to justify their answer when I did not agree with those of the instructor 18 Instructor and I mutually agreed on a timeframe for feedback and always followed the timeframe for providing feedback 19 Instructor used authentic assessment throughout the course 12345 12345 The balance of power 20 I could have some say over some policies, deadlines 12345 21 I was allowed to choose some grading options 12345 Thank you for your collaboration! II APPENDIX 1I QUESTIONNAIRE FOR COURSE EVALUATION (The final version) Thank you for taking your time to give your feedback to the course: English for Economics and Business User feedback is of immense help in refining and improving the course No personal information is required so feel free to fill in this evaluation form Part 1: For each statement below, circle the extent to which you agree with each statement (1) Not at all (2) A little (3) Average (4) Good (5) Very good No Criteria Function of Content Content of the course provided me much knowledge on the ESP course In addition to building a knowledge base, the content facilitated 12345 me to build specific learning methodologies including selflearning, group work, searching internet, Content could help me develop some skills to learn like: management skill, 12345 Content of the course made me engaged in learning 12345 Content was framed so that I could see how it can be applied in 12345 the future Roles of the instructor The instructor explicitly aligned objectives, teaching methods and assessment consistently 12345 Many different teaching techniques utilized by the instructor were appropriate for my learning goals 12345 The environment created by the instructor fostered me learning 12345 The environment created by the instructor could accommodate 12345 different learning styles III 10 The instructor motivated me to learn intrinsically 12345 Responsibility for learning 11 I took responsibility for my learning 12345 12 I had some chances to practice and master some skills for future such as: time management, self-monitoring 13 I could self-assessment of my learning 12345 14 I could self-assessment of my strengths and weaknesses 12345 The purposes and processes of assessment 15 I had multiple opportunities to assess themselves and their peers 16 I could learn from their mistakes and then demonstrate mastery 12345 17 The instructor encouraged me to justify their answer when they did not agree with those of the instructor 12345 18 Instructor used authentic assessment throughout the course 12345 19 The instructor gave formative feedback for the purposes of 12345 fostering improvement 20 Instructor and I mutually agreed on a timeframe for feedback and always followed the timeframe for providing feedback Thank you for your collaboration! IV 12345 ... from the perspective of students, and help them to infer the strengths and weaknesses of the course Organization The thesis is under the title: "The evaluation of the ESP course for third-year students. .. describes how much students were satisfied with the function of the content Good + Very good 100 .00 % 77.78% 80. 00% 60. 00 % 48.15% 20. 00% 40. 74% 29.63% 40. 00% Good + Very good 14. 81% 0. 00% Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4... related concept, that is, ESP and course evaluation From the part of ESP, the study clarified that in an ESP course, the learner is the center of the course, every components of an ESP course must be