Designing a thermal engineering english reading syllabus for workers in uong bi thermal power plant

University of languages and national studies Post graduate STUDIES TRẦN THỊ THU HƯƠNG Designing a Thermal Engineering English Reading Syllabus for workers in Uong Bi Thermal Power Plant (THIẾT KẾ CHƯƠNG TRÌNH ĐỌC HIỂU TIẾNG ANH CHUYÊN NGÀNH NHIỆT CHO CƠNG NHÂN NHÀ MÁY NHIỆT ĐIỆN NG BÍ) M.A MINOR THESIS Field: Methodology Code: 60 14 10 hµ néi , Năm 2010 University of languages and national studies Post graduate studies TRẦN THỊ THU HƯƠNG Designing a Thermal Engineering English Reading Syllabus for workers in Uong Bi Thermal Power Plant (THIẾT KẾ CHƯƠNG TRÌNH ĐỌC HIỂU TIẾNG ANH CHUYÊN NGÀNH NHIỆT CHO CƠNG NHÂN NHÀ MÁY NHIỆT ĐIỆN NG BÍ) M.A MINOR THESIS Field: Methodology Code: 60 14 10 Supervisor: Hoang Thi Xuan Hoa, Ph.D hà nội , Năm 2010 Designing a Thermal Engineering English Reading Syllabus for workers in UongBi Thermal Power Plant TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Acknowledgements List of tables List of figures Abbreviations Roman symbols Greek symbols Abstract PART A: INTRODUCTION 1.Rationale 2.Aims of the study 3.Scope of the study 4.Methodology of the study 5.Organization of the thesis PART B: DEVELOPMENT Chapter I: LITERATURE REVIEW I.1 An overview of English for Specific Purposes (ESP) I.1.1 Definition of ESP I.1.2 Types of ESP I.2 Syllabus design I.2.1 Definition of the syllabus I.2.2 Approaches to language syllabus design I.2.3 Steps to design a syllabus I.3 Needs analysis in syllabus design I.3.1 Target needs I.3.2 Learning needs I.4 Reading I.4.1 Concepts of reading I.4.2 I.4.3 Reading skills Learning and teaching foreign language reading CHAPTER II: ANALYZING NEEDS IN UONG BI THERMAL POWER PLANT II.1 The setting of the study II.2 Description of data collection II.2.1 Data collection instruments and procedures II.2.2 Material analysis II.2.3 The subjects II.3 Result analysis and major findings II.3.1 Target needs II.3.2 Learning needs II.4 Concluding remarks CHAPTER III: A PROPOSED THERMAL ENGINEERING ENGLISH READING SYLLABUS FOR WORKERS IN UB TPP III.1 The General Syllabus III.1.1 Topics in the syllabus III.1.2 Tasks and activities in the syllabus III.2 The Pedagogic syllabus III.3 Suggestions for teaching ESP at UB TPP PART C: CONCLUSIONS References Appendixes - Questionnaire for the workers in UB TPP Questionnaire for ESP teachers at Faculty of Fundamental Science Interview with Subject teachers at Faculty of Energy A sample unit A sample of authentic material LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS EFL: English as Foreign Language EGP: English for General Purposes EAP: English for Academic Purposes EOP: English for Occupational Purposes ESL: English as a Second Language ESP: English for Specific Purposes EST: English for Science and Technology ETE: English for Thermal Engineering GE: General English FFS: Faculty of Fundamental Science FE: Faculty of Energy EPU: Electric Power University UB TTP: Uong Bi Thermal Power Plant LIST OF TABLES TALBE Teachers’ expectations of reading skills/ techniques TALBE Teachers’ expectations of sub-reading skills/ techniques TABLE Teachers’ expectations of Grammar and structure TABLE Teachers’ expectations of tasks/ activities TABLE 5: Learners’ needs of ETE reading course TABLE Learners’ goals and objectives of ETE reading course TABLE 7.Learners’ wants of topics TABLE Learners’ wants of sub-topics TABLE Learners’ wants of reading skills TABLE 10 Learners’ wants of sub-reading skills PART A: INTRODUCTION Rationale From the early 1960's, English for Specific Purposes (ESP) has grown to become one of the most prominent areas of EFL teaching today Its development is reflected in the increasing number of universities offering an MA in ESP and in the number of ESP courses offered to students at universities In Vietnam too, the ESP movement has shown a slow but definite growth over the past few years At Electric Power University, teaching ESP also plays an integral role in training students to become good technicians and engineers In the previous years, EPU was successful in educating hundreds of students to become technicians in Power System, Hydro Power and Thermal Power, etc…The University has also cooperated with many thermal power plants in the North of Vietnam in general, and in Quang Ninh in particular, in providing English, especially ESP supplementary courses for their workers for many years The main purpose is to help the workers improve their English for Thermal to use and communicate in their work effectively However, no available Thermal Engineering English course books are appropriate for these target students The current English textbook for Thermal Engineering is designed with great effort of the English teachers can not meet the demand of the learner‟s needs When providing English supplementary courses in other plants such as Son Dong thermal power plant, Cam Pha TPP, etc…teachers and learners had to face up with the same problems Although, the important role of syllabuses in providing practical basis for the division of assessment, textbooks and learning time as well as telling the teachers and learners what should be learned can not be denied, such a syllabus has not been designed as the teachers have not equipped themselves enough knowledge of syllabus design and have found it hard to select materials appropriate to learners‟ English proficiency level Therefore, a new and appropriate ESP reading syllabus is of great necessity and significance That is the rationale for the author to conduct a study to design a workable ETE reading syllabus for workers in Uong Bi TPP 2 Aims of the study The ultimate aim of the study is to design an appropriate Thermal Engineering English reading syllabus for a supplementary course for workers in Uong Bi TPP To achieve this aim, there are two specific objectives as follows:  To find out the target needs and learning needs of workers in UB TPP for a thermal engineering English course  To suggest a Thermal Engineering English reading syllabus for workers in UB TPP according to their needs Scope of the study Within its scope, this research paper only focuses on designing process for an English supplementary course, not all the theories relating to syllabus design It major sources of information/ informants are subject teachers, the teachers of ESP and the learners /workers in UB TPP who take part in the supplementary course, not all of workers Research methods Qualitative methodology, survey method is used mainly to collect data via questionnaires and informal interviews, aims at exploring the needs of the learners, their expectations and opinions about the ESP course  The first questionnaire is designed for learners/ workers in UB TPP who take part in the supplementary course to find out target needs and learning needs for an ETE reading course  The second questionnaire is designed for ESP teachers at FFS, EPU to get their suggestions about reading skills grammar/ structures and tasks/ activities and suitable methodology for the course, etc In addition to that, several informal interviews with subject teachers at Faculty of Energy, Electric Power University (EPU), and with five graduated learners/ technicians are carried out to get suggestions about topic areas and reading skills Also, the quantitative method is used as the supporting method so that data will be collected through material and document analysis The results of the study will be interpreted based on the analysis of the collected numbers and ratios after gathering and analyzing necessary data Then the important factors relating to the reading syllabus for learners/ workers in UB TPP are worked out Organization of the thesis The thesis is comprised of major parts: - Part A is the Introduction, which presents the rationale, aims and objectives, the scope as well as methodology and design of the study - Part B is the Development, which consists of + Chapter I: Literature review, provides the theories concerning ESP, approaches to syllabus design and reading theories + Chapter II: Needs Analysis, describes and comments on situation analysis, subjects of the study, the instruments for collecting data, analyzes learner‟s target needs and learning needs and presents the findings of the study + Chapter III: A Proposed Thermal Engineering English reading syllabus, suggests two types of syllabus: the general syllabus and the pedagogic one The first included the topics and tasks; the second is about the functions, grammar, vocabulary….It also offers some suggestions for teaching ETE in UB TPP as well as for other supplementary courses outside the university - Part C is the Conclusion containing the summary, the main ideas of the study, the contribution and limitations of the thesis References Appendixes include the questionnaires, interviews, a sample unit and a sample of authentic material Heat recovery 36 (10 per) steam generator - History of development - Component parts - Operation principles (10 per) SCADA - Definition - Component parts - Operation principles (per) (per) 37 III Suggestions for teaching ESP in UB TPP In fact, teaching ESP is a big challenge for all teachers because it is very time consuming and it requires much effort of both teachers and learners Some suggestions for teaching ETE for workers in UB TPP are also discussed in this section in order to work out a more effective teaching method The first very important thing to remember is that the learners here are technicians and workers from UB TPP The plant requires them to join this English supplementary course to improve their English and use it at work usefully Therefore, the teachers should take care about the requirements of the plant and the job- oriented demand of learners in their studying Teachers should focus more on important topics, based on learners’ needs analysis Secondly, most of learners graduated from vocational school, colleges; they have had some basis knowledge of thermal Teachers should interest learners during the lesson by using pictures or short videos and projector to show component parts or the operation of some devices to draw learners’ attention and active their background knowledge Besides, learners can some exercises such as guess the meaning of new words or gap- filling at that time Teachers even can introduce topic of the next lesson in advance so that learners can prepare for it better In additions, many learners can guess the meaning of new words and understand the reading texts in general, but they can not translate the text fluently due to they lack of grammatical items and translation skills Therefore, teachers should pay much attention to improve learners’ weakness Thirdly, it is a supplementary course and its time is very short (lasts about three months) Therefore, both teachers and learners have to concentrate much on learning (in whole day) Sometimes it will make them feel stressed In order to save time and energy, it would be better for student to less important exercises and reading texts at home Last but not least, learners in this class have got different English levels It causes many difficulties for teachers to observe all learners in short time to improve their English Teachers should find out more learners’ needs during the lessons and change tasks or activities flexibly to meet the demand of the learners 38 PART C: CONCLUSION Due to many reasons but mainly the lack of a feasible and practical syllabus, the learning and teaching Thermal Engineering English for workers/ learners in UBTPP as well as other thermal English supplementary courses are often considered as ineffective The finding of the study has revealed that, only current Thermal English textbook could not satisfy teachers’ and learners’ expectation in learning ESP It is time teachers should be aware of such problems to improve EFL learners’ reading competence In summary, in this paper the author has conducted a survey using questionnaires and interviews as the main instruments to work out an appropriate Thermal engineering English reading syllabus for learners in UB TPP To begin with, the researcher reviewed related literature to lay theoretical background, especially focused on the theories of reading and syllabus design Next, students’ target needs and learning needs were carefully collected and analyzed Finally, basing on the results of need analysis, a general and a pedagogic syllabus were proposed In additions, the author also has attempted to suggest some points for teaching ESP in UB TPP It may be helpful for other ESP supplementary courses which encounter the same obstacles However, the solutions to the problems are not workable for all learners in different learning environment, so the other users need to further adapting and improving for specific purposes In conclusion, the most contribution of the author in this study is raising the awareness of teachers at EPU about the importance of designing reading syllabus in teaching ESP, because there was no Thermal Engineering English reading syllabus for workers before The author does hope that the study would be useful for Thermal Engineering English course in UB TPP as well as for other Thermal English supplementary courses Because of the scope of the minor thesis, the author only focused on reading skills, not all skills in teaching ESP Only syllabus design process is presented in this thesis, not all the theories relating to syllabus design such as implementing teaching method and evaluating Furthermore, due to time limitation and money constrains, the data collection was limited, only an English class with 50 learners, a small group of English teachers at EPU and some graduated learners could take part in the study Hence, the author hopes to have more chance to make further study and improvement 39 In order to deal with the matter, the assistance from the University as well as other sides is highly appreciated To make this area more successful, the author and other researchers should go into other parts of syllabus design However, like other designers, the author has made this thesis with great effort and hope that it would be useful and welcomed in practice 40 References Alderson, J.C & Urquhart, A.H (eds.) (1984) Reading in a Foreign Language London: Longman Anthony, L (1997) ESP: What does it mean? ON CUE http://interserver.miyazaki- med.ac.jp/~cue/pc/anthony.htm, Retrieved April 6, 2000, from the World Wide Web Breen, M.P (1984) Process syllabuses for the language classroom In C.J.Brumfit (Ed.) General English Syllabus Design ELT Documents No 118 London: Pergamon Press & The British Council 47-60 Carver, D (1983) Some propositions about ESP The ESP Journal, 2, 131-137 Dudley-Evans, Tony (1997) Developments in English for Specific Purposes: A multi-disciplinary approach Cambridge University Press (Forthcoming) Graves, K (1996) Teachers as course developers Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Hutchinson, T., & Waters, A (1987) English for Specific Purposes: A learningcentered approach Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Hutchinson, T & Waters, A (1993) English for Specific Purposes Cambridge:Cambridge University Press Kennedy, C and R Bolitho (1984) English for Specific Purposes ELTS London: MacMillan 10 Krahnke, K (1987) Approaches to syllabus design for foreign language teaching Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Regents Prentice Hall 11 Mackay, R., & Mountford, A (Eds.) (1978) English for Specific Purposes: A case study approach London: Longman 12 Munby, J 1978 Communicative syllabus design London: Cambridge University Press 13.Nunan, D (1988) Syllabus Design Oxford: Oxford University Press 14 Nunan, D (1993) Syllabus Design Oxford University Pres 15 Robinson, P (1991) ESP Today: A Practitioner's Guide Hemel Hempstead: Prentice Hall 41 16 Scarino, A., Vale,D., McKay,P., and Clark,J (1988) The All Guidelines, Melbourne: Curriculum Corporation 17 Strevens, P (1988): ESP after Twenty Years: Are- appraisal In M Tickoo (Ed.) ESP: State of the Art Singapore SEAMEO Regional Centre, 1-13 18 Wixson, Peters, Weber, & Roeber, 1987, citing the new definition of reading for Michigan, from: http://www.eduplace.com/rdg/res/teach/def.html 19 Yalden, J (1982) Communicative Syllabus: Evolution, Design and Implementation New York Pergamon Press 20 Yalden, J (1983) The Communicative Syllabus: Evolution, Design, and Implementation Oxford: Pergamon 21 Yalden, J 1984 “Syllabus design in general education” in C J Brumfit (ed.) 1984 General English Syllabus Design Oxford: Pergamon APPENDIXES QUESTIONNAIRE (For workers of UB TTP) To design a Thermal Engineering English reading syllabus for workers in UB TTP, we need your opinions regarding the essential aspects of needs analysis for designing an ESP syllabus Your assistance in completing all the following items is highly appreciated Could you please tick (√ ) the appropriate answer(s) to you? a b c d a b c d Do you think that learning ETE is: Very necessary Fairly necessary Unnecessary No idea If you think ETE is necessary, please tick the reasons For your study For your future job For both Others:……………………………………………………………… What you expect to gain at the end of the ETE course? a To enrich your vocabulary of Thermal Engineering b To master grammatical and structural items in ETE materials c To be able to successfully pass the final examination on ETE d To advance your ability of reading ETE materials comprehensively e To be able to translate materials related to ETE f To be able to communicate with English-speaking people in the field of thermal engineering g Others:……………………………………………………………………… Which strategies you use when learning reading skill? a Pay much attention to the content instead of the reading strategies b Translate the text into Vietnamese and find the answers c Skimming and scanning the text for the gist and organization of the text, then for specific information d Ask the teacher or friends to explain the new words e Guess the meaning of new words basing on the context and surrounding words f Others:……………………………………………………………………………… Which of the following topics are of your interest? a Thermal energy b EVN’s thermal power plants c Methods for generating electricity d e f g a b c d e f g h Types of generator Boiler Turbines SCADA What are you interested in learning about these sub-topics? History of development Classification Application New invention Component parts Operation principles Use Definition What you think of the following sub-reading skills? Reading notes, notices, instructions, advertisements, safety precaution warnings Reading textbooks and technical books Reading instruction manuals Reading articles in specialist journals Reading tables, graphs and diagrams Reading reports and other documents Reading letters, telex messages Reading Skills/ techniques QUESTIONNAIRE (For ESP teachers at Faculty of Fundamental Science, EPU) To design a Thermal Engineering English reading syllabus for workers in UB TTP, we need your opinions regarding the essential aspects of needs analysis for designing an ESP syllabus Your assistance in completing all the following items is highly appreciated In your opinion, how necessary are the following reading skills/ techniques when teaching an ESP reading lesson for learners/ workers in UB TPP? previewing Predicting and Identifying the topics and organization of the text ideas information Sub - reading Skills/ techniques Skimming for main Scanning for specific Guessing the meaning Reading notes, notices, instructions, of new words from the advertisements, safety precaution context warnings Using non- Reading textbooks and technical books Reading instruction manuals Translating to get Reading articles in specialist journals information through understanding of the text Interpreting discourse Reading tables, graphs and diagrams markers Others6.Reading……….reports and other documents In your opinion, how necessary are the following sub-reading skills/ techniques when teaching an ESP reading lesson for learners/ workers in UB TPP? Reading letters, telex messages Please put a tick (√) for the types of tasks that you think should be designed in an ETE reading syllabus for the improvement of reading skills of learners/ workers in UB TPP Items Skimming/ scanning to answer comprehension questions Guessing the meaning of new words from the context Reading and making notes of the main points Matching description with diagrams, pictures Labeling a diagram using information from the text Writing down all information represented in a diagram Gap-filling Combining the two sentences using relative pronouns and linking words Finding synonyms and antonyms 10 Translating into Vietnamese and vice versa 11 Writing summary Please put a tick (√) for the types of grammar and structures that you think should be included in the syllabus for the consolidation and improvement grammar knowledge of learners/ workers (in UB TPP) and add your own ideas if necessary Items Use of tenses a Present simple b Past simple c Present perfect Verb a Infinitive and gerund b Modal verb c Verb formation Article and Noun a Indefinite article b Definite article c Singular and plural noun d Compound noun e Noun formation Adjective a –Ing adjective and –ed adjective b Adjective + infinitive c Adjective comparison d Adjective formation Adverb a Position of adverb b Adverb comparison INTERVIEWS WITH SUBJECT TEACHERS (From Faculty of Energy, Electric Power University) Which of the following topics should be included in the Thermal Engineering English reading syllabus in your opinion? a b c d e f g Thermal energy Method of generating electricity Boiler Turbines Types of generators Heat recovery steam generator Introduction to SCADA Which of the following sub-topics should be included in the Thermal Engineering English reading syllabus in your opinion? a b c d e f g h History of development Classification Application New inventions Component parts Operation principles Use Definition INTERVIEWS WITH GRADUATED LEARNERS (From previous courses in UB TPP) Which of the following topics should be included in the Thermal Engineering English reading syllabus in your opinion? h i j k l m n Thermal energy Method of generating electricity Boiler Turbines Types of generators Heat recovery steam generator Introduction to SCADA In your opinion, how necessary are the following sub-reading skills/ techniques for learners/ workers in UB TPP? Sub - reading Skills/ techniques Reading notes, notices, instructions, advertisements, safety precaution warnings Reading textbooks and technical books Reading instruction manuals Reading articles in specialist journals Reading tables, graphs and diagrams Reading reports and other documents Reading letters, telex messages ... precaution warnings Reading textbooks and technical books Reading instruction manuals journals diagrams documents Reading articles in specialist Reading tables, graphs and Reading reports and... resources and administrative situation, teachers and learners 31 Chapter III A Proposed Thermal Engineering English Reading Syllabus for workers in Uong Bi Thermal Power Plant Aims and objectives...University of languages and national studies Post graduate studies TRẦN THỊ THU HƯƠNG Designing a Thermal Engineering English Reading Syllabus for workers in Uong Bi Thermal Power Plant (THIẾT KẾ