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In the dynamic modern world, the importance of English for Economics has become ever more profound. In acknowledgement of the situation, the course of English for Economics has been designed and integrated in the learning program for students of translation and interpretation division in FELTE, ULIS, VNU, in concern to students‟ future employments. Adopting the learnercentered approach with a range of formative assessment activities, the course expects to provide students with fundamental knowledge about the realworld economics while also help students to enhance their essential skills. However, due to the new changes of the program, there has only been a limited body of research dedicated to exploring the effectiveness of the new formative assessment method and the attitude of students towards it. Thus, this paper aims to: (1) report students‟ identification of formative assessment activities in the subject English for Economics, (2) explore the students‟ attitudes towards the formative assessment activities of the course, and (3) offer suggestions for modification in course design. For the achievement of these objectives, the researcher utilizes a combination of questionnaire and semistructured interviews as main data collection instrument. Through data analysis, it is revealed that the majority of students responded positively to formative assessment in consideration of the benefits it confers in terms of knowledge, skills, selfawareness and overall score. However, there exists certain problems including excessive stress that need to be addressed. Thus, suggestions to students, teachers and course designers are put forward based on the findings.
VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHER EDUCATION GRADUATION PAPER STUDENTS’ ATTITUDES TOWARDS THE APPLICATION OF FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT IN ENGLISH FOR ECOMONICS TO STUDENTS IN ENGLISH INTERPRETATION AND TRANSLATION MAJOR, FELTE, ULIS - VNU Supervisor : Ms Nguyễn Thụy Phƣơng Lan, M.A Student : Khƣơng Quỳnh Nga Course : QH2015.F1.E3 HÀ NỘI - 2019 ĐẠI HỌC QUỐC GIA HÀ NỘI TRƢỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ KHOA SƢ PHẠM TIẾNG ANH KHÓA LUẬN TỐT NGHIỆP THÁI ĐỘ CỦA SINH VIÊN VỀ VIỆC ÁP DỤNG PHƢƠNG PHÁP ĐÁNH GIÁ THƢỜNG XUYÊN TRONG KHÓA HỌC TIẾNG ANH KINH TẾ CỦA SINH VIÊN CHUYÊN NGÀNH BIÊN PHIÊN DỊCH, KHOA SƢ PHẠM TIẾNG ANH, ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ, ĐẠI HỌC QUỐC GIA HÀ NỘI Giáo viên hƣớng dẫn : Cô Nguyễn Thụy Phƣơng Lan, M.A Sinh viên : Khƣơng Quỳnh Nga Khóa : QH2015.F1.E3 HÀ NỘI - 2019 ACCEPTANCE I hereby state that I: Khuong Quynh Nga, QH2015E3, being a candidate for the degree of Bachelor of Arts (TEFL) accept the requirements of the College relating to the retention and use of Bachelor’s Graduation Paper deposited in the library In terms of these conditions, I agree that the origin of my paper deposited in the library should be accessible for the purposes of study and research, in accordance with the normal conditions established by the librarian for the care, loan or reproduction of the paper Signature Date 06/06/2019 i ACKNOWLEDGEMENT First and foremost, I wish to express my heartfelt gratitude to my supervisor Mrs Nguyen Thuy Phuong Lan for her invaluable assistance and involvement throughout the conduct of my thesis Without her encouragement, reassurance, comments and guidance, this paper would have never been accomplished Beside my supervisor, I sincerely thank my family, who have been incredibly supportive throughout my life as well as during time I carry out this thesis I would also like to express my appreciation to the constant support, care and assistance from my dear friends, especially Nguyen Khanh Linh, Vu Thuy Hang, Nguyen Hong Quy, Chu Hua Minh Hien and Nguyen Luong Tai Anh Without you, I would not have the motivation and strength to complete this research Finally, many thanks to the students of English for Economics class of school year 2018-2019 at FELTE, ULIS, VNU for their cooperation and support for this thesis ii ABSTRACT In the dynamic modern world, the importance of English for Economics has become ever more profound In acknowledgement of the situation, the course of English for Economics has been designed and integrated in the learning program for students of translation and interpretation division in FELTE, ULIS, VNU, in concern to students‟ future employments Adopting the learnercentered approach with a range of formative assessment activities, the course expects to provide students with fundamental knowledge about the real-world economics while also help students to enhance their essential skills However, due to the new changes of the program, there has only been a limited body of research dedicated to exploring the effectiveness of the new formative assessment method and the attitude of students towards it Thus, this paper aims to: (1) report students‟ identification of formative assessment activities in the subject English for Economics, (2) explore the students‟ attitudes towards the formative assessment activities of the course, and (3) offer suggestions for modification in course design For the achievement of these objectives, the researcher utilizes a combination of questionnaire and semi-structured interviews as main data collection instrument Through data analysis, it is revealed that the majority of students responded positively to formative assessment in consideration of the benefits it confers in terms of knowledge, skills, self-awareness and overall score However, there exists certain problems including excessive stress that need to be addressed Thus, suggestions to students, teachers and course designers are put forward based on the findings iii TABLE OF CONTENT LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS v LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES vi CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Statement of the problem and rationale for the study 1.2 Research aims 1.3 Research questions 1.4 Scope of the study 1.5 Organization of the study CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Overview of ESP and ESP courses 2.2 Assessment and principles of assessment 2.4 Formative Assessment 13 2.5 Overview of English for Economics course in FELTE, ULIS 20 CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 26 3.1 Sampling 26 3.2 Data collection instrument 26 3.3 Data collection procedures 28 3.4 Data analysis methods and procedure 30 CHAPTER 4: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION 32 Research question 1: Student‟s identification of Formative Assessment activities 32 Research question 2: Students‟ attitudes towards Formative Assessment activities 39 Research question 3: Suggestions for improvement 49 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION 53 REFERENCE 57 APPENDIX 64 iv LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ULIS : University of Languages and International Studies VNU : Vietnam National University, Hanoi FELTE : Faculty of English Language Teacher Education ESP : English for Specific Purpose EE : English for Economics ELT : English Language Teaching EITM : English Interpretation and Translation Major v LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES Table - IN-CLASS CONTINUOS ASESSMENT 24 Figure - Frequency of individual/ pair/ group work perceived by students 32 Figure - Frequency of teacher/partner/peer feedback received by students 33 Figure - S.3.1 – S.3.5: Awareness of course objectives and assessment criteria, as perceived by students 35 Figure - S.3.6 – S.3.8: The application of formative assessment 37 Figure - S.4.1 – S.4.6 Formative assessment effects on students 39 Figure - Formative assessment activities necessity as perceived by students 42 Figure - Students liking towards formative assessment activities 45 Figure - Formative assessment activities sufficiency as perceived by students 47 Figure - Skills acquired through formative assessment activities 48 vi CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION The first chapter presents the problem and the rationale of the study, as well as the objectives and the scope of the research It is also in this chapter that the research questions are identified to work as guidelines for the paper 1.1 Statement of the problem and rationale for the study In the course of globalization, a great number of multinational corporations are expected to expand their presence across countries and create more opportunities for employment As a result, we can foresee the growing demand for international communication in various domains, especially economics Known as the lingua franca of global communications in all fields (Lehtonen 2004, Louhiala-Salminen et al 2005), English has become crucial in major related abilities The aforementioned situation has led to a critical need for English for Special Purposes (ESP), defined as “an approach to language learning, which is based on learner need” (Hutchinson and Waters, 1987; Ibrahim, 2010) Such great demand is reflected in the increasing number of ESP courses all over the world, including Vietnam Regarded as a vital part of the educational programs in general and in ESP courses in specific, assessment is a helpful tool from which the information derived can be used to adapt and modify the applied teaching and learning techniques (Black & Wiliam, 1998) In modern education, as the positive effects of continuous assessment have been validated, teachers and course designers are incorporating a variety of formative assessment tasks in teaching and learning besides conventional summative testing According to Reiser and Dempsey (2007), the fundamental objective of this method is to identify the strengths and weaknesses of learning and teaching so as to reinforce available forte, and to turn shortcomings into strengths In addition, formative assessment puts an emphasis on enabling students to reflect on what they are learning and helping both teacher and students make changes and improve performance along the way It also allows students to focus on their development of skills rather than grades Acknowledging the ample advantages and the conformability of formative assessment to ESP principles, a great number of English courses have adopted this assessing method University of Languages and International Studies, notable for organizing various ESP teaching programs has also employed formative assessment in many of their courses including English for Economics However, due to the new changes of the program, there has only been a limited body of research dedicated to exploring the effectiveness of the new course as well as that in terms of assessment application and the attitude of students towards formative assessment method Such limitation may result in challenges in the process of improving the courses as only when the course designers and teacher have profound understanding of the effect it has on the students, can they accordingly modify the assessing strategies, the content of the course and make the best of the available resources The abovementioned reason has urged the researcher to conduct a study titled: “Students attitudes towards the application of Formative Assessment in English for Economics to students in English Interpretation and Translation Major, FELTE, ULIS - VNU” 1.2 Research aims Focuses solely on formative assessment, the study attempts to explore the students‟ attitude towards the application of this assessment method in the English for Economics course for students in English Interpretation and Translation major in Faculty of English Language Teacher Education, University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam University In addition, through the discovery of challenges that students endure during the course, the paper aims at proposing changes for the betterment of the assessment tasks of the course If these principal aims are achieved, the findings of the study would expectantly facilitate the modification of the ...ĐẠI HỌC QUỐC GIA HÀ NỘI TRƢỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ KHOA SƢ PHẠM TIẾNG ANH KHÓA LUẬN TỐT NGHIỆP THÁI ĐỘ CỦA SINH VIÊN VỀ VIỆC ÁP DỤNG PHƢƠNG PHÁP ĐÁNH GIÁ THƢỜNG XUYÊN TRONG KHÓA HỌC TIẾNG ANH KINH. .. ANH KINH TẾ CỦA SINH VIÊN CHUYÊN NGÀNH BIÊN PHIÊN DỊCH, KHOA SƢ PHẠM TIẾNG ANH, ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ, ĐẠI HỌC QUỐC GIA HÀ NỘI Giáo viên hƣớng dẫn : Cô Nguyễn Thụy Phƣơng Lan, M.A Sinh viên : Khƣơng... NỘI Giáo viên hƣớng dẫn : Cô Nguyễn Thụy Phƣơng Lan, M.A Sinh viên : Khƣơng Quỳnh Nga Khóa : QH2015.F1.E3 HÀ NỘI - 2019 ACCEPTANCE I hereby state that I: Khuong Quynh Nga, QH2015E3, being a candidate