Strategies for teaching business report writing to language students at thang long university

Strategies for teaching business report writing to language students at thang long university

PART ONEIntroductionRATIONALE

Writing business reports is one of the fundamental business writing skills Businessreports here are understood as "documents that present information on a specific topic for aspecific business purpose" (Boone, 1996: 308) Nearly all business activities involvewriting business reports, from analyzing the status of projects, summarizing business trips,to investigating an arising problem or suggesting a change in an organization Writingreports sometimes becomes professional services which are provided for a fee The job ofmarket research companies, for example, is to write reports on the results from theirresearches on consumers' demands for a particular product or service Writing effectivereports is an essential skill for office workers and should be taken into consideration inlanguage education in colleges, especially for language students who are likely to be officestaff after graduation.

The teaching of business reports in English is a part of courses of English forbusiness communication, a branch of English for Specific Purposes English-majorstudents, however, have to face a number of problems when studying English as a meansof business communication First, most of the students are not familiar with businessknowledge Most of them have never taken part in any business activities so far Businesscourses, if any, provide just general theories of economics Second, the materials used forthe courses are not usually tailored for language students to learn to write business reportsin English intensively In Vietnam, some intensive courses of English for BusinessCommunication have to use materials for low-intensive courses and/or those written for

English native speakers to study business communication with English as the firstlanguage Those materials can neither provide a thorough understanding of the subject noranticipate the lack of language competence of foreign language learners.

The knowledge of writing business reports in English is considered a need forEnglish-major students who will soon graduate and might have to use the knowledge inworking life However, as a newly established non-state university, Thang Long has aremarkable number of problems in dealing with the matter Firstly, the university staff,most of which are little informed teachers of English, has to begin designing the syllabusfrom nothing but references from several similar available ones As for the courses ofEnglish for Business Communication, it is hard to find a relevant syllabus so the staff haschosen to rely on a textbook written for improving business communication skill for nativespeakers Besides, as language-major students, students with English major find it reallydifficult to deal with business issues, let alone writing reports on the subject.

With those difficulties, the teaching of English for business communication ingeneral and writing business reports in English in particular is really a challenge What theteacher can do now is to develop effective teaching strategies that help students understandthe subject knowledge presented in the textbook, design useful exercises for practicingboth language aspects and writing skills and avoid making errors in writing businessreports The study, therefore, is proposed to find out those necessary teaching strategies forthe section of teaching how to write business reports in the course of English for BusinessCommunication 3 at Thang Long University.

PURPOSES OF THE STUDY

The research questions are:

1 What do language students need in learning to write business reports in English?2 What are the difficulties for language students in learning to write business reports

It is surprising that although business reports in English are used frequently in mostforeign offices in Vietnam, there have not been many studies on this aspect of businesswriting or business communication This study attempts not only to look into the existingmethodologies but also to find out distinctive features of the teaching context at ThangLong University and language students to apply these methodologies appropriately

SCOPE OF THE STUDY

The study focuses on the teaching process of the section of writing business reportsin the course English for Business Communication 3 at Thang Long University It tries tosuggest effective teaching strategies that can be used in the course A strategy can beunderstood as "a carefully devised plan of action to achieve a goal, or the art of developingor carrying out such a plan" (Encarta Reference Library 2004) Teaching strategies,therefore, can be understood as plans of action in order to achieve a goal in teaching Inthis language content-based course, the language teacher also plays the role of an instructorwho teaches skills The strategies, therefore, are for teaching both language and skills Thesubjects of the study are language students who major in English, not students withbusiness major

The study does not deal with other kinds of reports apart from business reports usedin business activities, i.e activities performed in organizations operating in order toprovide goods or services English is used in these activities to facilitate communicationinvolving people speaking English as the first, second or foreign language The study onlytries to find out teaching strategies to help students learn how to write business reports withthe aspects including language, research methods, visual aid design, writing process andorganizational structure It does not try to suggest the needed changes of other aspects ofthe course and curriculum designs, such as time allotted for the course, facility settings,class size, and student assessment.

METHODOLOGY

The paper will present a review from published materials in the related fields Also,a needs analysis will be conducted among the existing students of English major in order to

find out whether language students at Thang Long University consider teaching reportwriting useful and find out the prepared teaching methods, their expectations from, theirdifficulties in and their recommendations for the course Lastly, an error analysis ofstudents' writing samples is used to identify the common errors made by the students inwriting business reports in English

Books, articles and Internet resources on English for Business Purposes, teachingEnglish writing and business reports are collected to examine the history of the fields andto provide available suggestions in the practice of teaching business report writing Next,the needs analysis is conducted through a questionnaire survey of students who are takingthe course of English for Business Communication 3 at Thang Long University

The analysis of errors in writing samples is used in order to find out common errorsstudents often make when writing business reports in English This can help the teacheranticipate problems in the existing course and look for proper ways to deal with thesecommon errors and solve those problems The analysis also helps find out the strengthsand drawbacks of the course, which may result in appropriate adjustments in the coursecontents as well as the teaching techniques of the teacher The primary data combine bothqualitative and quantitative methods with both open and closed questions in thequestionnaire designed for the needs analysis, and the error analysis in texts written bystudents

CONTENTS OF THE STUDY

The study includes four chapters, Chapter 1 presents a review on literature, Chapter2 deals with the research description, Chapter 3 shows the interpretation of data analyses,

and implications for teaching how to write business reports in English for English-majorstudents are recommended in Chapter 4

In Chapter 1, the trends and approaches of English for Specific Purposes areexamined and later narrowed down to English for Business Purposes Also, the chapterwill trace down the approaches of teaching writing as well as analyze writing tasks andactivities in a classroom Lastly, the chapter presents features of business reports as a genrewith analysis on its classification, rhetorical patterns, linguistic features and the writingprocess

Chapter 2 describes the study of needs analysis and the error analysis of thestudents' writing samples In Chapter 3, the data of the two researches are analyzed to drawuseful conclusions and implications Firstly, the needs analysis questionnaire responses areput together and evaluated The results will review the students' needs on the coursecontent, methodologies, and their recommendations Secondly, the results of the erroranalysis are presented to see the weakness of students' writing skills.

Based on the review of literature and the data analysis in the Chapter 1 and 3,Chapter 4 will present key points of the studies: implications for teaching to write businessreports The chapter will follow the teaching process from presenting the knowledge in thecontent-based course including analyzing sample reports, giving practice exercises, andmanaging errors in these writing exercises

PART TWOThe StudyCHAPTER I

Literature Review

I.1 ENGLISH FOR BUSINESS PURPOSES (EBP) IN AN ENGLISH FORSPECIFIC PURPOSES (ESP) CONTEXT

I.1.1 DEFINITIONS OF ESP

Despite appearing first in as far as the 1960s, ESP has not had an agreed-upondefinition so far Hutchinson and Waters (1987: 19) emphasized, "ESP should probably beseen not as any particular language product but as an approach to language teaching whichis directed by specific and apparent reasons for learning." English language teaching withESP approach, therefore, becomes more targeted to the learner's needs and creates moremotivation to the learner.

Dudley-Evans and St John (1998: 4-5) have modified a definition of ESP byStrevens' into one including absolute and variable characteristics as follows:

Absolute characteristics:

ESP is defined to meet specific needs of the learner;

ESP makes use of the underlying methodology and activities ofthe discipline it serves;

ESP is centered on the language (grammar, lexis, register), skills,discourse and genres appropriate to these activities.

Variable Characteristics

ESP may be related to or designed for specific discipline;

ESP may use, in specific teaching situation, a differentmethodology from that of General English;

ESP is likely to be designed for adult learners, either at a tertiarylevel institution or in a professional work situation It could,however, be for learners at secondary school level;

ESP is generally designed for intermediate or advanced students;

Most ESP courses assume some basic knowledge of the languagesystem, but it can be used with beginners.

(Dudley-Evans and St John, 1998: 4-5)

With these two views, it can be concluded that ESP is closely related with the needsof language learners in their use of English in their fields of professions or studies Also,ESP includes a number of variations that can be flexibly adjusted to fit the various needs oflearners.

I.1.2 CLASSIFICATIONS OF ESP

Hutchinson and Waters (1987: 17) and Dudley-Evans and St John (1998: 6) buildsimilar trees for different divisions of ESP in which ESP is divided into such branches asEnglish for Science and Technology (EST), English for Business and Economics (EBE),and English for Social Sciences (ESS), and further to English for Academic Purposes(EAP) and English for Occupational Purposes (EOP) or Business Purposes (EBP) fromEnglish for Management, Finance and Economics, and English for Business andEconomics (EBE).

Dudley-Evans and St John, on the other hand, suggested the use of a continuum

with degrees of specificity, in which the higher the level is, the more specific the coursebecomes, accompanying with the levels of English Martin (1992: 40) also gave a thoroughdescription of several degrees of specificity, from more specific courses to more generalcourses, and no restrictions on the language levels, as presented in Figure I-1.

The use of degrees of speficity of ESP course helps clarify English courses.Courses in type V will not be considered ESP courses due to the far too indirect link to theprofessional areas On the other hand, type I courses are the most specific courses and canbe applied to learners with clear professional target

Degrees of

Type I very specifiable /

skill and some contentcan be identified as genres, routine and non-routine

Type III half specifiable, half

content-focused subordinate

skill-wide range of variable, unpredictable

Type V very few specifiable or

both skills and contentwide range, unpredictable

Source: Adapted from Martin, 1992: 40.

Figure I-1: The Five Degrees of Specificity of ESP courses

In conclusion, the use the tree systems can be used in defining the branches of ESP

and different disciplines that English can be used in, while the continuum can be seen as an

effective tool in defining the courses of ESP in practice and in deciding the elements ofthose courses Both the tree system and the continuum are relevant in classifying EBPcourses in the teaching context of the study

I.1.3 TRENDS AND APPROACHES IN ESP

Nelson (2000) worked out an overview of the different ideas on the different trendsor approaches of ESP ESP has experienced a number of phases: register analysis,rhetorical and discourse analysis, needs analysis, skills and strategies, and learning-centered approach These phases will be presented in the chronological order However,because ESP develops at different paces in different countries in the world and what is old

in one situation may still be appropriate and useful in another context, all the above trendscan be seen in practice (Hutchinson, 1987: 9).

I.1.3.1 Register Analysis

Register analysis is the special language that is considered suitable for a specificsituation For example, the English used in computer science must be different from that inpsychology Swales (1988, as cited by Dudley-Evans and St John 1988:21) assumes thatwhile the basic grammar is not different in different circumstances, certain forms ofgrammatical and lexical forms occur more frequently than other forms in one circumstanceand than the same forms in other circumstances The concept of register or a speciallanguage has been applied in language teaching in that some registers are emphasized inthe materials and syllabuses of language courses.

The analysis of those registers has been considered to be of little value as it is not areliable basis for ESP courses to just focus on simply teaching the linguistic elements thatare special in the context However, with new computerized methods, for example, thedevelopment corpus analysis, register analysis is now coming back.

I.1.3.2 Rhetorical or Discourse Analysis

The next stage of development in ESP accompanies the development of fielddiscourse analysis Discourse analysis examines language in a higher level than thesentential level in register analysis, the text The key factor of discourse analysis is therhetorical patterns and the linking devices in a text The ESP textbooks written based ondiscourse analysis concentrate on the rhetorical functions of different forms of languageand the coherence and cohesion of the text

The later phase of discourse analysis is genre analysis According to Swales (1990:58) as cited by Nelson (2000), "genre comprises a class of communicative events, the

members of which share some set of communicative purposes." In fact, genre analysis adds

cultural and social settings into discourse analysis

I.1.3.3 Needs Analysis

Needs analysis is neither special to language teaching nor, within languageteaching, to LSP Needs analysis include analyses of the target situation - the situation inwhich learners will use the language they are learning, the language/genre/discourse, thesubjective needs, the learning needs, and the present situation of the learner's current skilland language use (Dudley-Evans and St John, 1998) The needs analysis will provideuseful and thorough information so that the teaching implemented can meet these needs.

I.1.3.4 Analysis of Study Skills and Strategies

In the linguistic field, of discourse analysis, no special attention was given to thenecessary language skills Then came the communicative language teaching movementwhich puts a priority on the four skills, beginning with reading and writing, and thenlistening and speaking In English courses during that time, the language knowledge wasdeveloped together with the ability to communicate using the knowledge.

However, not only individual skills are mentioned, the underlying competence isalso an important factor This refers to the ability to reason and interpret the meaning Thefocus of reading skill, for example, is not only on the comprehension of the text but also onthe ability to guess the meaning regardless of unknown language items Learners arerequired to learn the strategies as well as the skills.

I.1.3.5 A Learning-Centered Approach

Hutchinson and Waters (1987) successfully moved from the above centered approaches to a learning-centered approach Hutchinson and Waters considered

language-other approaches to have "flaw" on focusing on language, not on learning, and the

learning-centered approach is underlied by the theory related to the language learningprocess.

I.1.3.6 Content-Based Language Instruction

Content-based instruction is considered as the new paradigm in language education,which helps improving learners' language while studying a subject matter (Dueñas, 2003).According to Brinton, Snow and Wesche (1989, p 2) as cited by Halvorsen (1995)content-based teaching is "the concurrent teaching of academic subject matter and secondlanguage skills." The two purposes are inter-woven; the target language is the medium forcommunicating information about the content subject while the content offers the contextfor learning language skills

According to Dueñas (2003), content-based language instruction has a number ofadvantages Firstly, content-based language courses provide a considerable amount oflanguage input Secondly, the content-based instruction “support contextualized learning”;the context is the subject matter presented in the target language, resulting in meaningfulcommunication, “rather than isolated language fragment.” Another benefit is the coherentand systematic content of the subject matter allows students to refer to their prior language.Moreover, in content-based learning, learners learn the language to express the unknownand challenging content, which creates “intrinsic motivation.” Besides, content-basedinstruction develops students’ learning strategies because the dual purposes require

students to have suitable strategies in various learning tasks Also, the activities andcurriculum in these courses can be flexible and adaptable Lastly, content-based allowsstudent-centered activities.

I.1.3.7 ESP Today

Few changes have been recorded since the work of Hutchinson and Waters (1987).However, there can be two factors that make the character of ESP today One is the rise ofEnglish for Business Purposes (EBP), which is seen as "currently the area of greatest

activity and growth in ESP" (Dudley-Evans and St John 1998:53) The other is that ESP is

now experiencing an "eclectic period" (Nelson, 2000) in which the courses are designed bymixing up different elements to fit the learners' particular situation

I.1.4 ENGLISH FOR BUSINESS PURPOSES (EBP): A DEVELOPING BRANCH OFESP

With the globalization of trade, Business English or English for Business Purposes(EBP) has become the fastest growing field in ESP EBP has been researched thoroughlyby a number of authors Dudley-Evans and St John (1998:53) summarized Pickett'sargument that EBP has a lot in common with everyday language of the general public Healso suggests two aspects of business communication: communication with the public andcommunication within a company and between companies (Pickett, 1986: 16).

Brieger (as cited in Nelson 2000) defines that Business English consists oflanguage knowledge (grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, etc.) and communication skills(giving presentations, meeting, telephoning, report writing, etc.) This definition puts anemphasis on the language and skills in a business context not business knowledge Nelson

(2000) argues that all the descriptions of EBP are much to simplistic of the broad scope ofBusiness English today.

According to Dudley-Evans (1998:53-54), because of its popularity, English is akey to international business communications It is spoken not only among people fromEnglish-speaking countries, or between native speakers and non-native speakers, but morecommonly, among non-native speakers who do not share the first language.

One consequence of this is that non-native speakers can understand each othermore easily when communicating in English than they can understand native-speakers andthan native speakers can understand them Another consequence is that the English spokenamong non-native speakers is different from that spoken among native speakers

I.2 TEACHING ENGLISH WRITING

In this part of the study, what has been previously published about the teachingmethodology of English writing will be examined The focus of the part is on the teachingof business writing in the context of teaching general writing First, a distinction betweenthe characteristics of written and spoken texts will be presented Secondly, traditional andmodern approaches in teaching writing will be discussed Then, the study providesmicroskills in writing and tasks and activities in a writing class Lastly, there will be adiscussion on feedback, an important job of teachers of writing in a second or foreignlanguage.

I.2.1 WRITTEN VERSUS SPOKEN TEXTS

Ur (1996: 159-161) suggests characteristics that distinguish written from spokenlanguage His analysis is summarized in Figure I-2

Written languageSpoken language

Detachment detached in time and place from readership

takes place with

intermediate interaction and feedback

Organization well organized, edited improvising

Slowness of production speed of reception

slower to produce, but quicker to read

quicker to produce but listening speed is decided bythe speed of speaker

Standard language standard may be in regional, or limited-context dialect.

A learnt skill must be taught and learnt mother tongue is acquired

Sheer amount and importance

Source: Adapted from Ur, 1996: 159-160.

Figure I-2: Comparing Spoken Language and Written Language

The summary gives several suggestions for the study Firstly, the teaching ofEnglish writing should make students aware of the discourse, grammatical and lexical

features (appearing in the table under the categories Organization, Standard language and

Dense) of written texts Secondly, besides linguistic features, the teaching of writing

should also focus on developing the writing skills (under A learnt skill) Thirdly, in order

to teach writing effectively, the teacher must understand the difference between students’

knowledge and the Standard language, and their difficulties in learning to write in English.

I.2.2 APPROACHES IN TEACHING ENGLISH WRITING

I.2.2.1 The Product Approach

The product approach concentrates on the final product that writer has to produce.Teachers following the product approach often begin the lessons with a presentation of a

model text, which is then analyzed on the purpose, language, the organization, and thestyle The aim is to enable learners to produce similar texts Learning is evaluated throughthe text analysis of learners' work according to some criteria such as the standard ofrhetorical style, accurate grammar, and conventional organization (Brown 1994: 320) Thevalue of this approach is the use of models for text analysis and as a basis for thinkingabout the purposes and readership of a text (Dudley-Evans and St John 1998: 117)

I.2.2.2 The Process Approach

Unlike the product approach, the process approach focuses on thinking and writingprocesses The product approach sees language learners as creators of language, decisionmakers of the message and content (Brown 1994: 320) It is argued by Nunan (1991: 87)that while the product-oriented approach aims at developing the learner's writing skillmainly at the sentence-level, the process-oriented approach aims at language at thediscourse-level In addition, the approach builds effective processes including a number ofsteps that writers follow, in which writing includes the processes of planning, writing,revising and rewriting

I.2.2.3 The Genre Approach

Since texts are considered under genre perspective, EFL writing must take intoaccount studies on genre According to Harwood, 2002, there have recently been severalcorpus-based studies which show that considerable differences exist from genre to genre.Some examples of these include Hyland, 2000, 2001; Salager-Meyer, 1994; Swales et al,1998; Tang & John, 1999 These corpus data, which reveal the diversity of linguisticfeatures and rhetorical structures among genre, have strengthened the introduction of thegenre approach in writing The genre approach infers that readers have certain expectations

about what a text that belongs to a genre is like and writer should try to follow theseconventions to help readers.

I.2.2.4 The Sample Approach

The product, process, and genre approaches, as concluded by Harwood, 2002, arenot mutually exclusive Harwood agues that the genre approach, which derives from theusing of samples for learners to imitate in the product approach, can combine differentapproaches It provides the textual input as in the product approach, emphasizes theimportance of building reader-friendly texts as in the process approach, and acknowledgesthe reader's expectations on what the text will look like as in the genre approach

Harwood, 2002 also distinguishes between models and samples to argue against thecriticism to the use of models in writing classroom Firstly, models have the potential tointimidate students because they are of certainly high quality According to Harwood(2002), models are ideal compositions for students to look at to know what should be donein writing the required texts of the genre Models are considered to contain no errors ongenre and structure On the other hand, samples are texts specially prepared for the writingclass to analyze both what should be done and what should be avoided Hence, samples arenot perfect and contain both strong points and weak points In prepared samples, therecould be some “traps” of common mistakes that should be discovered when studentsdiscuss the samples Secondly, there are arguments that models are often inappropriatewith the learners' needs of length and types However, samples can be specially preparedfor each type of required text genre Thirdly, some believe that imitating models limitlearner's work in a process However, as samples are not perfect and need to be analyzed,they will promote interaction and criticism Lastly, one concern is that the use of models

leads to students copying; however, the examining of samples requires more skills thancopying and the task is far from being boring.

I.2.3 MICROSKILLS OF WRITING

According to Brown (1994: 327), writing involves the microskills as presented inFigure I-3 Brown's list of microskills of writing includes sufficient aspects required by awriter, yet, it does not have a clear balance for application Ur (1996: 163) emphasizes thebalance between the importance of expressing the ideas and that of formal aspects.Accordingly, the content or the message should be of fair balance with the form, i.e thecorrect spelling and punctuation, acceptable grammar and careful selection of vocabulary.

1 Produce graphemes and orthographic patterns of English.2 Produce writing at an efficient rate of speed to suit the purpose.

3 Produce an acceptable core of words and use appropriate word order patterns.

4 Use acceptable grammatical systems (e.g tense, agreement, pluralization), patternsand rules.

5 Express a particular meaning in different grammatical forms.6 Use cohesive devices in written discourse.

7 Use the rhetorical forms and conventions of written discourse.

8 Appropriately accomplish the communicative functions of written texts according toform and purpose.

9 Convey links and connections between events and communicate such regulations asmain idea, supporting idea, new information, given information, generalization, andexemplification.

10 Distinguish between literal and implied meanings when writing.

11 Correctly convey culturally specific references in the context of the written text 12 Develop and use a battery of writing strategies such as accurately assessing the

audience's interpretation, using pre-writing devices, writing with fluency in the firstdraft, using paraphrases and synonym, soliciting peer and instructor feedback, andusing feedback for revising and editing.

Source: Brown, Douglas, 1994, p 327.

Figure I-3: Microskills of Writing

From this list of microskills of writing, teachers of English writing can find usefulinformation for their career First, they have a list of specific microskills which can beconsidered as components of writing skills By developing these microskills, students’

writing can be built up gradually Next, learning the microskills will help both teachers andstudents understand the all requirements of a writing text as a whole

I.2.4 WRITING TASKS AND ACTIVITIES

Doff (1988: 148-153) and Brown (1994: 327-330) divided writing activitiesaccording to the levels of the teacher's control, which include: (1) imitative or writingdown, (2) controlled or guided writing, and (3) free-writing or self-writing

Imitative writing involves activities like copying, which are somewhat mechanicaland do not require learners to understand the meaning That is why these activities areuninteresting for learners and should only be used for beginners Another form is dictation,which is more challenging to learners This incentive activity helps develop both listeningand spelling However, it does not really develop the writing skill in that learners do nothave to express ideas or find ways to construct sentences Also, this is not an authenticactivity

Controlled writing activities provide more challenges for learners but still limittheir creativity Examples of controlled writing are changing a text from the present tenseto the past tense, completing a sentence by filling the blanks, writing sentences from clues,and writing from pictures Another form is dicto-comp, in which the teacher read the wholeparagraph at a normal speed, then puts key words from the paragraph on the board, andlearners are required to rewrite the paragraph from their recollection and the key words.Freer activities include writing based on a text or on oral presentation In the former,learners are provided with a paragraph as a model, then are required to based on theparagraph and write a similar paragraph giving their own information or informationprovided by the teacher Oral presentation begins with class activities when learners make

suggestions and the teacher builds up an outline, or a list of key expressions, on the board.In free writing, or self-writing, learners have a certain amount of choice of ideas, there maybe some few limitations like the length or the composition, or the topic

This part is for suggesting the tasks and activities of a writing class Writing teachermust know when and how to conduct each activity or to give each task.

I.2.5 FEEDBACK

According to Ur (1996: 242), "feedback is information that is given to the learnerabout his or her performance of a learning task, usually with the objective of improving

this performance." He also notes that feedback includes both assessment and correction.

Assessment is when the teacher gives a learner's performance the comment or grade so thatthe learner knows how well or badly is his/her performance This will direct the learnerhow to improve the performance to meet certain demands In correction, the teacher tries tomake some aspects of the learner's performance right and appropriate to certain criteria.Those aspects can be of grammatical, semantic, social characteristics

Assessment can be of various forms from a word or a short sentence said to alearner who has answered a question, to a comment on an essay, or a grade on an exam.Dudley-Evans and St John (1998: 210) distinguish two forms of assessment, continuousassessment and formal testing Formal tests have been discussed in the previous part ofevaluation on the course so this part is devoted to classroom assessment only

Correction and assessment, in fact, are not completely separate because correctionoften follows assessment and both of them help the learner not only with how right orwrong the learner is but also what should be improved and how Error correction in writing

often involves writing on students' written works; that is why it can be referred to in thefuture

There is sometimes a distinction between mistakes where students know the rulesbut fail to follow them when producing a piece of language and errors where studentsproduce unstandardized language systematically (Ur, 1996 and Edge, 1989.) However, it isdifficult to identify whether a specific wrong item is a slip (mistake) or a systematic error.It is said that the teacher can do that by letting students check their own or their peers'writing texts so that the errors remain while mistakes are found and corrected.Nevertheless, there is not a clear cut among them because it is unsure whether the studentshave found all the mistakes and whether finding and correcting result from a thorough

understanding of the language knowledge Therefore, the word error(s) used in this

document has both meanings, i.e., includes mistake(s).

In writing classes, many teachers correct students' errors by pointing out themistakes and/or errors on different performance aspects of a written task, then eithersuggesting or showing learners the way to improve the inappropriate aspects We will lookat different types of errors, including mistakes, (Edge, 1989) as follows.

Errors of meaning are language products that are correct in linguistic form but fail to

mean what the producer means to say In comparison with errors of form, errors ofmeaning are more difficult to be discovered and understood Errors of meaning can also bepieces of language with correct linguistic form but are socially unacceptable Because theyaffect understanding, they are more important than errors of forms.

Errors of organization are involved in texts that fail to follow the conventional

organization which makes it easy to follow and pleasing to read.

Errors of language forms, according to Ur (1996), are mainly referred to when teachers

give their feedback, which make their students believe that these are what matters The firstreason is that “errors in spelling or grammar catch the eye and seem to demand to becorrected” Secondly, students themselves also want their language errors to be corrected,as can be seen from this study And one more possible reason is that language errors aremuch easier to be found out and corrected than errors of content and organization.

All the three above-mentioned errors should be paid attention to because writingskills require a combination of elements For the wrong pieces that can be identified asmistakes, not errors, students should be encouraged to correct by themselves andhopefully, the repetition of these mistakes may be avoided As for fossilized mistakes,there should be specially designed exercises to raise students' awareness of the knowledge.For errors caused by the lack of necessary knowledge, the teacher needs to providestudents with the knowledge of right, expected items.

I.3 AN ANALYSIS OF BUSINESS REPORTS IN ENGLISH

Although business reports are commonly used and business report writing is onepopular subject in Business English courses, few theoretical documents analyzing businessreports have been found This study, therefore, will look into the teaching materials andconduct a simple primary research on the genre This is an attempt to describe features ofthe business reports so that the study can suggest for the teaching of writing the document.I.3.1 BUSINESS REPORTS AS A GENRE

In linguistics the term genre refers to different types of communicative events(Martin, 1984; Swales, 1990) Genres can be identified by their overall shape or genericstructure decided by the genre linguistic functions That is why the generic structure can be

predicted Also, the communicative purpose can decide some of the grammatical andlexical structures and other characteristics that make the discourse type distinctive A genrecan be a general or large genre, that is when a genre consists of several different genres.For example, journals include reportages, editorials which share some common distinctivefeatures from other genres, but each of the discourses has its own function and involvesdifferent linguistic features

The genre business report is part of the genre business writing which includesbusiness letters, business internal memos, business proposals, etc as well The purpose ofall these small genres is doing business Business reports are also part of the general genrereports which also include academic reports Brown, 1994 (286-287) lists different types ofauthentic writing in which reports are mentioned as a non-fiction type Reports, in general,are documents that present and organize ideas on a specific topic The ideas in reports aregathered from reading or conducting primary research

Business reports are widely used for various purposes because they provide a usefulservice to people Reports interpersonally transfer objective knowledge and information onresearch so that referencing can be open to an unlimited number of responsible people atany times Business reports, therefore, assist in making decisions and solving problems

I.3.2 CLASSIFICATIONS OF BUSINESS REPORTS

Reports are often divided according to purposes Bovee, Thill, and Schatzman(1997: 377) give an example of two main kinds of reports Informational reports andanalytical reports Locker (1997: 358) has recommendation reports apart from those two.She also names some of the most commonly used business reports in everyday use such assales reports, quarterly reports as examples of information reports, annual reports, audit

reports as examples of analytical reports, and feasibility reports, problem-solving reports asexamples of recommendation reports She adds some more reports that combines severalpurposes into one like accident report both analyzing causes and recommending changes,trip reports both describing the trip and recommending actions

For training purposes, business communication books often deal with short andlong reports separately These books focus on training the skills to write some typical shortreports and guide the writing process in writing long reports Boone, Kurtz and Block(1996: 370-376), for example, choose to teach four types of short reports, progress reports,trip reports, investigative reports and trouble reports

I.3.3 RHETORICAL ANALYSIS OF BUSINESS REPORTS

In her course book to business communication, Northey (1998: 144) suggests thekey elements of business reports including a statement of purpose, key points, a discussionof findings The statement of purpose clearly reveals the aim of the report and can beconsidered the introduction of the report The key points including conclusions andrecommendations are the most important information provided by a report Some busyreaders only read this part instead of reading the whole report The discussion of findings isthe most extensive part of the report It can include several headings and can be organizedin various ways.

Northey also discusses the order of these elements A direct organization is usedwhen the reader is pleased or interested because the report begins with a statement ofpurpose, followed by the key points and the discussion of findings will end the report withthe explanations for the conclusions and recommendations in the key points On the otherhand, an indirect organization is suitable for displeased or skeptical readers, building

gradually towards the conclusions and recommendations by providing the discussion offindings before the key points

Locker (1997: 403) suggests seven basic patterns for organizing information in thediscussion of findings in a report:

1 Comparison and contrast: many reports are involved in making decision among

several alternatives and there will be criteria to be based on The author canorganize the discussion of findings according to either each alternative or eachcriterion.

2 Problem-solution: In problem-solution, the report writer identifies the problem,

explains its background or history; discusses its extent and seriousness, andidentifies its causes Then the author discusses the factors that affect the decision,analyzes the advantages and disadvantages of possible solutions The author mustalso give conclusions and recommendations

3 Elimination of alternatives: After discussing the problems and their causes, the

author discusses the impractical solutions first, showing why they will not beeffective The report ends with the most practical solution

4 General to particular or particular to general: Both ways are good when the

author needs to redefine the reader’s perception of the problem in order to solve iteffectively In the former, the author starts with the problem as it affects theorganization or as it manifests itself in general then moves to a discussion of theparts of the problem and solutions to each of these parts In the latter, the authorstarts with the problem as the audience defines it and moves to larger issues ofwhich the problem is a part

5 Geographic or spatial: the author discuses problems and solutions by units by

their physical arrangement.

6 Functional: the author discusses the problems and solutions of each functional

unit

7 Chronological: the author records events in the order in which they happened or

are planned to happen

In general, a business report should be structured in a logical way of thinking nomatter what pattern it follows The division of ideas into main points (parts) is necessary tohelp readers to follow the report Also, as other written texts, a report needs to havecoherence and unity.

Carol (1997: 302) gives a view on coherence which means "well organized andtightly knit.” Coherence here is understood in a broader meaning, that is it includes bothgrammatical, lexical devices and semantic relationship This belongs to a broader meaningand includes both ideas on cohesion and coherence Thus, for a report to be coherent,repetition, synonyms, pronouns, transitions and parallel sentence patterns must be usedeffectively Also, Carol suggested unity means all the sentences support the topic; a reportis unified when all of the sentences and paragraphs illustrate, clarify, explain, support and/or address the ideas expressed in the statement of purpose of the report.

I.3.4 LINGUISTIC FEATURES OF BUSINESS REPORTS

Business reports belong to written business documents and must conform to anumber of linguistic features of the genre Firstly, reports must be of standard writtenlanguage, which means correct use of grammar, spelling, vocabulary usage, and

conventions of capitalization and punctuation A report to be sent to a boss in theorganization or to a partner in another firm must be free of grammar and spelling errors

Secondly, report language must be appropriate; in this case, it must have theappropriate style A business report should be factual, formal, objective, and impersonal Itmust not use slang

In the book Business Reports in English, Comfort, Revell, and Stott chose a numberof typical language structures in order to express the following business report functions:

 Comparing

 Reason and purpose Cause and effect Amount and different Quantity

 Graph description Classification Active and passive Noun phrases

 Impersonal reporting

 Personal reporting Past perfect tense Degree

 Probability Recommendation Contrast

 Condition Addition Style

.3.5 WRITING PROCESS OF BUSINESS REPORTS

According to Ur (1996: 168), the process of writing can vary individually, whichmeans there is no right system of writing, there should be only guiding strategies so thatlearners can experiment and develop their own effective personal ways Some of thestrategies mentioned in Nunan (1991: 90) and Brown (1994: 331) under the analysis ofwhat good writers do are the planning before writing and reviewing and revising after the

first draft The planning will prevent the writer from getting confused when they begin.Skilled writers spend time after writing to revising all levels of lexis, sentence, anddiscourse and review the meaning

Report writing involves doing research on the subject which must be done as theplanning step Boone, Kurtz and Block (1996: 313) suggest seven steps in writing reports:

Step 1: Defining audience and purposeStep 2: Creating a work plan

Step 3: Collecting and evaluating dataStep 4: Developing the outlineStep 5: Writing the first draftStep 6: Revising the document

Step 7 Finalizing and submitting the document

(Boone, Kurtz, and Block, 1996: 313)

The suggested process conforms to the strategies raised by Nunan and Brown withpre- and post-writing work However, this suggestion can be applied according to personalpreference as argued by Ur (1996).

CHAPTER SUMMARY

Chapter I has explored the literatures available in the fields related to the teachingof writing business reports in English The literature review includes overviews of Englishfor Business Purposes, the teaching of English writing, and business report as a genre Thediscussions of the trends and approaches provide some useful suggestions for the study.First, business reports can be analyzed as a genre under the view of the register analysisand the discourse/genre analysis Secondly, the needs analysis can function as a guide forteaching Many of the suggestions for teaching are expected to be found from the analysis.The content-based teaching discussions can lead to effective applications, too.

The discussion about the use of English for Business Purposes among non-nativespeakers can be seen as a guide for learners It is argued that these speakers cannot and

need not speak English as Englishmen do, and one important factor is how effective thecommunication is, that is how they can understand each other and make themselvesunderstood, not how their English is like that spoken by native speakers

This chapter, being the first of four chapters presenting the study, is responsible foranalyzing the secondary sources The information in this chapter together with primarydata which will be analyzed in Chapter III will be based on to provide suggestions forteaching strategies in Chapter IV

The curriculum has changed due to the development needs All the students have toundergo two phases, foundation and specialized phases; the second phase can also befurther divided into basic courses and core courses Basic courses are the same for allstudents in English Department but there are three groups of specialized courses accordingto the four core courses English in Business, English and Japanese in Business, English forEducation, and English in Offices The first three courses of English for BusinessCommunication are among basic courses, which means all the students in the departmenthave to take these courses, while the courses of English for Business Communication 4 and5 are only for the bachelor program of English in Offices.

Report writing is one of the contents of English for Business Communication 3.Before that, students have undergone English for Business Communication 1 and English

for Business Communication 2 English for Business Communication 1 is a foundation ofBusiness Communication, it provides introduction to different business communicationskills such as verbal and non-verbal communication, listening skills and interculturalcommunication strategies English for Business Communication 2 goes into further detailsof written communication with different kinds of business letters and memos The maincontent of the course English for Business Communication 3 is writing business reports,which takes two-thirds of the course time The rest of the course deals with employmentcommunication, which includes writing résumés, cover letters and dealing with jobinterviews.

Each course is fulfilled within one semester which lasts nine weeks Each week,students have one class session of four periods, each lasts 55 minutes In total, the coursetakes 33 hours, report writing takes two-thirds of the total time, which means 22 classhours.

The class size for English for Business Communication courses in Thang LongUniversity is usually large The lack of teachers and facilities results in the fact that eachclass often contains from 30 to 60 students

Unlike other English language courses, English for business communicationcourses are content-based, because it combines teaching language knowledge together withthe subject matter of conventions and skill development in business communication In thecourse English for Business Communication 3, the part of business report writing containsseveral content components including description of what a business report is, how to plan,and research on reports and proposals, why and how to create visuals aids used in reportsand proposals, and how to plan, research, write and complete a business report Also

considered within the part are business proposals, which can be considered as a kind ofbusiness reports; however, they are more highly structured for presenting detailed plans

The materials available for the part of teaching to write business reports includeparts of books in English on business communication and the language learning books onwriting reports The material on business communication provides different approaches oflearning and teaching the contents as well as various useful samples However, these booksare designed for the main purpose of training the communication skills, not of teaching alanguage Therefore, foreign speakers of English can only learn some knowledge ofcommunication but not appropriate knowledge of using the language The books dealingwith language learning are preferred because they include not only content knowledge butalso language teaching items for the purpose of foreign language learners with a lighteremphasis on business However, for language students at Thang Long University, thebusiness situations in those foreign books are still not familiar That is why sometimes thematerials are adapted to fit learners' background.

One obvious feature of this course is that students share the same first language,Vietnamese, which will be used sometimes as a means of communication due to itseffectiveness in transferring ideas

So far, the evaluation of the course is carried out mainly through studentassessment Students have to sit in a written 90-minute exam to present the knowledge theyhave learned, then, do a report writing test and a cover letter writing test The test resultshave shown that many students still cannot write a business report in English as requiredafter the course This is proved at the later part of the study where students' businesswriting samples are examined This may be interpreted that the teaching of business

writing has not been very successful and needs to be improved, which is the purpose of thestudy.

II.2 DETERMINING THE RESEARCH QUESTIONS

The study aims firstly at improving the effectiveness of the teaching of businessreport writing in the course of English for Business Communication 3 by examining thecourse from the perspective of students and from what students still lack and find difficult.The research questions are:

1 What do language students need in learning to write business reports inEnglish?

2 What are the difficulties for language students in learning to write businessreports in English?

3 What are common errors made by students in writing business reports inEnglish?

4 What are effective strategies for teaching how to write business reports inEnglish?

The following data analysis is based on two sources: a needs analysis collectedthrough survey questionnaires sent to students participating in the course at Thang LongUniversity and an error analysis of business reports written by students As suggested inthe literature review, the needs analysis is an effective tool in all aspects of designing asyllabus, especially for an ESP course Specifically, it can answer questions about thelearning needs of students which can suggests for the teaching methods and teachingprocess A needs analysis would be necessary in the search for teaching strategies Theanalysis of the errors in students' writing samples, on the other hand, deals with one of the

most complicated stages in the teaching process of writing in a foreign language, the stageof managing errors in giving feedback to students’ writing By analyzing the errors madeby students, the teacher can identify the common errors, the reasons why students makethose errors, to find out what students lack The inference can help with both what to teachand how to teach.

II.3 THE SUBJECTS

II.3.1 THE SUBJECTS FOR THE NEEDS ANALYSIS QUESTIONNAIRE SURVEY

The first group of subjects is 45 (39 female, 6 male) students of English major atThang Long University They are in their early twenties and learn English as a foreignlanguage The sampling is carried out through the convenient method These studentsenrolled in the course of English for Business Communication 3 in Semester 3 of theschool year 2004-2005 at Thang Long University The course began in early April 2005and lasted until June 4th, 2005 The course is obligatory for all students in the EnglishDepartment regardless of whether they are specialized in English for Business or not.There is always an imbalanced ratio between male and female students in all English majorclasses, and in this group, it was 1/6 which could well be a representative ratio of thepopulation.

These students are in their third or fourth year and have finished their foundationprogram in about six semesters or two school years (in Thang Long University, a semesterconsists of nine weeks and a school year consists of three semesters) In order to enteruniversity these students had to pass an entrance exam in which English accounts for athird of the assessment results

Foreign language programs at universities provide more communicative syllabuseswith the practice of the four skills and exams that test all these skills Teachers areprovided with tape recorders and more time is allotted for communicative activities Theassessment is done through the performance of all the four communication skills.

Besides English, the foundation and basic specialized programs in the first year atThang Long University have also provided these students with some business-relatedcourses which will also be analyzed in the questionnaire due to the link to the ability tounderstand business activities reported in business documents.

II.3.2 THE SUBJECTS FOR THE ERROR ANALYSIS OF WRITING SAMPLES

The group consists of 30 students of English Department at Thang LongUniversity, who have just finished the course of English for Business Communication 3 inwhich business report writing in English is a major topic

This group of samples has the same academic background as the subjects in thequestionnaire survey, which means they are second- and third-year students in the EnglishDepartment, Thang Long University However, they have finished the course of Englishfor Business Communication 3 one semester earlier, at the second semester of the schoolyear 2004 - 2005 They have also taken the final exam of the course and the exam papersare collected for the data of the study.

There are 105 students taking the exam; however, due to the complication inanalysis, only 30 papers are collected Furthermore, it is not necessary to analyze all the105 papers because the purpose of the analysis is to seek the most common errors thatstudents make when writing reports in business and 30 papers are enough to reveal thoseerrors The 30 papers are chosen randomly among the 105 exam papers.

II.4 DATA COLLECTION PROCEDURES

II.4.1 THE NEEDS ANALYSIS QUESTIONNAIRE SURVEY

The questionnaire content can be divided into three parts: (1) backgroundinformation of the respondent’s English and Business studying; (2) questions about therespondent’s general expectations from the course and (3) questions on the respondent’spreference on the teaching strategies for writing business reports in English This final part,in turn, is further divided into methods of presenting the knowledge, methods of analyzingsample reports, methods of choosing exercises, and strategies of showing and correctingerrors in students’ writing This needs analysis does not contain all what Dudley-Evans(1998: 125) mentions It will reveal personal information about the learner, and languageinformation about the learner in part (1), learner's needs from the course in part (2), andlanguage learning needs in part (3).

In comparison with what needs analysis established as reflected by Dudley-Evans(1998: 125), some factors do not appear in the questionnaire Although the course is forbusiness purpose, participants who are college students do not have a specific professionaltarget situation That is why professional information about learners and professionalcommunication information about it can not be analyzed, this, in turn, leads to the fact thatlearners’ lacks, which is the results of the comparison between them, cannot be analyzed,either On the other hand, information about the environment of the course has beendescribed in the beginning of this chapter

For parts (1) and (2), most of the questions are multiple-choice and open-endedquestions and part (3) includes mostly scale questions The multiple-choice questions arechosen because they are easy to be analyzed while open questions allow respondents to

clarify their reasons or expectations specifically The scale questions are used for judgingthe effectiveness of different teaching methods because they provide quantitative judgmentfor abstract concepts In this questionnaire, they are chosen for students to scale theeffectiveness of teaching methods and the necessity of various issues of the coursecontents Unlike the exclusive items where multiple-choice questions are favorable, thesemethods and issues can be applied more than one at a time with different extents That isalso why the scale questions are more preferred than multiple-choice ones in this part ofthe questionnaire.

II.4.2 THE ERROR ANALYSIS OF WRITING SAMPLES

In order to collect data for the error analysis of writing samples, 30 exam papers ofthe achievement assessment are examined and the errors in the answers for the reportwriting question are counted and categorized This is the only achievement assessment ofthe course English for Business Communication 3 at Thang Long University Students areasked to write a business report which accounts for 40% of the course's results as a part ofthe assessment exam.

The subjects were required to write a business report in English when they weresitting in the assessment exam at the end of the course English for BusinessCommunication 3 The exam was designed within 90 minutes in which students have toanswer several questions on theoretical knowledge, write a short business report and aletter of application

There are several reasons to choose an exam paper for the purpose of the study.Firstly, students will try their best to write a business report using all the knowledge theyhave studied This includes not only what a business report is like but also how to write an

effective report This is different from a classroom exercise because in classroomexercises, students will be drilled only on what has been taught during the session while, inexam, students have to use all the skills and knowledge they have learnt during the wholecourse Secondly, the exam is set with a time limit and it takes place in the workroom,which somewhat resembles the situation in business work, where the report writer has toprepare business reports before a deadline and hardly can bring work home.

The hypothesized information for the business situation that requires a report to bewritten has been given for the exam This assists students to reduce the time wastedmaking up the information Also, the controlled content reduced the errors made by thelack of business understanding due to the fact that business knowledge is not a requirementof the course The question in the exam will be given as follows

As personnel research director of Metro Bank, a large urban bankwith many branches, you were assigned six months ago to investigatewhy there is such high turnover among the tellers and the clerks Youimplemented an exit interview program and learned that of the 60 tellersand clerks who quit during that period, 32 gave the heavy rush hourtraffic as the main reason; 20 said they wanted to work part time instead;8 others gave personal reasons.

It seems to you that a good solution would be to introduce a moreflexible schedule By altering work schedules you believe that someworkers could avoid rush hour driving Another possibility might be tohire more part-time employees and to allow full-time employees to workpart time if they wish

The cost of training new employees is very high Anything that canbe done to reduce turnover and training costs would be worthwhile, youbelieve

Prepare for Willard Petrol, vice-president of personnel, areport in which you present your findings and make recommendations.

Willard has a reputation for being against change He believes that mostmodern personnel practices are normally harmful to the organization.

(Huseman, Lahiff and Penrose, 1988: 255-256)

The answers for this exam question will be analyzed as writing samples, and theerrors in these papers will be collected, categorized so that reasons for those errors can beexplained and the teacher can help students to avoid the errors

The error analysis of students' writing samples, together with the survey onstudents' needs, will build up the data necessary for the study so that they can suggeststrategies for student-based instructions The analysis of these data will be presented in thefollowing chapter.

CHAPTER III

Data Analysis and Discussions

III.1 THE NEEDS ANALYSIS QUESTIONNAIRE SURVEY

III.1.1 STUDENTS' BACKGROUND AND ATTITUDE

The total number of questionnaire respondents is 45, of which 6 are male and 39 arefemale The average number of years studying English is 9.27 years, ranging from 6 to 13years This number reveals that some students started learning English at an age as youngas at primary or early junior high school levels The unanswered questions are not takeninto account

It can be said that English-major students have high and positive attitude towardslearning English as most of the respondents (32/45) say they chose to study Englishbecause they need English for the future career The second position comes to those whosee English as their love (7/45) Only two say they are just trying to pass the English examsat Thang Long University and three think their choice on learning English was a mistake.This means that 11% of the surveyed students have negative attitude to English The only

Other item is the love for the culture Figure III-1 shows the optimistic views of attitude

towards learning the English language among students.

Moreover, the respondents have relatively sufficient theoretical knowledge onbusiness Most of them have finished the course Introduction to Economics during theirfoundation program at university