Towards a combined product - process approach TO DEVELOPING BUSINESS CORRESPONDENCE WRITING SKILLS FOR ENGLISH MAJORS IN HAIPHONG UNIVERSITY

Towards a combined product - process approach TO DEVELOPING BUSINESS CORRESPONDENCE WRITING SKILLS FOR ENGLISH MAJORS IN HAIPHONG UNIVERSITY

As the spread of English to almost all corners of the world, nowadays, people are gettingmore and more aware of the importance of the language For many people in Vietnam,English is seen as a very necessary means to get a good job, especially a well-paid job inforeign invested companies Thus, there is a growing demand to learn the language forbusiness communication Therefore, the teaching and learning of English have been placedin an important focus However, the current situation of English teaching and learning inHaiphong University has both advantages and disadvantages which should be definedmore clearly so that we can improve the teaching-learning environment and the proficiencyof English competence of the students.

As English teachers of ESP, we may find it hard to determine what points to focus on whenasked to navigate students for their big steps into the real world after they leave university.We should always bear in mind that some of our students may someday have to work for a100% foreign invested or International Joint Venture (IJV) firm This requires not onlyinstructing our students on how to improve their foreign business language skills, but alsohelping them come to terms with cultural differences and business styles which may oftenbe more of useful resources than impediments

Feedbacks from many graduates of Haiphong University and now working for foreignfirms show that they really need real-life English when they start their jobs in foreigninvested companies such as how to prepare for a job process, office activities,administration procedures, etc

Besides, the teaching of business correspondence is one part of the English for BusinessCommunication That is why the English majors will really have to face with somefundamental drawbacks when taking part into this ESP course, namely lack of real-lifeexperience, limited time allocated for the course, inappropriate material course book,inexperienced teachers, etc With those difficulties, the teaching of English businesscorrespondence is really a challenge What we have to carry out at the moment is to findout the effective way to the teaching and learning this subject matter, so that when theyleave university and start working for a business firm they will feel less difficult dealingwith business correspondence

2 Aims of the study

The study is aimed at:

1 Reviewing current approaches to teaching EFL writing with focus on teaching andlearning business correspondence writing;

2 Identifying some commonly made mistakes by English majors in HaiphongUniversity while learning to write business correspondence; and

3 Giving suggestions for effectively teaching business correspondence writing inHaiphong University

I strongly hope that with all my great efforts focused on some pending matters in terms ofboth theory and practice, some of my study will partly contribute to the improvement ofESP learning-teaching in general, and business correspondence writing in particular

3 Scope of study

This research focuses on finding out suitable techniques for teaching students to writebusiness correspondence correctly and efficiently (in which cover letters are of the mostconcentration)

With the current ESP curriculum and materials in use in Haiphong University, the BusinessEnglish is taught within only 30 forty-five minute periods That is why the scope of ourstudy is limited to the writing of cover letters in Job Seeking Process

4 Methodology

For the implementation of this study, a number of methods will be used such ascontrastive, comparative, analysis, general review from published materials in the relatedfields Different sources of materials will be chosen from related textbooks, articles,internets, Video Compact Discs (VCD), Compact Discs (CD)

Also, the analysis of students’ writing task is done to recognize most common mistakesmade by students when they perform their cover letter writing This can surely helpteachers anticipate problems in the existing course and seek the possible solutions to fixthese problems The analysis will assist to distinguish advantages and disadvantages inteaching techniques for teachers’ part.

5 Organization of the study

The study includes three parts:

PART A: INTRODUCTION presents Rationale, Aims of the study, Scope,

Methodology and Organization of the study

PART B: DEVELOPMENT constitutes the body of the study and consists of

three chapters:

Chapter One: Review of Literature

In this chapter, the trends and approaches applied to teaching Englishwriting such as Product, Process and Genre are reviewed and then narroweddown to the approaches for teaching ESP At the end of this chapter asummary of the limitations and differences of these approaches is presented.

Chapter Two: Methodology

A brief description of the Business English course currently being taught inHaiphong University is given and all information related to the researchquestions, survey and data collection procedures is also provided with Alsothe analysis of errors made by students is discussed

Chapter Three: Data Analysis and Discussion

In this chapter, survey data collected are analyzed based on thequestionnaire responses in order to find out some major findings aboutstudents’ difficulties in learning Business letter writing Besides, students’needs on the course content, methodologies and their recommendations willbe discussed Additionally, their weaknesses and strengths are concludedafter the error analysis Finally, a combined approach to teaching businessletter writing is suggested.

PART C: CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS presents review of the study,

recommendations for improvements and some suggestions for further study.

According to Hutchinson & Waters’ point of view, they clearly mention, after a carefulanalysis of ELT and based on a focus on the commonality of language and learning, that“ESP must be seen as an approach, not as a product ESP is not a particular kind oflanguage or a methodology, nor does it consist of particular type of teaching material.”(Hutchinson & Water 1987:19) Being recognized as an approach, learning English shouldbe focused on the student needs and therefore learning motivation should be created andpaid attention to As for a broader definition of ESP, Hutchinson and Waters (1987:19)also mention, "ESP is an approach to language teaching in which all decisions as to contentand method are based on the learner's reason for learning"

With the above mentioned views on ESP, it can be shown that rather than simply focus onthe method of language delivery, more attention should be given to the ways in whichlearners acquire language and the differences in the ways language is acquired Learnersare seen to employ different learning strategies, use different skills, enter with differentlearning schemata, and be motivated by different needs and interests Therefore, focus onthe learners' needs became as equal as the methods employed to disseminate linguisticknowledge Also the teaching approaches should be learner-centered orientation.

As for Hutchinson and Waters (1987:17) ESP is divided into three divisions: English forScience and Technology (EST), English for Business and Economics (EBE), and Englishfor Social Science (ESS) and then when coming to the upper level, each of these threebranches is further divided into sub-divisions according to learners’ needs: for study as

English for Academic Purposes (EAP) and for work as English for Occupational Purposes(EOP).

Besides, Dudley-Evans and St John (1998) suggested the use of continuum which clarifiesthe nature of ESP work The continuum runs from very General English courses to specific

ESP courses In this process, the higher the level is, the more specific the ESP coursereaches, ranging from English for beginners to individual needs of professional users Today, English is one of the major languages in the world with the number of speakers ofover four hundred millions Geographically, English is the most widespread language onearth It is the language of business, technology, sports and aviation The worldcommunication is mainly carried out in English “Incredibly enough, 75% of the world’smails and 60% of the world’s telephone calls are in English.”(John and Liz Soars (1986): 2)Further more, as Dudley-Evans and St John note that with the increasing numbers ofinternational students taking Master courses in Business, Finance, Accounting andBanking, the area of Academic Business English is beginning to assume much greaterimportance in EPA (Dudley-Evans and St John 1997: 31) and ESP courses are designedby mixing up different elements to fit the learners’ particular situation.

1.2 Teaching English writing

1.2.1 Definition of writing

Writing is one of communicative approaches Through the mastery of writing, people cometo be fully effective in intellectual organization, in the management of everyday affairs, inthe expression of ideas and arguments By writing people can have control of bothinformation and of people as well.

As mentioned by Byrne (1988) we can understand that “writing is an act of forminggraphic symbols” However, of all language learning skills, writing is valued as “alanguage skill which is difficult to acquire” (Tribble, 1996:3).

In The World's Writing Systems, Peter T Daniels defines writing as: “a system of more or

less permanent marks used to represent an utterance in such a way that it can be recoveredmore or less exactly without the intervention of the utterer”.

1.2.2 Writing tasks and activities

Doff (1988: 148-153) and Brown (1994: 327-330) divide writing activities according to thelevel of the teacher's control, which include: (1) imitative or writing down, (2) controlledor guided writing, and (3) free-writing or self-writing.

Imitative writing involves classroom activities like copying, which are somewhatmechanical and do not require the students to understand the meaning That is why theseactivities are uninteresting for students and should only be used for beginners Anotherform is dictation, which is more challenging to students This incentive activity helpsdevelop both listening and spelling However, it does not really develop writing skill inthat students do not have to express ideas or find ways to constructing sentences Also, thisis not an authentic activity.

Controlled writing activities provide more challenges for students but still limit theircreation such as changing a text from present tense to past tense, completing a sentence byfilling the blanks, writing sentences from clues, writing from pictures Another form isdicto-comp, in which the teacher read the whole paragraph at normal speed, then puts keywords from the paragraph on the board, and students are required to rewrite the paragraphfrom their recollection and the key words Freer activities include writing based on a textor on oral presentation In the former, students are provided with a paragraph as a model,then are required to based on the paragraph and write a similar paragraph giving their owninformation or information provided by the teacher Oral presentation begins with classactivities when students make suggestions and the teacher builds up an outline, or a list ofkey expressions, on the board.

In free writing, or self-writing, students have a certain amount of choice on the ideas, theremay be some few limitations like the length of the composition, or the topic chosen towrite about.

1.2.3 Teaching writing in ESL classes

Students need to be personally involved in writing in order to make the learning experienceof lasting value Encouraging student participation in the exercise, while at the same timerefining and expanding writing skills, requires a certain pragmatic approach The teacher

should be clear on what skills students are trying to develop Next, the teacher needs todecide on which means (or type of exercise) can facilitate learning of the target area Oncethe target skill areas and means of implementation are defined, the teacher can thenproceed to focus on what topic can be employed to ensure student participation Bypragmatically combing these objectives, the teacher can expect both enthusiasm andeffective learning

As Ann Raimes (1983) mentions that “When we learn a second language, we learn tocommunicate with other people: to understand them, to talk to them, read what they havewritten and write to them Visitors to another country will often have to leave a note for themailman, fill out a customs declaration form, give written instructions, or write a thank youletter.”

There is no better way for students to grasp the essential value of writing as a form ofcommunication than for them to produce the kind of practical writing that many people doin their everyday life Each piece of practical writing has both clear purpose and specificaudience: Messages, application forms, invitations, letters and instructions and the like

1.2.4 Approaches to teaching English writing

There are several ways to approach writing in the classroom It should be said at the

beginning that there is not necessarily any 'right' or 'best' way to teach writing skills The

best practice in any situation will depend on the type of students, the text type beingstudied, the school system and many other factors as Raimes (1983) points out “There is nocorrect answer to question of how to teach writing in ESL classes There are as manyanswers as there are teachers and teaching styles, or learners and learning styles.”

Hereafter, several approaches are reviewed with a view to understanding the backgroundtheory of current writing approaches to teaching writing in ESL classes.

1.2.4.1 The Product Approach

For a long time, Product Approach has dominated much of the teaching that happens in theEnglish classrooms In this approach, focus is greatly placed on the linguistic knowledge,with attention on the appropriate use of vocabulary, syntax, and cohesive devices.

As far as the Product Approach is concerned, learning to write has four stages:familiarization, controlled writing, guided writing and free writing The aim of thisapproach is to enable students to produce similar texts Brown (1994:320) states thatlearning is evaluated through text analysis of students’ work according to some criteriasuch as the standard of rhetorical style, accurate grammar, and conventional organization The Product Approach to writing usually involves the presentation of a model text, whichis analyzed and the basis of a task that leads to the writing of an exactly similar or aparallel text Robinson (1991) summarizes the method in the following way:

MODEL TEXT →COMPREHENSION/ANALYSIS/MANIPULATION →NEW INPUT → PARALLEL TEXT

The use of models for text analysis and as a basis for thinking about the purposes andreadership of a text can, however, have an important role to play in teaching writing Thisis especially true where the teaching of writing is integrated with the teaching of reading.The situation where the writer looks at a model, or previous example, of a text he wishes towrite, and then adapts it for the specific purpose reflects what frequently happens inbusiness or academic writing

Therefore, this approach is totally teacher-centered and product or output-focused Theweaknesses of the Product Approach is that process skills are given a relatively small role,and that the knowledge and skills that students bring to the classroom are undervalued Inshort, product-based approaches see writing as mainly concerned with knowledge aboutthe structure of language, and writing development as mainly the result of the imitation ofinput, in the form of texts provided by the teacher.

However, advantages of the Product Approach can not be denied, for this traditionalapproach recognizes the need for students to be given linguistic knowledge about texts, sostudents will have a clear idea about the organization of a particular text And what’s more,the Product Approach understands that imitation is one way in which people learn It hascontributed greatly to the development of students’ vocabulary and structure and undersome circumstances it is very useful for practical teaching

1.2.4.2 The Process Approach

Form the 1970s, in the light of the weakness of Product Approach, teachers are moreconcerned about the Process Approach As its term suggests, in the Process Approach, thefocus of attention has shifted from the finished product to the whole process of writing:experience and question, prewriting preparation, draft writing, editing and rewriting,publication or sharing, and response and feedback from the readers The very typical fourstages go as following: prewriting; composing/drafting; revising and editing.

In Process Approach, the teacher primarily facilitates the students’ writing, and providinginput or stimulus is considered to be less important Writing development is seen as anunconscious process which happens when teachers facilitate the exercise of writing skills.The role of a teacher is as an education facilitator The shift of focus and the change in theteacher’s role necessitate greater emphasis on activities such as collaborative group workand peer evaluation.

Since its foundation, the Process Approach has been widely accepted because it laysemphasis on the writing process of writers Compared to the Product Approach, theProcess Approach has undoubtedly made great improvements on practical teaching andprovided much thought for English teachers However, the disadvantage of the ProcessApproach is that it often regards all writing as being produced by the same set ofprocesses; that it gives insufficient importance to the kind of texts writers produce and whysuch texts are produced; and that it offers learners insufficient input, particularly in termsof linguistic knowledge

Ron White and Valerie Arndt are keen to stress that 'writing is re-writing; that revision

seeing with new eyes - has a central role to play in the act of creating text' (White andArndt 1991: 5) In their model, process writing is an interrelated set of recursive stageswhich include:

- Generating ideas and evaluation (assessing the draft and/or subsequent drafts)White and Arndt's model can be represented diagrammatically, as in Figure 1:

Figure 1: Model of Process Approach

The teacher plays a greater role in this approach in providing input and consequently,feedback during the revision and evaluation stages The number of times this is done is notrestricted as writing is a recursive activity The teacher’s response serves to providesupport for the students in the writing process as well as engage him/her in critical self-evaluation of the written product The teacher may also act as a source of input for thestudents, though more advanced students can rely on their own sources of input from thelibrary or the Internet But in the final analysis, the student has to consider, to a fair degree,the context of the writing task In summary, this approach informs us that writingessentially involves thinking skills and knowledge of the various stages in the process totransform information into coherently written texts.

Up to now, a conclusion can be made by Raimes that in the Process Approach, students donot write on a given topic in a restricted time and hand in the composition for the teacher“to correct”-which is usually means to find the errors Rather, they explore a topic throughwriting, showing the teachers and each other their drafts, and using what they write to readover, think about, and move them on to new ideas.

Summarizing, it can be said that Process Approach sees writing primarily as the exercise oflinguistic skills, and writing development as an unconscious process which happens whenteachers facilitate the exercise of writing skills.

1.2.4.3 The Genre Approach

Recent years have witnessed increased emphasis being placed on the notion of genre in thelanguage learning classroom and some genre-based teaching approaches have come intobeing However, there are strong similarities with product approaches and, in some ways,genre approaches can be regarded as an extension of product approach.

Like Product Approach, Genre Approach regards writing as predominantly linguistic but,unlike Product Approach, they emphasize that writing varies with the social context inwhich it is produced So, we have a range of kinds of writing- such as business letters,research articles, and reports-linked with different situations

In the ELT field, Dudley-Evans (1997:154) also identifies three stages in Genre approachto writing First, a model of a particular genre is introduced and analyzed Students thencarry out exercises which manipulate relevant language forms and, finally, produce a shorttext

To write in a particular genre, whether a formal report or a historical romance, the formalpatterns that shape a text must be aware of Students need to be familiarized with theschemata associated with the particular genres they will require Genre analysis cantherefore provide the vocabulary and concepts to explicitly teach the text structures wewould like our students to produce It places language at the center of writing developmentby allowing shared understanding and explicit guidance The Genre Approach offersstudents a relatively fixed discourse model that they can use for reference, thus studentswill gain confidence in producing a text that serves its intended purpose On the otherhand, as to the negative side, the Genre Approach is prescriptive rather than descriptive,which is likely to lead to lack of creativity and de-motivation in the learners Students willfeel this teaching approach boring and in their practical writing, their products will befound stereotyped Sometimes, the Genre Approach may prove to be a text-centeredapproach, focused on the reproduction of the product, rather than a student-centered one.What is more, in practical teaching, teachers can not provide students with all sorts ofgenres in the classroom Therefore, the Genre Approach also has its limitations in theteaching of writing

To sum up, with brief review of the thee approaches commonly applied in teaching writingas Product, Process and Genre approaches, both advantages and drawbacks are defined andlooked into Of course, there cannot be a single perfect approach to teaching studentswriting especially writing their business writing The question here is laid down to ESPteachers is that he should pick up the most advantageous strengths of each approach andappropriately combine them into a synthetic approach so that the teaching and learning willbe of maximum effect A synthesis of approaches will be suggested in Part C of this study.

1.3 Error classification

In order to give suggestion for an appropriate approach to teaching businesscorrespondence writing for English majors in Haiphong University, error identification ismade because it is one of the useful techniques in teaching-learning process

Correction and Assessment are really in-separate because they both help the learners toassess their learning and self-value their products Error correction in writing is often madeon students’ written work such as homework, exercises, assignment.

In writing classes, students’ errors are often pointed out by teachers on differentperformance aspects of a written task and then students will be shown the appropriate waysto improve Hereinafter we will look at 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 form.

Errors of organization are involved in the text that fails to follow the conventional

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

Errors of presentation The errors in presentation involve those do not follow the

conventional format, lay-out of a cover letter as well as style, spacing, letter font or size

Errors of language form, according to Ur (1996), are mainly referred to when teacher

give their feedback, which makes students believe that these are what matters The firstreason is that “errors in spelling and grammar catch the eye and seem to demand to becorrected.”

Additionally, students themselves always want their language errors to be corrected Andone more possible reason is that language errors are much easier to be found out andcorrected than errors of contents and organization

In short, all the above-mentioned errors should be paid much attention to because writingskills require a combination of elements For the wrong pieces that can be recognized asmistakes, not errors, students should be encouraged to correct by themselves and hopefullythe repetition of these mistakes may be avoided As for mistakes that are almost impossibleto be corrected in a short time as fossilized ones, there should be specially designedexercises to raise the students’ awareness on the knowledge And for those that are causedby the lack of necessary knowledge, teachers need to provide students with the knowledgeof right and expected items Based on the analysis of errors made by students during theirlearning process an appropriate approach can be suggested and applied

CHAPTER TWO: METHODOLOGY

2.1 A description of the current business course to be taught for Englishmajors in Haiphong University

2.1.1 The course syllabus

The Foreign Language Department of Haiphong University consists of 3 major divisions: The English, Russian and Chinese departments Students who have passed thenational entrance exams will be sorted into two types of groups: The teacher traininggroups and the remaining students will be in non-teaching groups The ESP course isallocated for the non-teaching groups only After graduation, students of these groups willlook for a job in business or manufacturing enterprises and use their English for officework That is why they are supposed to learn a variety of ESP subjects such as: English forEducation, English for Finance and Banking, English for Economics, Business English,and so on, so that they can obtain technical terms and specialized knowledge for theirtargeted subjects.

sub-The time allocation for Business English course is as of the following:

IV (Business I)

33x15 Introduce and practice basic skills and techniques for

business communications.

V (Business II)

33x15 Develop and further practice the skills used in

business situations and greatly focus on businesslanguage functions.

VI (Business III)

22x15 Business correspondence writing

Business English is taught when students have obtained basic language skills in GeneralEnglish like listening, speaking, reading and writing Based on this syllabus, BusinessEnglish for students is aimed to help students:

- To understand authentic Business texts

- To use relevant Business language functions to business contacts

- To master their basic skills and techniques for writing businesscorrespondence and to produce simple but correct business letters, memos,faxes and reports.

- To participate in business contexts giving personal information, exchanginginformation and expressing opinions

2.1.2 The business English course

Time allocation: 30 x forty-five minute periodsCourse Objectives

- To obtain fundamental overview of Business English Correspondence- To Focus on writing Business letters, memos, reports and job applications- To practice some key office activities such as Job Seeking Process, dealing with

office problems, sending fax, emails, photocopying, etc.

Course Components

1 Business Letter Writing

2 Application Forms (Cover letters)3 Curriculum Vitae/ Resume4 Job interviews

5 Thank-you letters6 Letters of complaints7 Letters of Invitation8 Letters of Reference9 Letters of Resignation10 Agreements & Contracts

Class features

The class size for Business English courses in Haiphong University is rather large, rangingfrom 40 to 50 students per group due to the lack of infrastructure facilities and ESPteachers.

Contrary to other English language courses, the English courses for businesscommunication are content-based because it combines the teaching of language knowledgewith the subject matter of business conventions Within 30 periods, both fundamentalknowledge and practical skills on business affairs should be taught to students with a focuson writing business correspondence, especially job-seeking procedures such as coverletters, curriculum vitae, and job interviews

Another feature of this course is the fact that all students are of semester VI/ third yearstudents of English majored department, which means that they have obtained basiclinguistic skills like reading, speaking, listening and writing That is why they share thesame first language (Vietnamese) and the same level of foreign language (English) Duringthe class, the language used in teaching and learning is English However, Vietnameselanguage is sometimes used for the certainty of achievement of the content’s objectivesand avoidance of ambiguity

The student assessment of the course is carried out in the form of a 60-minute written examto be held at the end of the term Students have to present what they have learned asbusiness writing skills and do writing business correspondent test: writing a CV and a jobcover letter

Based on the exam results obtained, we have found that various kinds of mistakes havebeen made and spotted students’ weaknesses when they encounter with business writing.Therefore, this can be interpreted that the teaching and learning of businesscorrespondence writing have not been of success and therefore need much improvements.

2.1.3 Teaching business letter writing

In business communication, letters play a very important role in establishing andmaintaining business relationships, both within a company and with external contacts Toaccomplish this, many specific genres and sub-genres have been developed, which havebeen the object of linguistic investigation and which are taught in specific courses, as greatimportance is attributed to them in business studies Moreover, this genre has a long-standing tradition, and the study of its forms in differing historical contexts has pointed outits varying aspects and its dynamic nature

There are many modern communication methods available today, but the traditionalbusiness letter remains an important means of sending printed messages The businessletter acts as an ambassador for the company, and also it conveys an impression of thecompany or of the writer in many ways.

Developments in technology have made it possible to have instant communication all overthe world Speed is now becoming the key to successful business communications As aresult fax messages, e-mail are taking the place of many business letters However, inmany aspects of life and work, nobody can deny the existence of written communications-one of which is the use of application form or cover letter when you start your own jobhunting process.

As defined by Martin (1993:36), genres can be identified by their overall shape or genericstructure by the genre linguistic functions Additionally, the communicative purpose candecide some of the grammatical and lexical structures and other characteristics that makethe discourse type distinctive A genre can be a general or large genre, that is when a genreconsists of several different genres

The genre of business correspondence includes business letters like complaint letters,invitation letters, job application letters, resignation letters, and some other business letters.The very purpose of all these sub-genres is doing business

Business letters belong to written business correspondence and must conform a number oflinguistic features of the genre Business letters must be of standard written language,which means correct use of grammar, spelling, vocabulary usage, and conventions ofcapitalization and punctuation Business letters are the basic means of communicationbetween companies They are documents typically sent externally to those outside acompany but is also sent internally to those within a company.

Besides, the language used in business letters should be appropriate, or of appropriatestyle Business letters should be formal, concise, impersonal and informal language mustbe minimized

As Ann Raimes (1983) mentions that business letter writing also gives us the chance todeal with a variety of forms and functions that are an essential part of language mastery.

We write letters to invite, inquire, explain, apologize, commiserate, congratulate,complain, order, apply, acknowledge and thank, in other words for various social andbusiness contacts.

Once students have known the form of a business letter, they can be given communicativewriting tasks that lead them to practice useful form The writing of business letters in theclassroom can be tied in a very neatly with lessons on the functions of language e.g how tomake a complaint, job cover letter, letter of invitation, letter of resignation and so on As mentioned earlier due to the limitation of the scope of this study, the focus is on thesteps for writing a job cover letter:

Step 1: Defining the audience and purpose:

Personalize the letter and try to find out as much as possible about the person/ the company you are writing the application form to.Step 2: Creating a work plan: gather information about the company, the job

applied, work experience, education background.Step 3: Collecting and evaluating data

Step 4: Working out an out lineStep 5: Writing draft versionStep 6: Revising the letter

Step 7: Proofreading, finalizing and start writing

2.2 The survey

2.2.1 Target Population

The survey was carried out with the cooperation of one class (42 English majors) namelyK5B They are third-year students of English department They are in their early twentiesranging from 21 to 23 years of age The Business English course for those students beganat the beginning of December 2006 and completed in April 2007 The course is obligatoryto all students of the class