Innovations in the english program for non major sophomores at binh duong university an assessment

BINH DUONG PROVINCIAL PEOPLE‟S COMMITTEE THU DAU MOT UNIVERSITY LE THI NGOC DIEM INNOVATIONS IN THE ENGLISH PROGRAM FOR NON-MAJOR SOPHOMORES AT BINH DUONG UNIVERSITY: AN ASSESSMENT MAJOR: ENGLISH LANGUAGE MAJOR CODE: 8220201 MASTER THESIS IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE BINH DUONG PROVINCE - 2020 BINH DUONG PROVINCIAL PEOPLE‟S COMMITTEE THU DAU MOT UNIVERSITY LE THI NGOC DIEM INNOVATIONS IN THE ENGLISH PROGRAM FOR NON-MAJOR SOPHOMORES AT BINH DUONG UNIVERSITY: AN ASSESSMENT MAJOR: ENGLISH LANGUAGE MAJOR CODE: 8220201 MASTER THESIS IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE SUPERVISED BY NGUYEN THI THANH TAM Ph.D BINH DUONG PROVINCE - 2020 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT This study would not have been completed without the help of important people First of all, I would like to express my deepest appreciation to my study supervisor, Dr Nguyen Thi Thanh Tam, for her guidance, encouragement, and patience in reading and editing my study She always made me feel relaxed and comfortable whenever I felt confused and worried in conducting this study She built up a good English model for me not only with her deep knowledge but also her personalities I gratefully acknowledge Thu Dau Mot University in general, Postgraduate Department and Foreign Languages Department at Thu Dau Mot University in particular for allowing me to pursue this study I also thank to Dr Tran Thanh Du and other teachers and professors for their encouragement and lectures while I was taking the Master of Arts course at Thu Dau Mot University I also thank to my classmates in the Master of Arts course in the academic years 2017-2019 for their friendship and support throughout the years I highly show my gratitude to the Principal of Binh Duong University for letting me conduct this study freely on the university campus I also would like to express my appreciation to my co-teachers and my beloved non-English-major students who were participants in this study Finally, I would like to express my greatest love to my beloved family, especially my husband and my children for their motivation and understanding throughout the years I thought that I could not finish this study without their encouragement and love To all these significant people, I hope that the achievement of this study would make them feel pleased and satisfied enough i DECLARATION BY RESEARCHER I declare that this study titled “Innovations in the English Program for Non-major Sophomores at Binh Duong University: An Assessment” was created by my own findings With the best of my knowledge and understanding including the help of reference materials, this study was conducted by using author‟s work and it was submitted after a carefully checking progress of supervisor in order to fulfill the partial requirements of the Master‟s Degree Researcher’s Signature Lê Thị Ngọc Điểm ii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENT i DECLARATION BY RESEARCHER ii TABLE OF CONTENTS iii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS vii LIST OF TABLES viii LIST OF FIGURES ix LIST OF APPENDICES x ABSTRACT xi Chapter INTRODUCTION 1.1 The Research Background 1.1.1 An Introduction of Binh Duong University (BDU) 1.1.2 An Introduction of BDU‟s English Program for Non-EnglishMajor Students 1.2 The Aims of the Study 1.3 Research Questions 1.4 Scope of the Study 1.5 Significance of the Study 1.6 Definitions of Terms 1.7 Structure of the Study Chapter LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Innovation 2.1.1 The Nature of Innovation 2.1.2 Curriculum Innovations 2.1.3 Reasons for Innovation 10 2.1.4 Models of Curriculum Innovations 10 2.2 Curriculum 11 2.2.1 Definition of Curriculum 11 2.2.2 Curriculum Assessment 13 iii 2.2.2.1 Definition of Curriculum Assessment 13 2.2.2.2 Approaches for Curriculum Assessment 14 2.2.3 Curriculum Implementation 16 2.2.4 The Importance of Curriculum Assessment 17 2.2.5 Effective Curriculum Design 17 2.3 Analysis of Needs 18 2.3.1 The Overview of Analysis of Needs 18 2.3.2 The Importance of Analysis of Needs 19 2.3.3 Types of Analysis of Needs 20 2.3.4 Steps of Analysis of Needs 21 2.4 Conceptual Framework 22 2.5 Previous Studies 23 Chapter RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 27 3.1 The Overall Design of the Study 27 3.2 Research Design 27 3.3 Research Questions 28 3.4 Setting and Participants 28 3.4.1 Setting in this Study 28 3.4.2 Participants in this Study 29 3.5 Research Method 30 3.6 Data Collection Instrument 30 3.6.1 English Teachers‟ and the English Program Director‟s Questionnaire 31 3.6.2 Non-English-Major Sophomores‟ Questionnaire 31 3.7 Data Analysis 32 3.8 Ethical Consideration 32 Chapter DATA ANALYSIS 34 4.1 Data Analysis Procedure 34 4.2 Findings from the Current English Curriculum (see in Appendix C) 34 4.3 Findings from Research Questions in the Study 37 iv 4.3.1 Results from Research Question 37 4.3.1.1 Demographic Information of English Teachers (questions 16 in English Teachers‟ and The English Program Director‟s Questionnaire) 37 4.3.1.2 The Innovations in the English Program at BDU 39 4.3.2 Results from Research Question 41 4.3.2.1 Demographic Information of Non-English-Major Sophomores (questions 1-4 in the Non-English-Major Sophomores‟ Questionnaire) 41 4.3.2.2 Students‟ Needs in the English Program at BDU (question in the Non-English-Major Sophomores‟ Questionnaire) 43 4.3.3 Results from Research Question 44 4.3.3.1 The Degree of Satisfaction on the English Program for NonEnglish-Major Sophomores at BDU 44 4.3.3.2 Students‟ Assessment on the Factors of Innovations in the English Program at BDU 46  Assessment on Course Content (statements 1-5) 47  Assessment on Independent Learning (statements 6-8) 48  Assessment on Materials and Textbooks (statements 9-11) 49  Assessment on Testing and Assignment (statements 12-15) 50  Assessment on Academic Instructors (statements 16-20) 52 4.4 Findings from The Final Examination Results of Non-English-Major Sophomores at BDU 53 Chapter CONCLUSION, DISCUSSION, AND SUGGESTIONS 55 5.1 Summary and Discussion of the Study 55 5.2 Implications of the Study 58 5.3 Limitations of the Study 58 5.4 Suggestions from the Findings 59 5.4.1 For Non-English-Major Students 59 5.4.2 For English Teachers and Administrators 60 v 5.4.3 For Further Studies 60 REFERENCES 62 APPENDICES Appendix A Non-English-Major Sophomores‟ Questionnaire Appendix B English Teachers‟ and The English Program Director‟s Questionnaire Appendix C Detailed Outlines for Non-Major Basic English 1,2,3,4,5 Appendix D Final Examination Results vi LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS BDU Binh Duong University EAP English for Academic Purposes EFL English as a Foreign Language ELT English Language Teaching GCE General Certificate of Education GEP General English Program HaUI Hanoi University of Industry HE High Education HUWR Hanoi University of Water Resources MA Master of Arts MoET Ministry of Education and Training MSLU Minsk State Language University NCE National Center of Excellence Program NEC Certificate in English Language (New England College) PNU Pusan National University ROI Return-On-Investment SSCE The Senior Secondary School Certificate TDMU Thu Dau Mot University YTU Yildiz Teknik University Q Question S Statement vii LIST OF TABLES Table 4.1 Information about the English Curriculum for Non-English-Major Sophomores at BDU 34 Table 4.2 Demographic Information of English Teachers 37 Table 4.3 Demographic Information of Non-English-Major Sophomores 41 Table 4.4 Other Purposes to Join in the English Program at BDU 44 Table 4.5 Assessment on Course Content in the Curriculum 47 Table 4.6 Assessment on Independent Learning in the Curriculum 48 Table 4.7 Assessment on Materials and Textbooks in the Curriculum 49 Table 4.8 Assessment on Testing and Assignment in the Curriculum 50 Table 4.9 Assessment on Academic Instructors in the Curriculum 52 viii ... show the information of the innovations in the English program, the students‟ needs, and the students‟ satisfaction in the English program at BDU and the data were calculated in Tables and Figures... and administrators not only at Binh Duong University context but also in Binh Duong province context in the career of developing teaching and learing English language Keywords: Innovations, the. .. got at least one year experience in teaching the English program for non -English- major students at BDU and one English program director in order to gather data about what innovations in the English