CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION
3.2. The appropriateness of the material to the content requirements of the
3.2.1. Material analysis results
The material analysis will be presented under Organization, Skills and Topics.
The content is organized around topics of tourism with fifteen units such as all in a day’s work, fly- drive holiday, table for two, city tours, water cities, cruise ships… In each unit there is language focus which includes many grammar structures, vocabulary which provides words in exercises and reading texts, professional practice with functional language which provides frameworks for key customer service encounters. Moreover, reading skills, speaking skills and writing skills are integrated in three main sections above. After each five units, there is a consolidation which reviews language, specific vocabulary and also offers extra skill practice. At the end of the book, there is a writing bank which offers detail instructions of writing some writing types and sample writings. Besides, there are pair work files with role play tasks, grammar reference with structures and grammar rules. However, in every unit, sections and tasks do not follow a fixed order. For example, in the first lesson we come across with Speaking, Reading and Vocabulary while in the second lesson we have Speaking, Listening and Reading.
“English for International Tourism” is specially used for the students who are interested in tourism; therefore the author of the book focuses on developing communicative competence of the students rather than grammatical competence.
However, in each unit, there is a section named language focus presenting grammatical structures and grammar is always presented in context and extensively practiced speaking. Reading and writing skills are paid little attention while listening and speaking skills are the focuses of the book. In each unit, there are at least two listening and speaking tasks. Moreover, each unit consists of professional
practice with authentic tasks, pronunciation with sounds of English and vocabulary sections also help much for speaking and listening skills.
The treatment of topics in the material is appropriate in comparison with the course requirement. As the material “English for International Tourism” is especially designed for students specialized in tourism, topics are all related to tourism such as Fly-drive holiday in unit 2, City tours in unit 4 or Winter holiday in unit 12. The topics deal with specialist knowledge relevant to the students’ subject matter. To take Unit 4 as an example, this unit presents exactly the subject matter areas needs for students of Tourism in which students have to acquire such skills as give directions, give a Guided Tour and Describe a Building. Thus, it can be seen that the treatment of ESP topics meets the requirement of the course.
3.2.2. The content requirements of the course
According to the syllabus designer, the ESP English course at HaUI aims to equip the students with grammatical structures and vocabulary which are often used in Tourism. Moreover, throughout the book, the students can develop listening, speaking, reading, writing skills and also interpreting skills. After the course, the students can use their knowledge in situations in Tourism such as providing information of tours, answering telephones, arranging tours, etc. However, the content requirements in the syllabus are taken totally from the table of content in the book. There is no specific syllabus given to the teachers so the content requirements in the syllabus are not very clear. In short, at a glance, the book “English for International Tourism” seems to be perfect for the teaching and learning English at department of Tourism at HaUI but there are some mismatches inside.
3.2.3. Teachers’ interview results
This section presents the teachers' opinions on the material content categorized into Organization, Skills and Topics.
Giving opinion about the organization of the materials, all the teachers agreed that the book is sensibly organized around the subject matter. Each unit shows clear focus on listening and speaking skills with at least two listening and speaking tasks with communicative practice and vocabulary which facilitate the listening and speaking tasks effectively.
As far as skills are concerned, all the four teachers expressed dissatisfaction with the reading skills provided because of the absence of important reading skills such as understanding author’s attitudes or differencing. All of the subjects felt that
it is difficult for the students to develop speaking skills as well. As the teachers said, there are just some guides for expression in the book while there are a lot of things to do before the students can do the speaking tasks. For example, there should be some model expressions in dealing with the guest’s complaints, taking the booking tours, answering the phones, etc. Two teachers interviewed had the idea that more listening with the content related to the speaking tasks should be included in each unit. In other words, more skill-integrated work needs to be taken into consideration. As for the writing sections, all teachers agreed that the writing skill were not paid much attention in this book; however, the writing tasks were interesting with practical tasks such as writing a CV, writing a fax, writing a letter of apology.
As for the topics, all the teachers thought that most topics in the book met the learners’ interests and proficiency level. Moreover, according to the teachers, the subject matter was presented topically with communicative practice such as hiring a car, planning a holiday, dealing with complaints, etc, which students most probably encounter and need to know in everyday world of tourism. However, three out of four (3/4) teachers thought that some topics were not very suitable with Vietnamese situations. Take unit 12 as an example, this unit is about Winter holiday providing the students with ski equipment, ski resorts which are not popular in Vietnam.
3.2.4. Students’ questionnaire results 3.2.4.1. The difficulty
As can be seen from table 2, nearly 100% of the students thought that the grammatical structures used in the material are not difficult to understand.
According to the students, the grammatical points are put in contexts so the students found it easy to catch the points. More than half of the students (62,1%) agreed that there were many difficult specific terms in the book but 37,9% claimed that the specific terms in the book were not difficult. As for reading texts, all the students disagreed that the reading texts were long with difficult tasks. They commented that the reading texts were short with quite simple exercises. Moreover, 100% of the students also thought that vocabulary exercises were not difficult with mostly matching - type exercises. However, a majority of the students agreed that listening tasks were long and difficult so they complained that they hardly caught all the key ideas to complete the tasks. Many of the students (43,1%) found the speaking tasks complex while 25,9% thought the speaking tasks were not complex at all and the
other students (31%) were not sure whether the tasks complex or not. Those 31% of the students commented that some speaking tasks with clear instructions and familiar topics were simple but the others were not. Some other students claimed that they did not have enough time and vocabulary to practice the speaking as required.
The difficulty of the material
Strongly
agree Agree Not
sure Disagree Strongly disagree 1. The grammatical
structures used in the material are difficult to understand.
0 (0%)
0 (0%)
0 (0%)
56 (96,6%)
2 (3,4%) 2. There are many new
and difficult specific terms.
0 (0%)
36 (62,1%)
0 (0%)
22 (37,9%)
0 (0%) 3. The reading texts are
long and difficult to understand.
0 (0%)
0
(0%) 0% 32
(55,2%)
26 (44,8%)
4. The vocabulary exercises are difficult.
0 (0%)
58 (100%)
0 (0%)
0 (0%)
0 (0%)
5. The listening is long and difficult.
35 (60,3%)
23 (39,7%)
0 (0%)
0 (0%)
0 (0%)
6. The speaking sections are complex.
0 (0%)
25 (43,1%)
18 (31%)
15 (25,9%)
0 (0%) Table 2: Students’ opinions on the difficulty level of the language practice 3.2.4.2. The usefulness
As shown in table 3, all the students interviewed agreed that the vocabulary in the material corresponded to their language needs. However, only 27,6% of the students agreed that the book offered opportunities to revise grammar items they have learnt before. They commented that because of limited time so the teachers did
not focus on grammar and neither did they. In class, the teachers paid much attention to listening and speaking skills; however, only 17,3% of the students agreed that the listening sections help them much in developing listening skill, the others disagreed and strongly agreed with the usefulness of the listening sections.
All the students were in favor of the speaking situations in the book as they noted that the situations in the material were quite up-to-date. As for pronunciation parts, only 20,7% of the students agreed that their speaking was better thanks to pronunciation parts. Whereas, 39,7% of the students were not sure whether their pronunciation was better or not while the others disagreed with the usefulness of pronunciation parts as they commented that they did not have time to practice in class and the teachers did not check for their pronunciation, either.
Answers Choices
Strongly
agree Agree Not
sure Disagree Strongly disagree The vocabulary
corresponds to your language needs.
32 (55,2%)
26 (44,8%)
0 (0%)
0 (0%)
0 (0%) The material offers
opportunities to revise grammar items you have learnt before.
0 (0%)
16 (27,6%)
13 (22,4%)
29 (50%)
0 (0%) The reading texts are
relevant to your major.
16 (27,6%)
42 (72,4%)
0 (0%)
0 (0%)
0 (0%) The listening sections
help you much in developing listening skill.
0 (0%)
10 (17,3%)
0 (0%)
26 (44,8%)
22 (37,9%) The speaking situations
are normally used in tourism.
18 (31%)
40 (69%)
0 (0%)
0 (0%)
0 (0%) The pronunciation parts
help you speak better.
0 (0%)
12 (20,7%)
23 (39,7%)
16 (27,6%)
7 (12,1%) Table 3: Students’ opinions on the usefulness of the language practice
3.2.5. Tourism teachers’ questionnaire results
According to all the 3 teachers at Tourism department, all the topics in the book were all relevant to the student’s major and all the teachers agreed that information in the book was up-to-date. Moreover, all 3 teachers were interested in the web tasks which help the students catch up with the e-commerce and e-business revolution in Tourism. However, two out of three (2/3) teachers were in doubt that the students could make use of some knowledge in the book for their future jobs.
For example, there is a task of describing food in unit 6 (Cruise ship) with many kinds of food of foreign countries not Vietnamese food but in the future they need to introduce Vietnamese food to the foreign visitors.
Relevance of topics with the students' major Yes No
Unit 1: All in a day’s work 3 0
Unit 2: Fly- drive holiday 3 0
Unit 3: Table for two 3 0
Unit 4: City tours 3 0
Unit 5: Water cities 3 0
Unit 6: Cruise ships 3 0
Unit 7: Service and safety 3 0
Unit 8: East meets West 3 0
Unit 9: Window seat or aisle 3 0
Unit 10: Business or pleasure 3 0
Unit 11: The great outdoors 3 0
Unit 12: Winter holidays 3 0
Unit 13: Land of smiles 3 0
Unit 14: Enjoy your stay 3 0
Unit 15: Winds of change 3 0
The information in the material is up-to-date 3 0 Table 4: Tourism teachers’ opinions on the material
3.3. The appropriateness of the material to the methodology requirements of the