To prepare VUC students for the needs of English for their job, a business English program which consists of six courses from English 1.1 to English 1.6 is offered. The objective of these courses is to provide the students with a command of English so that they can fruitfully use it in their future job. The whole English program lasts 12 credits, equivalent to 450 hours, 330 hours of which are spent in classroom.
English 1.1 is the first English course which students have to take at VUC. Its level is elementary. It aims at providing students with basic knowledge of grammar, vocabulary and necessary skills to get used to communicating in international business environment.
The course lasts two credits with the structure 24.9.12, which means 24 periods are spent on teaching, 9 periods on discussion and 12 periods on self-study (each period is 50 minutes long).
3.1.2 English 1.1 textbook
English 1.1 textbook is the main teaching and learning material in the course. The topics in the textbook are collected from two sources which are Business Basics (2000) written by David Grand and Robert Mc Larty, published by Oxford Press, and Market Leader (2004) written by David Cotton, David Falvey and Simon Kent, published by Longman. The textbook mainly develops three linguistic skills (reading, listening and speaking) and linguistic knowledge (grammar and vocabulary). It covers some common situations in business such as self introducing, talking about work and leisure, telephoning solving problems, making bookings and checking arrangements, entertaining, presenting a product, dealing with problems, participating in discussions.
The textbook consists of 8 units, Supplementary grammar, and key to supplementary grammar. Each unit is divided into four or five sections which are Starting up, Vocabulary, Reading, Listening and Skills. Starting up includes activities such as listening, speaking or vocabulary exercises to warm students up. Vocabulary activities extend learners‟ vocabulary in a given lexical area and give them the opportunity to practice the new terms in both controlled and free contexts. Reading texts always present new language and vocabulary, and help students practice information-finding or general comprehension. Listening activities give practice in understanding new language in its spoken form, in listening for specific information, in understanding the gist of the dialogue. Skill activities are used for discussion around a theme, to access students' knowledge of a language point, and to provide controlled and free practice of target language. After each unit, teachers revise English basic grammar using the Supplementary grammar part. Teachers usually have 150 minute class time to cover content of each unit plus grammar.
3.2 Participants
The participants in the study were 100 first - year economic majored students from Vietnam University of Commerce. These students have taken English 1.1 course. They come from five faculties of VCU: Business Administration (23 informants), Economics (18 informants), E-commerce (21 informants), Finance and Banking (16 informants.), and Hotel and Hospitalism (22 informants). The participants had learnt EFL for at least 7 years in lower and upper secondary schools before enrolling in university programs. A general description of students‟ variables is reported in Table 3.1 in number and percentages.
Table 3.1 Description of Student Participants (N=100)
Variable Age Sex English Learning Experience 18-20 yrs ≥20 yrs Male Female 7-9 yrs 10-12 yrs ≥13 yrs
Number 71 29 35 65 43 47 10
Percentage 71% 29% 35% 65% 43% 47% 10%
In addition, 8 teachers were given questionnaire forms to fill in, and then interviewed.
These Vietnamese teachers come from English faculty of VUC. The reason for choosing these teachers is that they have taught English 1.1 classes. They have different teaching
experience and academic degrees. These variants are reported in Table 3.2 in number and percentages
Table 3.2 Description of Teacher Participants (N=8)
Variable Academic Degree Sex Teaching experience Bachelor Master In-program Service Male Female 1-5 yrs ≥6 yrs
Number 3 4 1 1 7 3 5
Percentage 37.5% 50% 12.5% 12.5% 87.5% 37.5% 62.5%
3.3 Data collection instruments
A descriptive research design incorporating both qualitative and quantitative instruments was used to accomplish the objectives of the study. The use of both types of instruments provides a more comprehensive picture of the participants‟ attitudes than could be possible with one data collection method alone. (Creswell, 2008). The instrument employed were (1) two questionnaires (quantitative treatment): a learners‟ evaluation questionnaire and a teachers‟ evaluation questionnaire; and (2) interviews with both learners and teachers from a representative sample of the participants (qualitative treatment). The analysis of the data collected was used to draw conclusions related to the research questions already identified.
3.3.1 Questionnaires
3.3.1.1 Student questionnaire
To determine the participating students‟ evaluation of English 1.1 textbook, a questionnaire was used (see Appendix A). Most of the items were developed from previous studies (Cunningsworth, 1995; Nguyen, 2007).
The questionnaire consisted of two parts. The first part was designed to collect students demographic and background information. The second part included 31 items (items 2-32) to which the participants responded using a five-point Likert-type scale ranging from 1(Strongly Disagree) to 5 (Strongly Agree). The students were asked to express their degree of willingness by selecting one of the following alternatives: Strongly Disagree, Disagree, Neutral, Agree, and Strongly Agree. In this questionnaire, item 2 asked the students to respond to statements about aims of the textbook, items 3-6 are about the
design and organization, items 7-11 are about the topics, items 12- 17 are related to the language content, and items 18 through 32 concern the language skills.
To avoid any misunderstanding on the part of the students, the questionnaire was translated into Vietnamese, the learners‟ mother tongue (see Appendix B).
3.3.1.2 Teacher questionnaire
This questionnaire was created to determine the teachers‟ evaluation of English 1.1 textbook (see Appendix C). The content and format of the teacher questionnaire is similar to student one. Like the student survey, the teacher questionnaire consisted of two parts, with the first part designed to collect demographic information related to purpose of the study.
The second part included 33 statements (items 2-34) to which the teachers responded according to a five-point Likert-type scale. Items 2-3 asked the teachers to respond to statements about aims and approach of the textbook, items 4-7 about the design and organization, items 8-12 related to the topics, items 13- 18 concerning the language content, and items 19-34 about the language skills.
3.3.2 Interviews
In order to provide a deeper understanding of students‟ and teachers‟ evaluation of English 1.1 textbook, it was deemed useful to conduct interviews. Interviews were conducted with all 8 teachers and a subgroup of 22 students randomly selected from those who had agreed in advance to participate in follow-up interviews for the purpose of the study. The interviews were audio-taped and then transcribed to be analyzed
The questions in both learner and teacher interviews were the same. (See Appendix E).
However, the interviews with the students were conducted in Vietnamese, their L1, to overcome likely deficiencies in their ability to speak and understand the target language.
These interviews were transcribed and translated into English.