A study on congruence between ESP course objectives and students’ needs at business management department, vietnam forestry university

The readymade book is prescribed for allstudents of any background of English; it is the responsibility of the ESP practitioner toevaluate the congruence between the ESP course objective

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background to the study

Vietnam Forestry University offers English for Environmental Science which is a

compulsory course for the third year students of Business Management Department Thecourse book was compiled by teachers at Foreign Language Department and has beenpublished only for students of the university since the academic year 2005 – 2006 Duringthe academic year, around 200 students of the third year study this course The researcher

had the opportunity to teach English for Environment Science to those students half of

academic year

But do all ESP course designers try to gain insight into learners’ perceived needs,wants, and lacks? “Teachers may rely more often on intuition when making courseplanning than on informed assessment of learners’ needs” (Barkuizen 1998, Spratt 1999 ascited in Davies 2006)

Since certain chapters of the books seem to have been designed without involving learners

in the course design process, it is quite likely that they may not reflect the needs andinterests of any particular learner groups The readymade book is prescribed for allstudents of any background of English; it is the responsibility of the ESP practitioner toevaluate the congruence between the ESP course objectives and learners’ needs and tomake any adaptation suitable to better enable learners to learn effectively and meet thelearners’ needs

1.2 Rationale

From the early 1960's, English for Specific Purposes (ESP) has grown to becomeone of the most prominent areas of EFL teaching today With the globalization of tradeand economy and the continuing increase of international communication in various fields,the demand for English for Specific Purposes is expanding, especially in countries whereEnglish is taught as a Foreign Language In Vietnam, the ESP movement is a young anddeveloping branch of EFL ESP has shown a slow but definite growth over the past fewyears Its development is reflected in the increasing number of universities offering BA and

MA in ESP (e.g Hanoi University) and in the number of ESP courses offered to overseasstudents in English speaking countries In particular, increased interest has been spurred

since Vietnam opened its doors and recently entered WTO with a lot of well-paid jobopportunities for English competent employees This has led to a rapid growth in Englishcourses aimed at specific disciplines, e.g English for Forestry, in place of the moretraditional 'General English' ones

Even though ESP courses have become popular recently in Vietnam and manyinstitutions and universities offer ESP courses for senior students, for years ESP coursesare given with already made books or ESP materials compiled without students’ needsanalysis Such approach fundamentally ignores the learners’ personal interests This oftenleads to low motivation in their English studies and, in turn, poor performance later whenthey use English in their future profession

In response to these problems, it is important that university English facultiesneed to design or adapt ESP courses in the way that students’ needs are paid attention to.This means that ESP course objectives should be congruent with learners’ needs andtherefore best prepare learners for future professional communication However, to dothis, it requires a complete understanding what are students’ needs and ESP courseobjectives How can teachers develop a new course whose objectives congruent withlearners’ needs? Where should they start? What are the ways that best find out studentsneeds? What are the objectives that can best congruent with students’ needs? What should

be included in an ESP course? These are some of the questions that ESP course designers

or ESP instructors should answer and they help to improve the quality of the ESP courses.This is the reason that inspired me to conduct this study in a hope that the study can help atleast improve the quality of ESP course at Business Management Department of VietnamForestry University

1.3 Aims of the study

The writer intends to centre this study on the following major aims:

 To find out learners’ needs (third term students who are studying ESP course atBusiness Management Department of Vietnam Forestry Industry)

 To study ESP course objectives of English for Environmental Science bookdesigned by teachers at Foreign Language Department to be applied for third yearstudents at Business Management Department of Vietnam Forestry University;

 To investigate the congruence between the ESP course objectives and learners’needs in Vietnam Forestry University;

 To suggest any adaptation suitable to better enable learners to learn effectively andmeet the learners’ needs

1.4 The scope and the significance of the study

This study cannot cover all the aspects of needs analysis and course objectives.The study just investigates the stated ESP course objectives in the ESP materials, the book

English for Environmental Science, designed by teachers at Foreign Language Department

and tries to find out learners’ needs at Business Management Department of VietnamForestry University

The subjects of the study are the third-year students at Business ManagementDepartment of Vietnam Forestry University The current ESP reading textbook is “Englishfor Environmental Science”

The findings of the study will hopefully serve as a back-up for the improvement

of the ESP syllabus Practically, those findings are believed to be beneficial to teachers,course designers as well as students at Business Management Department of VietnamForestry University

1.5 The overview of the study

The study comprises four chapters: Introduction, Literature Review,Methodology, Data analysis and Findings, and Recommendations and Conclusion

Chapter 1; Introduction, provides information on the background to the study, therationale, the aims as well as the scope and significance of the study and the outline of thestudy

Chapter 2, Literature Review, reviews the literature related to three main areas.First, it is a brief overview of different writers’ opinions on ESP Second, It looks at thetheory of course objectives And finally, theory of needs analysis and related issues arediscussed

Chapter 3, Methodology, Data analysis and Findings, includes the researchquestions, the description of the subjects, and the description of data collectioninstruments, and the findings of the study.

Chapter 4, Suggested adaptations and Conclusion, presents the writer’ssuggestions for adaptation suitable to better enable learners to learn effectively and meetthe learners’ needs After that, there will be the conclusion of the thesis

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter, literature review, will look at the three main issues that are relevant

to the study: the conception of ESP, need analysis and course objectives In the firstsection, the author would like to present briefly an overview of ESP which tackles severalprominent definitions of the term as well as some differences between ESP and generalEnglish The second section will discuss the issues of needs analysis And finally, thetheory of course objectives will be reviewed in the last section of this chapter

2.1 An overview of ESP

2.1.1 What is ESP?

According to Hutchinson and Waters (1997) ESP is one important branch of EFL/ESL(English as a Foreign/Second Language) system that functions as the main branch ofEnglish language teaching ELT Therefore, ESP is not a particular kind of language ormethodology, but rather an approach to language learning whereby the contents andmethods are based on the learner’s particular needs to learn the language

Since its emergence, much effort has been made to give an exact definition ofESP There are almost as many definitions of ESP as the number of scholars who haveattempted to define it Many others have tried to define ESP in terms of what it is notrather than in terms of what it really is But for the purpose of exploring what ESP reallymeans these definitions will not be looked at

Mackay and Mountford (1978) defined ESP as the teaching of English for clearlyutilitarian purposes (p 2) The purposes they refer to are defined by the needs of thelearners, which could be academic, occupational, or scientific These needs in turndetermine the contents of ESP curriculum to be taught and learned Mackay and Mountfordalso defined ESP as a special language that is taught in specific settings by certainparticipants They stated that those participants are usually adults They focused on adultsbecause adults are usually highly conscious of the reasons to attain English proficiency in adetermined field of specialization, and because adults make real use of special language inthe special settings in which they work

Strevens (1977, p 90) said: “ESP courses are those in which the aims and the

contents are determined, principally or wholly, not by criteria of general education…but byfunctional and practical English language requirements of the learners”.

Robinson (1980) defined ESP courses as the ones in which participants havespecific goals and purposes (again, academic, occupational, and scientific) She citedStrevens (1977) to emphasize that the purposes language learners have for using languageare of paramount importance She stated that those purposes must be understood as thedriving force of the curriculum in a way that would help teachers and learners to not letirrelevant materials be introduced into the course She also placed the learners in the role ofcurriculum designers in order to make the curriculum more learner-centered Strevens alsoargued that ESP courses are those that are almost strictly based on the analysis of theparticipants’ needs - a key and crucial element - in order to tailor the curriculum to meet itstrue purposes

Dudley-Evans (Dudley-Evans and St John, M.T 1998, p.56) took a generalapproach in defining what ESP really is in terms of ‘absolute’ and ‘variable’ characteristics

as follows:

ESP Absolute Characteristics

1 ESP is defined to meet specific needs of the learners

2 ESP makes use of underlying methodology and activities of the discipline it serves

3 ESP is centered on the language appropriate to these activities in terms of grammar, lexis, register, study skills, discourse and genre

Variable Characteristics

1 ESP may be related to or designed for specific disciplines

2 ESP may use, in specific teaching situations, a different methodology from that of General English

3 ESP is likely to be designed for adult learners, either at a tertiary level institution or in

a professional work situation It could, however, be for learners at secondary school level

4 ESP is generally designed for intermediate or advanced students

5 Most ESP courses assume some basic knowledge of the language systems

The definition Dudley-Evans was clearly influenced by that of Strevens (1988),although he has improved it substantially by removing the absolute characteristic that ESP

is “in contrast with ‘General English’” and has included more variable characteristics The

division of ESP into absolute and variable characteristics, in particular, is very helpful inresolving arguments about what is and is not ESP.

According to Widdowson (1983) ESP is viewed as parasitic in nature because itlargely depends on the demands and requirements of the other disciplines and areas ofexpertise and activities While Hutchinson and Water (1987) considered ESP as anapproach, not product in which all decisions as to content and method are based on thelearner’s reason for learning This means ESP does not involve any particular kind oflanguage, teaching material or methodology, but it is an approach to language learning,which is based on learners’ needs They claim that “ESP is not a matter of etching

“specialized varieties of English” and “ESP is not different in kind from any other form oflanguage teaching” (Hutchinson, T and Water, A., 1987)

From the definition, we can see that ESP can but is not necessarily concerned with

a specific discipline (subject), nor does it have to be aimed at a certain age group or abilityrange or in other words ESP can be applied to any subject and any learner ESP should beseen simple as an ‘approach’ to teaching, or what Dudley-Evans describes as an ‘attitude

of mind’ This is a similar conclusion to that made by Hutchinson et al (1987:19) whostates, “ESP is an approach to language teaching in which all decisions as to contents andmethod are based on the learner’s reason for learning”

The last definition of ESP is the definition that this study will definitely employ inthe process of examining the congruence between the course objectives stated in thecurrent teaching material and the studying needs of the learners at Business ManagementDepartment of Vietnam Forestry University

2.1.2 Is ESP different from GE?

The above definitions have shown how broad ESP really is In fact, one may ask ‘What isthe difference between the ESP and GE approach?’ Hutchinson et al (1987:53) answer thisquite simply, “in theory nothing, in practice a great deal”

When their book was written, the Hutchinson’s answer was quite true At thetime, teachers of General English courses, while acknowledging that students had aspecific purpose for studying English, would rarely conduct a needs analysis to find outwhat was necessary to actually achieve it Teachers nowadays, however, are much more

aware of the importance of needs analysis, and certainly materials writers think verycarefully about the goals of learners at all stages of materials production Perhaps thisdemonstrates the influence that the ESP approach has had on English teaching in general.Clearly the line between where General English courses stop and ESP courses start hasbecome very vague indeed

Rather ironically, while many General English teachers can be described as using

an ESP approach, basing their syllabi on a learner needs analysis and their own specialistknowledge of using English for real communication, it is the majority of so-called ESPteachers that are using an approach furthest from that described above Instead ofconducting interviews with specialists in the field, analyzing the language that is required

in the profession, or even conducting students’ needs analysis, many ESP teachers havebecome slaves of the published textbooks available, unable to evaluate their suitabilitybased on personal experience, and unwilling to do the necessary analysis of difficultspecialist texts to verify their contents

In conclusion, English for Specific/Special Purposes (ESP) and General English(GE) are the two branches of English Language Teaching (ELT) General English andEnglish for Specific Purposes share the same principles of language teaching, havingeffective and efficient learning as a main objective The main difference between ESP and

GE lies in the awareness of a need ESP learners are current or future specialists who needEnglish for their specific area and who are aware of their need; they know what exactlythey need English for, they know what the ESP course should offer them (Hutchinson andWaters (1987)

2.1.3 Characteristics of ESP courses

The characteristics of ESP courses identified by Carter (1983) are discussed here

He states that there are three features common to ESP courses: a) authentic material, b)purpose-related orientation, and c) self-direction

Dudley-Evans’ (1998) claim that ESP should be offered at an intermediate oradvanced level, use of authentic learning materials is entirely feasible Closer examination

of ESP materials will follow; suffice it to say at this juncture that use of authentic contentmaterials, modified or unmodified in form, are indeed a feature of ESP, particularly in self-

directed study and research tasks For Language Preparation for Employment in the HealthSciences, a large component of the student evaluation was based on an independent studyassignment in which the learners were required to investigate and present an area ofinterest The students were encouraged to conduct research using a variety of differentresources, including the Internet

Purpose-related orientation refers to the simulation of communicative tasksrequired of the target setting Carter (1983) cites student simulation of a conference,involving the preparation of papers, reading, note taking, and writing At AlgonquinCollege, English for business courses have involved students in the design and presentation

of a unique business venture, including market research, pamphlets and logo creation Thestudents have presented all final products to invited ESL classes during a posterpresentation session For our health science program, students attended a seminar onimproving your listening skills They practiced listening skills, such as listening withempathy, and then employed their newly acquired skills during a fieldtrip to a localcommunity centre where they were partnered up with English-speaking residents

Finally, self-direction is characteristic of ESP courses in that the “ point ofincluding self-direction is that ESP is concerned with turning learners into users”(Carter, 1983, p 134) In order for self-direction to occur, the learners must have a certaindegree of freedom to decide when, what, and how they will study Carter (1983) also addsthat there must be a systematic attempt by teachers to teach the learners how to learn byteaching them about learning strategies Is it necessary, though, to teach high-abilitylearners such as those enrolled in the health science program about learning strategies? Iargue that it is not Rather, what is essential for these learners is learning how to accessinformation in a new culture

2.2 Learner Need- Need analysis

2.2.1 Learner Needs

Learner needs is an important aspect in determining the success of an ESP course.therefore, it has drawn attention from numerous scholars who want to explore what theterm is all about Among them Berwick Brindley, Mountford, and Widdowson havediscussed different meanings of needs First, according to Widdowson (1983, p.2) needs

refers to students’ study or job requirements, that is, what they have to be able to do at theend of their language course This is a goal-oriented definition of needs Needs in this sense

“are perhaps more appropriately described as “objective” (Berwick 1989, p.57) Second,needs can mean “what the user-institution or society at large regards as necessary ordesirable to be learnt from a program of language instruction” (Mountford (1981, p.27).Third, needs is defined as “what the learner needs to do to actually acquire the language”

This is a process-oriented definition which bears the meaning of learning (Widdowson

(1983, p.2) Fourth, needs is also viewed as what the students themselves would like togain from the language course This view of needs implies that students may have personalaims in addition to (or even in opposition to) the requirement of their studies or jobs.Berwick (1989, p.5) notes that such personal needs may be (and often are) devalued bybeing viewed as “wants or desires” Finally, Berwick concluded needs is interpreted as

lacks, that is, what the students do not know or cannot do in English.

Some of these views of needs have been paired, and the members of each pairseen as polar opposites, although the distinctions are not as clear cut as might be supposed.This parings indicated the differences between what is believed to be the needs and what isthe really needs The pairings of contrasted views of needs include perceived versus felt

needs (perhaps covering the same ground as objective and subjective needs), the terms products and process have a range of uses as well as equating product with a target view of needs and process with a learning view, we can try to identify the target-level products and

processes which students will need to control at the end of an ESP course In this study the

writer will discus the pair target needs and learning needs (covering the same ground as goal-oriented and process-oriented needs) in 2.2.1 and 2.2.2 because it is more relevant to

the teaching and learning of ESP course in the study setting

2.2.2 Needs analysis

“Needs analysis is generally regarded as criteria to ESP, although ESP is by nomeans the only educational enterprise which makes use of it” Robinson, P.C (1991) Needsanalysis is the process of identifying the students' reasons for studying a language It refers

to the procedure for identifying general and specific language needs of students so thatappropriate goals, objectives, and contents in courses can be developed (Hutchinson &Waters, 1987) In these researchers’ points of view it is imperative to carry out a needs

analysis to determine the specific reasons for learning the language, or to specify exactly,what students need to achieve through the medium of English in an ESP course

In the same line Nunan (1988; p.13) said “techniques and procedures forcollecting information to be used in syllabus design are referred to as a needs analysis” Inmore formal terms a needs analysis is “the process of determining the needs for which alearner or group of learners requires a language and arranging the needs according topriorities” (Richards, and Platt, 1992; p.242)

The current concept of needs analysis in ESP, according to Dudley-Evans and StJohn (1998; p.125), includes consideration of the following aspects:

A Professional information about the learners: the tasks and activities learners are/will be

using English for- target situation analysis and objective needs.

B Personal information about the learners: factors which may affect the way they learn such as previous learning experiences, cultural information, reasons for attending the

course and expectations of it, attitude to English- wants, means, subjective needs.

C English language information about the learners: what their current skills and language use are- present situation analysis- which allows us to assess (D).

D The learners’ lacks: the gap between (C) and (A)- lacks

E Language learning information: effective ways of learning the skills and language in (D)- learning needs

F Professional communication information about (A): knowledge of how language and skills are used in the target situation- linguistic analysis, discourse analysis, genre analysis.

G What is wanted from the course?

H Information about the environment in which the course will be run – means analysis.

There are a number of books and articles that describe procedures for gatheringinformation about needs; the writer of this study chooses Hutchinson and Water (1987)framework about the kind of information that the course designers need to gather from ananalysis of needs which are paired into target needs and learning needs

2.2.2.1 The target needs

A need analysis which focuses on students’ needs at the end of a language coursecan be called a target situation analysis (TSA) (Chambers, 1984) Probably the most

thorough and widely known work on needs analysis is John Munby’s Communicative syllabus design (1978) Munby sets up a highly detailed set of procedures for discovering

target situation needs He presents a communication needs processor, comprising a set ofparameters within which information on the student’ target situation can be plotted Ahelpful insight which Munby codifies related to target –level performance; for certain jobsstudents may require only a low level of accuracy or of native –speaker –like ability, ect.The TSA may thus pinpoint the stage at which “good enough” competence for the job isreached

Hutchinson and Waters (1987, p 59) recommended that “Target needs issomething of an umbrella term, which in practice hides a number of important distinctions

It is more useful to look at the target situation in terms of necessities, lacks and wants”

Necessities is the type of need determined by the demands of the target situation,that is, what the learners have to know in order to function effectively in the targetsituation For example, a businessman might need to understand business letters, tocommunicate effectively at sales conference, to get necessary information from salescatalogues and so on

However, identifying necessities alone is not enough, since the concern in ESP iswith the needs of particular learners We also need to know what the learner knowsalready, so that you can then decide which of the necessities the learner lacks One targetsituation necessity might be to read texts in a particular subject area, Whether or not thelearners need instruction in doing this will depend on how well they can do it already Thetarget proficiency in other words, needs to be matched against the existing proficiency ofthe learners The gap between the two can be referred to as the learner’s lacks (Hutchinson

T & Waters 1987)

It is quite possible that the learners’ views will conflict with the perception ofother interested parties; course designers, sponsors, teachers And bearing in mind theimportant of learner motivation in the learning process, learner perceived wants cannot beignored What wants mean is well illustrated by Richard Mead’s account of his research

into the motivation of students following ESP courses in the faculties of Medicine,Agriculture and Veterinary Science at a university in the Middle –East (1980).

Objectives( course designers)

Subjective ( learners)Necessities The English needed for success in

Agricultural or Veterinary Studies

To reluctantly cope with a

“second-best” situationLacks (Presumably) areas of English needed for

Agricultural or Veterinary Studies

Means of doing MedicalStudies

Wants To success in Agricultural or Veterinary

Studies

To undertake MedicalStudies

Hutchinson T & Waters (1987) suggested the following questions as a startingpoint to uncover relevant information: Why is the language needed? How will thelanguage be used? What will the content areas be? Who will the learners use the languagewith? When/Where will the language be used?

We have considered so far needs in terms of target situation considering, and theabove questions help answer where is the starting point (lacks) and the destination(necessities) although we have also seen that there might be some dispute as to what thatdestination should be (wants) However, these answers do not show the route to reachdestination from the starting point The question lies on another kind of need - the learningneeds

2.2.2.2 The learning needs

In looking at the target situation, the ESP course designer is asking the question:

“What does the expert communicator need to know in order to function effectively in thissituation?” This information may be recorded in terms of language items, skills, strategies,subject knowledge, ect What the analysis cannot do, however, is show how the expertcommunicator learnt the language items, skills, and strategies that he or she uses (Smith,1984) Analyzing what people do tells you a little, if anything, about how they learnt to do

it Yet, the whole ESP process is concerned not with knowing or doing, but with learning.

It is nạve to base a course design simply on the target objectives, just as it is nạve to thinkthat a journey can be planned solely in terms of the starting point and the destination Theneeds, potential and constraints of the route (i.e The learning situation) must also be takeninto account, if we are going to have any useful analysis of learner needs ( Hutchinson &Water, 1987)

If the target needs gives us the starting point and the destination, the learningneeds helps us to choose our route according to the vehicles and guides To understand thelearning needs Hutchinson, and Waters (1987 p 62-63) suggested the following questions:Why are the learners taking the course? How do the learners learn? What resources areavailable? Who are the learners? When/Where will the course take place?

In conclusion, we have so far looked at the most common features of an ESPneeds analysis We also have stressed that both target situation needs and learning needsmust be taken into account Analysis of target situation needs is concerned with language

use But language use is only part of the story We also need to know about language learning Analysis of the target situation can tell us what people do with language We also need to know how people learn to do what they do with language.

Needs analysis has then become a vital part of the designing and setting of anycurriculum, especially in the ESP areas The importance of conducting a needs analysisexercise lies in the fact that through it, curricula-designers can learn first hand twoimportant things: (1) what general and specific language proficiency learners have, and (2)what general and specific language proficiency learners need to acquire Once curricula-designers discover these two important student-related facts, then they can write the courseobjectives, make decisions on what to include in the syllabus or for example, whatfunctions, topics, vocabulary, and other language procedures should be given emphasisover others that students already master Once the syllabus is in place, then decisions abouthow to teach it and when to teach it should be made This in turn will lead curricula-designers to design and create or adapt teaching materials that would cater to the learners’linguistics needs, which in turn will shape testing of language learning This is preciselythe reason why it is often said that needs analysis drives the making of curriculum.Therefore, needs analysis must be given especial attention and always be carefully

conducted It should be conducted in a way that would enable curricula-designers obtain ahigh-quality product that would not only allow the mandating institution fulfill itseducational mission, but in the end empower learners through the acquisition of languagethat would help them reach their linguistic, professional, and personal goals.

2.3 ESP Course Objectives

In this section, the writer looked at the reasons why we should set objectives forESP course, the formulating of courser objectives, skill selection and, finally the problemswhen writing course objectives

2.3.1 Reasons for objectives

Hutchinson, and Waters (1987, p 75) said “developing statements of perceivedneeds into program goals and these in turn into clear objectives is an effective way toclarify what should be going on in the language classroom” Objectives describe whatlearners will be able to do or perform to be considered competent at the end of instruction,and they provide clear reasons for teaching Clearly defined learning objectives are usefulfor instructors, instructional designers and students By clearly stating the results we wantthe learners to accomplish, instructors can focus each class on what the students need,identify whether students have gained the appropriate skills and knowledge Clearlydefined objectives also allow designers and instructors a method to find how successfultheir material has been And the students in turn, can study more effectively because theyknow what is expected of them and can direct their attention more clearly Becauseobjectives should be stated before learners begin their instructional materials, they providestudents the means to organize their efforts toward accomplishing the desired behaviors Inshort, objectives provide the building blocks from which curriculum can be created,modeled and revised

According to Young (1980), well stated objectives are very valuable:

a they help the teacher to determine precisely the correspondence between the objectives

of the course and the communication skills required in professional life.

b they help the teacher to select appropriate materials and methods for teaching the students.

c they help the teacher to evaluate the effectiveness of his or her instruction.

d they help the teacher to develop examinations which are relevant, fair and useful.

e they help the student to evaluate his/her performance and allocate his/her time more appropriately.

f finally, and just as important as any of the others, the process of trying to formulate performance objectives stimulates thought about the entire educational enterprise and often results in unexpected and valuable in-sights.

2.3.2 Formulating Course Objectives.

Before setting objectives it is important to establish first the dominant role oflanguage leaning in a particular course Two features should be taken into account: 1) thecontext in which students will be learning and in which they will eventually be using thelanguage, and 2) the specific purposes in operational terms for which the language isexpected to be required (Vaughan,1978) These factors and others were taken into account

in formulating course objectives

The defining of objectives (i.e determining desired learner capabilities andabilities) is not an easy endeavor It should be performed in a step by step fashion and withextreme care Much has been written on how to define objectives, Bloom (1975), Gagnéand Briggs (1979) are among those who postulate that in order for objectives to be useful

in planning of the learning process, they must be defined with precise terms One reasonfor this is that one word may have different meanings to different people The choice ofword, especially of verb, should therefore be one that transmits information as to thebehavior required of the learner (i.e it should be a “technical” word.) The process ofstating objective begins with the identification of the purpose of the course This, in turn,should reflect what is expected of the learner at the end of the course The actual stating ofthe specific objectives involves what is expected of the learner during the course andshould be defined “operationally” that is, the objectives should state what the learner has to

do in order to confirm the completion and achievement of the objective These specificobjectives consequently define the planned results of the learning process and serve asstarting point for the evaluation (Gagné and Briggs, 1979, pp 91-95)

Gronlund (19780) concurs that specifying clearly the outcome of learning willprobably make classroom instruction more effective It is also vital that the statements be

“general enough to provide guidelines for teaching without overly limiting the instructionalprocess, yet specific enough to clearly define the behavior that the students are to exhibitwhen they have achieved the objectives This approach provides for the inclusion oflearning outcomes of all types and at all levels ranging form the simplest to the mostcomplex Specifically, these recommendations were:

I Stating General Instructional Objectives:

a Begin each general instructional objective with a verb (knows, understands, appreciates, etc Omit such unnecessary refinements as ‘the students can…” or “the student has the ability to…”

b State each objective in terms of student performance rather than teacher performance.

c State each objective as a learning product rather than in terms of the learning process

d State each objective so that it indicates the terminal behavior rather than the subject matter to be covered during instruction.

e State each objective so that is includes only one general learning outcome rather than a combination of several outcomes

f State each objective at a level of generality that clearly indicates the expected learning outcome and that is readily definable by specific types of students’ behavior Stating from 8 to 12 general instructional objectives will usually suffice.

(Gronlund, 1978, p.11)

II Procedure for Defining Instructional Objective in Behavioral Terms:

a State the general instructional objectives a expected learning outcomes.

b Place under each general instructional objective a list of specific learning outcomes that describe the terminal behavior students are to demonstrate when they have achieved the objectives

1 Begin each specific learning outcome with a verb that specifies

definite, observable behavior.

2 List a sufficient number of specific learning outcomes under each

objective to describe adequately behavior of students who have achieved the objective.

3 Keep the specific learning outcomes free of course content so that

the list can be used with different units of study.

4 Be certain that each specific learning outcome is relevant to the

e Consult reference materials for help in identifying the specific types of behavior that are most appropriate for defining the complex objectives

(Gronlund., p 18)The two most profound denominators related to objective were the Gronlund’s

book mentioned above and Munby’s Communicative Syllabus Design The Gronlund was a

valuable tool for stating objective clearly and meaningfully meanwhile Munby’s provided

a selection of skills which applied to many of specific needs and requirements

2.3.3 Skills Selection

The book English for Environmental Science applied for students of BusinessManagement Department of Vietnam Forestry University focused only on reading skill,thus, the general core objectives stated for all ESP course at of Business ManagementDepartment of Vietnam Forestry University deal with reading comprehension

Reading materials selected reflect the semantic and syntactic structures of Englishfound in the learners’ specialty course materials The learners, therefore, need to be taught

a strategy of reading which allows them to understand authentic texts without the aid of theteacher or constant use of the dictionary Basically, it is important for our students to beable to scan any of their text materials to get a general idea of its contents, as well as to beable to understand important information in a specific part of a whole text in detail

When making objective for each specific career course, it is important toremember that although each particular field has its own specific vocabulary items, it isstill part of the English language in general So, we have the “same language employed for

similar and different uses employing similar and different usages” The different usagesand uses refers to “items and patterns that are identified as specific to particular subjectspecializations or vocational/ occupational roles” ( Mackay and Mountford, 1978, p 25).

Allen and Widdowson describe two aspects of language learning that we havetaken into consideration:

a The recognition of sentence use in acts of communication, that is understanding “rhetorical coherence of discourse”.

b The recognition and manipulation of devices used to join sentences and form passages They are referred to as ‘grammatical cohesion of a text”.

(Allen and Widdowson, 1978, p 58)Other constraints that in some cases had to be taken into account when designingcourse objectives were the followings:

c Should be flexible enough to be used by a different professor at a different time with a different set of students It is precisely for this reason that the specific objectives developed for each field of study are broad enough to allow for varieties in different teacher methodologies and yet precise and clear enough to establish the language objective required.

2.3.4 Problems in Writing Objectives

Some of the most problems that are common in writing objectives and solutions to theseare discussed by Donn C Ritchie in her article athttp://edweb.sdsu.edu/courses/edtec540/objectives/Problems.html which are presented in the following table:

Problems Error types Solutions

1 Vastness Complexity

or Earnestness

The objective is too broad in scope or includes more than one objective

Reduce and simplify the objective

2 False Criteria The criteria doesn't let the user

know explicitly how well they need to do the behavior

Make criteria: reasonable, specific, useful

3 False Givens Describes instruction, not

conditions

Detail what can be used to complete the test

4 False Performance Often simply restating the goal;

no true performance stated

Be specific as to what you want the learner to do

To summarize, instructional objectives must be viewed as flexible, temporary andrevisable so that they can be tailored to different contexts and respond to changes over time

in the needs of the students or in the physical and human resource of the program.Objectives can provide a useful tool that allows teachers to work out, often for the firsttime, what they want their students to be able to do when they finish the course Objectivesare central part of any systematic curriculum development, but they can and should range

in level of generality according to what is being taught and who is teaching it Withoutgoals and objectives, a program may have no clear purpose and direction With goals andobjectives, at least a tentative definition exists of what the program has to offer the studentsand what it is that a group of professional language teachers are trying to achieve

CHAPTER 3: THE METHODOLOGY, DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION

This chapter consists of five parts First, the research questions will be presented.Second, there will be the description of the subjects who are the students and lecturerstaking part in the need analysis as informants Third, the description of the data collectioninstruments will follow In this part, the readers will be provided information about thequestions in the questionnaires (for students and for teachers) Fourth, the data collected will

be presented and explained And the last part will be the evaluation of congruence betweenthe ESP course objectives and learners’ need

3.1 The research questions

What do students at Business Management Department of Vietnam ForestryUniversity need in taking ESP course?

What are the objectives stated in designing the book English for Environmental Science used as ESP course book applied for students at Business Management

Department of Vietnam Forestry University?

Is the ESP course objectives applied at Vietnam Forestry University congruentwith learners’ needs?

3.2 Description of the subjects

There are 187 students and three teachers of Business Management Department ofVietnam Forestry Industry who got involved in the need analysis There are four classesthis term two classes study in the morning, and other two classes meet in the afternoon.The classes are scheduled to learn two sessions a week

There are 187 students in the list They have different backgrounds of how longand how they have been studying English before taking this ESP course However, theydid take 200 hours of general English together during the first and second years at theVietnam Forestry University But this doesn’t mean that their level of English is the same.They are also different in terms of chances to practice English out of classroom They are

of the same ages around 19 to 22 They have diversity of reasons to learn English in thiscourse