An investigation into the job orientation in english specific texts for mechanical engineering for 2nd year students at vinh technical pedagogical university

This study aims to investigate 1 the job orientation in English Text book for Mechanical Engineering at VTPU 2 provide some useful implications for teachers for modifying the currently u

PART IL: INTRODUCTION 1.Rationale of the study

English is a compulsory subject at Vinh Technical Pedagogical University , as a consequence ESP is also an importantly compulsory subject for students who passed the

GE courses Having a good knowledge of GE and especially ESP is considered to be necessary means for any graduates who wish to find a good job, better in foreign companies Therefore, there is a growing and wide demand to learn English at universities

As for the 2™ year students at VTPU, English in general, and ESP in particular is extremely important because the students are expected to become engineers in the future and these people are going to access many modern machines and technologies Thus, the job orientation in a curriculum for students are very important In fact, this can be considered to be the most important factor when teachers choose texts in developing the book for students

The English for Mechanical engineering at VTPU is a teacher-made curriculum It derived from the real demand of teachers and students at the university at first for the students at the college level With the characteristics of a teacher-made curriculum, is it a really high job-oriented one? For example, does it provide students with suitable grammatical items which concern the real knowledge of working contexts? Does it help students to build and improve a certain amount of the language exercises in vocabulary and grammar ? etc These are really difficult questions to answer for the teachers at our university who are assigned to teach ESP for Mechanical engineering and to develop the curriculum at first Because the aim of the course is to develop the students’ reading skill of technical texts, so that learners would be able to read job-oriented text fatherly outside the books

Designing ESP courses is always found at hand challenging and difficult with many tasks need to be done like defining the specific target needs of learners’ subject area, deciding the approach to be followed, etc Thus, analyzing and directing the characteristics

of a good ESP curriculum is an essential work that as a first step for both teachers and students to find out the goals of the ESP courses and participate with more enthusiasm in improving the learning and teaching ESP materials

2.Significance of the study

students are those who benefit the most These are the first prerequisites that lead teachers

to make the learning process of students motivating and exciting and for the most important students can apply what they have learnt to the future jobs after graduation Theoretically

We hope to make some contributions to the task of designing ESP courses for the Mechanical in particular and Vocational in general with several specialties We also wish

to bring out an issue of interest to other researchers and many teachers at VTPU

3.Organization of the study

-The study is organized into three main parts:

The development part of the study consists of three chapters, as follows:

Chapter 1: Literature review

This chapter reviews the theoretical materials and findings relating to the study Firstly, the definition of ESP Then, the job-orientation in ESP courses Thirdly, characteristics of an ESP text Finally, the characteristics of ESP course for Mechanical Engineering at VTPU

Chapter2: Data analysis

This chapter brings out an outline of analytical framework The collected data from such instruments as the questionnaires for students and the interview to the teachers are analyzed one after another The findings from the data collected are presented and discussed also in this chapter

Part III: Conclusion and implications

The conclusion and implication parts offers an overview of the major findings, the implications for designing ESP materials in VTPU and in Vietnam This part also offers suggestions for further research

This study aims to investigate (1) the job orientation in English Text book for Mechanical Engineering at VTPU (2) provide some useful implications for teachers for modifying the currently used text book to a higher level with better job orientation

4.2 The research questions

The study addresses two research questions as follows:

1.Is the English specific texts for Mechanical Engineering at VTPU really job-

oriented?

2 How are the job orientations displayed in the current textbook?

To answer the research questions, careful investigation into the factors created the job orientation in the syllabus for students at VTPU is required

4.3 Data collection instruments

Questionnaires and interviews were used for collecting the data for the study According to the author of the study, using questionnaires is the best way to secure the desired information All subjects were given questionnaires at the same time and collected data are relatively uniform, standard and accurate

4.3.1 Questionnaires for the students

150 copies of the questionnaires were given to 150 ESP students of Mechantcail Engineering at VTPU The purpose of the survey was to investigate the student attitude towards the current ESP textbook for Mechanical Engineering The questionnaires were in Vietnamese in order to make it easy for the students to answer

The questionnaires include of 12 questions, which required the subjects to mark responses, to select among a number of alternatives in order to supply the information about the current ESP textbook for Mechanical Engineering

4.3.2 Questionnaires for the graduate students

These participants had graduated from VTPU and now working in factories and companies in different provinces in Central Vietnam

50 copies of the questionnaire for engineers and technicians were distributed to investigate learners’ attitude and evaluation of the ESP text book that they had used at VTPU The questionnaires also include of 10 questions for the subjects to mark responses,

or to select among a number of alternatives in order to supply the information about the content of the textbook for Mechanical Engineering

4.3.3.Interview with teachers of English at VTPU

The interviews were conducted since they are personalized and permit a level of in- depth information-gathering, free response, and flexibility In addition, the number of subjects is not large, so the interviews did not take the researcher much time Another

advantage for the research was that the subjects who took part in the interviews all work at the same university, so they met very often and they shared their ideas with the researcher The interview focused on the teachers’ opinions about the current ESP textbook used in ESP teaching and learning at VTPU and their expectations for improving the current text book to make it more job-oriented

4.4 The subjects of the study

The experienced teachers teaching ESP and 150 students of Mechanical Faculty and 50 ex-students are chosen as the subjects of this study for these students has finished

an English for Mechanical engineering course and many of them has been using the ESP knowledge for their real job

4.5.Procedures

First, the 150 subjects were asked to do the questionnaires Some students had small, friendly talks with the researcher The teachers were interviewed individually to show their opinions on the current syllabus to talk out whether it is job-oriented or not They were asked about 12 questions

In accordance with contrasting the criterion for a high job- oriented text, the researcher used qualitative analysis to analyze the job orientation in current texts used for students through analyzing the students’ questionnaires result as well as the talks with teachers and the questionnaires to graduate students All the extra tasks like personal observation, discussions with other colleagues can be considered the methods of the study

to help the study obtain precious and objective results

PART II DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

1.1.An overview of ESP

1.1.1.Definition of ESP

ESP has been defined in different ways by different authors Hunchinson and Waters (1987) consider ESP as an approach rather than a product, they state that it is “an approach to language teaching in which all decisions as to content and method are based on the learner’s reason for learning ” Strevens (1988) see ESP as a particular case of general category of special purpose language teaching Widdowson(1983) agued that the definition between ESP (English for Specific Purposes ) and EGP (English for general purposes) 1s not the problem of specificity of purpose but “the way in which purpose is defined and the manner of its implementation” For Richards (2001), in contrast to students learning English for General Purposes for whom master of the language for its own sake or in order

to pass a general examination is the primary goal, the ESP students is usually studying English in order to carry out a particular role such as a flight attendant, a mechanic, or a doctor

Most of the ESP teachers and researchers perceive that an ESP course would have at least three following features:

Firstly, it is purposeful and aimed at the successful performance of occupational or educational roles by an individual or a group

Secondly, it is based on an analysis of the students’ needs and is “tailor-made” to meet these needs

Thirdly, it may differ from another general language course in its selection of skills, themes, topics, situation, functions, language and methodology

Also, Dudley Evan and St John (1998) suggest absolute and variable characteristics

of ESP as follows:

1 Absolute characteristics:

*“ESP is designed to meet specific needs of the learner;

*ESP makes use of the underlying methodology and activities of the disciplines it serves;

*ESP is centered on the language, skills, discourse and genres appropriate to these

activities.

2.Variable characteristics:

*ESP may be related to or designed for specific disciplines;

*ESP may use, in specific teaching situations, a different methodology from that of general English

*ESP 1s likely to be designed for adult learners, either at a tertiary level institution or in a professional work situation It could, however, be used for learners at secondary school

is the “verbal record” of a communicative act with two main points to limit

*The presentation of a text which is presented for discussion may in part, particularly where the written presentation of a spoken text is involved, consist of a prior analysis of a fragment of discourse by the discourse analyst presenting the text for consideration

*Features of the original production of the language, for example shaky handwriting, are somewhat arbitrarily considered as features of the text rather than features

of the context in which the language is produced

Towards the definition of text, Halliday has different point of view, according to him, a text is really made up of meanings; it is a semantic unit which is coded in something in order to be understood

The text is a product in the sense that it is an output, something that can be recorded and studied, having a certain construction that can be represented in systematic terms It is

a process in the sense of a continuous process of semantic choice, a movement through the network of meaning potential, with each set of choices continuing the environment for a further set.(Halliday 1985:10)

Hasan (1985) assumes that there are 2 types of structure of text: The obligatory elements and the optional elements These two elements have a certain relationships which should be studied as an important phase in investigating a discourse type in a language and

in categorizing a text which is the product of the discourse process

Understanding the definition of “text” would be a helpful background knowledge that help researchers to find out the important issues relating to the concept of a text and studying the specific texts for different purposes

1.2.2.The features of an ESP text

In teaching and learning ESP there can be written or spoken texts (Chris Kennedy and Rob Bolitho, 1984) Like all types of texts, an ESP text concerns with the relationships between functions, grammatical forms and the way they are linked together to produce a coherent texts (Chris Kennedy and Rob Bolitho, 1984)

Chris Kennedy and Rob Bolitho has presented an example of the language that 1s usually exist in an ESP text

(a)definition An X isa Y which Z Defining relative clause

An X1sa Y used for Z Reduced relative clause

An X can be defined as Y Passive with auxiliary

eg A thermometer is an instrument “there is ”

which measures temperature “there are”

There are two kinds of X X are of present simple

two sorts

Eg there are two kinds of metals

(a) probability | A deposit may be left in the beaker May (modal auxiliary)

(b)location/mot It is likely that a deposit will be left It is + adj + subordinate

ion in the beaker clause

The beaker is on the tripod On, behind, towards, into

(prepositions)

Tablel: Certain grammatical forms in EST

(Chris Kennedy and Rod Bolitho, 1984)

As we may have known there are usually two types of texts in ESP, those are

“authentic” and “simplified” texts Kennedy and Bolitho states that a “simplified” text is one which grammatical, lexical and rhetorical elements have been made less complex to render the learning of language more effective “an “authentic” is one written for a specific audience (not language learners) and its purpose is communication of subject content rather than language form” How those texts are used by students should be reflected in the strategies and skills which the language teachers attempt to foster Of course, the teachers should make sure that the text is relevant to the students by getting learners to bring in texts

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or portions of texts that they have found difficult in their subject area and to work on such

*First, the markers of coherence (act as connectors linking sentences)

*Second, logical connectors (form links within sentences)

*Finally, cohesive devices (link sentences by grammatical means)

Vocabulary:

*There is an amount of technical abbreviations

*There are symbols and formulate

*There are highly technical vocabularies

*There are also sub technical vocabularies

*There are other specialist vocabularies

The content of an ESP text is usually quite specific and will always be determined by the students’ needs and objectives Intelligent syllabus designers should know to choose the texts that can fulfill the above criteria which may gives students opportunities to satisfy their immediate needs for English

1.2.3 The job orientation in a common ESP text

The job orientation is the most clear thing to create the characteristics of an ESP text There are several specialities such as Electronics, Electricians, Heating and Refrigeration Technicians, etc Texts that have job orientation provide students with subject oriented vocabulary, a set of grammatical structures and less a set of functions and skill Maria (1996) Coming up with job- oriented texts, teachers exploit them by producing mostly comprehension questions, True-False statements, and language exercises in vocabulary and grammar The grammatical items practiced were derived from the predominant grammatical phenomena existing in the text And the vocabulary- teaching exercises were mainly of word formation and definitions

The subject matter is the most important thing in the so-called “job-orientation” in

an ESP text And that is displayed as mentioned above with the difference in grammar, vocabulary, and activity from those in GE Kennedy and Bolitho (1984) states that in learning and teaching ESP, teachers should know what texts are used in subject areas or in jobs, and what topics are covered, and how they are used Thus, we may perceive that an ESP text must have the real content in it for example, a business letter may be a suitable text for use in a course, but the way it is used by the sender is very different from its use by the recipient books which he recommends to the students

1.2.4 The job-orientation in an ESP text for Mechanical Engineering

Similarly, an ESP text for Mechanical Engineering includes all the characteristics of

a common ESP text However, the aim of an ESP for Mechanical Engineering course is usually to develop students’ reading skills of Mechanical and technical texts, so that they can read job-oriented texts The job orientation in ETME is expressed in terms of topics relating to the subject matter that is the mechanical area Maria, (1984) In fact, there may

be texts of a semi-technical nature to be chosen to which students of different specialities would be able to contribute and which would provide practice in a set of skills, structures, functions and semi-technical vocabulary which the students will meet in their specialist studies

1.3.The English texts for Mechanical engineering At VTPU

English for Mechanical engineering is a compulsory subject in training program for teachers and higher technicians at VTPU It is designed for students of Mechanical faculty who have completed 300 class periods of GE 60 periods of ESP is taught in second semester of the second academic year The current used syllabus is teacher-generated and

is considered to be the text book for students to follow during the course It consists of 12 units with 12 topics concern Mechanical Engineering with various types of exercises and language focus The content of the textbook is designed and created base on materials published by Oxford, Stam, Longman, etc Apart from 12 main topics, the textbook recommends some supplementary texts extracted from other materials in mechanical area Despite the deficiencies of the book It was accepted positively by the teachers and students with the following table of contents in detail of the course

Credits | Unit | Topics Functions Grammar Vocabulary

Safety Gear | talking about | -Present simple | -Manufacturing

safety equipment | tense Safety field and some | -Contextual -Transitional accidents in | reference markers workshop and | -Passive voice -Suffixes factories -Word formation

Mechanics’ | Using -Passive voice -Mechanical tool Tool Kit mechanics’ tool | -Word formation | field

reference Nuts and/| Describing and | -Present simple | Lists of type of Bolts using types of | -Relative nuts and bolts

nuts and bolts pronouns

-Contextual reference Materials Talking about | -Prepositions -Materials

an their | materials in | -Passive voice -Time references features Mechanics and | -Modal verbs - Connectors

what they are used for

Operators’ | Talking about | -Passive voice -Materials

Input and | How to check the | -Present simple | Electrical terms

out put input and out put | -Phrasal verbs

electricity electricity in

operating machines Pillar drills | Describing -Passive voice -Drilling machine

drilling machines | -Word formation | components

-Drilling tasks Centre lathe | Describing center | -Passive voice -Lathe

lathe and its | -Word formation | components

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4 10 Car Talking about car | Word formation | -Car components

components | components and

their positions

11 Faults in a| Describing some | -Relative clauses | -Nouns

car usual faults in a | -Plural nouns -Suffixes

Table2: Content of English for Mechanical Engineering at VTPU

To investigate detail about the job orientation in content of the text book for Mechanical Engineering is the task of this study In addition we also investigate the linguistics characteristics of 8 other texts out side the text book for students at VTPU The extra texts are of the following topics:

1 MIG, FCA or GMA Lehrerhandbuch, Works on metal, Stam: 1996

2 Welding Robot Lehrerhandbuch, Works on metal, Stam: 1996

3 Precision Lehrerhandbuch, Works on metal, Stam: 1996

4 Cutting tool and machines Jeremy Comfort, Steve Hick, Allan Savage, basic

technical English, OUP:1982

5 Materials Jeremy Comfort, Steve Hick, Allan Savage, basic

technical English, OUP:1982

6 Personal safety Jeremy Comfort, Steve Hick, Allan Savage, basic Fault finding technical English, OUP:1982

In summary, the above reviewing of literature guarantees us a background for the thereafter analyzing and concluding These opinions of different linguists and materials from different resources will be carefully examined and analyzed to find out the answers for study and to help the researcher in getting information more precisely and

meaningfully

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CHAPTER 2: DATA ANALYSIS

In the previous chapter, we have reviewed and discussed different terms concern job- orientation in ESP texts This part presents the results derived from the analysis of the data collected from the two questionnaires and the interviews, and discusses the topics, vocabulary, notions, grammatical items and types of exercises that emerge in a typically job-oriented text in learning and teaching ESP for Mechanical Engineering at VTPU 2.1 Questionnaires for students

2.1.1 The analytical frame work of the questionnaires for the students

The students’ questionnaires were cormpleted in class in the second term of the academic year of 2005-2006 150 questions were delivered and 120 were returned The content of the questionnaires for students go to following categories:

a learners’ motivation for learning ESP for mechanical Engineering

b learners’ satisfaction with English job-oriented knowledge of Mechanical engineering

c learners’ perception on the job-orientation in learning ESP through the current text

d learners’ expectation of improving the textbook

2.1.2 The students’ motivation for learning ESP for Mechanical Engineering

The result of Question 1 in the students’ questionnaire shows that most students (108 students-90%) thought that ESP is useful and necessary, while 6 students (5%) considered ESP as unnecessary and also 6 students (5%) had no idea

However, in question 2, when asked about the activities that students organize themselves for further studying outside classroom was not really good 38 students (31%) responded that they spent only some times studying at home with the given text book by teachers, 10 students (8%) participate in learning in group but it is very rare

20 students (18%) study at home on their own and with friends at the library.52 students (43%) students never spent time learning by themselves in any styles apart from class time This result proves a fact that students haven’t had a good learning habit and autonomy This problem will be brought out in the suggestion section in this thesis

2.1.3 Learners’ satisfaction with English job- oriented knowledge of Mechanical engineering

Questions 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 aimed at investigating the job orientation in English specific texts for Mechanical for students at VTPU through students’ opinion and perception We may say that these questions and responses of students are the most important data and information among the whole questionnaires

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They aimed at investigating the job-oriented features existing in the current text book for students of Mechanical via the students’ attitude and perception towards the term The results show that the majority of students think of the current textbook with a positive attitude which helps them to understand and exploit all the existing texts effectively The job orientation is displayed clearly in the field of vocabulary provided in the book with highly mechanical vocabulary (82% of students agree), a good amount o f basic technical vocabulary (68% of students agree), and all the vocabulary of word formation and definitions (87% of students agree) Although there are still some % of students don’t feel satisfactory with the technical vocabulary of the text book, we may say that the texts used in the book have an amount of job-oriented vocabulary concerning the subject matter of students’ specialist To get more detail about the subject matter as well as the mechanical topics and content using in the book, we will discuss it in the following sections

There are 82 students (68 %) who thought that the grammatical items presented and taught are useful and relevant while 38 students (32%) felt it difficult and various However, most of the students like helpful structures and predominant existing grammatical phenomena to exploit the job-oriented text (75%, 82%)

Towards job situations, the responses of students indicated that there are not highly job-oriented situations for students to deal with and practice (31 %, 58%) And especially, there are not many communicative activities (50%) Fortunately, the problem of creating real situations and communicative activities concern much more on the teacher’s teaching method rather than the problem of mner Imeuistics, thus it may be adjusted by teachers during the course so as to help students access the real content and job context more vivid and dynamic

Also in the same table that we present below, high percentage of students agreed that the job-orientation is expressed clearly through the expertise knowledge occur in the text book, 68 % of students thought of the texts which provide them with the suitable Mechanical Engineering knowledge with not too many topics (just 15% of students responded that there are too many topics), helpful update expertise knowledge (79 %), and basic technical knowledge (85%)

Other important features to create the job- oriented characteristics were positive accepted by the students They are good supplementary reading texts (77 %) , relevant language exercises in vocabulary and grammar (85%), and many supplementary reading excerpts from instructional manuals, technical brochures, and product advertisement (43%) Only 43 % of students agreed with the suitable supplementary reading excerpts from outside resources expresses that students were not satisfied with the material they are

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provided They may want more materials like real instructional manuals, technical brochures and etc

Job orientation in the mechanical texts Responses _ | Total:

=%

Vocabulary

Vocabulary of word formation and definitions 105 87

Grammatical items

Helpful structures to exploit job-oriented text 90 75

Just predominant existing grammatical phenomena 99 82

Job situations

Communicative activities concerning mechanical tasks 60 50 Real contact with machine at school workshop 70 58

Expertise knowledge

Others Good supplementary reading texts also provided in the 93 77

text book

Relevant language exercises in vocabulary and grammar 102 85

Many supplementary reading excerpts from instructional

manuals, technical brochures, and product advertisements

Table 4: Students’ subject matter as the job orientation

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2.1.4 Learners’ perception on the job-orientation in learning ESP through the current text book

Questions 8, 9 aimed at investigating the learners’ perception on the job-orientation

in learning ESP through the current text book

Question 8 gave a discussion on linguistic characteristics that show clearly the job- orientation of the specific texts for mechanical engineering in the text book for mechanical students at VTPU The students chose all the given items Their choices were arranged from the highest percentage to the lowest as shown in table 3

- Vocabulary and language exercises of a concrete job (for | 80 67

example of welding, automotive repairing, etc.) 50 4I

Table5: Job- oriented linguistic features The results of this question were examined with the view of linguistic features that supply students with texts which are fraught with both concise linguistic and job-oriented content Looking at the table 3, we may say that the text book provided students with good common mechanical vocabulary (87%), basic technical vocabulary (85%), vocabulary of machining tools (83%) and grammatical structures (78%) However, towards vocabulary of concrete job (for example welding or automotive engineering), students expressed that they didn’t really satisfy (41%) and similarly, only 40 percent of students put a tick for language for real job- situations These results show that there isn’t a range of technical terms of concrete job and real job situations in the text book for students

2.1.5 Learners’ expectation of the job-oriented content of ESP texts

Although students accepted the current teacher-made texts book they wish to have some changes and improvement to the texts that they are using as the core course materials for ESP

Question 10, 11, 12 aimed at students’ expectation of the job-oriented content of ESP texts Question 10 asked students about their expectation of the job-oriented content of ESP texts before they officially study the subject.90% of students responded that they expected to learn ESP with high willingness and with a hope and belief of being provided

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