000028868 ESP SYLLABUS FOR THIRD-YEAR STUDENTS AT HANOI UNIVERSITY OF ARCHITECTURE CHƯƠNG TRÌNH ESP DÀNH CHO SINH VIÊN NĂM THỨ BA TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC KIẾN TRÚC HÀ NỘI

HANOI U N I V E R S I TY OF F O RE IG N STUDIES DKl’ ARTMENT OK POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

ESP SYLLABUS FOR THIRD-YEAR STUDENTS

VT HANOI UNIVERSITY OF ARCHITECTURE

A U TH OR : VI THI QL'OC KHAN H

T-ỈLS DESSERTATION IS PRESENTED IN PARTIAL FUFILLMENT OF THE

REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS

C E R T I F I C A T E O F O R I G I N A L I T Y

O F F I E L D S T U D Y R E P O R T

’ rertify that m y a u th o r sh i p o f the Field Study Report s u b m i t t e d today entitled

ESP SYLLABUS FOR THIRD-YEAR STUDENTS

AT HANOI UNIVERSITY OF ARCHITECTURE

is in terms o f the State men t o f R e q u i r e m e n t s for Theses and Field Stud Reports in M as te r s' P r o g r a m s iss ue d bv the Higher Degr ee C o m m i t t e e

Vi Thi Q u o c K h a n h

N o v e m b e r 1999

A C K N O W L E D G E M E N T S

This Field Study Report has c om e to fruitron as the com bi nat ion o f kio w le dg c dr aw n from ail the lectures, reading, and discussions with friends diring m y M.A Course (TESOL) at the Hanoi University of Foreign Studies Therefore I would like, first of all, to express my gratitude to all my lecturers at H.U.F.S especially M r N gu yen Ngoc Hung, the Director of Studies

I w o u ld like to emphasize the fact that I owe a special debt o f gratitude

to Mr N e u v e n N go c Hung, mv supervisor for his valuable guidance,» v_ • I Cc

crt ici sm , c o m m e n t s , corrections and for his kind e n co u r ag em en t during thecr

de /e lo pm en t o f this study His suggestions and r ec o m m en d at i o n s were as imch ap preciated as his endurance, patience and genuine interest in this

thisis

I am grateful to the leaders o f Hanoi University o f Architecture, esfecially Prof Dr Dang To Tuan, our E x -R e ct or for gr anting me the

scholarship and time for the study Wit h ou t the scholarship and their support,

thi study could not have been completed

Finally, I w ou ld like to thank 275 respondents including the students,

the ESP teachers and the managers at H A U and the representatives from

dif);rent construction companies for their time, patience and cheerful

acceptance o f the task of completing the questionnaires

• W hat do students need to do in order to learn what to do in the targetsituation?

C-Tie study revealed the ma jo r causes to the gap between the world o f school aid the world o f work, that is the gap between what HTIA had tried to do for tleir students and what the target situations required o f them These causes

r a l l y involved the ineffectiveness, inappropriateness and irrelevance of the e: isting ESP material and the ESP course due to the lack o f a proper need aialvsis and a syllabus The study also revealed the students' target needs aid learning needs, which helped deter mine the objectives and the contents

o the course

Tie result o f the study suggests that in order to bridge such gap it is necessary to design more effective and relevant materials for the third-vear stidents at H A U based on the prescribed syllabus

T A B L E O F C O N T E N T S

( H A P T E R ONE: R EV IE W OF THE LI TER AT URE 05

: 1 R e a s o n s for the e m er ge nc e o f ESP 05

( H A P T E R T W O : COU RSE DESIGN AND SYLLA BU S DESIGN 14

FOR ESP

22.5 W'hat role should a syllabus play in the course design process? 33CHAPTER THREE: NEEDS A NA L YS IS AND DATA A NA LYS IS 35

31.1 A p p r o a c h e s to needs analysis and the rationale 35

3.3 2 W a n t s and ne ed s o f major dep ar tme nts at H U A 44

3.3.1.1 Students' perceived needs/areas of interests 48

3.3.: 1 E n d - u s e r institutions' evaluation o f the s tu d e n t s ’ 55

actual pe rfo rm an ce and co m p et en ce o f English

3.3.3.2 Students' general evaluation o f the whole ESP 56

co ur se and the content o f the existing material

3.3.3.3 Students' evaluation of the m e t ho d ol og y 5Q3.3.3.4 Teac hers ' evaluation o f the material and the ESP cour se 61

CH A PT ER FOUR: I NT ER PR ETA TI ON OF THE FINDINGS AND 68

S U G G E S T E D S Y L L A B U S

Lo o kn g back at what H U A has done so far, however, I can notice with deep conctm that alt ho ug h a large n u m b e r o f students have been trained in these ESP courses, only a small n um be r o f the gra dua te s has been able to cope with the languige d e m a n d at work Tins mean s that what we have tried to do so far and what ve have ex pe ct ed the students to achieve at the end o f the course simply does lot m at ch with what the en d- us er institutions expect o f them This also mean that there is a big gap between the theoretical world o f schooling and the real vorid o f em p lo y m en t.

Th re is a d a n g e r that this gap is getting wider Wh en Vi etn am open its door for foreign inves tm ent s and integration with other countries in the region and the res of the world, English has b ec o m e a m uch used language for international

c o n m u n i c a t i o n , research and study, resulting in an increasing d em an d from enc-user institutions for university gr aduates who can c o m m u n ic at e effectively

in English at work In other words, there is an urgent need for those who are not

o n l / good at reading and writing but also at speaking and listening

T h i majority of universities in the country, including HUA find it hard to response to such a surging dem and H U A graduates still find it difficult to

p e r o r m effectively in the target lan guage situations: their kn owledge of ESP is - *— *— *— “mil in ade qua te due to the following three main reasons:

Fii>t the present teaching material at H U A is not a good and effective one in

e r n s o f conte nt areas, topics, vocabulary, structures, activities, methodology ind skills It is not a well-organised and systematic one either, in terms of arii:uage items, degree of difficulty and proportion of specific subject areas The explanation for t h i s is t h a t it w a s n o t w r i t t e n o n the hasi*; o f a c a r e f u l l y lesigned svllabus based on the s t u d e n t s ’ target language needs.— cr c? c?

iecond the material focuses only on reading skills leaving other important ones inattended for Because of this, students have man y difficulties in

o m m u n i c a t i n g with others in the target language situation

"bird, most teachers at HU A lack exper ienc e in teaching ESP They have never lad any training in ESP course design, material development and ESP nethodology H U A teachers, therefore, are very reluctant to embark on

o m e t h m g unfamiliar relating to s t u d e n t s ’ subject specialism

"lie :ap betwee n the reality of ESP teaching and learning at HUA the s tu d e n t s ’

•ngiish proficiency after the course and the d em an d in the target language ituation are illustrated in the following diagram:

.ack of ESP teaching experience

.ack of inaterials /facilities

ack of knowle dge of speciality

ack of skills developm ent

rime and m oney constraints

4

;ap

State o f stu d en ts' English

proficiency a fter the course

Inadequate English for Arch and Con Insufficient knowle dge of

specialist vocab ulary Had ability of writing/

speaking/listening Bad com m unication skills Good ability of readingtran slatin g

Target situations/ demands

High level of English proficiency Good com petence and performance Good ability of reading/writing' speaking'listening'translating Good com m unication skills

n g u r e l: The rela tio n sh ip b etw ee n the reality o f E S P te a c h in g a n d learn in g

it H i A (Input), the student's a c h ie v e m e n ts (O u tp u t) a n d the ta rg et situation

tD e m a n d )

"lie situation calls for an urgent re medy to bridge such a gap by designing an appropriate ESP course for the students either while they are still at the miversitv or when thev are at work after graduations.J J

Although both these options are possible, it should be noted that the first one is

n o r e preferable since the gap can be filled more easily when students are still at sjhooi and it also ensures a more effective learning and teaching This research v/ill therefore, attempt to deal only with the first one

11 short, it is the awareness of the urgent need to assist the students to perform

n o r e effectively in the target language situations that has driven me into the

t id> et ESP syllabus design, and of course ESP material development at the

l iter s:atie

I b je c tiv e s

[lie main objective o f this study is to c o m e up with a com pr ehe nsi ve approach

o course design, syllabus design and material dev elo pm ent for ESP courses at -iUA In ord er to do this, in my study I will:

I Carry out a research into the s t u d e n t s ’ target situations to identify what they

do with language, what they need to kno w in order to function effectively in the target situations;

I Analyse the s tu d e n t s ’ present situation to identify their learning needs or

what they want, and how they need to learn to do what they do with language

v Evaluate the existing " i n-h ou se " material to identify its strengths and weakn es ses as well as the factors affecting ESP teaching and learning at

H UA and suggest ways to improve it

I Analyse the s tu d e n ts ’ actual pe rfo rm anc e in the target situations after they

h a v e l e ft H U A in o r d e r t o i d e n t i f y c a u s e s o f t h e s t u d e n t s ’ s t r e n g t h s a n d weaknesses

\ Identify what major departments at H U A need and want for their own students

o Establish criteria on which an ESP syllabus can be organised

C ontent

~Tie d.ssertation is divided into four chapters

Chapter One gives an overview of ESP d ev el op m en t in the world and at HUA

Chapter T w o looks at some theoretical works for ESP development and coursedesigr which will serve as the basis for the research

Chapter Three focuses on the analysis o f the learners' needs involving the identi.ication of necessities, lacks, wants and learning needs It also gives a

inscription ol the means and pr ocedures ot data collection, and map out iirections for material development.

Chapter F o u r suggests an ESP syllabus, its content and m e t h o do l o gy for ESP

;ourses at HUA

C H A P T E R ONE: R E V I E W O F T H E L I T E R A T U R E

Before getting involved in the job as a resea rc her into ESP course design or ESP

■ivllabus design, it is necessarv to have a clear understanding o f ESP as to howm l I_people see ESP when and why ESP beg an to eme rg e and how it has developed

>ince its em er gen ce

I, O v e rview o f E S P d e v e lo p m e n t

1.1 R ea so n s f o r the em erg en ce o f E S P

ELT literature seems to point out that the teaching o f ESP began to eme rg e in lie late 1 9 6 0 s a n d t h e r e a r c t h r e e m a i n r e a s o n s c o m m o n t o t h e e m e r g e n c e o f<_hat

Hie first reason is the de ma nd s of a "Brave New World" Hutchinson and

vVateis (1987 p.6) stated that after W o r l d W ar II there was an enor mo us

■xpansion in scientific, technical and e c o n o m ic activities on an international

¡cale It is because of this expansion that a new world of technology and

•ommerce was created which resulted in a sudden d e m a n d for an international anguage It is also because of the strongest economic power of the United States in the post-war world that English b ec am e an international language for

e chn ol ogy and commerce

lutchinson and Waters point out the important changes in the people's attitudes owards English Before World War II people used English primarily for

•eadir.g literature, poems or tourism In o th er words, they used English to enrich heir general knowledge rather than to do business But after the War English

s

jucklv be c a m e an international language for foreign irade travel, banking, iv:ition and tel ec o m m u n ic at io n.

o k i n g at the reasons for the strong d e m a n d for ESP in the early 1970s duch in so n an d Water s ( 1987 p.7) explain that:

'This development was accelerated by the Oil Crises of the early 1970s which resulted

in a massive How of funds and Western expertise into the oil-rich countries English suddenly became big business and commercial pressures began to exert an influence Time and money constraints created a need for cost-effective courses with clearlv defined goals."

r b secon d reason for this deve lop em nt is the revolution in linguistics In the

at 1960s and early 1970s man y researches were done into the nature of wticular varieties o f English such as descriptions of written scientific and

e a n i c a l English by Ewer and Latorre (1969), Swales (1971) Selinker and Trmble (1976), W i d d o w s o n (1978) and others W i d d o w s o n (1978) for

■x.mple shifted his attention away from defining the formal features of aiguaee usage to discovering the ways in which language is actually used in

ea co m m u n i c a t i o n and found out that the language people speak and write aies considerably, and in a n u m b er of different ways, from one context to intther To stress the significance of these studies Hutchi nson and Waters 1(87, p.7) say "In English language teaching, this gave rise to the view that hee are important differences between, say, the English o f c o m m er ce and that

>f engineering These ideas married up naturally with the development of indish courses for specific groups of learners" This mea ns that the English

i d d e d by a particular group o f learners coul d be identified by analysing the

m uistic characteristics of their specialist area o f work or study as pointed out

>vHutchinson and Waters (1987 p.8): "Tell me what you need English for and wll tell you the English that you need" This has be com e the guiding principle

<f :SP

1v third reason is die focus on the learner Together with the two above leitioned factors, educational psychology also had some influence on the

j rowth o f ESP Rodgers ( 1969) observes that " N e w dev elopment in educational

p s y c h o lo g y also contributed to the rise ot ESP by empha sis ing the central

im po rta nc e of the learners and their attitudes to learning.” He also points out that learners have different needs and interests and the relevance o f the course to

I he lea rn ers ' needs would have an important influence on their motivation to learn a n d on the effectiveness ot their learning Therefore, in order to improve the learners motivation and make the learning more effective, the course should

be relevant to the learners' needs and interests or the learners should be placed

at the centr e o f the course

In short, the em er g en ce and expansion of ESP can be attached to the increasing

d e m a n d for the English to suit particular needs of the learners in specific disciplines, the developments in the fields of linguistics and educational psych olog y

1.2 T h e d e v e lo p m e n t o f E SP

A cc o r d in g to Hutchinson and Waters ( 197X p.9) " F ro m its early beginnings in the 1960s, ESP has undergone three main phases o f development It is now in a fourth phase with a fifth phase starting to emer ge."

Peter Strevens (Hallidav, Vic Intosh and Strevens, 1964), Jack Ewer (Ewer andLatorre 1969) and John Swales (1971) also share the view that the first staget_took place mainly in the 1960s and early 1970s This stage was characterised by the register analysis or the concept of ESP as a special language According to them English for different purposes lias different registers, and the aim of the analysis was to identify tiie grammatical and lexical features of these registers

I 'aer a n d I lughes-Davies ( 1971) point out that:

"Although there was an academic interest in the nature of registers of English,

"he main motive behind register analyses such as Ewer and Latorre s was the pedagogic one of making the ESP course more relevant to learners' needs The aim was to produce a syllabus which gave high priority to the language forms '•indents would meet in their Science studies and in turn would give low prioritv

■ o forms thev would not meet."

R es ea r ch shows that the second stage was characterised by "discourse analysis"

In the first stage of its development, ESP had focussed on language at the

s entence level whereas the second phase shifted its attention to the level above the sentence as ESP became closely involved with the e m er gi n g field of disco ur se or rhetorical analysis

Ke n n ed y and Bolitho also agree that the second development, which greatly

i nl lu enc ed ESP programmes, was a move towards a view o f language as not only a set o f gr ammatical structures but also a set of functions This m ean s that

we use l a n gu ag e to com m un ic at e with people and to cause things to be done, to describe and explain events, to qualify and hypothesise

In view of discourse, Hutchinson and Waters (1987) asserts:

"Register analysis had focussed on sentence grammar, but now attention shifted

to understanding how sentences were combined in discourse to produce meaning The concern of research, therefore, was to identify the organisational patterns in texts and to specify the linguistic means by which these patterns are signalled These patterns would then form the syllabus of the ESP course.”

The third stage was characterised by the target situation analysis Unlike the above two stages, this stage did not add anythi ng new to the range o f kn o w le d g e about ESP W h a t is new is that it aimed to “ take the existing kno wl edg e and set

it on a more scientific basis, by establishing procedures for relating la nguage analysis closely to lear ner s’ reasons for learning.” (Hutchinson and Waters, 19X7)

C ham ber s (1980) uses the term "target situation ne e d s ” to refer to needs analysis, which is a process of identifying the target situation and analysing the linguistic features of that situation The most thorough and widely known work

on needs analysis was done by John Munbv He presents a highly detailed set of

procedures tor discovering target situation needs He calls this set o f procedures the C o m m u n ic a ti o n Needs Processor (CNP).

Ac cor din g to Hutchinson and Waters ( 1987, p 12) “ the target situation analysis stage m ar k ed a certain 'c o m in g of a g e ’ for ESP" since learner need was apparently placed at the centre of the course design process

Hie fourth stage is characterised by skills and strategies It is true that the first three stages of the development of ESP looked mainly at the surface linguistic features The fourth stage is a new one which has seen an attempt to look below the surface and to consider not the language itself but the thinking processes that underlie language use The most d o m in an t figure in this m o ve m en t was the work done bv Françoise Grellet (1981), Christine Nuttall (1982), Charles Alderson and Sandy Urquhart ( 1984), who have mad e significant contributions

to works on reading skills They present the interpretive strategies which enable the learner to cope with the surface forms This approach, therefore, has great influence on the teaching o f ESP as pointed out by Hutchinson and Waters ( 1<JK7 p 1 3):

"The principal idea behind the skills-centred approach is that underlying all language use there are common reasoning and interpreting processes, which, regardless of the surface forms, enable to extract meaning from discourse There

is, therefore, no need to focus closely on the surface forms of the language The focus should rather be on the underlying interpretive strategies, which enable the learner to cope with the surface forms, for example, guessing the meanings of words from context, using visual layout to determine the type of text, exploiting cognates (i.e words which are similar in the mother tongue and the target language ) etc."

The fifth stage o f ESP development is characterised bv the learning-centred approach All of the four stages above are bas'ed mainly on descriptions of language use In other words, the concern in each case is with describing what people do with language The concern in this stage is not with language use but with language learning

9

It is certain that describing and exemplifying what people do with langu age is important as this will help to define the course objectives However, it sh o u ld be noted that telling what people do with language alone will not enable the learner

to learn it In order to enable the learner to learn it it m ust be c o m b i n e d with language learning or telling the leamer how to learn it In view of l an gua ge learning, Hutchinson and Waters (1987, p 14) assert "A truly valid approach to I'SP must be based on an understanding of the processes of language learning."

W ha t has been shown in these five phases of ESP dev elo pm ent is quite contradictory to Hutchinson and Waters's assumption A c co r d in g to them ESP should not simply be viewed as an approach to language learning or teaching based on the learners' needs If it is an approach or a need, what can be taught with a need or an approach? In other words, if ESP is seen in that way, teachers will certainly have no idea of what to teach or how to teach, and students will not kn o w what to learn and how to learn it, either

()f course, ESP is not a special English However, it is very different from GE (General Fnglish) in terms ot content areas, discourse, repisrprs skills and

l ear ne rs’ needs For example, the language forms such as c o m p o u n d nouns, passives, conditionals, anomalous finites (i.e modal verbs), the organisational patterns o f texts and the linguistic means by which these patterns are signalled, that are co m m on ly found in ESP are usually neglected in GE As a result o f this, ESP teaching requires a different approach to m et hod ol ogy and syllabus design based on the linguistic features found in the particular specialist areas

In addition English used in different specialist areas has different registers in terms o f grammatical and lexical features Therefore, teaching these varieties of «— *—English will require different approaches to methodology and syllabus, too

2 O verview o f E S P d e velo p m en t at H U A

For a long time HUA ran only GE courses for its students ranging from elementary to advanced levels T i e student population included not only full­

tim e students, who were doing full-time courses to bec om e architects or construction engineers, but also part-time students Normally, at the end o f the course they had to sit for an English examination Many of these students did well at the final English examination and got very good marks After the course, both the full-time and the part-time students hoped that they would be able to use English in their work However, they im mediately realised that wha t they had learnt at HU A did not really help them very much at work because the language they used at work was not the same as the language they had studied for exams Thev also noticed that in order to function effectively in the target- J Osituation, thev would need a whole new range of content, skills, strategies, language discourse, structures, functions, vocabulary, etc.

in order to assist the students in this matter, in 1990 H U A began to explore the students' comm uni cat io n needs and tried to design a new course, more relevant

to their needs

Unfortunately, at that time no suitable course books or materials were available

1 01 d i e s t u d e n t s A l s u , d u e t o llic l i m e a n d f i n a n c i a l c o n s t i u i n t s , I I U A c u u l d n u t carr\ out a proper needs analysis All H U A could do was to integrate the GE course with what was loosely called ESP course by using some comm er cia l GE materials available in the market such as the " H e a d w a y ” or "Streamline" series

as the hard core of the syllabus and adding additional reading lessons relating to the students' specialisms to it In this way, the "English for Construction, Architecture and Planning” was introduced

In order to teach this integrated course, teachers had to adjust the syllabus on their own They had to collect materials relevant to the s tu d e n t s ’ specialisms by themselves Texts from textbooks, articles or extracts from newspapers, jourr.als etc were individually selected, co m pi le d into the reading material forthe course

As a result o f this, different teachers had different self-developing lesson plans with different language items such as vocabulary, functions, structures and skills or learning activities, and therefore, different approaches to the teaching.

Hie mo st c o m m o n approach then was the gr amm ar-translation one A l th ou g h the ma in focus of this approach was on teaching vocabulary, g r a m m a r was always co ns ide red as an important c o m po n en t of the whole process Th ro ug h the g r a m m a r and translation exercises, specialist vocabulary were presented, recycled and revised Below is a typical example of this g r am ma r-t ran sl ati on approach:

Vietnamese-English Translation Exercise

1 Vân đề nhà ớ ờ Hà Nội thế nào? có tốt hơn ờ thành phố Hổ Chí Minh

khổng?

2 Giá nhà và đát ó thành phô Hổ Chí Minh tất nhiên là đắt hơn ớ thành phô

Đà Lạt, nhưng khòng đát băng ờ Hà Nội Giá nhà và đất ớ Hà Nội là đãt nhât

3 Tốc độ xây dựng ở Hà Nội thế nào? Cơ sờ hạ tầng ra sao? hệ thống cấp

thoát nước thế nào?

4 Vấn đé qui hoạch đô thị và quan lí đô thị ra sao?

This m e t h o d was used a means of presenting grammar, specialist vocabulary, structures relevant to the students' needs and at the same time it was used a feedback to check the students' comprehension However, this approach soon exposed it.s weeknesses IS has been cited b v many authors against the traditional iiummur-translution methods

ESP cour ses at HU A were taught in this way for a long time But gradually, the situation chan ged Both the teachers and students realised that the d e m a n d for ESP courses with the focus on all four language skills becam e so pressing thatthis type of integrated course was no longer useful In 1995 to meet such a

de m a n d , a g ro u p o f teachers were asked to collect texts, reading materials which were relevant to the students' specialities or target situations and put them together to form an ESP textbook ' ‘English for Architecture and Construction"

This material, to some extent, was a big head start for both the teachers and the students: for the first time, priority was given to the most c o m m o n subject areas,language forms, functions and vocabularv relevant to the students at the^ k— -university Th ro u gh o ut the course, students had the opportunity to get familiar with the linguistic features and discourse of ESP texts and to build up their specialist vocabulary

Since then, m a n v ESP courses have been taught Everv vear H U A runs at leastj O * J

22 ESP classes In these ESP courses, students o f architecture, construction, planning and technical infrastructure all study 60 ESP lessons (45 minutes per lesson)

Although the material focuses totally on ESP, both the students and the teachers have found it rather ineffective There are m an y reasons for this:

• The material is not systematically gr ade d and se qu enc ed in terms of the language items such as vocabulary, structures, functions, skills, subject- matter areas and degree of difficulty and therefore does not highlight the most important linguistic features or the aspects of the language

• Teac her s do not have experience in teaching ESP The traditional g r am m a r- iranslation method of teaching is still dominating, which is not stimulating but rather boring and depressing

13

• The material focuses only on reading skill Other skills are almost neglected

In other words, there are very few learning activities for the de v elo pm en t o f the other skills

L oo k in g b ack at the two phases of ESP dev elopment at HUA, it can be clearly seen that both the integrated G E -E S P course fin the first phase) and the

c o m p l e t e ESP course (in the second phase) failed to satisfy both teachers and studen ts at HU A

T h e e xp la na ti on may be very simple: the course was not designed on the basis

of a solid target situation needs analysis and a well designed syllabus In other words, the cour se designers had no experience in designing ESP courses and therefore, m is s ed out one important thing: the needs analysis - the most

i m por ta nt feature in ESP course design

In ord er to develop a proper ESP course at HUA, the author of this thesis att em pt s to study in greater detail course design, syllabus design, material

d e v e l o p m e n t and the teaching and learning o f ESP

C H A P T E R 2: C O U R S E D E S I G N A N D S Y L L A B U S D E S I G N F O R ESP

2 1 C o u r s e d esig n

As m e n ti o n e d in Chapter One ESP is considered an approach to language teachin g which aims to meet the needs of particular learners This m ean s that ESP teachers will have to teach what learners need to learn In other words,

m u ch o f the work done by ESP teachers is conc er ned with designing appropriate courses for various groups of learners Therefore, course design plays a very important part in the life o f the ESP teacher

Ac cor di ng to Hutchinson and Waters (19X7) designing a course is

f u n da m en ta lly a matter of asking questions in order to provide a reasoned basis for the su bs eq u en t processes of syllabus design, material writing, classroom teaching and evaluation These questions are listed below:

• 'Why does the student need to learn?

• Who is going to be involved in the process? This will need to cover not just the student, but all the people who may have some effect on the process: teachers, sponsors, inspectors etc

• Where does the learning take place? What potential does the place provide? What limitations does it impose?

• When does the learning take place? How much time is available? How will it be distributed'.’

• What does the student need to learn? What aspects of language will be needed and how will they be described? What level of proficiency must be achieved? What topic areas will need to be covered?

• How will the learning be achieved? W'hat learning theory will underlie the course? What kind of methodology will be employed?"

H u t c h in s o n and Waters also emphasise that these basic questions should be

in vestigated under three main headings: Language Descriptions, Theories of

L e ar n in g and Needs Analysis in the course design process The factors affecting

E S P cour se design are illustrated in the followiniz figure:

ESP Course

/ Nature of

j particular / target and learning situation

W h o ? W h y ?

wh e r e ? W h e n ’

Needs analysis

F i g u r e 2: F a c to rs a ffe ctin g E S P course design

( Hutchinson T and Waters A E n g lish f o r S p e c ific P u rp o ses Cambridge

L m v e r s it v Press 19N7 p.??

15

The above figure shows clearly the relationship a m o n g the three elements of

L a n g u a g e Description, Learning Hreories and Needs Analysis

Hu tch ins on and Waters point out that La nguage Description is the way in which the lan gua ge system is broken down and described for the purposes of learning

T e rm s such as 'structural', “f un ctio na l’, 'no ti ona l' properly belong to this area and refer to ways of analysing and describing language They also point out that

it is the learning theory which provides the theoretical basis for the

m e th o d o lo g y , by helping us to under sta nd how' people learn

It is cl ea r from the above diagram that ESP course design process is a complex one wit h three integrated elements: Language Descriptions, Learning Theories and Ne eds Analysis It is also clear that questions starting with " w h a t ” , "h ow",

" w h o " , ' ‘w h y ” , "w her e” and " w h e n ” are the six basic questions that need to be taken into consideration in the ESP course design process

ESP co u rse design, in fact, is:

"the process bv which the raw data about a learning need is interpreted in order

to produce an integrated series of teaching-learning experiences, whose ultimate aim is to lead the learners to a particular state of knowledge In practical terms this entails the use of the theoretical and empirical information available to produce a syllabus, to select, adapt or write materials in accordance with the syllabus, to develop a methodology for teaching those materials and to establish evaluation procedures by which progress towards the specified goals will be measured.” (Hutchinson and Waters, 19K7 p 64.)

c on t en t of the I 'SP course It also appears to be a very logical and systematic

pr o ce du re as it starts with learner, proceeds through various stages of analysis to

a syllabus, then to material design to exemplify syllabus items and finally to

ev alu at ion of acquisition of syllabus items However, in this model, the learner

is simply used as a means of identifying the target situation and locating the restricted areas In other words, the learner is not considered at every stage and the learning needs of the learner are not accounted for at all It is, therefore,

c o n s id e re d as a learner-restricted approach, not a learner-centred one

I lu tc h in so n and Waters point out that the skills-centred approach appears to take the learner more into account than the language-centred approach In the

l an g u ag e- cen tre d approach, the analysis of the target situation data is only at the

su rfa ce level and very little about the competence that underlies the per fo rm an ce is taken into consideration, whereas in the skills-centred approach, the needs analysis is far away from the surface performance data and the

c o m p e t e n c e that underlies the performance is more taken into account just as

H ut ch i n so n and Waters say when viewing the role of needs analysis:

"The role of needs analysis in a skills-centred approach is twofold Firstly, it provides a basis for discovering the underlying competence that enables people

to perform in the target situation Secondly, it enables the course designer to discover the potential knowledge and abilities that the learners bring to the ESP classroom." (Hutchinson and Waters, 1987, p 70)

Beside the above two approaches, there is a learning-centred one which looks atnot only the target situation needs but also the learning situation needs.Hut ch in so n and Waters (1987, p 74) describe this approach as a negotiatedprocess in which the nature of the syllabus, materials, methodology andevaluation procedures are influenced by both the ESP learning situation and thetarget situation In other words, all these components are influential to oneanother They also describe it as a dynamic process which needs to have built-infeedback channels to enable the course to respond to developments because ofthe fact that needs and resources vary with time The following diagram will

show how these procedures proceed and what factors det er m ine the content of the ESP course in the learning-centred course design process:

Analyse target situation

Theoretical views of language

Evaluation

F i g u r e 3: \ lea rn in g -cen tred a p p ro a ch to course design

I Hutchinson and Waters, 19X7 p 74.)

It can be clearly seen from the above diagram that the learning -centred approach accounts lor the learner at ever\ stage of the design process Therefore, it can

m a x i m is e the potential o f the learning situation Moreover, it is a d y n a m ic and interactive process which is based not only on the target situation analysis but also on the learning situation analvsis.o J

C o m pa r in g all (if the three approaches, it can be con cl ud ed that the learning- centred approach is the most effective of all to ESP course design In the

l an gu ag e- ce nt re d approach, the content o f the ESP course is d ete rm in ed by the nature o f the target situation performance with little reference to the learner But

in the skills-eentred approach, the content o f the ESP course is d et er m in e d by the processes that enable the learner to perform This approach is ob viously better than the first one because it looks at both performance and c o m p et en ce and takes the learner more into account However, it does not fullv take theJlearner into consideration, because it still makes the ESP learning situation too

de pen den t on the target situation In the learning-centred approach, the content

of the ESP course is deter mine d by not only the com p et en ce that ena bl es the learner to perform but also how the learner acquires that competence The most important thing to r em em ber is that, unlike the other two approaches, in this approach the learner is fully taken into account However, it is more com p le x because it is based on a recognition o f the comp lexit y of the learning process

Because o f all the effects that the learning-centred approach may bring to the ESP class, it is suggested here that the learning-centred approach will be

e m p lo y ed for designing an effective ESP course at HUA

In addition, the diagram above suggests that the syllabus design process should start with identifying the learners by analysing their target situation and learning situation W hat should be taken into account in the syllabus design process will

be presented in detail in the following section

19

2.2 S y lla b u s f o r E S P

2.2.1 D efin itio n

It is true that m u ch of the teacher's work is conc er ned with syllabus d es ign and

c u r ri cu lu m design However, for ma nv teachers, these two terms see m ratherC7 jconfusing

Actually, syllabus is the content to be taught in a particular course In language

p r ogr am s it generally includes vocabulary and grammar, but also notions that the learner ne eds to c o m m u n ic at e about, and the functions that the learner needs

to c o m m u n i c a t e with Syllabus design is, therefore, the process by which linguistic con tent is selected and organised.v_ ‘—•

Cu rriculum is a wider concept, it includes all the activities that students enga ge

in at an institution It includes not only what students learn, but also how they learn, using what supporting materials, styles and me thods of as se s sm en t and what kinds o f facilities

Cu rriculum design is based on different considerations: learner considerations,

kn o w le dg e cons iderations and instructional considerations However, we reallvc r j

need to look at curriculum in a broader view and take into account political concerns, considerations and decisions The difference of nature and purposes of

a cur ricu lum and a syllabus is clearly pointed out by Dubin and Olshtain (1986,pp.34-35):

“A curriculum contains a broad description of general goals by indicating an overall educational-cultural philosophy which applies across subjects together with a theoretical orientation to language and language learning with respect to the subject matter at hand A curriculum is often reflective of national and political trends as well A syllabus is more detailed and operational statement of teaching and learning elements which translates the philosophy of the curriculum into a series of planned steps leading towards more narrowly defined objectives at each level"

Robinson, P (1991 p 33) points out that in Britain, syllabus refers to thecontent or subject matter of an individual subject, whereas curriculum refers to

ed u c a t i o n a l system In America, curriculum tends to be s y n o n y m o u s with

s yll abu s in British sense

D is tin gu is hi n g the difference between a syllabus and a cur ric ulu m is of great

i m p o rt a n c e for all teachers as it helps them kn ow what should be involved in

sy llabus des ign and curriculum design In view o f the difference between the two D u b i n and Olshtain (1986, p 35) asserts:

"An important reason for differentiating between the two is to stress that a single curriculum can be the basis for developing a variety of specific syllabuses which are concerned with locally defined audiences, particular needs, and intermediate objectives.”

2.2.2 W h y s h o u ld we have a syllabus?

In view o f the reasons for having a syllabus Hutchinson and Waters (1987 pp S3-84) p re se nt different roles that the syllabus plays These roles are listed as follows:

1 "Language is a complex entity It cannot be learnt in one go We have to have: , o mc w a y o f b r e a k i n g d o w n the c o m p l e x into m a n a g e a b l e unit'; T h e s yl la bu s,

in defining the constituent parts of language knowledge, thus provides a practical basis for the division of assessment, textbooks and learning time

2 In addition to its practical benefits, a syllabus also gives moral support to the teacher and learner, in that it makes the language learning tasks appear manageable

3 A syllabus, particularly an ESP syllabus, also has a cosmetic role Sponsors and students will want some reassurance that their investment of monev and / or time will be worthwhile If nothing else, the syllabus shows that some thought and planning has gone into the development of a course This aspect is, obviously, of particular importance when there are commercial sponsors involved

4 Returning to our analogy of learning as a journey, the syllabus can be seen as a statement of projected routes, so that teacher and learner not only have an idea

of where they are going, but how rhev might get there

5 A syllabus is an implicit statement of views on the nature of language and learning A syllabus will normally be expressed in terms of what is taken to be the most important aspect of language learning If we lay out a syllabus in structural terms, we are saying that knowledge of the structures of the language constitutes the most important element of language competence, if we take a

21

skills basis, we arc saying that skills are the most important aspect and so on A syllabus, then, tells the teacher and the student not only what is to be learnt, but, implicitly, why it is to be learnt.

6 A syllabus provides a set of criteria for materials selection and/or writing It defines the kind of texts to look for or produce, the items to focus on in exercises etc This is probably one of the commonest uses for a syllabus, but it can be one of the most damaging to the course design, if wrongly used

7 Uniformity is a necessary condition of any institutionalised activity, such as education It is deemed to be important that standards within a system are as equal as possible A syllabus is one way in which standardisation is achieved (or

at least attempted)

S In that teaching is intended to lead a learner to a particular state of knowledge, there need to be criteria against which success or failure in reaching that state will be assessed A syllabus, therefore, provides a visible basis for testing.''

It is clear from the above list that a syllabus is an important d o cu m en t in the tea chi ng/learning process The role of the syllabus is a comp lex one Therefore

we need to be aware of why w;e want a syllabus and what we will use it for Moreover, we need to be aware of its ideal nature and its limitations as an indicator o f learning so that it can be used most appropriately

It is important to re me m ber that a syllabus is a model, a statement of an ideal It

is not therefore, a statement of what will be learnt, but a statement of what will

be taught

A syllabus, as suggested above, is a plan of work and is thus essentially for the teacher, as a guideline and context for class content Moreover, it is essential for*—the learner as well With a syllabus, they can have a "route m a p ' of the course or they can see that there is a plan and how the individual lessons fit together

Looking back at what H L A has done so far it can be seen that both the teachers and the learners have many difficulties in the process of teaching and learning One o f the greatest difficulties is that they have no pre-determined syllabus In other words, teachers do not have a teaching syllabus as a guideline for their lesson planning and teaching and learners as well do not have a "route m a p " for their learning

No rm all y, material is written on the basis o f a prescribed syllabus However,

H U A did not follow this way because o f the time and financial constraints The material was written in a way that texts that were thought to be suitable for the learners in term o f needs and wants were extracted from various textbooks available in the market and then put together into a book As a result o f this, the material d e s ig n e d by H U A is badly organ ised and the language items are badly

se qu enced W h a t is more important is that it does not reflect the right level of the learners and meet the lear ner s’ target needs

The abs enc e o f a syllabus means that teachers have to try to work out different syllabuses It is, therefore, impossible to gain a uniformity or standardisation in the teaching and learning of English at HUA

In order to achieve a certain degree of standardisation to provide teachers with a projected route o f what to be taught and to motivate the learners in the learning process, syllabus design has become the most important and urgent task at HUA

2 2 3 T y p e s o f s y l l a b u s

It has been noted above that one of the main purposes of a syllabus is to break down the mass o f knowledge to be learnt into man age abl e units Therefore, the type o f syllabus vary according to different ways o f breaking down this mass knowledge In other words, there are different criteria which can serve as bases

on which a svllabus is organised.J C 7

Hutchinson and Waters (1987) present nine types of syllabus which are clearly illustrated below by nine contents lists from a range o f ESP courses:

7 Drivers and Stimulations

S Directional Wells

9 Jobs on the rig

(From the Petroleum Programme: English for the oil industry by P.L Sandler,

BBC 1980)

ITie e xa m pl e cited above sh ow that the topic syllabus is or g an is ed aro und topics For ESP courses, the topics deploy the content of the stu d en ts ' wor k or specialist study or specialist subject areas This type of syllabus is certainly important in ESP because one objective of the ESP course may in fact be to teach this specialist content

b) Structural syllabus

1 Simple Present Active

2 Simple Present Passive

3 Simple Present Active and Passive

4 -mg forms

5 Present Perfect; Present Continuous

6 Infinitives

7 Anomalous Finites

8 Past Perfect; Conditionals

(From A Course in Basic Scientific English by Ewer, J.R and Latorre, G.,

Longman, 1969)

The structural or grammatical sylla bus is centred around items such as tenses, articles, singular/plural, co m p le m en ta t i o n , adverbial forms, etc This syllabus type is very familiar to most lan g ua g e teachers It has both its adv antages and disadvantages It is a very powerful mean s of selecting and sequ encing lang uag e items In such a syllabus, items are graded so that simpler and more

im mediately useable structures precede the more complex ones Vloreover, it provides the learner with a syste mat ic description of the generative core of the language-the finite range of the structures that make it possible to generate an infinite n um be r of structures or utterances For this reason the structural svilabus continues to be widely used in ESP However, it also has its weaknesses Its greatest we akn es s is that it fails to provide the learner with an

u n de r st an di n g o f the c o m m u n i c a t i v e use of the structures due to its simplicity of the structural language description.

c) Situational syllabus

1 Schvveibur: The Fiftieth Anniversary

2 The Sales Report

3 The Thanking Letter

12 The New Secretary

{English fo r Secretaries, Oxford University Press 1978)

The situational syllabus is or g an ise d around situations For some ESP situations, there may be an order For exa m p le , in a business setting, the situations m ay be

pr esented in the chronological order of a typical d a y ' s or w e e k ' s work This syllabus type is important in BSP however, it would be more effective if it goes together with the structural one

d) Structural/ situational syllabus

Part 1: The Reception

1 Taking a Booking

Patterns of the verb "to be', 'would like'; demonstratives; personal pronouns; the time; questions with how long?’, 'what kind9’

2 At the Reception Desk

Questions with ' where?’; some prepositions, the number

3 The Cashier

Adjectives: 'either or': 'neither nor'Part 2: The Restaurant

1 Taking a Reservation

Present tense, questions with "what time?’

2 Receiving the Diner

Possessive adjectives and pronouns: questions with 'have you got?'; the present perfect tense: patterns of the verb 'can'

3 fukiniz an order

25

'There is'; 'there are'; 'some'; ‘any -; 'no'; ( 1); questions with how many?, ‘would you like?’, ‘what would you like?’; the articles, structures

of ‘to be + adjective+infinitive’

4 Giving the Bill

Countable and uncountable nouns, the number

The structural syllabus which develops alongside the situational syllabus focuses on situations or contexts in which gram matica l items are exploited as the central unit o f organization This type of syllabus is widely used in ESP

e) Functional/ notional syllabus

1 Properties and Shapes

2 Location

3 Structure

4 Measurement 1

5 Process 1 Function and Ability

6 Process 2 Actions in sequence

(Nucleus: General Science by M Bates and T Dudley- Evans, Longman 1976)

The functional syllabus is con cerned with elements such as invitations, suggestions, apologies, refusals, etc

The notional syllabus is organized around themes relating to broad areas of meani ng such as space, time, obligation, etc

T he functional/notional syllabus is the one in which the basic units are notions

o r conce pt s (for example, time or space) or functions (for example, greetings,

as k in g , seeking clarification) Re se ar ch shows that this syllabus type has been very important in ESP A c c o r d i n g to Ro bi n so n (1991, p.36), “ As with the

l a n g u a g e - fo r m syllabus, the no ti onal-functional syllabus can still appear to be a ' n o r m ' for ESP”

p Structural!Functional syllabus

Unit O ne A visitor to BOS

Business content' Organisation chart

Structures: The verb to be Possessive pronouns

Questions words: W hat9 W here? Who?

Functions: Introductions, greetings: Giving personal information: registering

at a hotel

Lexis: Jobs, countries, nationalities, titles

Unit T w o A newcomer

Business content: Telephone conversations: business letter format

Structures: Demonstrative pronouns: this/that/ these! those

There is! there are Prepositions: on, in , above, below, under, between, next

to to the left! right of on the left! right o f Question words: How m any?

Function: Describing location

Lexis: Office furniture and equipment, stationery, cardinal numbers business

letter terminology

Unit T h re e The BOS building

Business content: A memorandum: telephone conversations: company names

Structures: Present progressive tense

Imperatives

Prepositions (continued) Question word: W hich9 Functions: Discussing activities: giving directions, giving commands

Lexis: Ordinal numbers, parts of a building, some office activities

(From We Mean Business by Susan Norman, Longman 1982)

The structural syllabus as well as the functional syllabus has its own drawbacks Flic structurally organised svllabus focuses onlv on forms or the basic grammar

27

In contrast to the structural syllabus, the functional syllabus is based on

l an gu age in use The functional syllabus has its own weakness It does not help the learner to organise their k n o w l e d g e of the language as it lacks a systematic conceptual framework

The structural/functional syllabus is organised around structural and functional grou nd s or b a s e d on structural an d functional criteria In other words, it is a

c om bi na ti on o f the above two It does not only help the learner learn the basic

g r a m m a r but also learn how to use the kno wled ge they already have It is the one which is co m p os e d o f the two com pl em en ta ry elements, with each supporting an d enriching the other Because o f its own strength, this kind o f syllabus can be seen in more recent ESP materials

g) Skills syllabus

1 Organising your studies

Z Improving your reading efficiency

3 Taking notes

4 Taking part in seminars

5 Writing an essay i) Research and using the library

6 W r i t i n g an e s s a y i n O r g a n i s a t i o n

7 Writing an essay iii) Presentation

X Assessment, study techniques and examinations

(SruJv Skills in English by Michael J Wallace, Cambridge University Press, 19X0)

'Hie skills syllabus focuses exclusively or principally on one or more than one of the four lang uag e skills such as listening skill, speaking skill, reading skill and writing skill Exa mpl es would be a course in writing business letters, or in oral skills for bu siness people, or in acad emi c reading The actual content of the course, however, might be language forms or functions, as in content-based syllabuses Robi ns on (1991 p.38) suggests that 'professional skills' or'c o m m u n i c a t i o n skills' should be considered in an ESP course According tohim:

"Another set of skills which may form the focus for an ESP course are termed professional skills' or "communication skills' Linguistic accuracy is not

ignored but it is not the sole component An example of a ‘macro-skill’ here might be "making an oral presentation’, the ‘micro-skills' including control of gestures and body language, effective use of visual aids, as well as appropriate phraseology and terminology and clear pronunciation.”

h) Functionalltask-based syllabus

1 Making arrangements

2 Attending meetings

3 Taking part in interviews

4 Buying and selling

5 Dealing with orders

6 Dealing with forms

7 Using the telephone

8 Dealing with international payments

9 Recording and decoding information

10 Travelling

1 1 Reporting

12 Receiving visitors

{English for the Business and Commercial World: career Developments by J

A Blundell N VI G Middlemiss, Oxford University Press, 1982)

The tas k- b as ed syllabus consists o f a set of tasks or activities ordered according

to cognitive ditticulty An important feature of this kind ot syllabus is that "each

task has a conceptual, a linguistic and a physical as p ect ” (Wilson, J G eneral

P r in c ip le s , in Harperi 1 1), 1986 p 11) This syllabus type is clearly significant

for ESP since the basic need of ESP students is to perform a work or study task successfully through the m edi um of English Moreover, it helps motivate the learners and en abl e them to engage themselves in tasks or activities Regarding the strength o f the task-based syllabus, Xavier (1986, p 18) notes that

“con struction of tasks has led to an alternative concept of materials Materials are no longer viewed as merely texts to which students are exposed but as activities the learners must engage themselves in "

Hie fu nct ional/task-based syllabus is certainly the one in which the basic units are functions (for example, asking, greeting, seeking clarification, advising, warning, threatening, describing, etc.) based on tasks This syllabus type

29

focuses on language in use and helps develop the le ar ner ’s c o m m u n i c a t i o n skills However, the learner should he aware of the re quirement o f the task and what they are doing, and do not act in a mechanical way.

i) Discourse/ skills syllabus

Unit 2

Generalizations

Part 1 The nature of generalizations

Part 2 General and specific information (paragraphs containing a single

generalization >

Part 3 Levels of generality

Part 4 Levels of generality expressed by probability, frequency and qualityPart 5 Application of reading strategies to a passage with different levels ofgenerality

iReading and Thinking in English: Discovering Discourse ed H G.

Widdovvson Oxford University Press 1979)

This type o f syllabus is based on discourse and skills It is often o rg ani sed

ar oun d the tex t-d iag ra m m in g type of exercise which focuses more on the

m ea n in g or the patterns in discourse than just the words in the sentence Learning the sentence structures is very important However, it should be noted that getting learners to learn structural sentence patterns does not enable the them to use those patterns in comm unic atio n But making learners aware o f thepatterns in discourse does enable them to use those discourse patterns in

co m m u ni ca t i on The discourse/skills syllabus appears to have a profound effect

on ESP as it does not only help the learners to learn the structural sentence patterns but also make them aware of the patterns, the cohesion and m ea ni ng in discourse

Briefly, it is important to re me m ber that whatever type o f syllabus it is it contains three elements: language, pedagogy and content, am on g which the specialist content is the key issue for ESP Robinson P (1991 p 37)

em pha sis es that "the specialist content is utilised as an organising device (or carrier-content) for the syllabus m order to motivate the students and as a basis

for I he 'real sy lla bu s' of language forms, functions or whatever the course

de s ig ne rs wish to focus on"

Obvio us ly, all the syllabuses m en ti on ed above can be applied to ESP However, what is important is not how to apply those syllabuses, but to choose wha t type

to be applied to fit the s tu d e n t s ’ target needs What type of syllabus s hou ld the course de s ig ne rs choos e for ESP courses at HUA will be dealt with in the

f ollowing section

2.2.4 W h a t type o f sylla b u s sh o u ld we c h o o se?

It can be seen from the above analysis that different types o f syllabuses have different distin gui sh in g features In other words, different syllabuses reflect different aspects and levels of language as well as different aspects and levels o f learning Cons idera tions of aspects and levels o f language in the target situation are of great im portance in the ESP syllabus design because this helps d et er m in e the type of the syllabus For example, if we kno w that there is both a functional and a notional aspect to language, then the syllabus should be a functional and a notional one Moreover, ll we know that the s.iudenis do not function successfully in the target situation because they lack the skills and strategies for using the language, then the course sh ould have a skills and strategies svllabus,<_- c c o jtoo

A cc or di ng to Hutchinson (1987, p 89) “ any teaching materials must, in reality, operate several syllabuses at the same time" One of them is likely to be primary, the organising principle for the course whereas others subordinate to it For ex am ple , every function is realised by one or more structures, so in writing

a functional syllabus, a structural syllabus is automatically produced Texts must be about something, so a topic syllabus is naturally contained in all textbooks Similarly, exercises require the use of certain language skills, so when exercises are sequenced, a skills syllabus is automatically generated, too

H ut ch i n so n suggests that "A ny syllabus which claims to teach people how to

c o m m u n i c a t e (in wh atever specialised area) should ack no wl edg e the co m pl ex it y

o f c o m m u n i c a t i o n ”

W h e n viewing the commun ica ti ve approach Swans (1985, pp.76-87) asserts:

" T h e real issue is not which syllabus to put first It is how to integrate eight or

ho sy llabuses (functional, notional, situational, topic, phonological, lexical, structural, skills) into a sensible teaching p r og ra m m e ”

The fact that there are man y parallel syllabuses for a course does not m ea n that they are all equally important What is important is to choose which syllabus

s h o u ld be con sid e re d primary and the organising principle for the course In

o th e r words, what is important is to find which one is the most suitable for a particular situation

In short, the most suitable syllabus must be the one that reflects the most

i m po rta nt aspects and levels o f language used in the students' target situation

a n d best suits the students' needs as Robinson (1991 p 41) states "The

d e c i s i o n as: t o w h i c h s y l l a b u s t y p e o r t y p e s t o e m p l o y w i l l r e s u l t f r o m a judicious consideration of the students' needs and the objectives of the course,

t og et he r w i t h the institutional bias o f the teaching situation”

As a matter o f fact, the in-use material at HU A reflects an unsuitable syllabus which does not meet the students' target needs Therefore, to establish a new

s yllabus or a more effective syllabus which will then set as the criteria for the material design or development has bec om e a very urgent task for the course

de sig ne rs at HUA Obviously, the type of syllabus is very important and

d e te r m in e s the effectiveness of the course Thus, to choose which type of llabus for the students at HUA has bec om e very important, too

A.s pointed out above, the type of syllabus depends greatly on the aspects and levels of the language in the target situation The decision as to which syllabus

aspects and levels of the language in the target situation as well as the target nee ds have been identified.

2.2.5 W h a t role s h o u ld a sylla b u s p la y in th e c o u rse d e s ig n p r o c e s s ?

A l m o st all teachers know that course design is a com plex process in which syllab us design is only part of it The role o f the syllabus has been pointed out clearly in 2.2.2 above, but it has been seen in terms o f its multi-functional purpose only In this part the role of the syllabus is going to be seen in the light

o f different approaches to its use in the course design process

As m en ti on ed in Item 2.1.1 above, there are three main approaches to ESP cour se design process, which reflect the use o f the syllabus

In the lang uag e- cen tre d approach, the syllabus is used as the prime generator of the tea ching materials and the det erminer of the entire course In other words, it

is the basis for the selection of texts, the writing of exercises, tasks, activities and tests as Hutchinson and Waters (1987, p 90) states:

"It is the crvstallisation of what the course is all about-the inspiration for the production of texts and exercises and the basis on which proficiency will be evaluated."

In the skills-centred approach, the syllabus focuses more on the learner than in the l an gu age -c ent red approach, and it aims to provide opportunities for learners

to use the skills and strategies considered necessary in the target situation rather than to present and practise language items It is used as a basis for the selection

o f interesting texts focussing on the required skills, the writing of activities/techniques to teach those skills and the system to assess the acquisition o f the skills

The third approach showing the role of the syllabus is the learning-centred approach Unlike the above two approaches, in this approach the learning activities (tasks, exercises, teaching techniques) are not the last factors to be considered, but are considered right from the start It means that in this approach, the methodology is taken more into account