An exploratory study on the teachers and students’ perceptions of an ESP course at the infantry officer training college number one

ABSTRACT This study was designed to investigate the teachers and students’ perceptions of an ESP course at the Infantry Officer Training College Number One IOTC No.1.. The major findings

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

*********************

KIỀU TRÍ DŨNG

AN EXPLORATORY STUDY ON THE TEACHERS AND STUDENTS’ PERCEPTIONS OF AN ESP COURSE AT THE INFANTRY OFFICER

TRAINING COLLEGE NUMBER ONE

(Nghiên cứu thăm dò nhâ ̣n thức của giáo viên và ho ̣c viên đối với khóa ho ̣c tiếng

Anh chuyên ngành ở trường Sỹ quan lục quân 1)

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Language Teaching Methodology Code: 60.14.10

Hanoi- 2013

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

*********************

KIỀU TRÍ DŨNG

AN EXPLORATORY STUDY ON THE TEACHERS AND STUDENTS’ PERCEPTIONS OF AN ESP COURSE AT THE INFANTRY OFFICER

TRAINING COLLEGE NUMBER ONE

(Nghiên cứu thăm dò nhâ ̣n thức của giáo viên và ho ̣c viên đối với khóa ho ̣c tiếng

Anh chuyên ngành ở trường Sỹ quan lục quân 1)

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Language Teaching Methodology Code: 60.14.10

Supervisor: PhD Dương Thi ̣ Nu ̣

CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY

I certify my authorship of the minor thesis submitted entitled:

AN EXPLORATORY STUDY ON THE TEACHERS AND STUDENTS’ PERCEPTIONS OF AN ESP COURSE AT THE INFANTRY OFFICER

TRAINING COLLEGE NUMBER ONE

In terms of the statement of requirements for the thesis and the field study reports in Masters’ programs is the result of my own work, and that this minor thesis or any part of the same had not been submitted for a higher degree to any

other universities or institutions

Kieu Tri Dung

My special thanks also go to all my teachers of the Post-graduate course

20 at Vietnam National University, Hanoi, University of Languages and International Studies, for their interesting and useful lectures

Moreover, I greatly appreciate the members of the Department of Foreign Languages at the Infantry Officer Training College Number One, for their contribution to the data collection and their constructive suggestions for this research

Additionally, I am truly grateful to both the teacher-participants and student-participants It is impossible to complete my research without their participation

Finally, I would like to extend my thanks to my beloved family for their love and unhesitating supports

ABSTRACT

This study was designed to investigate the teachers and students’ perceptions of an ESP course at the Infantry Officer Training College Number One (IOTC No.1) The investigation aims to explore: (1) The students’ perceptions of their English ability, difficulties, and expectations toward ESP; (2) the teachers’ opinions and perceptions of ESP courses and their expectations

of future ESP pedagogy

The participants involved in this study were 165 non-English major military students who had taken ESP course for a semester and 05 instructors who were ESP teachers in the Infantry Officer Training College Number One

The major findings of the present study were summarized as follows: First, the students perceived that their English language competence was inadequate, they were aware of the importance and the difficulties as well as their future needs toward ESP courses Second, several potential issues arose concerning with ESP, such as instruction time, content of ESP, and ESP teachers’ qualification Last, the results of this study suggested that a collaborative teaching could be an alternative of present ESP instruction to partially solve the problems

Finally, pedagogical implications and suggestions for future research were provided in the last part of the study

LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS

Table 1: Demographic data of the student-participants

Table 2: Demographic data of the teacher-participants

Table 3: Distribution of the teacher-participants of interview questions Table 4: Distribution of frequency of student questionnaire- Section B Table 5: Distribution of frequency of student questionnaire- Section C Table 6: Distribution of frequency of student questionnaire- Section D Table 7: Distribution of frequency of student questionnaire- Section E Chart 1: The rating of the students' answers to the questions- Section B Chart 2: The rating of the students' answers to the questions- Section C Chart 3: The rating of the students' answers to the questions- Section D Chart 4: The rating of the students' answers to the questions- Section E

ABBREVIATIONS

AUB: American University of Beirut

EAP: English for Academic Purposes

EFL: English as a Foreign Language

EGP: English for General Purposes

ESL: English as a Second Language

ESP: English for specific purposes

GE: General English

IOTC No.1: The Infantry Officer Training College Number One

M.A: Master of Arts

NA: Needs analysis

NATO: North Atlantic Treaty Organization

SOP: Standard Operating Procedure

TESOL: Teaching English for Speakers of Other Language

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Certificate of originality ……… i

Acknowledgements……….…… ii

Abstract……… ……… iii

List of tables, charts and abbreviations ………….……… … ………… …iv

Table of contents……… v

PART A: INTRODUCTION I 1 Background to the study……… ……….1

2 Aims of the study……….……… 2

3 Research questions………… ……… ……… 2

4 Scope of the study……….……… 3

5 Significance of the study……… ………… 3

6 Organization of the study……… ……… 3

PART B: DEVELOPMENT……….……… II CHAPTER ONE: LITERATURE REVIEW I.1 English for specific purposes and military English……….…… 4

I.2 Needs analysis in ESP……… ……… 7

I.3 Materials and curriculum in ESP……….……… … 9

I.4 Problems and challenges of ESP……….……… ….10

I.4.1 Students’ competence and difficulties toward ESP……… 10

I.4.2.The qualification of ESP teachers……… 11

I.5 Perceptions and expectations toward ESP……… 12

CHAPTER TWO: METHODOLOGY II.1.The teaching context……….… 14

II.1.1.The English teaching and learning situation at IOTC No.1…… 14

II.1.2.The teaching staff of the Department of Foreign Languages at IOTC No.1……… 14

II.1.3.The students of IOTC No.1……… 15

II.1.4.The ESP materials of IOTC No.1……… 16

II.2 Methodology……….……… 16

II.2.1 Participants……… ……… 16

II.2.2 Methods of the study……… 17

II.2.3 Instruments of the study……… 18

II.2.4 Procedures of the study……….……… 19

II.2.5 Data analysis……….……… 19 CHAPTER THREE: DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS

III.1.Analysis of research question 1: What are student perceptions of their

English ability, difficulties, and expectations toward ESP? 20

III.1.1 Students’ self- evaluation of English competence… 20

III.1.2 Students’ opinions about current ESP course……… 23

III.1.3 Students’ expectations toward future ESP course… 25

III.1.4 Students’ English activities involved in ESP class………27

III.2 Analysis of research question 2: What are the teachers’ opinions and perceptions of ESP courses and their expectations of future ESP pedagogy? 29

III.2.1.The correlations between general English competence and ESP learning 29

III.2.2.The skill was involved in the most in ESP class, the skill the students need improvement in the most, and the most important skill in ESP learning 30

III.2.3.The opinions, strengths and weaknesses of current ESP courses 30

III.2.4.The situations encountered in ESP instruction… ……… 31

III.2.5.The prerequisites for an ESP teacher from a teacher’s perspective 31

III.2.6.The expectations and suggestions for prospective ESP courses according to a teacher’s professional background 31

III.3 Summary ……… ……… 32

PART C: CONCLUSION……… III I Recapitulation ……….……… 33

II Pedagogical implications….……… ……… 34

III Limitations of the study and suggestions for further study… ….… 35

REFERENCES… ……… 37 APPENDICES

Appendix A: Questionnaire for the students (Vietnamese)

Appendix B: Questionnaire for the students (English version)

Appendix C: interview questions for the teachers

PART A: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale

English has gradually achieved its significant identity as the world language during the globalization process Why English? According to Hutchinson and Waters (1987), the United States achieved its role of the most significant political/economic power in the world after World War Two, thus its language became commonly perceived as a language of opportunity and empowerment Crystal (2003) presented several factors to explain the world status of English today: (a) English is the only or one of the official languages of many important international organizations, such as the United Nations, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and the European Free Trade Association; (b) a quarter of the world’s periodicals and most academic journals with an international readership are published in English, and more than 90 percent of international organizations carry on their proceedings entirely in English; (c) English has been taught as a foreign or second language in over 100 countries He further pointed out that approximately one in four of the world’s populations are now already fluent or capable of communicating to a useful level in English, and the figure is steadily growing

The ESP programs exploded in Vietnam in the past few years as an increasing number of adult students were eager to learn ESP or academic English in order to pursue their careers or study in English-medium educational institutions To be fluent in a world language like English has become a pressing matter for individuals to survive in the globally competitive job market This has resulted in employers and educational institutions all over the world searching for ESL/EFL instructors with solid ESP backgrounds (Johns & Price-Machado, 2001)

As the “new knowledge economy” (Dovey, 2006) has arisen, problems and issues of transferability from academic to professional contexts have emerged Dovey pointed out that when “new vocationalism” arises out of a change in the world’s work contexts, it will in turn lead to a change in the orientations of higher education in certain contexts Those universities which perceive themselves as vocational, and believe themselves to be providing an education for the real world will be affected the most Most authorities and institutions are aware that well-organized ESP curricula can prepare students for the encounter with globally competitive world That is, English courses should

be designed to meet learners’ needs in a specific context However, ESP practitioners have found that there are underlying problems which make ESP courses problematic and inefficient

Some ESP teachers impute the inefficiency of ESP courses to the poor quality of student language skills Although low student proficiency levels may lead to poor ESP course outcomes, negative teacher attitudes toward ESP courses (Braine, 2001), lack of ESP training (England, 2006), inappropriate instructions and poorly designed syllabi (Braine, 2001), and student ignorance or inability to foresee their needs and rights regarding ESP are potential problems (Kavaliauskiene, 2003) In the view of these issues, this study investigate the teachers’ and students’ perceptions of their ESP course, explores student needs and expectations of an ESP course at the Infantry Officer Training College Number One (IOTC No.1)

The findings of the study may provide ESP practitioners and institutional authorities with a clearer view of existing ESP courses, enabling them to rethink the objectives of current ESP curricula Similarly, it may also help students to build up their awareness of goals, needs, and responsibilities through ESP learning Suggestions for a prospective ESP teaching and curriculum for the students of specific contexts are provided based on the results of the study

2 Aims of the study

English language skills are required in most specific contexts worldwide Consistent with the aims of ESP education in IOTC No.1, ESP courses should

be designed to equip students with adequate English ability to meet their needs

It is necessary to understand the expectations of teachers and students, as well as student needs and difficulties, before applying ESP courses The present study is designed to investigate IOTC No.1 teachers’ and students’ perceptions of their ESP course with the following purposes: (1) To understand their perceptions of the importance of ESP course, to explore student expectations toward ESP course; (2) to understand student needs and difficulties

4 Scope of the study

The study is focused on the teachers and students’ perceptions of ESP teaching and learning at IOTC No.1, and the participants were ESP teachers and the second year students who have learned ESP for one semester at IOTC No.1

The subjects of the study were chosen at random and various among 330 second year students of IOTC No.1 Yet, the study results cannot be true to all Vietnamese learners Thus, my suggestions for ESP teaching and learning difficulties might work well only for IOTC No.1teachers and for the ones who are teaching at such colleges with similar English syllabus or education training

or for the ones who concern

5 Significance of the study

Previous studies (Bacha & Bahous, 2008; Braine, 2001; England, 2006; Jasso-Aguilar, 1999; Kavaliauskiene, 2003; Shi, Corcos, & Storey, 2001; West, 1994) indicated that potential problems affect the effectiveness of ESP courses The significance of the present study, therefore, lies for its exploration of the students’ perceptions of their ESP learning, the teachers’ perceptions of ESP teaching The findings of the present study provide pedagogical implications and suggestions for prospective ESP teaching and curriculum application at IOTC No.1 It also provides a closer look at student problems, needs, and expectations The researcher hopes that the methods and findings of this study can make a contribution to ESP teaching and learning

6 Organization of the study

This thesis is structured into three parts: Introduction, Development, and Conclusions Part A presents the introduction and background to the study, the purposes of the study, the scope of the study, and its significances and limitations Part B consists of three chapters Chapter one presents relevant literature in the areas of ESP teaching and learning, issues and problems involved in ESP, ESP materials and curriculum design, as well as the perceptions of both the teachers and students were reviewed Chapter two provides the teaching context; the research methods, the instruments of data collection, and the data analysis Chapter three reports the findings of the qualitative and quantitative data analysis based on the questionnaires of the student-participants and interview questions of the teacher-participants, then gives the recapitulation Part C gives conclusion, and offers suggestions for pedagogical applications and further research

PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER ONE: LITERATURE REVIEW

The purpose of this chapter is to review the literature relating to the research issues, in order to provide input into the construction of the framework for the present study The background of ESP and the previous studies related to ESP are addressed in the first section, which includes the development of ESP, the definitions of ESP, and the characteristics of ESP and military English The following section covers Needs Analysis in ESP Materials and curriculum in ESP are addressed in the third section, while the fourth section talks about the problems and challenges involved in ESP, including student English competence and difficulties with ESP, and the qualifications of ESP teachers In the final section, learner and teacher perceptions of ESP courses, and research related to the perceptions of ESP courses is presented

I.1 English for Specific Purposes and military English

After the Second World War scientific, technical and economic activity increased tremendously worldwide As the United States played the key role in the post-war economy, the English language became the accepted international language of technology, science and commerce The situation, in its own turn, created the need for learning English and this time the learners knew exactly what they needed and why they needed it (Hutchinson and Waters 2001: 6)

ESP, as an area of teaching English as a foreign language, emerged in the late 1960s (Ibid 5) In the case of teaching ESP the stress is rather on the language in context than learning grammar or language structures Another important point is that ESP learners learn the language that is really important and necessary for them

Nowadays ESP has an important part in learning and teaching the English language and it has undergone many changes When traditionally the aim of linguistics has been to describe the rules of English usage and grammar then the new idea of ESP is to analyze the linguistic characteristics of learners’ specialist areas of work or study and to determine the specific needs of learners (Ibid 8)

Hutchinson and Waters (Ibid.8) point out that “learners were seen to have different needs and interests, which would have an important influence on their motivation to learn and therefore on the effectiveness of learning.” It was also understood that particular groups of learners use language, which have different specific linguistic characteristics

Military English has also some specific characteristics One of the characteristics is that the military use the imperative to issue orders, commands and instructions Imperatives are used when a position of authority is involved

as is the case in the military Polite forms such as “Would you”, “Could you” are not commonly used Instead “You are to” is the form to issue orders For

example, instead of a polite response to a knock on the door and the reply to the

knocking “Will you, please, come in!” A military person would say “Come in!”

Another characteristic is that the passive voice is avoided in many cases

as it usually shows that the person who performs some action is not important or that one wishes to avoid responsibility In the military there is always someone who has to take responsibility for actions, and that is why the military prefer the active voice instead of the passive For example, instead of writing in a report

that “The safety instructions were not followed (by Cpl Smith) it would be Cpl

Smith did not follow the safety instructions.” Nonetheless, the students need to

know the passive voice as well in order to pass the examinations after the courses

In terms of military documents, everything must be direct and laconic There are no long descriptions; instead simple tenses and short sentences are used Everything should be short, simple, and to the point On the other hand, when the military give an oral description of something, such as a situation or a picture as a task in the lesson, the descriptions are full of detail, and the students like to add their own experience to the descriptions For example, describing two soldiers talking to each other, the students start with the description of the background and the soldiers And then, based on their experience, they explain why they are carrying exactly this type of weapon and, what can be done with the weapon, etc The higher the level of language command, the more detailed the descriptions are

Military English can also be characterized by the abundant use of abbreviations, acronyms and military slang The use of abbreviations and acronyms is mandatory rather than recommended For example, Standard Operating Procedure C01 (SOP C01 Application of New Standard) from the U.S Army Civilian Personnel Management department contains 873 words, 100

of which are either acronyms or abbreviations (26 different acronyms and abbreviations repeated 100 times in the document)

Another characteristic feature of military English is the NATO phonetic alphabet It is mainly used during radio transmissions to ensure the clarity of the message and to avoid misunderstandings when it comes to similar-sounding words Also, it is used instead of the civilian spelling alphabet in the case of difficult words The NATO alphabet is not only used by the military but also by the civilians when two nations need to cooperate and communicate with each other (e.g airline pilots)

Telling time is also different in the military context The military, but also aviation, meteorology, astronomy, emergency services, hospitals, etc use the

24-hour clock to avoid ambiguity of the 12-hour system For example, “3:00

am” is “0300 hours” and is pronounced oh three hundred hours or zero three

hundred hours; and “3:00 pm” is “1500 hours”, pronounced fifteen hundred hours Written military time does not separate hours and minutes, that is, 1430

vs regular time 14:30 Also the leading zeros are pronounced every time (0100

is pronounced oh one hundred hours or zero one hundred hours) Hours is added

at the end, even if it is not written (1800 is pronounced eighteen hundred hours)

Military jargon is also an important aspect of military language Rich of military acronyms, abbreviations, secret meanings and obscure nuances, military jargon can confuse someone who is unfamiliar with it (Scasny 2004) Different military branches may use different military jargon, which can, in its turn, cause ambiguities

One of the differences between GE and ESP, according to Hutchinson and Waters (2001:16), is that GE is usually studied for exam purposes whereas ESP for work, study or training It does not imply that in specific situations we need

to study only ESP “Though the content of learning may vary there is no reason

to suppose that the process of learning should be any different for the ESP learner than for the General English learner.” (Ibid 18)

Hutchinson and Waters (Ibid 9) suggest that ESP must be seen as an approach rather than a product and that the foundation of all ESP is one simple question-why does this learner need to learn a foreign language? For the military, the answer is simple-without the knowledge of English they cannot take part in international training exercises and military missions and without the experience of international cooperation they cannot make a career

Dudley-Evans and St John (2001: 10) conclude that the teaching of GE is less motivating for the learners than ESP The teaching experience at the IOTC no.1 shows that when military English topics are discussed in the lessons, the students become lively and very interested, and it is clearly seen that the level of motivation is different from discussing GE topics

In the case of ESP, to be more precise, specific ESP, the language teacher

is often not an expert of the subject matter In many cases the students know more about the content than the teachers and this provides the opportunity “… to draw on students’ knowledge of the content in order to generate genuine communication in the classroom.” (Dudley-Evans and St John 2001:13) As military English comprises many different areas (e.g artillery, engineering, communications, etc.), it is almost impossible to find a person who would be

able to teach English and at the same time be an expert in these areas Thus, quite often there is cooperation in the lessons- the teacher helps the students with the English language and the students help the teacher with specific terminology or understanding the subject matter

Dudley-Evans and St John give a true and comprehensive description of ESP teachers as follows:

ESP teachers also need to have a great deal of flexibility, be willing to listen to learners, and to take an interest in the disciplines or professional activities the students are involved in They must be ready to change tack

in a lesson to take account of what comes up, and to think and respond rapidly to events ESP teachers must also be happy to take some risks in their teaching The willingness to be flexible and to take risks is one of the keys to success in ESP teaching (Dudley-Evans and St John 2001:14)

I.2 Needs Analysis in ESP

Needs refer to necessities, lacks or wants (West, 1994) Brindley (1984) defined needs as students’ study or job requirements Robinson (1991) further illustrated needs as linguistic deficiency They are goal-oriented and can be regarded as “objective”

Needs Analysis (NA) is a defining feature of ESP NA is a necessary step

in designing ESP syllabus, tasks and materials (Belcher, 2006; Flowerdew & Peacock, 2001) It is seen as a starting point for identifying goals, and communicative and linguistic needs for students in the language courses (Ferris, 1998) It therefore should be applied before implementing English courses to ensure an effective English learning experience

Needs analysis is significant as it is a fundamental basis of the ESP course design Basturkmen (2006) argued that a key feature of ESP course design is that the syllabus should be based on an analysis of the learners’ needs Without the consideration of learner needs, the teachers, curriculum developers, and materials designers often tend to perceive the future needs of the students using their intuitions, which may lead to a limited success in the subsequent ESP course (Braine,2001; John, 1991) Thus, ESP course designers should engage in analyzing learner needs before designing courses, and to fulfill those needs within the context of the relevant ESP course

Shaaban (2005) conducted a needs analysis survey to help program administrators identify the objective communicative needs and expectations of the employees in the personnel office at the American University of Beirut (AUB).One hundred twenty-two participants consisting of university employees including janitors, gardeners, security guards, library staff, and comptroller’s

office staff, were chosen to participate in a 10-week ESP program The English course for AUB employees was developed to address the identified needs and expectations The content analysis of responses showed that the teachers highly valued the experience and were satisfied with the course design, student attitudes, student performance, and instructional materials

An ESP course can be tailor-made to meet the specific needs of learners

by appropriate analysis Shi, Corcos, and Storey (2001) investigated six sessions

of clinical ward instruction They identified the linguistic skills the students needed in order to achieve various learning objectives, such as using appropriate terms to translate information form doctor-patient to doctor-doctor discourse, using verb tenses correctly to establish chronology in case reports, and describing location and procedure accurately in reporting physical examinations The study reported that the authentic data can be employed to construct a tightly focused curriculum addressing students’ needs of the ward session The data derived from the needs analysis helped ensure a practical and useful instruction

Edwards (2000) conducted a case study in a specialized context, a bank, which involved three German bank officers (one man and two women) The researcher conducted a prior needs analysis on the first day of the course The overall objective of the course was to improve the speaking confidence of female students in a native-speaking setting It concluded that the learners gave positive feedback on this course and asserted that they learned how to use English speaking in specific meeting or negotiating situations It also suggested that current authentic texts could be used selectively and efficiently when adapted to the specific needs of particular learners in ESP context

However, obstacles to needs analysis exist.ESP programs vary in length

of time and in focus, in class size, in language level, and in goals and objectives Therefore, teachers may not have easy access to gain information about student proficiency levels beforehand, and learning goals may not be individually specified In some cases, the curriculum and materials might have been prepared

by administrators or sponsors before the key information is obtained Even when the results of the NA are obtained; they may not be acceptable to the sponsoring institutions in terms of careful timing and administering of directions (Yogman

& Kaylani, 1996)

Furthermore, ESP teachers are unwilling or unable to conduct the necessary analysis when faced with some specialist texts that require more time and energy in the practical teaching context This inevitably fails to prepare learners to meet their requirements academically or vocationally (Crosling & Ward, 2002; Ferris, 1998, Jasso-Aguilar, 1999) Crosling and Ward (2002)

examined the workplace needs of oral communication and language use of business employees who graduated from Monarch University, Australia They found that the oral communication training failed to prepare the business undergraduates to meet their needs in the work context That failure may be due

to the oral communication curricula not being developed based on student needs They suggested that a prior analyzing is necessary before the language class

I.3 Materials and curriculum in ESP

ESP instruction is learner-centered and curriculum development is goal- oriented ESP course should be tailored to the specific learning and language use needs of identified groups of learners, yet, must also be sensitive to the socio- cultural contexts in which these learners will use English for specific purposes (Johns and Price-Machard, 2001) Once the goals have identified by prior analysis and the syllabus of ESP has been established based on the language needs of the learners, the teaching materials should be developed or selected The key concept in developing or selecting teaching materials for ESP is authenticity The tasks and materials which are presented in the learning situations should be authentic (Robinson, 1991) It is hard for many ESP teachers to make a choice between published materials and materials tailored specifically to the targeted situations

This is a wide range of course types in ESP, and the timetables may vary from one to another It is impossible for a ready-made material or a book to be useful across a wide range of ESP courses Even when suitable materials are available, exchange rates or import restrictions may remove them from consideration (Hutchinson & Waters, 1987) One solution is for ESP teachers to produce the in-house materials to fulfill the needs of particular learners in the specific subject area It could be both time-consuming and exhausting, but producing materials may help to make teachers themselves more aware of what

is involved in teaching and learning

Troy, Chrimes (2002) explored the role of homegrown ESP materials in meeting the immediate academic reading demands that EFL engineering majors face in their major courses They concluded that the homegrown materials can supplement the students’ major courses Further, they found that in-house material developers can present authentic materials which are highly focused on the learners’ particular needs

However, producing of teaching materials is time-consuming, and few ESP teachers are trained in the skills and techniques of material production (Hutchinson & Waters, 1987) In addition, in-house materials produced by the ESP teacher alone may not be able to ensure teaching quality Collaboration

with subject teachers can remedy the weakness, and teachers can complement each others’ expertise (Salsbury, 2005) Further, ESP instructors’ expertise affects the materials selection, teaching practice, and teaching techniques

No matter what kind of material is chosen, one thing that should be born

in mind is that the contents of ESP should be authentic, and specific to the goals and needs of particular learners

I.4 Problems and challenges of ESP

ESP is usually designed to fulfill the diverse needs of learners in specific contexts It is more problematic and complicated than its counterpart, EGP The ESP courses vary in goals, contents, methodologies, and instructional approaches There are thus a huge variety of issues and problems in ESP courses Previous studies have investigated the problems and challenges involved in ESP classes, including students’ inadequate English language skills (Basturkmen, 1998), learning difficulty toward ESP (Ferris & Tagg, 1996 a/b), insufficient instruction hours (Strevens, 1980), large class size and low motivated learners (Braine, 2001; Strevens, 1980), and teacher qualifications (Hutchinson & Waters, 1987, Dulley- Evans & St John, 2001) All of them were regarded as negative factors that affected the effectiveness of ESP

I.4.1 Students’ competence and difficulties in ESP

ESP is designed to meet the specific needs of learners Learners are expected to perform with adequate language skills in target situations at the end

of the ESP courses However, the performances of ESP learners have been considered unacceptable or poor in many cases (Bacha & Bahous, 2008; Jasso-Aguilar, 1999) Students’ overall English language competence has usually been considered the indicator of the success or failure of English learning (Shi, Corcos, & Storey, 2001) Some teachers imputed the low achievement of ESP to the students’ poor English language skills They argued that the students’ English language skills were inadequate to cope with the ESP courses, and made ESP courses inefficient

By contrast, the students often declare themselves to be suffering from learning difficulties, which makes them perform badly in ESP class Some researchers also reported that students suffer from learning difficulties relating

to the content of ESP (Gatehouse, 2001), the instruction of ESP (Bacha & Bahous, 2008; Leki& Carson, 1994), and the tasks involved in the ESP courses (Ferris & Tagg, 1996 a/b) The students had difficulties participating in class discussion, asking and responding to questions, and general listening comprehension Learners have difficulty coping with the ESP courses because

of weak English skills (Jacksons, 2004)

The content of ESP is also regarded as one of the factors affecting the ESP learning The difficulty level of the content should be accessible and acceptable to learners, as most learners lack general English skills (Basturkmen, 1998; Jackson, 2004) Further, the activities in the ESP class should be applied based on the learning goals and should be meaningful in relation to the specific purpose of their target subject area (Flowerdew& Peacock, 2001)

I.4.2.The qualification of ESP teachers

The capability of the ESP teachers has often been considered one of the factors affecting the effectiveness of ESP Without well-prepared teachers, ESP classes are often low in quality and ineffective (England, 2006) Qualified ESP teachers are required to be professional in English language teaching and to have

a higher level of subject knowledge

Further, ESP teachers often have to carry out other roles than that of an English teacher Hutchinson and Waters (1987) pointed out that, in addition to

be a normal function of a teacher, the ESP teacher will have to deal with the prior analysis of learner needs, syllabus design, materials provision, and evaluation In some EAP situations, teachers must be able to co-operate with subject teachers (Flowerdew & Peacock, 2001) As a result, a great workload is imposed on ESP teachers

ESP teachers are expected to play five key roles (Dudley-Evans & St John, 2001): teacher, course designer, and materials provider, collaborator, researcher, and evaluator To carry out the above roles, ESP teachers should be trained in language teaching competence and subject-specific knowledge

However, there are no certain answers to how well an ESP teacher should

be Prepared and trained, or how much subject knowledge the ESP teacher should be required to master Looking at the level of ESP teachers’ subject knowledge, Hutchinson and Waters (1987) required just three things:

1 A positive attitude toward the ESP content

2 Knowledge of the fundamental principles of the subject area

3 Awareness of how much they probably already know

In other words, the ESP teachers should be willing to: (1) adjust teaching activities and materials to student needs,(2) be familiar to some extent with the students’ specialized area,(3) be interested in and (4) acquire knowledge of the students’ specialized area Furthermore, they have to foster independent study habits among the students, but do not need to become a teacher of subject matter However, ESP teaching is different from EGP teaching The great majority of ESP teachers have not been well-trained Thus, they need to orientate themselves to the new teaching environment

There are not ready-made or straightforward answers to the problems that ESP teachers may expect to encounter The ESP teachers should always stay open- minded and flexible Hutchinson and Waters (1987) indicated that “All ESP teachers are an effect pioneers who are helping to shape the world of ESP” (p.160)

The goal of ESP learners is to learn English for the purpose of carrying out certain roles in a specific context, such as studying in an English-medium institution They are also required to develop the skills of studying alone outside the classroom and promoting independent study habits Thus, if the teachers neglect to foster student ability to be independent, they are considered to have failure

I.5 Perceptions and expectations toward ESP

ESP is designed based on the learners’ needs and wishes Through needs analysis, learners perceive their needs and express their expectations of ESP class, while ESP practitioners perceive learner needs and expectations, and develop authentic materials to fulfill the specific needs of learners in particular contexts Student perceptions of the requirements and needs of their target situations strongly influence their receptiveness to ESP learning

Student needs are perceived by teachers based on their expertise in either their knowledge of English and subject areas, or their working experience in the real world

However, there are always gaps produced between teacher and the student perceptions, or between the instructions and the requirements as they actually happen in the real classroom context Therefore, courses as they are finally devised may be different from the analyses and be regarded as inauthentic Furthermore, learner perceptions of their own needs may be ill-found, inaccurate

or incomplete (West, 1994) This may occur because learners are too young to

be insightful about what they need, or they are not aware the factors affecting the ESP teaching and learning

Bacha and Bahous (2008) indicate that faculty and students did not hold similar views of student English abilities or needs Ferris (1998) explored 768 ESL students’ perceptions of the language skill requirements in their subject-matter courses, their difficulties in meeting their expectations, and the importance of specific language skills and tasks in academic setting Further, the similarities and differences in light of the perceptions between instructors and ESL students were observed Their findings show that there was considerable variation in student responses regarding the difficulties they encountered and the importance of specific language tasks and skills across students’ majors, class

levels, status, mother tongues, and gender In addition, student responses were dramatically different from those of instructors in ranking specific language skills

One explanation for the variation between teachers and students may be the differing requirements across different class levels and class types which make the students perceive their needs and expectations differently from their teachers

Further, students may have their own views and their own preferences for language skills and classroom activities where the teachers may have different opinions Basturkmen (1998) reports that students with engineering specialties perceived their speaking to be inadequate, and identified listening as the most important language skill On the other hand, the teachers considered reading and listening as almost equally important in that many reading activities were involved in engineering classes However, the students did not always hold views that were the opposite of their teachers’

The results presented above explained that student perceptions of the significance of ESP vary from person to person in light of their specialized development and individual needs Further, it shows that such variation is probable inevitable given the differing needs and pressures on students and teachers

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY

This chapter provides background information about ESP teaching and learning at the Infantry Officer Training College Number One The information presented here includes the reality of English language teaching and learning, the learners and teachers’ profile, and a description of the current ESP course of the College The research methods and techniques for the data collection are also presented The chapter will provide information about the subjects exploited for the study This is followed by a discussion of the instruments of the research and the procedure of the data collection, data analysis and comments

II.1.The teaching context

This section provides background information about ESP at the Infantry Officer Training College Number One (IOTC No.1) The information presented here includes the reality of English language teaching and learning, the learners and teachers’ profile, and a description of the current ESP material of the College

II.1.1.The English teaching and learning situation at IOTC No.1

Until 1990, little attention was paid to the teaching and learning of English at IOTC No.1 The dominant foreign languages taught at that time were Russian and Chinese However, in 1990s, English took over the dominant position of Russian, Chinese and became the most popular foreign language to

be taught in IOTC No.1 Since then, the teaching and learning of English has received greater attention and interest

ESP has been taught at IOTC No.1 However, due to the limited time, the students at IOTC No.1 have 90 periods of learning ESP The English program in the College is divided into two stages: General English (Elementary), and ESP The time allocated for the first stage is 150 class hours Therefore, the whole curriculum of English is as follows:

Stage 1: General English with 150 periods

Stage 2: ESP with 90 periods

With such a timeframe, the students cannot learn much but just come to know a number of technical terms or concepts in English All the teachers could

do is to help students develop their ESP learning skills with focus on how to read specific document; how to write letters, reports, and so on

II.1.2.The teaching staff of the Department of Foreign Languages at IOTC No.1

The Department of Foreign Languages is staffed with 29 teachers aged

are English teachers Among the teachers of English, four have M.A Degree in TESOL (teaching English for speakers of other language); one has M.A Degree

in Linguistics; another one is studying for M.A degree at Hanoi National University; two are studying for M.A degree at Hanoi University; and four are studying for M.A degree at Military Science Academy The others have Bachelor degree in English

One of the most obvious difficulties is that these teachers lack a language environment to develop their communicative abilities Another problem is that none of these teachers has been trained in teaching ESP All of the teachers at the Department of Foreign Language have been teaching GE for a long time with a little or no specialist knowledge of the military field…They sometimes find it difficult to deal with the content area

Teachers of the Department of Foreign Languages share the same problem with many other ESP teachers in the world These problems are described by Ewer (1976: 10) when he writes about the difficulties that a teacher

of English for General Purposes may encounter when transferring to ESP These are “attitudinal, conceptual, linguistic, methodological and organizational” problems

II.1.3.The students of IOTC No.1

Most of the students who enter IOTC No.1 are aged 18-20 and are male students (100%) This is a typical feature of the College Each class consists of about 30 to 33 students

Most of them are beginners although English has been introduced into the high school curriculum for years This is especially true for those from the rural areas who account for a large proportion of the total number of students each year Only a small number of the students who come from cities or towns have learned English for long at secondary school or at English center This mixed ability has caused certain problems to the teaching and learning of English at the College In the same class, some students find classroom activities relaxing while others find them too hard In such a situation, it is obviously a challenge for teachers to satisfy all the needs of the students

The typical learning style of the students at IOTC No.1 is quite dependent

on the teachers This learning style is characterized as rote learning of vocabulary and rules Another aspect of their learning style is that they prefer written work and private reading which means that in class students work individually Besides, they are profoundly influenced by their past learning experience For example, they prefer everything being translated It results in the fact that they pay more attention to forms than functions and meanings

In general, the students’ level of English proficiency is still very low as compared to the requirements of the syllabus An analysis of these characteristics will help the teachers to make use of the advantages, and limit the disadvantages and find proper methods and techniques for teaching these learners

II.1.4.The ESP material at IOTC No.1

Regarding teaching materials, it can be said that the official textbook fails

to fulfill the purposes of an ESP syllabus for the students at the Department of

Foreign Languages The current textbook used for the ESP course, “Command

English”, which is the old course-book published in 1994 by Longman It is

comprised of a student book, a teacher’s book and supplementary exercises published by the Defense University in Budapest The level of language in

“Command English” is quite low (low pre-intermediate); there is not enough

practice of grammar and vocabulary It is not communicative enough-the speaking exercises usually consist of two discussion questions The exercise types are the same in every unit For example, for vocabulary practice the students have to fill in the blanks with the given words, or after the presentation

of the topic or the reading text there is an exercise in the form of comprehension

questions “Command English” does not contain any listening exercises But

still there are some topics such as military uniform and military equipment, which are quite often used in the classes and which the students like because they are clearly presented Also, the book contains progress tests following every fifth unit The progress tests are always welcomed by the teachers and the students as the teachers (and the students) can check the progress the students have made

II.2 Methodology

The present study investigates both the teachers’ and students’ perceptions of ESP teaching and learning at IOTC No.1 For conducting this study, the writer adopted survey research (quantitative and qualitative research methods) The former was a questionnaire with the students, and the latter consisted of interviews with the teachers of the Department This chapter illustrates the instruments employed in the study, which they are explained in the five sections below The first section introduces the distribution of the participants in this study The second section describes the instruments for data collection of the present study The procedures of the study are then described in the third section of the chapter Finally, the statistical methods for analyzing the research data are illustrated

II.2.1 Participants

A total of 165 student-participants and 5 instructor-participants were from the Infantry Officer Training College Number one The student-participants involved in this study had taken ESP courses at IOTC No.1 for a semester The instructors involved in the present study are the teachers with English teaching experience ranging from one to twelve years The demographics of both student-participants and teacher-participants are shown in Table 1 and Table 2 To protect their privacy, the ESP teachers involved in the present study are identified by codes

Table 1:

Demographic data of student- participants

The Infantry Officer Training

College Number One

Table 2:

Demographic data of teacher- participants

The Infantry Officer

Training College Number

One

Codes of teachers

Gender Degree Years of

ESP teaching

II.2.2 Methods of the study

The research utilizes a qualitative approach The qualitative orientation was important because it is relevant for the exploratory nature of this study (Marshall & Rossman, 1999)

However, the statistical data is to provide an overall look on the matter studied Both questionnaires and in-depth interviews were employed to provide both “hard” and “thick, rich” data about the phenomenon and to lessen potential limitations in the study’s internal validity caused by relying on only the qualitative or quantitative approach (Nunan, 1992)

A questionnaire is designed to explore students’ perceptions toward their English ability, difficulties, and expectations toward ESP The interviews with five teachers of this course are conducted to explore teachers’ opinions and perceptions of ESP courses and their expectations of future ESP pedagogy

II.2.3 Instruments of the Study

The instruments of the present study are: questionnaires for the students and interviews for the teachers

- The questionnaire for the students:

The student-questionnaire consists of five sections (see Appendix A) Seven items in Section A were used to collect student demographics, including major, gender, English learning experience, work experience, concept of ESP and ESP needs analysis Section B comprised a student self-evaluation of their English proficiency, which the researcher used to understand how students perceived their English proficiency level, their difficulties with English, and how they perceived the importance of ESP learning Student views of the present ESP course were explored in the ten items of Section C Students’ expectations toward prospective ESP courses were collected in the Section D, which included eleven items Section E asked about English activities involved

in ESP class, with the twelve items in this portion of the questionnaire divided into four groups in terms of reading, writing, listening, and speaking

- The interviews for the teachers:

The interviews were asked to find out teachers’ perceptions of ESP courses and their expectations of future ESP pedagogy In order to accomplish this purpose, five teacher-participants were asked to answer the questions by the interviews

The interview questions for the teachers (Appendix C) were respectively distributed to the participants The teacher questions consisted of six questions: three questions related to student English proficiency and performance, and ESP pedagogy, and one question designed to find out teachers’ views of student difficulties The remaining two questions asked for the teachers’ views and suggestions regarding ESP courses

Table 3: Distribution of Teacher-participants of interviews

The Infantry Officer Training

College Number One

II.2.4 Procedures of the study

The procedures of the formal study were presented in this section First, a total of 165 students who had taken ESP courses of the college would answer the questionnaires Second, the interview questions were administered to 05 teachers relating to perceptions of ESP issues They were asked to give their opinions in English Further, the research data were collected, processed, and analyzed Finally, conclusions and suggestions were formulated based on the findings of the study

II.2.5 Data analysis

Percentages of agreement and disagreement were calculated for all questionnaire items Descriptive statistics were applied for data analysis Descriptive statistics were used to answer the questions about the students’ perceptions of ESP teaching and learning in the formal study The results were statistically presented in the forms of tables, and charts They were utilized to answer the first research question

CHAPTER THREE: DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS

This chapter reports the results of the data analysis of the present study The present study consists of one set of questionnaires and the interview questions on teachers’ perceptions of ESP course in IOTC No.1 were administered to provide data for the findings of the study In the initial section, the findings of the questions about students’ perceptions of their English ability, difficulties, and expectations toward ESP are drawn from the results of data analysis Then, teachers’ opinions of the interview questions were presented The statistical results of the questionnaires are displayed in Tables 4 to 7

III.1.Analysis of Research Question 1: What are students’ perceptions of their English ability, difficulties, and expectations toward ESP?

Tables 4 to 7 present the frequencies of the students’ responses to the 48 items, which reveals how the students perceive their English competence, the issues in the existing ESP course, their expectations toward future ESP courses, and the English activities involved in the ESP classes The results are shown in Sections B, C, D, and E

III.1.1 Students’ self- evaluation of English competence

Section B presents the statistical results of the students’ self-evaluation of their overall English competence as well as the most difficult task of ESP learning and the most important skill of English in the view of the students Most of the students held a neutral or negative attitude toward their English competence; some students felt that they had learning difficulties in listening, speaking, reading and writing, and a majority of the students perceived that to master one of English skills was important to their future career The analysis of each item in Section B is presented below

Table 4: Distribution of Frequency of Student Questionnaire- Section B

Items No Strongly