Thiết kế chương trình đọc hiểu tiếng Anh chuyên ngành cho sinh viên năm thứ 3 khoa kế toán tại trường Cao đẳng Tài nguyên và Môi trường miền Trung

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ************************* NGUYỄN THỊ TUYẾT TOWARDS DESIGNING AN ES

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

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

NGUYỄN THỊ TUYẾT

TOWARDS DESIGNING AN ESP READING SYLLABUS

FOR THE THIRD-YEAR STUDENTS OF ACCOUNTING

AT THE CENTRAL REGIONAL COLLEGE OF NATURAL

RESOURCES AND ENVIRONMENT

THIẾT KẾ CHƯƠNG TRÌNH ĐỌC HIỂU TIẾNG ANH CHUYÊN NGÀNH CHO SINH VIÊN NĂM THỨ 3 KHOA KẾ TOÁN TẠI TRƯỜNG CAO ĐẲNG TÀI

NGUYÊN VÀ MÔI TRƯỜNG MIỀN TRUNG

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY CODE: 60140111

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

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

NGUYỄN THỊ TUYẾT

TOWARDS DESIGNING AN ESP READING SYLLABUS

FOR THE THIRD-YEAR STUDENTS OF ACCOUNTING

AT THE CENTRAL REGIONAL COLLEGE OF NATURAL

RESOURCES AND ENVIRONMENT

THIẾT KẾ CHƯƠNG TRÌNH ĐỌC HIỂU TIẾNG ANH CHUYÊN NGÀNH CHO SINH VIÊN NĂM THỨ 3 KHOA KẾ TOÁN TẠI TRƯỜNG CAO ĐẲNG TÀI

NGUYÊN VÀ MÔI TRƯỜNG MIỀN TRUNG

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY CODE: 60140111

SUPERVISOR: DR NGÔ HỮU HOÀNG

DECLARATION

I hereby certify that the thesis entitled

“Towards designing an ESP reading syllabus for the third-year students of

Accounting at the Central Regional College of Natural Resources and

Environment”

is the result of my own research for the Degree of Master of Arts at University of

Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, and that this

thesis has not been submitted for any degree at any other university or tertiary

institution

Hanoi, 2014

Student‟s signature

Nguyễn Thị Tuyết

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First and foremost, I would like to express my profound gratitude to my supervisor,

Dr Ngô Hữu Hoàng, for his valuable instructions, constructive criticisms and his kindly encouragement during the development of this thesis Without his guidance the thesis would have been impossible

My special thanks go to all professors and lecturers at the Faculty of Post-Graduate Studies, University of Languages and International Studies – VNU for their useful lectures, helpful suggestions, and tireless assistance

I am also grateful to my colleagues and the third-year students of Accounting at Central Regional College of Natural Resources and Environment for their invaluable feedback, support and participation in this research

Finally, to my beloved family go my heart-felt thanks for their understanding as well as their help throughout my graduate program

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study is collecting sufficient and necessary information so as to design an ESP reading syllabus for the third-year students of accounting at the Central Regional College of Natural Resources and Environment It is hoped that the syllabus will benefit both students and teachers alike in teaching and learning English at the Central Regional College of Natural Resources and Environment The study begins with the review of theoretical background concerning areas of ESP, syllabus design and needs analysis It continues with the teaching and learning

context at the CRCNRE to show that it is a must to design a reading syllabus for the

third-year students of accounting at CRCNRE Then an investigation of target needs and learning needs to identify areas to be developed in the syllabus The data collection instruments manipulated is questionnaires, discussion and interviews The data were collected from different sources: the ESP teachers, the subject teachers, the third-year students of Accounting and the working accountants in NRE sector After the data were carefully analyzed, the author decided to choose a topic-based syllabus Based on the results of the needs analysis, an ESP reading syllabus

is proposed

The expected ESP reading syllabus is supposed to enrich students‟ specific terms as well as develop their reading skill to enable them to comprehend reading materials related to accounting and accomplish relevant simple tasks in the job as accountants

in the natural resources and environment sector

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

CBI: Content-Based Instruction

CRCNRE: Central Regional College of Natural Resources and Environment CV: Curriculum Vitae

EAP: English for Academic Purposes

EFL: English as a Foreign Language

EGP: English for General Purposes

ELT: English Language Teaching

EOP: English for Occupational Purposes

ESL: English as a Second Language

ESP: English for Specific Purposes

GE: General English

IT: Information Technology

M.A.: Master of Arts

MOET: Ministry of Education and Training

NRE: Natural Resources and Environment

TVET: Technical and Vocational Education and Training

ULIS: University of Languages and International Studies

VNU: Vietnam National University, Hanoi

WOW: World of Work

LIST OF CHARTS, FIGURES AND TABLES

Chart 1: Students‟ opinions about their level of English……… 19

Chart 2: Students‟ opinions on the importance of reading skills……… 20

Chart 3 Students‟ attitudes towards ESP……… 20

Figure 1 The Tree of ELT……… 5

Table 1: Teachers‟ expectations of the ESP reading course ……… 15

Table 2: Teachers‟ opinion of topics relating to Accounting……… 16

Table 3: Exercises to be included in the syllabus perceived by the teachers…… 17

Table 4: Students‟ opinion on the benefit of the ESP reading course………… 21

Table 5: Students‟ opinions about the objectives of the ESP reading course 21

Table 6: Students‟ opinions about the topics needed for the ESP syllabus…… 23

Table 7: Students‟ opinions on exercises to be included in the syllabus ……… 25

Table 8: The proposed syllabus for the third-year students of accounting at CRCNRE……… 35

TABLE OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii

ABSTRACT iii

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS iv

LIST OF CHARTS, FIGURES AND TABLES v

TABLE OF CONTENTS vi

PART I: INTRODUCTION 1

1 Rationale 1

2 Aims of the study 1

3 Research questions 2

4 Significance of the study 2

5 Methods of the study 3

6 Structure of the thesis 3

PART II: DEVELOPMENT 4

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 4

1.1 Definitions of ESP 4

1.1.1 ESP 4

1.1.2 ESP in practice in Vietnam 5

1.2 ESP Syllabus Design 7

1.2.1 Approaches to ESP syllabus design and types of syllabus 7

1.2.2 Steps in ESP syllabus design 8

1.3 Chapter summary 8

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY 9

2.1 The CRCNRE context 9

2.1.1 The context of teaching and learning English at CRCNRE 9

2.1.2 The teachers of English at CRCNRE 10

2.1.3 The target students 10

2.2 Research questions revisited 11

2.3 The participants 11

2.4 Methods and instruments 11

2.4.2 Data collection procedures 12

2.5 Chapter summary 13

CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS, FINDINGS AND THE PROPOSED ESP SYLLABUS 14

3.1 Data analysis 14

3.1.1 Data from the questionnaires CRCNRE teachers of English 14

3.1.2 Data from the questionnaires to CRCNRE students of Accounting 19

3.1.3 Data from the interviews with the subject teachers 26

3.1.4 Data from discussions with the working accountants in the NRE sector27 3.2 Findings and discussion 28

3.2.1 Needs perceived by CRCNRE students of Accounting 28

3.2.2 Needs perceived by working accountants in NRE sector 29

3.2.3 Needs perceived by the subject teachers 29

3.2.4 Needs perceived by CRCNRE teachers of English 30

3.3 The proposed ESP reading syllabus for students of Accounting at

CRCNRE 32

3.3.1 Type of the syllabus 33

3.3.2 Objectives of the course 34

3.3.3 Structure of the syllabus 34

3.3.4 Assessment 37

PART III: CONCLUSION 38

1 Conclusion 38

2 Limitations 39

3 Suggestions for further studies 39

REFERENCES 40 APPENDICES I Appendix 1 I Appendix 2 V Appendix 3 X Appendix 4 XI

A sample lesson for Unit 2 XII

PART I: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale

As students in Vietnam continue to gain higher awareness of what they are expected to do in their jobs upon graduation, particularly now that what they need to be able to do with English is more visibly and rigorously articulated, educational service providers in the country cannot go on offering students what

is not industry relevant As one among such training institutions, our Central Regional College of Natural Resources and Environment (CRCNRE) cannot stand out of the trend This requires us – teachers of English at the College – to develop English courses, especially courses on English for Specific Purposes (ESP) to satisfy those demands

Currently, we are using a number of textbooks to develop our lessons for students of different majors, and applying certain teaching schedules, but a proper syllabus, which must come before the choice of materials, and must be based upon specific needs, has not availed, particularly a syllabus for students of Accounting I am teaching For these reasons, I decided to conduct this study for

designing an ESP reading syllabus for students of Accounting at the Central Regional College of Natural Resources and Environment

2 Aims of the study

As indicated in the research title, this study was conducted to identify:

Target needs: what students of accounting at CRCNRE expect and are

expected to know and be able to do with English in terms of the tasks and functions of an accountant in the field of natural resources and environment by the end of this course, which, together with other courses provided by CRCNRE, can make them job-ready;

Learning needs: what they need to do so as to learn and make up for what

they are still lack so that they can reach the expected outcomes

The ultimate aim of understanding all these was to design a proper need-driven ESP reading syllabus for this particular group of students It was our awareness

that these target and learning needs could be diverse and could not be satisfied by

a mere 45-hour reading course like this Taken Hutchinson and Waters‟ analogy

of an ESP “journey”, with Hà Nội as the point of departure and Thanh Hoá as the target destination to these students, it was hoped that this ESP reading course could bring them to our little town of Bỉm Sơn where CRCNRE is located, which

is more than half-way between Hà Nội and Thanh Hoá, with the remaining distance to be covered for the rest of their college experience

in those jobs in particular?

3 What should be presented in the intended ESP reading syllabus so as to cover most, if not all, of the types of needs identified to the extent possible within the 45-hour limit given?

4 Significance of the study

The only theoretical contribution this study is hoped to make is the assertion

of one among different and even controversial interpretations and applications of

the concept English for Specific Purposes (ESP) in the country Meanwhile, the

study‟s practical significance lies in its output: a proper learnable/teachable ESP reading syllabus for students of accounting in the NRE sector which would be an effective and convenient tool for both teachers of English and students in CRCNRE Also, this clearly shows the tangible product of our learning in the M.A program at ULIS and is ultimately another effort for the common goal of improving English proficiency among our students

5 Methods of the study

In order to identify the target need of the learners for whom the syllabus is

to be designed, questionnaires were given out to collect data from the teachers of

English and the third-year students of Accounting at the CRCNRE In addition,

to identify the requirements for their jobs as accountants, interviews were carried out with subject teachers and discussions with some working accountants in the field of natural resources and environment These provided me with information

to establish the target needs and consequently their learning needs

6 Structure of the thesis

This thesis is organized as follows:

PART I: INTRODUCTION - introduces the rationale; aims of the study; research questions; significance of the study; methods; and the thesis structure PART II: DEVELOPMENT - which is the main part of the study, consists of three chapters: Chapter 1: LITERATURE REVIEW – presents an overview of relevant theoretical concepts and premises for the study, including definitions of ESP and types of syllabus; discusses approaches to syllabus design and ESP syllabus design in particular, and theories of reading that the syllabus being designed would be based on Chapter 2: METHODOLOGY – describes the participants and CRCNRE context, restates the research questions, methods and instruments Chapter 3:DATA ANALYSIS, FINDINGS AND THE PROPOSED ESP SYLLABUS – analyses the data gathered and discusses the findings out of that analysis, presents the output of the study, i.e the ESP reading syllabus PART III: CONCLUSION - offers a summary of the study, limitations and suggestions for further research

PART II: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

1.1 Definitions of ESP

1.1.1 ESP

To date, there have been a variety of views and definitions of English for Specific Purposes (ESP) in contrast with General English (GE), such as those suggested by Munby (1978), Kennedy and Bolitho (1984), Robinson (1991), Dudley-Evans (1998), etc Most of the authors agree that ESP courses are those entirely governed by the communicative needs of the learner with regards to the curriculum and teaching/learning materials (Munby, 1978), or those based on the learner‟s purposes identified through investigations and their communicative needs generated from those purposes (Kennedy and Bolitho, 1984) Meanwhile, Robinson (1991) believes that ESP aims at the final goals and is based on needs analysis, which informs the course designers of what the learner expects and is expected to be able to perform through the means of English Despite individual differences in their wording, these conceptualizations center round a common core: the specific needs of the learner

Carrying these views further, Dudley-Evans (1998) identifies ESP as containing such characteristics as the following:

i An ESP course is designed to satisfy specific needs of the learner;

ii It applies the methods and [linguistic] activities of the discipline or field it serves;

iii It focuses on the type of language relevant to those activities in terms of grammar, vocabulary, style, register, discourse and rhetorics, to name just a few

In most cases, ESP is dedicated to adult learners at tertiary, vocational education and training service providers, or working at particular institutions These learners tend to start from the intermediate or advanced level, i.e they have already had a fundamental command of English In other words, they have

reached a considerable level of GE before commencing their ESP course This also means that ESP may not be suitable for complete beginners, and helps distinguish GE from ESP

According to Hutchinson and Waters (1987:17), ESP can comprise several branches, as the tree below clearly displays

Figure 1 The Tree of ELT (Hutchinson and Waters, 1987:17)

1.1.2 ESP in practice in Vietnam

Since the early 1990s, progress has been made in the perception towards foreign language teaching in the country, which has brought about positive changes to

both the curricula and teaching methodology A brief look at some English curricula accessible to us below can help illustrate this point

The English program for technical and vocational schools developed by Lê

Ngọc Tường et al (2002: 6) clearly points out, “the program … is topic-based, i.e topics serve as the basis for selecting reading materials, exercises and activities in each unit; they govern the linguistic content of the program.” The program thus aims at the target careers and/or professions of the learners Nevertheless, given the variety of technical and vocational schools in the country, the topics identified in the program remain generic and suggestive in their nature, which requires each technical and vocational education and training (TVET) provider to continue to specify them further for their own students

The ESP Reading Syllabus for 2nd-year Students of Plants and Vegetation at Tây Nguyên University by Ngô Văn Thông (2004) is also topic-based, with reading

sub-skills and grammar sections similar to any GE course The most typical ESP elements lie in the vocabulary introduced, for instance, Unit 1 on traditional rice cultivation, Unit 4 on water resources and irrigation works, Unit 5 on agricultural machinery and technical equipment However, strategies for vocabulary building and professional terminology development as well as the linguistic rhetorics and register of the field remain unclear

In the same vein, the ESP Reading Syllabus for 2 nd -year Students of Electronics at Dak Lak Technical College by Trần Thị Cẩm Linh (2004)

Informatics-suggested topics like Unit 1 - What is a computer?, Unit 2 – How do computer systems process data?, Unit 5 – Disks and Disk Drives, which demonstrate the author‟s efforts to associate language skills with their communicative functions, e.g descriptions of components and characteristics, giving instructions, or explaining procedures Again, like the ESP course on Plants and Vegetation above, this syllabus does not make it clear how many entries there should be in these IT students‟ lexicon, or what makes IT English register differ from English used in other areas of study By and large, these two syllabi are more EAP- than EOP-oriented

Unlike the above, the ESP Listening-Speaking Syllabus for 3 rd -year Students of Hotel Management at Phuong Dong University by Trịnh Thị Nha Trang (2004)

tried to combine topics with communicative situations and functions, with situations highly predominant For example, Unit 2 – Hotel Check-in contains listening and speaking activities in possible situations at hotel front office, while Unit 4 – Food Service centers around various situations which are likely to occur

in restaurants Topics in the course evolve as a sequential journey from the time

a guest books a hotel room, prepares to depart, arrives at the hotel to the time he/she pays and leaves EOP for hotel management staff is the apparent orientation governing this course

Scanning several other M.A theses with the same purposes of ESP syllabus design, either in listening, speaking or reading, particularly those on reading, which are directly relevant to our study, e.g Đặng Thị Lệ Quyên (2014), Nguyễn Thị Thanh Hà (2011), etc., we can see a similar topic-based trend in their design: they start with topics, then proceed to the particular reading sub-skills to be practiced; next come the linguistic items (lexical resources, technical terms, grammatical structures, etc.) related to the topics and reading sub-skills, and finally other tasks like translation or some integrated skills of speaking, writing

or listening based on the reading Realizing the strengths and weaknesses of these courses, and taking into account the particular needs of the students of Accounting at CRCNRE, we hope to be able to create a more appropriate ESP syllabus on the basis of the study

1.2 ESP Syllabus Design

1.2.1 Approaches to ESP syllabus design and types of syllabus

According to Hutchinson and Waters (1987) there are probably as many different approaches to ESP course design as there are course designers They identify three main types: language-centered, skill-centered and learning-centered These result in different types of syllabus, for instance the structural-grammatical syllabus, the situational syllabus, the functional/notional syllabus, the task-based syllabus, the topic-based syllabus, the skill-based syllabus Each syllabus type

has its own advantages and disadvantages, so the researcher intends to adopt a mix of topic-based and task-based approaches in designing the course, which focuses more on language use in particular tasks that NRE-sector accountants will have to fulfill in their day to day jobs The reasons for this choice will be further clarified in Chapters 2 and 3 of the thesis with reference to the needs identified

1.2.2 Steps in ESP syllabus design

According to Nunan (1985:7), in designing a syllabus, the most important step is analyzing the learner‟s needs Yalden (1983) also has the same idea He also suggested 5 following steps in syllabus design:

Needs analysis  Objectives and aims  Sequencing  Teaching method

Testing and evaluation

Graves (1996:13) proposes a more detailed framework with seven steps including needs assessment, determining goals and objectives, conceptualizing content, selecting and developing materials and activities, organization of content and activities, evaluation and consideration of resources and constraints The following chapters will demonstrate how these steps were used in this study

1.3 Chapter summary

So far, this chapter has presented key definitions of ESP followed by a summative account of several ESP syllabi designed in the country The chapter then briefly mentions some essential considerations in ESP syllabus design to help us in this study The following chapters will demonstrate the work done throughout these stages of the design process

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY

2.1 The CRCNRE context

2.1.1 The context of teaching and learning English at CRCNRE

CRCNRE is located in Bỉm Sơn town, Thanh Hóa province The college

is established on the basis of Central Vocational School of Natural Resources and Environment founded in 1969 The School is responsible for training professionals in environment, land management, surveying with vocational primary and intermediate level in Central Vietnam

Since 1996, General English (GE) has been taught at CRCNRE and ESP was brought into the school curriculum in 2008 The students of all faculties learn the same GE program in the same period of time but students of different majors learn different ESP courses At present, the students of Accounting learn

150 periods of GE in their first year with 75 periods each term In their third year they learn 45 periods of ESP after finishing some Vietnamese professional subjects such as Accounting principles, Finance, Financial Accounting, theories

of monetary, Macro and Micro economics, Marketing, Business management, Business Statistics, Auditing and so on

In the stage of GE, with the allocation of 150 periods, the teacher and the students have to cover 15 units of the textbook “Lifelines” (Elementary) by Tom Hutchinson, 2004 Therefore, several writing, speaking, reading and listening tasks have to be taken Besides, the teachers of English often have formal discussion on how to adapt the material or to find out a suitable way to teach However, the result of English teaching/learning is not very satisfactory There are many factors involved such as students‟ low level of English, students‟ low motivation, their unsuitable learning strategies…

For the stage of ESP, the lack of teaching materials is the most serious problem Without a suitable program, the teachers have to collect and edit their own materials from the published books or from the Internet Not being carefully designed, these materials seem to be too difficult for the students Some topics

are not relevant to their needs Furthermore, these materials do not provide teachers with additional exercises, tests or reviews This means that students have no opportunities to review by themselves and teachers must take a lot of time to prepare reviews and tests Obviously, the lack of an appropriate syllabus has a bad effect on the teaching and learning process Therefore, designing an ESP reading syllabus, which is suitable for the students‟ ability, needs and interests, is an urgent task

2.1.2 The teachers of English at CRCNRE

There are 6 teachers of English at CRCNRE, aged from 28 to 40 Two of them are working towards an M.A degree, two of them have M.A degrees, the other two have Bachelor degrees in English All the teachers have to teach both GE and ESP because there are many English courses at the CRCNRE Though most

of them are experienced and enthusiastic in teaching GE, none of them have experience in teaching ESP and they have never taken any courses about ESP teaching method Moreover, when teaching ESP, the teachers of English do not have sufficient knowledge about the specialist field Therefore, it is difficult for them to comprehend the subject matter In addition, because of the lack of suitable teaching materials written in English, the teachers sometimes have to translate from the Vietnamese books, consult the subject teachers and find materials from other sources to provide the learning materials for the students

2.1.3 The target students

The target students are the third-year students of Accounting at the CRCNRE who have already finished GE These students are young, aged from 19 to 25, most of them are female; and their English is not good Therefore, teachers encounter many difficulties in teaching them To make the matter worse, they are

a bit pasive and hardly ever try their best Furthermore, the students at the CRCNRE are not interested in learning English They are not students of English major, so they do not devote themselves to learning and they do not know the way to learn a foreign language However, the third-year students of Accounting

at the CRCNRE seems to have higher motivation, since they are now aware of

the significance of English, especially ESP, in their study as well as in their future jobs

2.2 Research questions revisited

This study is carried out to answer the following questions:

1 What are the expectations of the target learners for whom the syllabus is

to be designed?

2 What are they required to do in their jobs as accountants in the field of natural resources and environment, and what are they required to do with English

in those jobs in particular?

3 What should be presented in the intended ESP reading syllabus so as to cover all the types of needs identified to the extent possible within the 45-hour limit given?

2.3 The participants

The study is aimed at designing a syllabus for the third-year students of Accounting at the CRCNRE, so the participants in the study are 50 third-year students of Accounting They have finished their GE course at the CRCNRE In addition, 3 working accountants at NRE sector, 6 teachers of English at the CRCNRE who are to conduct the course and 5 subject teachers of Accounting Faculty also participated in the study

2.4 Methods and instruments

2.4.1 Data collection instruments

The instruments for data collection adopted in this study were (1) questionnaires for the teachers of English at CRCNRE, (2) questionnaires for the third-year students of Accounting, (3) interviews with subject teachers and discussions with working accountants in the NRE sector

Questionnaire 1 (See Appendix 1): administered to 6 teachers of the English

group at the CRCNRE includes 3 questions concerning the objectives of the syllabus, and suggested topics and exercises in the syllabus

Questionnaire 2 was designed for the 50 third-year students of Accounting at

the CRCNRE and was written in Vietnamese in order to assure the proper

understanding of the questions This questionnaire has seven questions, which are detailed in Appendix 2

Interviews (See Appendix 3) were conducted with 5 subject teachers from the

Accounting faculty The purpose of the interviews with the subject teachers was

to obtain the teachers‟ opinion on the ESP course, their recommendations and expectations about the objectives of the course, the topics and exercises needed for the syllabus

Discussions (See Appendix 4) with 3 working accountants at NRE sector were

employed to find out their opinion about the subject and their experience in performing the real world tasks of an accountant

2.4.2 Data collection procedures

In order to gather as exact information as possible, the researcher divided the needs analysis into following steps:

Step 1: The context of ESP learning and teaching at CRCNRE was analyzed to

obtain preliminar understanding of the target students;

Step 2: The researcher selected the instruments to be used, identified the

participants involved in the study and outline the procedures of data collection;

Step 3 Administering of the questionnaires

First, questionnaires including both open- and closed-ended questions were developed for teachers of the English and the target students based on the theoretical framework of the study In May 2014, the questionnaire for the teachers was administered at the break time of the English group‟s weekly meeting Also in May 2014, an informal meeting was held by the researcher with the participating students Before administrating the questionnaires, the participants (both the teachers and the students) were informed of their purposes Explanation of each item in the questionnaires was given Any ambiguity found

by the participants was made clear No recommendation on answer choice was given, however The questionnaire for the teachers was gathered after several days and the questionnaire for the students was collected after 1 hour of administration The data received from these two questionnaires were imported

into the computer and treated in Excel The data were then subjected to some descriptive and inferential statistics For accurate and effective interpretation of data, the author used frequencies to find out the percentage that indicate more emphasis given to each item

Step 4: Conducting interviews and discussions

In May 2014, five interviews were conducted with the subject teachers of the Accounting Faculty on the basis of the theoretical framework of the study The interview questions were semi-structured with open-ended items Appointments were made with these teachers prior to interviews The teachers were informed

of the purpose of the interviews, which is to serve the aim of the researcher‟s thesis and which is not for any personal evaluation

Also in May 2014, three discussions were carried out with the three working accountant at NRE sector The discussions were casual conversations between the researcher and the participants The researcher noted down what the informants responded as handwritten records

Step 5: The researcher analyzed the collected data from questionaires, interviews

and discussions

2.5 Chapter summary

This chapter has described the context of teaching and learning English at CRCNRE, the teachers of English there and the target students Then the research methodology is given, including reiteration of the research questions, the participants, data collection instruments and procedures The data collected will be then analyzed to yield essential findings, including needs perceived by different groups of participants The needs identified will be critical inputs for the design of the syllabus in the next chapter

CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS, FINDINGS AND THE PROPOSED ESP

SYLLABUS

3.1 Data analysis

This section presents the data collected from the questionnaires for the teachers

of English and the students of Accouting as well as the results of the interviews and discussions with the subject teachers and the working accountants

3.1.1 Data from the questionnaires CRCNRE teachers of English

Question I: Teachers’ ideas on the objectives of the ESP reading course

The aim of this question is to find out the teachers‟ expectations about the objectives of the ESP reading course There are seven objectives for the teachers

to arrange in order of significance from the most significant to the least significant The teachers also have a chance to suggest any objectives of their own Their responses are presented in Table 1 on the following page

As can be seen from Table 1, 100% of the teachers agreed with the objectives listed by the questionnaire designer because no other idea was offered The most important objective of the reading course is item 2 since the highest percentage

of the teachers (66.6%) put it in the first priority The second important objective

is given to item 6 chosen by 50% of the teachers Ranking the third is item 4 by 33.3% of responses Item 3 also receives an emphasis by the teachers as it has a total of 66.6% of the responses in the first three priorities The results indicate that the teachers would like to help their students to be able to understand both the concepts and the relevant written materials related to Accounting after finishing the ESP course basing on the specific terms obtained in the learning process The remaining items which occupy low percentages suggest that grammar and speaking skill are not highly important for the course This can be explained by the fact that in General English course, grammar was already given much emphasis and mastering speaking skill in the limited time of an ESP reading course would be too difficult

Table 1: Teachers’ expectations of the ESP reading course

0 (0%)

0 (0%)

2 (33.3%)

1 (16.7%)

2 (33.3%)

1 (16.7%)

1 (16.7%)

0 (0%)

1 (16.7%)

0 (0 %)

0 (0 %)

0 (0 %)

2 (33.3%)

2 (33.3%)

1 (16.7%)

1 (16.7%)

0 (0%)

0 (0%)

2 (33.3%)

1 (16.7%)

0 (0%)

1 (16.7%)

0 (0%)

0 (0%)

0 (0%)

0 (0%)

0 (0%)

2 (33.3%)

2 (33.3%)

2 (33.4%)

2 (33.3%)

1 (16.7%)

0 (0%)

0 (0%)

0 (0%)

0 (0%)

0 (0%)

1 (16.6%)

0 (0%)

1 (16.7%)

1 (16.7%)

3 (50%)

Question II: Topics related to Accounting as perceived by the teachers

Fifteen topics were chosen by the ESP teachers from the themes presented and recommended in the course for Accounting in Vietnamese The teachers were asked to rank the topics from necessary to not necessary An opportunity was open for the teachers to add any topics which they think are necessary The number and percentage of people responding to each item is shown in Table 2 below

Table 2: Teachers’ opinion of topics relating to Accounting

necessary

Necessary Slightly

necessary

Not necessary

6 Sales and Marketing 2 (33.3%) 3 (50%) 1 (16.7%) 0 (0%)

7 Business Transaction and

12 Importing and Exporting 1 (16.7%) 4 (66.6%) 1 (16.7%) 0 (0%)

13 Resources and

necessary) are topics 2, 4, 9, 13 Other relevant topics which were selected by the teachers are topics 6, 7, 11 and 12 because it is clear from the Table that these topics receive total 80% of positive responses (very necessary and necessary) This proves that these topics should be included in the syllabus The rest items which receive low percentage (topics 3, 5, 8, 10, 14) should be excluded in the syllabus since more than 80% of the respondents considered them as slightly or not necessary and topic 1, 15 should be used as supplementary reading materials

Question III: Exercises to be included in the syllabus as perceived by the teachers

In this section, the researcher provided a list of most popular exercises needed for developing reading comprehension The teachers were asked to choose any items which they think should be consolidated in the syllabus The results are presented in Table 3

Table 3: Exercises to be included in the syllabus perceived by the teachers

Items Exercises to be included in the syllabus

Numbers of teachers/ Percentages

2 (33.3%)

b Ordering the paragraphs basing on lexical cohesion (the words are repeated or semantically related)

0 (0%)

e Decide which to use “gerund” or “infinitive” 0 (0%)

f Rewrite the sentences without changing the meaning 3 (50%)

6 Vocabulary

exercises

c Find synonyms and antonyms of words or phrases used

in the reading text

a Writing a business letter/ a CV/ a financial report 6 (100%)

b Translation: English-Vietnamese; Vietnamese-English 6 (100%)

d Oral presentations: Presenting a table/ chart/ diagram…

Describing cash flow

3 (50%)

It can be seen from the table that almost all items should be included in the syllabus except for items 1c, 2b, 3b, 3c, 5a, 5c, 5d and 5e with less than 20% of the approved responses This can be explained by the fact that grammar is not

important for the course as in General English course, it was already given much emphasis Items 4a, 4b, 4c, 6a, 6b, 6c, 6d, 6e, 7a, 7b should be concentrated on because they receive very high percentages of 80% to 100% responses Table 4 also shows that such items as 1a, 1b, 2a, 3a, 5b, 5f, 6f, 7c, 7d, 7e which occupy either 40% or 60 % can either be included in the syllabus or not

3.1.2 Data from the questionnaires to CRCNRE students of Accounting

Question I: Students’ opinion about their level of English

As can be seen from Chart 1, 66% of students are of “Average” level of English language; 19% of “Weak” level, 15% of “Quite good” level None of them are

of “Good” and “Very good” level It can be concluded that either the students‟s English language ability is not very good or their opinion about their level of English are not positive They are not self-confident in their English language

ability Thus, the researcher should take the problem into account

Chart 1 Students’ opinion about their level of English

Average Weak Quite good

Question II: Students’ opinions on the importance of reading skills

Chart 2 represents the third-year students‟ opinions on the ESP reading skills Most of them identified the importance of reading skills Based on the data shown in Chart 2, a large number of students realized that reading skills in their use of English was very important and important (42% and 48%, respectively), whereas only 6% of them thought it was not very important and 4% stated that it was not important Thus, students are aware of the importance of reading skills

in ESP course in particular and in English language learning in general

66%

15%

19%

Chart 2 Students’ opinions on the importance of reading skills

Very important Important Not very important Not important

Question III: Students’ attitudes towards ESP

The notion of students‟ attitudes towards ESP course is one of the determinants

of achievement of the course An attempt has been set up in this question in order

to highlight the attitude of the third-year students towards ESP The responses show more than half of the students (57%) stated that the ESP course is necessary 33.5% found the ESP course is very necessary, whereas only 9,5% thought that it is not very necessary while only 1% said that it is unnecessary It can be concluded that they are fully aware of the close relationship between ESP and their learning at school as well as in their future job and further study

Chart 3 Students’ attitudes towards ESP

57%

Necessary Very necessary

Not very necessary Unnecessary

Question IV: Students’ opinion on the benefit of the ESP reading course

This question is designed to identify students‟ opinion on the benefit of the ESP

42%

48%

6%

4%

Table 4: Students’ opinion on the benefit of the ESP reading course

3 To read and understand relevant

materials in Accounting

It can be seen that most of the students do hope the ESP reading course would

help them in their job in the future (62%) The participants thought that they will

be confident and have a good job thanks to their improvement of reading (70%)

and understanding English relevant Accounting materials after studying the ESP

course (56%)

Question V: Students’ opinions about the objectives of the ESP reading

course

The aim of this question is to find out the students‟ opinions about the objectives

of the ESP reading course The number of responses is presented in Table 5

Table 5: Students’ opinions about the objectives of the ESP reading course

5 (10%)

14 (28%)

5 (10%)

2 (4%)

3 (6%)

0 (0 %)

16 (32%)

11 (22%)

3 (6%)

6 (12%)

2 (4%)

1 (2%)

2 (4%)

0 (0%)

8 (16%)

16 (32%)

12 (24%)

12 (24%)

information

in Accounting

materials

into Vietnamese

1 (2%)

0 (0%)

6 (12%)

19 (38%)

21 (42%)

3 (6%)

11 (22%)

16 (32%)

0 (0%)

2 (4%)

3 (6%)

11 (22%)

7

To communicate

in English

with foreigners on

familiar

topics in

Accounting

4 (8%)

4 (8%)

9 (18%)

8 (16%)

3 (6%)

10 (20%)

12 (24%)

The Table clearly indicates that items 1, 2, 4, 6 which have the total percentages

of the three first priorities ranging from 66% to 80% are the most significant

objectives as perceived by students In comparison with the needs analysis from

the teachers of the English group, it can be seen that these items are also

considered important Therefore the syllabus designer should concentrate on

them in the process of designing the syllabus In addition to the above objectives,

the students also pay attention to item 7 To communicate in English with

four priorities of 50% This can be explained that most of the students are aware

of the important of communicating with foreigners on accounting The ability to communicate in English on Accounting will provide them with better opportunities in their future jobs Nevertheless, both the ESP teachers and the subject teachers agreed that this objective, despite its necessity, is too difficult to

be achieved when the course is conducted in the duration of 45 periods and for the students with low English level as such However, understanding this strong desire of students, the syllabus designer will attempt to design supplementary exercises in the syllabus in a way to develop speaking skill through reading

Quesntion VI: Students’ opinions about the topics needed for the ESP syllabus

This section is designed to find out the students‟ opinions about the topics relating to accounting Table 6 presents the results of the students‟ responses

Table 6: Students’ opinions about the topics needed for the ESP syllabus

necessary

Necessary Slightly

necessary

Not necessary

1 Introduction to Accounting 0

(0%)

24 (48%)

26 (52%)

0 (0%)

2 Accounting and Accountants 40

(80%)

10 (20%)

0 (0%)

0 (0%)

(0%)

10 (20%)

19 (38%)

21 (42%)

11 (22%)

0 (0%)

0 (0%)

5 Management accounting 10

(20%)

0 (0%)

20 (40%)

20 (40%)

(40%)

20 (40%)

9 (18%)

1 (2%)

7 Business Transaction and

Financial Statements

25 (50%)

20 (40%)

5 (10%)

0 (0%)

8 Auditing 8

(16%)

1 (2%)

19 (38%)

22 (44%)

9 Resources and

Environ-mental Audit

41 (82%)

9 (18%)

0 (0%)

0 (0%)

(0 %)

11 (22%)

13 (26%)

26 (52%)

(38%)

21 (42%)

6 (12%)

4 (8%)

12

Importing and Exporting 15

(30%)

31 (62%)

4 (8%)

0 (0%)

13 Resources and

Environ-mental Finance

35 (70%)

9 (18%)

6 (12%)

0 (0%)

14

(0%)

0 (0%)

1 (2%)

49 (98%)

15 Financial statements and

ratios

0 (0%)

24 (48%)

12 (24%)

14 (28%)

It can be easily identified from the Table that the students have nearly the same ideas on the most important topics for the syllabus as the ESP teachers and the subject teachers Their choice indicates that topics 2, 4, 6, 7, 9, 11, 12 and 13 should be included in the syllabus and the topics 1, 15 should be used as supplementary reading materials

Question VII: Students‟ opinions on exercises to be included in the syllabus

In order to collect information about the students‟ opinions on the types of exercises needed to be included in the syllabus, the researcher designed this section by providing a list of popular exercises for the students to choose The results are illustrated in Table 7

Table 7: Students’ opinions on exercises to be included in the syllabus

Items Exercises to be included in the syllabus

Numbers of teachers/ Percentages

e Decide which to use “gerund” or “infinitive” 6 (12%)

f Rewrite the sentences without changing the meaning 24 (48%)

6 Vocabulary

exercises