Investigation into Task-based language teaching in teaching ESP to the non-English major 2nd year students at Academy of Finance

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ------VŨ THỊ PHƯỢNG INVESTIGATION INTO TASK- BASED LANGUAGE T

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

- -VŨ THỊ PHƯỢNG

INVESTIGATION INTO TASK- BASED LANGUAGE TEACHING METHOD IN TEACHING ESP TO THE NON- ENGLISH MAJOR SECOND YEAR STUDENTS AT ACADEMY OF FINANCE (Tìm hiểu phương pháp dạy học thực thi nhiệm vụ trong giảng dạy tiếng Anh chuyên ngành cho sinh viên không

chuyên năm hai ở Học viện Tài chính)

M.A Minor Thesis Program

Field: English Language Teaching Methodology Code: 60.14.10

HANOI- 2013

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

- -VŨ THỊ PHƯỢNG

INVESTIGATION INTO TASK- BASED LANGUAGE TEACHING METHOD IN TEACHING ESP TO THE NON- ENGLISH MAJOR SECOND YEAR STUDENTS AT ACADEMY OF FINANCE

(Tìm hiểu phương pháp dạy học thực thi nhiệm vụ trong giảng dạy tiếng Anh chuyên ngành cho sinh viên không chuyên năm

hai ở Học viện Tài chính)

M.A Minor Thesis Program

Field: English Language Teaching Methodology Code: 60.14.10

Supervisor: Cao Thúy Hồng, M.A

HANOI- 2013

TABLE OF CONTENT

Declaration i

Acknowledgements ii

Abstract iii

Table of content v

Lists of tables, figures and abbreviations viii

PART I: INTRODUCTION

I Rationale 1

II Aims 3

III Scope of the study 3

IV Overview of the study 4

PART II: DEVELOPMENT Chapter I: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND and LITERATURE REVIEW I Theoretical background 1.1 Task 5

1.1.1 Definition 5

1.1.2 Characteristics of tasks 7

1.1.3 Types of task 9

1.2 Task- based language teaching 12

1.2.1 Definition 12

1.2.2 Task- based frame work 13

1.3 English for Special Purposes (ESP) 15

1.3.1 Development of ESP 15

1.3.2 Definition 16

II Literature Review 18

Chapter II: Methodology

2.1 The context of the study 20

2.2 Research methodology 21

2.2.1 Participants 22

2.2.2 Data collection methods 22

2.2.3 Data collection procedures 25

2.2.4 Data analysis methods 27

Chapter III: Data Analysis: Results, Discussions and Recommendations 3 1 Teachers and student’s perceptions about TBLT in ESP 28

3.1.1 Teachers and student’s perceptions about ESP 28

3 1.2 Teachers and student’s perceptions about tasks 29

3.1.3 Teachers and student’s perceptions about features of tasks 31

3.2 Task- based language teaching realization in ESP class 32

3.2.1 Frequency of using TBLT in ESP 32

3.2.2 Task types in ESP 34

3.2.3 Task cycle in ESP 38

3.3 Problems and Suggestions 39

3.3.1 Problems in learning and teaching ESP via tasks 39

3.3.2 Suggestions 42

PART III: CONCLUSION

I Major findings of the study 44

II Limitations of the study 44

III Suggestions for further studies 45

REFERENCES 46 APPENDICES

LISTS OF TABLES, FIGURES AND ABBREVIATIONS

List of tables:

Table 1: Teachers and Students’ opinion about ESP

Table 2: Teachers and Students’ perceptions of tasks

Table 3: Students’ perceptions of task features

Table 4: Frequency of task types used ESP class

Table 5: Problems of using tasks in ESP class

AOF: Academy of Finance

ESP: English for Special Purpose

TBLT: Task- based Language Teaching

Ss: Students

PART I: INTRODUCTION

This initial chapter states the problem and the rationale of the study, together with the aims, objectives and the scope of the whole paper Above all, it is in this chapter that the research questions are identified to work as clear guidelines for the whole research

I Statement of the problem and the rationale for the study

English is being taught as a foreign language in Vietnam from Elementary school It is also used as a medium of instruction in secondary and tertiary level of education Although the students have learnt English for a long time, they are unable to reach the expected proficiency level when they start tertiary education Over the years, different approaches, methods and procedures, have been employed to help learners learn English Some traditional methods are GTM (Grammar Translation method), ALM (Audio Lingual method) These methods are teacher- center, and focus on linguistic accuracy rather than interactive or communicative competence of learners Learners are often passive in class and have difficulties communicating in the real life Since the late 20th century, along with globalization trends, the demand for English as a global language in international business, travelling and cultural exchange etc has becoming higher and higher As a result, nowadays, a new method of teaching and learning English to serve those purposes has been indeed indispensable, and learner-centered approaches have been developed The new approaches draw knowledge from the learner, working through their needs and interests and selecting materials, activities and tasks accordingly One modern method is Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) According to Richards and Rodgers (2001), CLT is the

acquisition of communicative competence via student engagement in meaningful use of language at discourse level To achieve this, the teacher facilitates communicative activities by managing the classroom environment, providing resources and acting as a communicator “Classroom activities are often designed to focus on completing tasks that are mediated through language or involve negotiation of information and information sharing” (Richards and Rodgers 2001: 165) One of the most popular methods within CLT recently is task-based language teaching (TBLT) This method promotes communication and social interaction In this method, learners are presented with a task or problem to solve and do not concentrate on language features during performance Language analysis is incorporated after learners have performed a task

TBLT focuses on using the tasks which are suitable for or meet students’ needs The reasons are TBLT seems to bring meaningful use of language with authentic tasks and it can promote autonomous learning With such advantages, it has been applied into many English courses There is no exception of TBLT application to English for Specific Purposes (ESP) courses in which the requirements are the knowledge of specialization and skills of English to achieve the goal of professional communication in professional fields Therefore, both ESP and task- based language teaching method focus on learners’ needs to reach a certain goal and obviously, the exploitation of TBLT in ESP teaching is a good choice for many ESP teachers

In fact, there have been some studies on application of TBLT in ESP so far in many countries including Vietnam , yet they only focused on certain aspects such as effectiveness, syllabus design etc Students and teachers, the two key factors of any teaching and learning, have not been sufficiently

studied In Academy of Finance, ESP is an obligatory subject in 2 semesters for second- year students and third- year students and ESP teachers here have applied TBLT for their lessons This inspired the researcher to conduct a research on the perceptions of teachers and learners of TBLT in ESP here

II Aims and objectives of the study

In the first place, this study aims to identify teachers and students’ perceptions of TBLT in ESP Specifically, the study would investigate into how teachers and students think or feel about the task and features of TBLT in ESP course Secondly, a closer look is taken to find out how tasks are realized

in ESP class In other words, the researcher tries to investigate how often TBLT is exploited for second- year students in ESP course, which type of task

is preferred in ESP class, and how task steps are realized in class In addition, some pedagogical techniques to overcome the problems or disadvantages will

be provided as suggestions for TBLT application in the same context

In brief, the researcher expects to answer three following questions:

1 What are teachers and students’ perceptions of TBLT in ESP?

2 How is TBLT realized in ESP class?

3 What are teachers and students’ suggestions for TBLT to teach ESP course?

III Scope of the study

First, although TBLT is generally set as the title of the whole study, it is impossible for the researcher to cover everything related to TBLT but only some aspects of the issue in the given context This research only focuses on the context of ESP course in AOF for non- major second- year students Secondly, the research is done to find out the perceptions of teachers and

students in terms of concept, features, task realization and disadvantages of TBLT Thirdly, it is noteworthy that the sample of the research is restricted to

60 students and 10 teachers in Faculty of Foreign languages in AOF

IV An overview of the rest of the paper

The rest of the paper includes 2 parts as follows:

Part B: Development

Chapter 1 – Theoretical Background and Literature review – provides the

background of the study, including definitions of key concepts, discussions of related studies and how the present study fits into the field

Chapter 2 – Methodology – describes the participants and instruments of the

study, as well as the procedure employed to carry out the research

Chapter 3 – Data analysis and discussion – presents, analyzes and discusses

the findings that the researcher found out from the data collected according to the three research questions

Part C: Conclusion

This part summarizes the main issues discussed in the paper, the contribution

as well as the limitations of the research, suggestions for successful TBLT application in ESP course and some suggestions for further studies Following this chapter are the References and Appendices

PART II: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND AND LITERATURE

REVIEW

This chapter sheds light on the literature of the study, specifically the background and a number of studies related to the research topic To begin with, a sketchy picture of the research background will be provided with an overview of the three key concepts, namely “task”, “task- based language teaching” and “ESP” Next, a brief review of the related studies will disclose the research gap and hence, justify how the present study fits into the research area

I Theoretical background

1.1 Task

1.1.1 Definition of task

In any class, activities are given to achieve certain goals of the lesson

In other words, teachers try to design various activities for getting learners’ involvement to reach purposeful objectives So are activities tasks or tasks simply the same as the popular term, so- called exercises?

Nunan (2004) said: “the concept of “task” is a very important element

in every syllabus design, classroom teaching and learner assessment” (p.6) This big role of task leads to a variety of its definition

Prabhu (1987) suggested that a task is an activity in which learners are required to reach an outcome from given information and during this process the duties of teachers are to control and regulate

Willis (1996:26) also defined a task as an activity in which the learners use the target language “for a communicative purpose” to “achieve an outcome’

Two definitions above reach an agreement that a task is a purposeful activity and used in teaching and learning the target language with communicativeness The ultimate goal of each task is to reach certain objectives of the lesson through a process of the students’ involvement Teachers, of course, are not centered in carrying out a task, the centeredness

or the focus of each task is students With task implementation, the role of teachers and students in class has changed in comparison with old methods; the teachers are just facilitators Teachers just guide, control and support students’ working in a task

Here is another definition of tasks:

“an activity or an action which is carried out as the result of processing or understanding a language For example, drawing a map while listening to a tape, listening to an instruction and perform a command may be referred to as tasks Tasks may or may not involve the production of the language […] A task usually requires teachers to specify what will be regarded as the successful completion of the task […] The use of different kinds of tasks in language teaching is said to make language teaching more communicative …since it provides a purpose for a classroom activity…”

(Richards, et al (1986: 289)The definition above seemed to agree on the point that task is as a work-plan in classroom It tells readers what students do in a task and emphasize the purposeful characteristic of a task Various types of activities can be exploited in a task to reach a given goal of the lesson specified by the teacher A task serves the need of teaching and learning a language in a communicative way

There have been various definitions of tasks so far However, in this study, the researcher suggested the Nunan’s definition that tasks are “a piece

of classroom work which involve learners in comprehending, manipulating, producing or interacting in the target language while their attention is focused

on mobilizing the grammatical knowledge in order to express meaning and in which the intention is to convey meaning rather than to manipulate form” (2004: 9)

Nunan’s definition expresses a matter in employing tasks in teaching a language, that is form and meaning- focus A task should have meaning as

“primary focus”; however, this does not mean that form or grammar is not important Obviously, Nunan’s definition highlights the interrelation of form and meaning Therefore, implementing a task requires the focus both on form and meaning to achieve a task completion

1.1.2 Characteristics of task

Different scholars can characterize tasks in different ways because of their different approaches

According to Littlewood (1993), tasks have some basic features:

 Tasks are activities in which students work purposefully towards an objective

 The objective may be one that they have set for themselves or one which has been set by the teacher

 Tasks may be carried out individually or (more often) in groups

 Tasks may be carried out in competition with others or (more often) in collaboration

 The outcome may be something concrete (e.g a report or presentation) or something intangible (e.g agreement or the solution to a problem)

He also distinguished tasks and exercises Learning activities in which students “focus upon and practise specific elements of knowledge, skills and strategies needed for the task” without a communicative purpose are called “exercises.” (CDC, 1999a, p 44) The difference of exercise and task and combination of exercise and task is highlighted in the table below:

Focus on discrete items

and/or skills

  Purposefulness

and contextualisation

(Littlewood, 1993)

It can be seen that an exercise is exploited to support the task Teachers tend to combine these two kinds of activities for knowledge enhancement and skills practice

Skehan (1998) put forward five key characteristics of a task in terms of task- focus, task types, task priority and task assessment as follow:

 Learners are not given other people’s meaning to regurgitate

comparable real- world activities

terms of outcome

To conclude, main features of tasks are goal- directed, priority for outcome, meaning focus rather than form focus, variety in activities and work forms from individual to group work

1.1.3 Types of task

1.1.3.1 General types of task

Typology for TBL task design lists six task types and their corresponding outcomes (Willis, 1996:149):

Ordering & sorting information sorted according to specific criteria

differences

Sharing experience exchanging opinions & attitudes Creative tasks end product be appreciated by audience

Pica, Kanagy and Falodun (1993) (in Richards and Rodgers (2001: 234), put tasks into five categories according to the type of interaction that occurs in task accomplishment:

information to form a whole Information-gap tasks One student or group of students has

one set of information and another student or group has a complementary set of information They must negotiate and find out what the other party's information is in order to complete an activity

Problem-solving tasks students are given a problem and a set

of information They must arrive at a solution to the problem There is generally a single resolution of the outcome

Decision-making tasks students are given a problem for

which there are a number of possible outcomes and they must choose through negotiation and discussion

discussion and exchange of ideas They do not need to reach agreement Despite different approaches to tasks and task types, there still exists some overlapping between Willis’s classification (1996) and that of Pica, et

al (2001) For instance, creative end product task can include decision- making tasks etc Therefore, teachers should combine these types suitably to get the most effectiveness

1.1.3.2 Real- world and pedagogical tasks

This is a broad classification by Nunan (1989) He divided tasks into real-world and pedagogic one Richards and Rodgers (2001: 231) shared the same opinion as Nunan and they divided types of tasks as follows:

Because the authenticity in task- based teaching is very important to get the goal, teachers can make use of real- world task as a source or model for pedagogical actions However, it is necessary that teachers be careful when they turn a real- world task into a pedagogical task Otherwise, the task will not work effectively For example, with a real- world task such as “drawing a person doing something”, we can apply to a pedagogical task when teaching Present continuous through an activity “One student draws a person doing something and others guess the activity using present continuous structure.” If

we use this real- world task to teach Pronouns (he/ she etc.), the activity is

tasks that are found to be important in

a needs analysis and turn out to be important and useful in the real world

(second language acquisition) theory and research but do not necessarily reflect real-world tasks

less interesting Therefore, teachers can follow students’ needs to outline the goal of each lesson and choose a better type of task and adapt tasks suitably

1.1.3.3 Focused tasks and unfocused tasks

The term “focused” and “unfocused” tasks were proposed by Ellis (2003) In unfocused task, “no effort is made in the design or the execution of

a task to give the prominence to any particular linguistic features” (p.204) However, focused tasks do “result in some linguistic feature being made prominent” (p.204) As a result, focused task has two main aims: the first one, like unfocused task, is to “stimulate communicative language use” and the second is to “target the use of particular and predetermined linguistic features

in meaning- centered communication”

Willis’s and Pica, et al’s classification seem easier for students to recognize than others’ in comparison with the classification of Nunan or Ellis The classification of Nunan or Ellis is often taken notice of by teachers rather than students when teachers design tasks with objectives of the lessons Besides, as said above, some types of tasks of Pica, et al and Willis are overlapped; as a result, it does not make so much differences to choose Willis’s types or Pica’s ones and the researcher would focus on Willis’s to refer to in this study

1.2 Task- based language teaching

1.2.1 Definition of task- based language teaching

Task- based language teaching has been one commonly used method recently in relation with CLT approach This term was firstly introduced by Prabhu in his secondary classes in Bangalore, India in Communicational Teaching project in early 1979 Since then, it has spread throughout the world

Richards and Rodgers (2001: 223) said: “task-based language teaching refers to an approach based on the use of tasks as the core unit of planning and instruction in language teaching" Thus, the authors stress the importance

of tasks in TBLT method to arrive at the objective of language teaching They also believe that TBLT draws on functional, interactional and, in some cases, structural models of language

Many scholars agree that TBLT is “based on theory of language learning rather than theory of language structure” (Edwards and Willis, 2005: 13)

To develop this idea in detail, Ellis (2003:65) claimed that “TBLT is mostly about the social interaction established between learners as a source of input and means of acquisition, and involves the negotiation of meaning, communicative strategies, and communicative effectiveness” This means that TBLT focuses on meaning and interactive communication, it does not focus much on form

1.2.2 Task- based frame work

The application of task- based admits variety Lots of procedures and stages, therefore, have been devised so far

According to Willis (1996), there are four stages in TBLT as the

following structure:

Pre- task  Task Preparation  Task realization  Post task

In the Pre- task stage, the teacher (facilitator) ‘explores the topic with

the group and highlights useful words and phrases’ Some activities can be

applied in this stage such as material exploitation: using a picture/text etc to

lead into the topic, brainstorming: making a list; comparing ideas; sharing experiences, activating language: eliciting and providing vocabulary

In the second stage, the learners are expected to raise up This phase focuses on the importance of preparing learners thoroughly, where necessary rehearsing the task in order to recycle the language and familiarize learners with the context as much as possible This stage could involve learners in a discussion of their attitudes to it, and preparing their arguments for a debate,

or their ideas for a leaflet to draw peoples’ attention to the issue Learners prepare own input for tasks such as planning a report, practicing role-play, writing a questionnaire to be administered, thinking of issues in a debate, brainstorming necessary language, activating language: eliciting and providing the necessary language

In the next stage, this part of the task cycle will mirror as closely as possible an authentic undertaking Learners produce/perform/present their tasks e.g : Producing a poster, Performing a role-play, Having a debate, Producing a leaflet, Giving a presentation

In the last stage of Post-Task, there are some options such as Language focus, Feedback and evaluation, Reflection upon task realization, Language reflection

There is another way to divide the stages in TBLT by Long and

Crookes (1992) Task has 3 phases: Pre- task, task cycle and language focus

In the pre-task stage, the topic is defined and essential vocabulary is highlighted by the teacher In the task cycle, learners perform the task in pairs

or small groups; rehearse their reports before presenting findings in front of the audience The final stage is the language focus, during which specific language features that learners encountered in the task are examined and

analyzed Some practice of language features and feedback on students’ performance are appropriate at this stage

Skehan (1996b: 24) also suggested stages of task- based implementation with clear purposes of each stage

Pre- task Cognitive: ease subsequent processing load

Linguistic: introduce new forms into attention During- task Manipulate pressure: influence processing balance

Calibrate: influence processing balance Post- task Retrospect: remind learners of importance of form

Ellis (2003) believes that they all have in common three principal phases: pre-task, during task, and post-task In pre-task phase the overall purpose of this phase is to prepare the learners for the next phase, that is, students should get prepared for completing the task In fact, the pre-task phase has two basic functions: 1) to introduce and create interest in doing a task on the chosen topic, and 2) to activate topic-related words, phrases and target sentences that will be useful in carrying out the task and in the real world communication In the "during task" phase students work in pairs or groups although this is dependent on the type of activity, and they use whatever linguistic resources they possess to achieve the goals of the task The post-task phase in the framework, the language focus, provides an opportunity for form-focused work

It is clear that there are phases in task- based cycle Each stage has its specific purposes to achieve It is crucial that teachers realize these purposes

to facilitate students’ learning

1 3 English for Special Purposes (ESP)

1.3.1 Development of ESP

Since the early 1960’s, ESP has become one of the most prominent issues in EFL teaching Its growth is reflected in increasing number of universities offering ESP course, even MA in ESP such as University of Birmingham (England) This is because ESP derives from the needs to use language as a tool in professional life, not as a hobby or so-called communication

Gatehouse (2001) pointed out 3 main factors which led to the rapid development of ESP They are: the demand of Brave New World, the revolution of linguistics, and focus on the learner The Brave New World, which was concerned with 2 major events (the end of the World War II and the Oil crisis), led to the exchange in science, technology and economy At that time, English became the language of these changes Therefore, English for science, economy etc was paid much more attention to The second reason

is the changes in language teaching and learning It means that languages should be learnt for many purposes Some scholars claimed that language should vary in different situations; therefore, it is necessary to adjust language

to meet learners’ needs in specific contexts Finally, ESP was stimulated when learners became the center of language teaching Language was designed to satisfy learners’ needs and interests

1.3.2 Definition of ESP

ESP has gained ascendency in different fields (Johns & Dudley-Evans, 1998) They suggested that ESP has been defined by needs of a specific group of learners" (p )

Strevans (1988; cited in Dudly-Evans and St John, 1998, p 4) defines ESP in terms of four absolute characteristics and two variable characteristics The absolute characteristics are that ESP consists of English Language Teaching which is:

- designed to meet the specified needs of the learner;

- related in content (that is in its themes and topics) to particular disciplines, occupations and activities;

- centered on language appropriate to those activities in syntax, lexis, discourse, semantic and so on, and analysis of the discourse;

- in contrast with 'general English'

The variable characteristics are that ESP may be restricted as to the learning skills to be learned (for example reading only); may not be taught according to any pre-ordained methodology

Robinson (1991) believes that ESP is a major activity around the world today It has 2 criteria and 2 characteristics The two criteria are the following: ESP is normally goal- directed; needs analysis contributes to the development of the courses and should specify what student will use English for The two characteristics involve limited period of time in which the objectives are achieved and homogenous classes of adults in terms of the work or specialist studies the students are involved

Hutchinson and Waters (1993) emphasized that: ESP is not a matter of teaching specialized varieties of English, nor is just matter of science words and grammar for scientists It is also not different in kind from any other form

of language teaching as far as principles of effective and efficient learning are concerned

In short, ESP is in contrast with “general English” Besides, it meets specified needs of learners because its content is in a close relation with

learners’ occupations or professional activities The language in ESP is also appropriate to these activities Moreover, it may be limited to skills to be

learnt

II Literature review

Using TBLT in ESP course is not a new idea and it has got a lot of researchers’ attention

Kavaliauskienė, (2005), studied the relationship between TBL and students’ outcomes in ESP lessons This article addresses research into learners’ attitudes to Task-Based Learning, and the investigation of TBL influence on learning outcomes in the English for Specific Purposes (ESP) classroom The research reveals that teaching through tasks creates favorable learning conditions for students who study English for Specific Purposes (ESP) at tertiary level Specifically, TBLT helped them with build-up of professional vocabulary, development of speaking skills, and refinement of listening skills Concerning participants’ favorite task types, sharing personal experience and problem- solving are two most favorable types ones (83%)

There is also a relating research by Patricia (2009) It investigated into the application of task- based instruction in an ESP course in the computer centre at the University of Costa Rica The study stressed the benefits of TBLT in ESP course TBLT is more motivating, more challenging, more innovative, more appealing and more meaningful to students than other traditional grammar-based approaches Moreover, the study listed some considerations ESP teachers should take into when employing TBLT in ESP such as the integration of different language skills within the TBL framework, the use authentic materials (oral or written) to design the lesson, the role of comprehensible and meaningful input etc

Abdullah & Leila (2012) had a study on the influence of Task-based on Vocabulary Learning in ESP This experimental study investigates the teaching of vocabulary in ESP courses within the paradigm of task-based language teaching, concentrating on Persian literature students at Birjand University in Iran Data analysis showed that the task-based approach was more effective in teaching technical vocabularies compared to the traditional one

In Vietnam, though many researchers have explored the issues of Task- based in language teaching, few have conducted researches on TBLT in ESP teaching “Designing a task-based ESP reading syllabus for the third-year students at Hai Duong Central College of Pharmacy” by Vuong Thi Lien in

2011 is one of the very few research examples The study raises a problem that the syllabus seems not to motivate the students enough Hence, designing

a more effective ESP syllabus for the students at Hai Duong Central College

of Pharmacy is of great importance She suggested a reading syllabus for ESP, but did not study the effectiveness and realization of this proposed syllabus

In conclusion, although TBLT has been researched worldwide, it is still new to Vietnamese educational institutes Teachers and students are having different things to claim about TBLT There has not been any formal study

on both teachers and students’ perceptions of TBLT in ESP in Vietnam Thus, it could be said that the conduct of the present study meets the practicality of the issue The present research has its own unique features in a specific context and helps to bridge certain gaps existing in the researches to date The research is described in details in the following sections

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY

In the preceding chapter, the literature on the research topic was briefly reviewed for the theoretical basis of the whole study Turning to the practical side, this research was carried out with strict adherence to justified methods of data collection and analysis in order to maximize its validity and reliability This claim would be substantiated in this chapter as context of the study, the participants, the instruments as well as the procedure of data collection and analysis are discussed in detail

2.1 The context of the study

2.1.1 Description of the ESP course and its objectives at AOF

The study was conducted with non-English-major students at AOF, where English is taught as a non-major subject Students learn ESP in the second year, after 2 basic business English courses The textbook used during the basic business English course is Business Basics (the 1st edition) by David Grant and Robert MacLatty By using these textbooks, teachers hoped to improve students’ communicative competence by providing the real things from daily topic conversations Students are asked to work individually, in pairs, in groups to practice English in situational contexts It also means that when entering ESP course students have already had basic knowledge of business English such as vocabulary of business and basic grammar and

communicative skills The materials used during ESP course is “Tieng Anh

chuyen nganh” compiled by teachers of English in FFL, AOF This book mainly focuses on students’ specific vocabulary, reading and translation The course is 8 weeks long in which there are 42 periods in class and six periods for self- study at home Students have two lectures each week equivalent to

six in- class periods The content for the learning in class includes 15 first units of the course book The assessment of the course is an oral test

2.1.2 Description of the students at AOF

The students at AOF came from different provinces such as: Ha Noi,

Ha Nam, Nam Dinh, Hai Phong, Hai Duong, Thanh Hoa etc Most of them studied English at high school; however, they were not good at English When they took the entrance exam to this university, they just took the test in math, physics and chemistry; therefore, they only paid attention to these subjects to pass the exam English was considered to be unimportant; they did not study it thoroughly Their English level varied According to the results of the end- of- term exams for the eight first weeks, school- year 2011- 2012, 25% of the second- year students got marks from 8 to 10, 25% got marks from 7 to 8, 35% from 5 to 6, the rest are from 3 to 5, no students got mark 0

to 3

2.1.3 Description of English teachers at AOF

There were 50 teachers of English Most of them were female (47 female teachers), only 3 of them were male Their age was from 23 to 55 Most of them were still very young, some teachers had just only graduated from university, and they did not have much experience in teaching However, teachers who were responsible for ESP course often had at least 2 years’ experience and they had to be trained a lot about ESP before teaching this course by older and more experienced ones

2.2 Methodology

The researcher decided to choose survey research methodology It is suitable with this study because the researcher just wants to collect the

information from the students and teachers in their own current situations to

find out the perceptions and realization of TBLT in ESP course

The second questionnaire was administered to 10 teachers who were currently teaching ESP course I at AOF Those lecturers were also selected randomly These teachers include 1 male teacher, and 9 female teachers, aged from 23 to 50 7 of them got MA in English language teaching, and 3 more teachers were learning a Post-graduate course at HULIS

Besides, the researcher also carried out the group-interview with 5 teachers and 5 students participating in answering the questionnaires The students and teachers for the interview were also randomly selected to ensure the validity

Two classes were observed too These lessons were spontaneously chosen and taken notes in a checklist prepared by the researcher

2.2.2 The Data Collection Instruments

In this study, questionnaires for non- major students and lecturers, group-interviews with teachers and classroom observation would be used to collect data to guarantee the accuracy of the data

Questionnaires

Questionnaire is one of the most efficient research instruments to collect information as much as possible in short of time Moreover, questionnaire is considered to be more objective and low-cost than other types of research instrument

The questionnaires were delivered to both students and teachers In order

to make sure that no risk of misunderstanding would occur, the questionnaire had to be easy and clear for participants, especially for students Besides, the researcher had to be willing to explain every question from participants about what they did not understand

Questionnaires consist of close-ended and open-ended questions ended questions could afford a good deal of precision and clarity and were beneficial for categorizing On the other hand, since the limit of choices for each question might not include all possible answers, open-ended ones were employed as well to seek for participants’ own opinions

To be specific, the questionnaire for teacher includes 11 question items (Appendix 1) as follows:

1&2 Years the teacher has taught English and ESP

teaching

7&8 Frequency of types of tasks in class preferable types

of tasks among students in teachers’ beliefs

lessons

11 Some considerations teachers should take into when

using task- based in ESP teaching

The questionnaire for students only consisted of 10 items (Appendix 2) and is summarized in the following table

4&5 Students’ perceptions of tasks and features of tasks 6&7 Frequency of types of tasks in class and students’

preferable types of tasks

effectiveness of tasks in ESP lessons

After these questionnaires were collected, information from these questionnaires were summarized and presented in the form of statistic information (chart and tables) for data analysis find out the answers for the research questions and to make some implications if possible

Interview

Similar to the questionnaires, interviews were designed for both teachers and students The questions in each schedule were in both English and Vietnamese in order to avoid misunderstanding and difficulty in expressing opinions or communication breakdown They were both semi-structured to provide interviewees with flexibility while offering interviewers

adequate power and control over the interview

There are 5 main questions in the interview for teachers and students to find out teachers and students’ opinion about ESP difficulty, problems, and suggestions to teach and learn ESP better through tasks (Appendix 3&4) The content of the interview is recorded and transcribed into texts for data analysis (Appendix 5&6) The information from the interviews is analyzed as qualitative data and helped to clarify some matters in the questionnaire

Observation

Two ESP lessons employing task- based activities were observed before

the time of giving questionnaires and interviews

To prepare for observation, a detailed observation checklist was designed beforehand (Appendix 7) As for the structure, the observation scheme comprises four parts: class profile, content, classroom assessment and overall comments on the lesson using TBLT in ESP The first part aims to take notes all the information about class setting (class size, time, level and units that were going to be taught) In the next part, teacher’s and students’ activities are observed and commented on Teacher’s exploitation and students’ involvement were assessed in the third part Finally, overall comments were drawn

Although the number of classroom observations was rather limited, it is hoped that the information from these three observations would be useful to detect and disqualify any irrational findings from the questionnaires and interviews

2.2.3 Data collection procedures

The data collection went through three major phases in chronological order: preparing instruments, observing and delivering questionnaires and interviewing

 Phase 1:

The first phase is the preparation for the data collection process, which includes the designing of two interview schedules and two questionnaires A brief introduction of the purpose, the nature of the research topic and a clear instruction on what needed explaining to respondents are supplied Also,

advanced notices are made in person to these people for permission to

interview them Soon after the requests are granted, appointments were made

 Phase 2:

Observation can be used to find out more the realization of tasks in ESP teaching in terms of task types, task cycle, problems of students and teachers during task cycle During these two periods at two different classes, the researcher took notes basing on the observation checklist In order to make the lesson as natural as usual, there was neither introduction of the research topic nor the statement of the researcher’s objectives

Questionnaires were directly distributed to participants A brief introduction of the purpose, the nature of the research topic as well as the purpose of the questionnaire, the great role of the respondents and instructions

on what to do were concisely given Also, the respondents’ confidentiality was confirmed Notably, all delivered questionnaires were returned Questionnaires for teachers were handed out at the end of each lesson, too

 Phase 3:

Interviews were implemented by appointment, after the researcher had

a careful look at the returned questionnaires Interviewees were asked some

conducted interviews with the teachers and two groups of five students in these classes during their off-periods The interviews were given in a friendly and natural way to maximize the participants’ responses During the interview, questions were asked one at a time and participants took turns to give answers Besides recording the content of the interview, the researcher took notes on important points throughout the interviews, which helped with the interview transcription later on

2.2.4 Procedures of data analysis

Firstly, the data collected were classified into different categories, such

as teachers and students’ perceptions TBLT, task realization in ESP class and suggestions for better TBLT in ESP Based on categories established, data were then analyzed by using descriptive statistics (percentage) Pie charts and bar charts were mainly employed to analyze and compare figures Moreover, typical quotations from the interviews, the answers to open-ended questions

in the questionnaires, and classroom observations were cited when necessary Interpretation and conclusions were drawn after analyzing the data

CHAPTER 3: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

In this chapter, data collected from the three instruments is analyzed and interpreted to reveal answers to each research question of the study:

 Teachers and students’ perceptions of TBLT in ESP teaching

 Task realization in ESP class

 Problems and disadvantages of TBLT and some suggestions to make full use of TBLT to teach ESP for the non- major second- year students

at AOF

3.1 Teachers and students’ perceptions of TBLT in ESP

3.1.1 Teachers and students’ opinion about ESP

Table 1: Teachers and Students’ opinion about ESP

From the table above, no teachers in the survey consider ESP a very easy

or very difficult subject to teach Half of the teachers think that ESP is a difficult one 30% of the teachers find it easy and the rest of the teachers (20%) regard this subject neither easy nor difficult subject to teach

To Ss, most of them are afraid of ESP because most of them think learning ESP is very difficult According to the table, ESP is not actually an ease for students to learn No students feel that it is an easy and a very easy subject A

few consider it neither easy nor difficult, accounting for 20% The rest find it difficult (30% find it difficult and 50% find it very difficult) The figure shows that learning some economic topics in English is a big thing to students It can be explained that ESP has a lot of new vocabulary or technical terms while they just complete Business Basics of English

In short, the attitudes towards ESP of teachers and students were revealed ESP, on the whole, is a difficult one and it seemed to be more challenging for

students than for teachers

3.1.2 Teachers and students’ perceptions of tasks

From the questionnaire:

teachers considered

as tasks

Percentage No of

students considered

as tasks

Percentage

a List as many shift

factors of demand and

supply as you can and

analyze these factors

b Illustrate the change

of the demand for rice

during the crops

c Give the currencies of

these countries: Spain,

the UK, Australia,

e Fill in the blank of

these sentences with