Những đánh giá của giáo viên và sinh viên năm thứ nhất khoa Quản trị kinh doanh trường Đại học Hải Phòng về giáo trình kinh tế Maket Leader

Hence, this led the writer to choose the study titled: “Teachers‟ and the 1 st year Business Administration Students‟ evaluations of the merits and demerits of the EBP Material „Market

Nguyễn Thị Hà Quyên

TEACHERS’ AND THE FIRST YEAR BUSINESS

ADMINISTRATION STUDENTS’ evaluaTIONS OF THE MERITS AND DEMERITS OF THE ebp MATERIAL

‘MARKET LEADER’ IN HAIPHONG UNIVERSITY (Những đánh giá của giáo viên và sinh viên năm thứ nhất khoa

Quản trị kinh doanh tr-ờng Đại học Hải Phòng

về giáo trình kinh tế 'Market Leader')

MA Minor Thesis

Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 601410

Supervisor : Nguyễn minh Hà, M.A

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

ABSTRACT

LIST OF FIGURES, TABLES AND CHARTS

LIST OF ABBREVIATION

Part A: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale 1

2 Aims of the study 1

3 Significance of the study 2

4 Scope of the study 2

5 Research questions 2

6 Methods of the study 2

7 Design of the study 3

Part B: DEVELOPMENT Chapter 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 4

1.1 An overview of English for Business Purpose (EBP) 4

1.1.1 English for Specific Purpose (ESP) 4

1.1.2 English for Business Purposes (EBP) 5

1.2 Materials in language teaching and learning 6

1.2.1 Definition and roles of Teaching Materials 6

1.2.2 Types of Materials 7

1.3 Materials Evaluation 7

1.3.1 Reasons of Materials Evaluation 7

1.3.2 Definition of Materials Evaluation 8

1.3.3 Kinds of materials evaluation 9

1.3.4 Materials evaluators 9

1.3.5 Sources of the data 10

1.3.6 Models for Materials Evaluation 11

2.1 The research design 15

2.2 The research methods 15

2.3 Research procedures 16

2.3.1 Document analysis 16

2.3.2.Survey questionnaires 16

2.4 The setting and the participants 18

Chapter 3: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION 20

3.1 The Requirements of the Course 20

3.1.1 The Course Objectives 20

3.1.2 The Course Content 21

3.2 The Material Description 21

3.3 The Survey Results 24

3.3.1 The Suitability of the Material in terms of Objectives of the Course 24

3.3.2 The Suitability of the Material in terms of Content Requirement 28

3.3.3 Methodology 32

3.4 Major findings 37

3.4.1 The suitability of the Material in terms of Course Objectives 37

3.4.2 The suitability of the Material in terms of Content Requirements 38

3.4.3 The suitability of the Material in terms of Methodology 39

CHAPTER 4: SOME SUGGESTIONS FOR THE MATERIAL ADAPTATION 41

4.1 Objectives Adaptation 41

4.2 Content Adaptation 41

4.3 Methodology Adaptation 42

Part C: CONCLUSION 45

REFERENCES ……… 47 APPENDIX 1: QUESTIONNAIRE FOR TEACHERS

APPENDIX 2: QUESTIONNAIRE FOR STUDENTS

APPENDIX 3: WRITING PRACTICE OF MEMOS, EMAILS AND FAXES

EBP: English for Business Purposes

ELT: English Language Teaching

BA: Business Administration

HPU: Haiphong University

PART A: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale

At the same time as English became the key to the international currencies of technology and commerce, it is married up naturally with the development of English courses for specific groups of learners called ESP (English for Specific Purpose) Basing on the guiding principle of ESP: „Tell me what you need English for and I will tell you the English that you need‟ (Hutchinson, T & Waters, A 1987:8), it is very necessary and important for BA students (Business Administration) in Haiphong University to gain good knowledge of Business English, besides General English

In order to improve the learners‟ motivation and thereby make learning better and faster, any ESP course needs to select its own teaching materials that satisfy the learners‟ wishes, needs, interests and demands Among the varieties of published textbooks, „Market Leader Elementary‟ has been the first time in use as the official textbook for the first year Business Administration students in Haiphong University There were not any study to investigate the appropriateness and inappropriateness of „Market leader Elementary‟ to the certain teaching – learning context in Haiphong University Hence, this led the writer to choose the study titled:

“Teachers‟ and the 1 st

year Business Administration Students‟ evaluations of the merits and demerits of the EBP Material „Market Leader‟

in Haiphong University.”

2 Aims of the study

The writer‟s concern in this study includes:

- Investigate the currently used EBP material „Market Leader‟ in terms of objectives, contents and methodology from the perception of both Teachers‟ and the 1st year Business Administration Students in Haiphong University

- Give some suggestions to make more advantages and fewer disadvantages of the application of „Market Leader‟ for both Teachers and the 1st year Business Administration Students in Haiphong University

3 Significance of the study

Many pre-researchers found materials evaluation a source of interest that a great number

of writings on this branch have been written Hopefully, this study will be beneficial to BA teachers‟ teaching method adjustment to attract and suit students‟ interest and demand Therefore, it will help to enhance the students‟ EBP learning efficiency Moreover, it is also hoped that the thesis will be of contributions towards ESP materials evaluation and adaptation

4 Scope of the study

Due to the limited time, knowledge and experiment, it is impossible to mention deeply all criteria of materials evaluation, such as audience, objectives, contents, methodology, the cultural bias, the authenticity, etc Therefore, only the three criteria including objectives, contents and methodology would be focused

5 Research questions

The study is carried out with an attempt to find out the answers to the following questions:

- Does the book Market Leader for the 1st year Business Administration students meet the requirements of the course in terms of audience, objectives, content and methodology?

- What should be done to help improve the book?

6 Methods of the study

In order to achieve the aims the reliable answers to the questions mentioned above, the combination of the following methods are involved:

- Survey questionnaires were designed to collect data from the BA teachers and students

in Haiphong University towards their EBP material evaluation

- Informal interviews made teachers and students comfortably express their ideas, so the findings of the thesis are more objective

- Data analysis was employed to analyze the data collected from survey questionnaires and informal interviews

7 Design of the study

This study consists of the main three parts:

- Part A: Introduction includes the rationale, the aims, the significance, the scope, the

methods, the research questions and also the design of the study

- Part B: Development is devided into the following chapters:

- Chapter 1: Literature review presents an overview of EBP, the roles and types of

materials in language teaching and learning, materials evaluation and adaptation

- Chapter 2: Methodology describes the current EBP teaching and learning situation in

Haiphong University, the methodology employed in the study, research design as well as the research procedures and the participants involved in the research process

- Chapter 3: Findings and Discussions analyses the data and discusses the findings of

the study

- Chapter 4: Suggestions is the recommendations for material improvement and the

conclusion of the study

- Part C: Conclusion gives the conclusion of the study as well as the suggested further

study and the limitations of the study

PART B: DEVELOPMENT Chapter 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 An overview of English for Business Purpose (EBP)

1.1.1 English for Specific Purpose (ESP)

Many authors have offered their definitions and characteristics of ESP in their studies, namely Hutchison and Waters (1987), Strevens (1988) Robinson (1991), Widdowson (1983), Charles (1994 and 1996), Dudley- Evans and St John (1998)

Tom Hutchinson & Alan Waters (1987) states that ESP must be seen as an approach not

as a product ESP is not a particular kind of method or methodology, nor does it consist of

a particular type of teaching material It is an approach to language learning, which is

based on learner need ESP has paid attention to the question of how people learn, focusing instead on the question of what people learn Although there are different approaches to ESP, the authors share the same ideas that: ESP is designed to meet specific needs of the

learners; ESP makes use of the underlying methodology and activities of the disciplines it serves; ESP is centered on the language (grammar, lexis, and register), skills, discourse and genres appropriate to the activities

According to Robinson (1991:3-4), ESP can be classified into two main types according to whether the learner requires English for work/training (EOP/EVP/VESL: English for Occupational Purposes/ English for Vocational Purposes/ Vocational English as a Second Language) or for academic study (EAP : English for Academic Purposes which is taught generally within educational institutions to students needing English in their study)

Duddley – Evans and St John suggest the flowing absolute characteristics and variable characteristics

Three absolute characteristics are :

- ESP is designed to meet specific needs of learners

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

- ESP is centred on the language (grammar, lexis, register), skills, discourse and genres appropriate to these activities

Four variable characteristics are :

- ESP may be related to or designed for specific disciplines

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

- ESP is likely to be designed for adult learners, either at a tertiary level institution or in

a professional work situation

- ESP is generally designed for intermediate or advanced students Most ESP courses assume basic knowledge of the language system, but it can be used with beginners as well

1.1.2 English for Business Purposes (EBP)

Business English is defined as follows:

- Business English is the careful research and design of pedagogical materials and activities for an identifiable group of adult learners within a specific learning content (Johns & Dudley-Evans, 1991)

- Business English is designed to meet specified needs of the learner (Strevens, 1998) The aims of EBP are to work or prepare to work in a business context, and deal with Business English in an occupational context It is also required on courses in disciplines such as business, finance, accounting and banking has more in common with the study of other EAP disciplines

The characteristics of EBP can be seen from the following pie chart

Chart 1: Characteristics of EBP (Ellis & Johnson,1994)

The most important characteristic of exchanges in the context of business meetings, telephone calls, and discussions is a sense of purpose Users of Business English need to speak English primarily so that they can achieve more in their jobs Besides, there is a need for an internationally accepted way of doing things so that people from different cultures, and with different mother tongues, can quickly feel more comfortable with one other Next, information has to be conveyed with minimum risk of misunderstanding, and the time for processing needs to be short

1.2 Materials in language teaching and learning

1.2.1 Definition and roles of Teaching Materials

The term „materials‟ as defined by Tomlinson (1998) is „anything which is used to help to teach language learners‟ It is known under various forms of a textbook, a course book, a workbook, a cassette, a CD-Rom, a video, a photocopied handout, a newspaper, news on the Internet, a story, etc Obviously, materials, among these kinds, can be exploited variously in language teaching and learning

Materials are used in all language teaching and their role in the process of language teaching and learning is of great significance (Dudley-Evans & St John, 1998; Richards, 2001)

According to Richards (2001), materials provide a basis for the content of the lesson, the

in Useful teaching materials provide great assistance to inexperienced teachers or poorly trained teachers (Nunan, 1991; Richards, 2001) They can serve as „a form of teacher training‟ (Richards, 2001:251) and teachers can get ideas on how to plan and teach the lesson from the materials However, teachers should remember that „course materials for English should be seen as the teacher‟s servant and not his master‟ (Cunningsworth, 1984:15)

For ESP courses, Dudley-Evans & St John (1998) present four functions of teaching materials: a source of language, a learning support, a source of motivation and stimulation, and a source for reference

1.2.2 Types of Materials

Materials in use can vary from a text book, institutionally prepared materials or the teacher‟s own materials (Richards, 2001) The former is referred to as published textbooks and the later in-house materials by Robinson (1991) It remains controversial among ELT specialists to choose published textbooks or in-house materials because it can be said that there are both good points and bad points in the selection of textbook or in-house material However, „there is no such a thing as a perfect textbook‟ (Brown, 1995: 166)

Consequently, no one can deny the important role of materials in language teaching and learning It is considered a good tool to improve the lessons Among the diversified types

of materials, obviously, teacher has to make a good consideration on materials evaluation

to suit his learner need and language teaching-learning context

1.3 Materials Evaluation

1.3.1 Reasons of Materials Evaluation

There are two main reasons for carrying out materials evaluation Firstly, there may be a need to choose among the materials available the most suitable one to use for a particular situation Secondly, there can be a need for materials evaluation to determine whether the material chosen works for that situation after it has been used for a period (Ellis, 1997)

In ESP, Dudley-Evans and St John (1998) mention that materials evaluation is an indispensable part of the key stages in ESP process (see Figure 2.1)

teaching-learning

Figure 1: Stages in the ESP Process (Dudley-Evans and St John, 1998:121)

According to Robinson (1991), evaluation can be used as part of quality control Through evaluation, advantages and disadvantages of a material can be revealed, on which basis, the effectiveness of the material will be determined Then, decision for future use or areas

of adaptations shall be made Especially, the evaluation will lead to some suggestions of changes, so the materials will work more effectively in future time The findings of materials evaluation will provide input for responsible people to evaluate the effectiveness

of the materials

Hutchinson, T and Waters, A (1987) also state that the decision finally made is likely to be the better for being based on a systematic check of all the important variables A careful evaluation, then, can save a lot of expense and frustration

1.3.2 Definition of Materials Evaluation

There are a number of researchers expressed their own point of view towards materials evaluation

Evaluation is a matter of judging the fitness of something for a particular purpose but concerned with relative merit because there is no absolute good or bad – only degrees of fitness for the required purpose (Hutchinson, T & Waters, A, 1987:96)

Murphy (1985:15) indicates that evaluation concerned with describing what is there, and placing some value judgment on what is found Nunan, D (1991:46) affirms: “evaluation is

not simply a process of obtaining information; it is also a decision-making process” Additionally, Dudley, T & Jo, M (1998: 128) point out: “evaluation is a whole process which begins with determining what information to gather and ends with bringing about the change in current activities or influencing future ones” In short, materials evaluation is the process with the systematic appraisal of the value of materials in relation to their objectives of the learners using them

1.3.3 Kinds of materials evaluation

There are three types of evaluation depending on the reasons for materials evaluation:

- Preliminary Evaluation: is carried out before a course begins in order to select the

most relevant and appropriate material for a particular group of learners This kind of evaluation is also to identify which aspects of the published materials needed adapting

to suit the purposes of the evaluators (Robinson, 1991; Ellis, cited in Tomlinson, 1993)

- Formative Evaluation: normally takes place while the course is on-going and the

findings can suggest modifications for future use

- Summative evaluation: is conducted at the end or some time after the course has run

and is very valuable for “durable courses” (Dudley-Evans, 1998) Ellis calls this kind

of evaluation retrospective evaluation Besides, according to Richards (2001), a summative material evaluation is to determine

In this thesis, material evaluation is implemented while the EBP material „Market Leader‟

is in use and it is hoped to give some recommendations for improvement

1.3.4 Materials evaluators

Dudley – Evans & St John (1998); Tomlinson (1998); Robinson(1991) and Richard

(2001) all agree that the evaluation of materials can be conducted by outsiders (those who

are not involved in the program, for example, consultants, inspectors and administrators )

or insiders (teachers, students, course or material designers)

The advantages of having outsiders involved in the material evaluation are obvious because they can bring “fresh” and “objective” perspectives into the evaluation However, there may be some disadvantages Outsiders as evaluators will have their own views on language teaching methods They may not obtain a full understanding of the teaching and learning situation in which the evaluation is being carried out Thus, they may unsympathetic and it may take more time for them to get to know the local situation (learners‟ needs, facilities as well as constrains) It may be hard for them to make exact judgments and realistic recommendations, or may be what they find has already been found (Dudley-Evans & St John, 1998)

Materials Evaluation by insiders has some advantages because insiders have already been involved in the program, they will understand the teaching and learning situation better than anyone else (Tomlinson, 1998) Richards also agree that insiders, especially teachers, can make modification to improve the effectiveness of the materials However, the insiders

“may be too close and involved” (Dudley-Evans and St John, 1998: 131), the evaluation may be influenced by their teaching experiences and their subjective points of view

As being stated above, evaluation is concerned with relative merit and there is no absolute good or bad (Hutchinson & Waters: 1987: 96), so every material evaluator, unsurprisingly, has his own strengths and weaknesses prescribed by his subjective opinions, course involvement and teaching experiences

1.3.5 Sources of the data

Data for evaluation can come from different sources According to Lynch (1996), evaluation data can come from a variety of sources such as students, instructors, administrators, evaluators, and others who interact with the program Kenedy (cited in

Robinson, 1991) indicated that, in the case of ESP, if participants are given “a share in the responsibility for its success”, the success of evaluation is even more ensured

1.3.6 Models for Materials Evaluation

Tom Hutchinson & Alan Waters (1987) recommend the four main following steps which can be presented in the following model

Define Criteria

On what bases will you judge materials? Which criteria will be more important?

Subjective analysis

What realizations of the criteria do

you want in your courses?

Figure 2: The materials evaluation process

by Hutchinson, T & Waters, A (1987:98)

It can be seen clearly that the evaluation process is divided into four major steps The first step is to set out and present a checklist of the criteria for subjective and objective analysis Next step is to determine the evaluator‟s requirements and analyze the materials At last, make comparison these two aspects by analyzing the data The authors also remind that it will be useful to have some kind of rank order of factors and decide which is more important as well as consider which unsatisfactory features are easier to remedy

Consequently, not only Hutchinson & Waters give the models of materials evaluation but also many others namely Ellis (1997) and McDonough & Shaw (1993) suggest their own models However, due to the minor thesis, the popular one by Hutchinson & Waters is chosen in the evaluation process

1.3.7 Criteria for material evaluation

Sheldon (1988) presents a set of criteria including rationale, availability, user definition, layout/graphic, accessibility, linkage, selection/grading, physical characteristics, appropriacy, authenticity, sufficiency, cultural bias, educational validity, stimulus/practice/revision, flexibility, guidance and overall value for money

Hutchinson and Waters (1987) suggest the following checklist:

- Audience: the learners (ages, sex, study/professional fields, status with respect to professional fields; knowledge of English, of areas of work or study and of the world; educational background, interest and so on)

- Aims: aims of the course and aims of the materials

- Content: language description, language points, proportion of work on macro-skill, micro-skill, text-types, subject matter areas, level of knowledge, organization and sequence of content

- methodology: theory of learning, learners‟ attitude, kinds of exercises, learning techniques, aids, guidance for teaching, the flexibility of materials

teaching Other criteria: price, availability

1.3.8 Materials adaptation

Mc Donough & Shaw (1993) suggest 5 main techniques for adaptation

- Adding: can be done by the technique of extending or expanding Extending means

that “the techniques are being applied within the methodological framework of the

original materials: in other words, the model is not itself changed” (McDonough & Shaw, 1993:89) Addition can be made before, during or after the intended area

- Deleting or Omitting: the technique of deletion can be used over a part of an exerciser

of a course book Addition and deletion work together in the sense that part of a text or

an exercise may be taken out and then replaced with something else of the same types

A task may be deleted and compensated by a more suitable one to meet the objectives

of the whole unit

- Re-ordering: this technique refers to the possibility of arranging the parts of a course book in a different order or the adjustment of the sequence within a unit, or even the arrangement of different units in a course book

- Modifying: can be sub-divided under two related headings: rewriting and restructuring Rewriting may relate activities more closely to learners‟ own background and interest, introduce model of authentic language, or set most purposeful problem-solving tasks where the answers are not always known before the teacher asks the question Restructuring may be used for teachers who are required to follow a course book rather strictly Changes in the structuring of the class are sometimes the only kind of adaptation that is realistically possible

- Simplifying: is a type of modification or a “rewriting” activity Simplification could be

in the following forms: sentence structure, lexical content and grammatical structures

Additionally, Tomlinson B (1998:281) has also proposed the similar techniques for material adaptation They are omission, addition, reduction, extension, rewriting/modification, replacement and re-ordering

SUMMARY

In this chapter, we have looked at an overview of the basic concepts that relevant to the study English for Business Purpose, Materials in Language teaching and learning as well as Material evaluation and adaptation are the very important and essential theories that are believed useful for evaluation process

Chapter 2: METHODOLOGY

In this chapter, the methodology employed in the thesis is described in details including the research design, research methods and research procedures as well as the participants and the setting

2.1 The research design

The research is aimed to find out the teachers and students‟ perception of merits and demerits of the material „Market Leader‟ in terms of its audience, objectives, content and methodology The evaluation was conducted right after the first semester when nine units have just been finished In order to collect the reliable and valid information, the research used simultaneous combination of different methods – document analysis, survey questionnaires and informal interviews

2.2 The research methods

As being said above, the research methods of the thesis are the combination of document analysis, survey questionnaires and informal interviews

- First, document analysis is an effective method to collect the data because it helps to compare the appropriateness of the material and the course objectives, contents and methodology

- Second, survey questionnaires play the most important role in collecting data because

of many advantages The participants have much more time to think carefully before giving the answers than the interviews that require the immediate responses Furthermore, the participants are not afraid of telling truly what they think because of indirect questions and the evaluator can collect ideas of many people at the same time However, some of the participants, unexpectedly, were not enthusiastic to finish the questionnaires, so not all of the returned questionnaires are reliable enough

- Last, informal interviews are good to support the two preceding research methods Informal interviews do not make the participants uncomfortable, so they are willing to share their hope and opinions Their information from the interviews combined with the data from the two questionnaires is of great value for both materials evaluation and adaptation

In short, the combination of these instruments in collecting data would make the findings more reliable and accurate Every instrument has its own advantages and disadvantages, but they can support each other That is the reason why it is much better to implement both

of them to avoid misleading information and subjective perceptions

2.3 Research procedures

2.3.1 Document analysis

Due to the limitation of the minor thesis, it is suitable to choose the model of the Material Evaluation Process by Hutchinson, T & Waters, A (1993) which includes 4 major steps as follow:

- The first step is to define criteria for subjective and objective analysis and present a checklist

- Secondly, subjective analysis shows the course requirements on the material

- Next, objective analysis presents the suitability of the material to the audience, the objectives and the contents as well as the methodology of the course

- The last step is to match the material with the prescribed ESP course by analyzing the data in terms of Audience, Objectives, Contents and Methodology

2.3.2 Survey questionnaires

The survey questionnaires are designed in the same form for both teachers and students to collect their attitude and information on evaluation of the current used material „Market leader‟ Each questionnaire is divided into 3 parts Questionnaires for teachers consist of

15 questions while questionnaires for students include 4 ones The reason is one question

in questionnaires for teachers is used to ask about Teacher‟s Resource Book Here, the two questionnaires are composed entirely of closed questions in order to be convenient for the participants to finish All the open questions are concluded in the informal interviews The points of investigation are presented in the following Table:

in the Questionnaires

1 The Suitability of the Material to the Objectives of the Course

Q1: Vocabulary enrichment

Q2: Students‟ abilities to do Tasks Required by the Course

Q3: Language Points that help students to do the Tasks required by

the Course

Q4: Students‟ skills improvement after the Course

Questions 1, 2, 3, 4

2 The Suitability of the Material to the Content Requirement

Q5: Proportion of 4 macro skills in the Material

Q6: Opinions on Vocabulary in the Material

Q7: Opinions on the Text-types in the Material

Q8: Opinions on Language Competence that help enable students to

achieve the aims of the Course

Questions 5, 6, 7, 8

3 Methodology

Q 9: What teachers focused on

Q 10: Teachers – students‟ interaction patterns

Q11: Teaching aids

Q1 Q12: The usefulness of Teacher‟s Resource Book (For teachers only)

Q13: The usefulness of Practice File

Q14: The frequency in use of Practice File

Q15: Students‟ progress

Questions 9, 10, 11,

12, 13, 14, 15

Table 1: Points of investigations of the two survey questionnaires

2.4 The setting and the participants

The study was carried out at HPU where English is one of the compulsory subjects, and the participants involved in are the BA teachers and the first year BA students In the preceding academic years, Lifelines used to be the official textbook, but in 2009 – 2010, Market Leader is considered the better choice for BA students However, regardless of the new textbook, the teaching and learning situation seemed unchanged

Basing on the information from the informal interviews, almost all of the teachers and students strongly agreed that it was better for them to learn ESP right at the first semester Luckily, the students found ESP very important for their future jobs, so they are eager to learn EBP The teachers thought that their students should learn ESP as soon as possible to acquire more knowledge and essential skills of both English daily and business communication This is considered good news for ESP teaching and learning at HPU However, both teachers and students‟ considerable concern was how EBP was taught to improve students‟ English competence

All the teachers and students have complained about the high number of the students in each class, approximately fifty ones who passed the university entrance exam according to different modules: A (math, physics and chemistry) and D (math, literature and English) That means their Basic English was of different levels; some of the students were good at Basic English, but the others were not Nevertheless, there was no classification of the students‟ English competence Besides, the available facilities for study only included boards, chalks and cassettes; computers and projector were not commonly in use As a result, teachers had to overcome these difficulties to find out appropriate teaching methods

to attract their students Through the informal interviews, it was hoped to take more consideration on dividing smaller classes as well as classifying students‟ English level Next, all the BA teachers frankly shared though most of them achieved the degree of

businesspeople before becoming BA teachers They only studied by themselves through books, newspaper and the Internet or shared knowledge with their colleagues, so all the theoretical knowledge sometimes made them embarrassed and not self-confident enough

in teaching ESP It is certain that they are looking forward to attending an ESP training course

teacher-Consequently, it is clear that the current EBP teaching and learning situation needs improving a lot The Faculty should pay more attention to the teachers and students‟ ideas

as well as offer an education reform to overcome these obstacles

Chapter 3: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSIONS

3.1 The Requirements of the Course

3.1.1 The Course Objectives

Market leader has been believed the course book that serves as a preparation step for the students to enter into the workplace of EBP Students are equipped with a large amount of English vocabulary for business, which will surely be useful for them to deal with English business documents In particular, they will have good chances to practice the presentation skill and build their confidence in public speaking This course is designed in view of using the learner-centered approach to develop communicative competence

According to the course objectives set by the Faculty of English, at the end of the term, each student should be able to:

 Acquire a large amount of English vocabulary for both General English and English Business

 Improve their reading skills in order to comprehend English Business documents

 Join in pair work, group work & presentations confidently and constructively

 Develop their writing skill and self-study skills

 Raise awareness of life-long learning

EXPECTATIONS

These are the points students are expected to fulfill:

 Thorough preparation of the lesson before each class

 Effort to self-study (including group work activities)

 Participation in class, which includes both speaking up and listening

 Access the internet for necessary information

 Honesty in doing both the oral and written tests

3.1.2 The Course Content

According to the Faculty of English, the course needs to acquire the following contents Requirement:

o Vocabulary: Students can learn new words, phrases and collocations, and are given tasks which help to activate the vocabulary they already know or have just learnt

o Language points: these sections focus on accuracy and knowledge of key areas

of grammar including Present Simple, Present Continuous, Past Simple, Present Perfect, „Can‟, Countable vs Uncountable Nouns, Comparatives and Superlatives, Future of „will‟ and „going to‟, Have got, There is/are

o Listening: Students can develop listening skills such as prediction, listening for specific information and note taking

o Skills: students develop their communication skills of presentations, meetings, negotiations, telephoning and social English

o Reading: students read relevant adapted authentic texts to develop their reading skills like scanning and skimming They can also acquire essential business vocabulary

o Writing: writing e-mail, fax, memo, list, telephone message

3 2 The Material Description

Market Leader elementary, as being said above, is the currently used book for the first year students at Business Administration Department The following consists of the main descriptions of this book, book objectives, book contents and methodology

- Market leader has been developed in association with the Financial Times, one of the leading sources of business information in the world and it is made by David Falvey, Simon Kent and David Cotton who have many years‟ teaching experience in business

This is the first time it has used for the 1st Business Administration students 2009 –

2010 academic year

- Market Leader consists of the course book, practice file and teacher‟s resource book

- Book objectives: Market leader elementary is an elementary level business English course for businesspeople and students of business English This book is designed to greatly improve the ability to communicate in English in a wide range of business situation It is good for students of business to develop the communication skills they need to succeed in business and enlarge their knowledge of the business world Besides, it helps students become more fluent and confident in using the language of business; therefore, students increase their career prospects

- Book content: The course book includes 12 units and 4 revisions under different topics (introductions, work and leisure, problems, travel, food and entertaining, sales, people, markets, companies, the web, cultures and jobs) Each unit contains Discussion, Texts, Language Work, Skills and Case Study A typical unit consists of the following sections:

o Starting up: students are offered activities in which they discuss the topic of the unit and exchange ideas about it

o Vocabulary: Students learn important new words and phrases that they can use when they carry out the tasks in the unit A good dictionary, such as the Longman Basic English Dictionary, will also help students to increase their vocabulary

o Discussion: Students can build up their confidence in using English and improve their fluency through discussion activities

o Reading: Students read adapted articles on topics from the Financial Times and other newspaper They can develop their reading skills and learn essential business vocabulary They can also be able to discuss the ideas and issues in the articles

o Listening: Students hear interviews with businesspeople They will develop listening skills such as listening for information and note taking

o Language review: This section focuses on common problem areas at elementary level Students will be more accurate in their use of language Each unit contains two Language review boxes which provide a review of key grammar items

o Skills: Students develop essential business communication skills such as making presentations, taking part in meetings, negotiating, telephoning and using English in social situations Each Skills section contains a Useful language box which provides students with the language they need to carry out the realistic business tasks in the book

o Case study: The Case Study is linked to the business topics of each unit They are based on realistic business problems or situations and allow students to use the language and communication skills they have developed while working through the unit Therefore, students have opportunities to practice speaking skills in realistic business situations Each Case Study ends with a writing task Models of writing text types are given in the Writing File at the end of the Course book A full writing syllabus is provided in the Market Leader Practice File

o Revision units: Four revision units are based on material covered in the preceding three Course book units

- Methodology: Market Leader combines recent ideas from the world of business with a strongly task – based approach

Types of Tasks and Exercises:

- Grammar: Present Simple, Present Continuous, Past Simple, Present Perfect, Modal verb „Can, Could, Should‟, Countable vs Uncountable Nouns, Comparatives and

Superlatives, Future of „will‟ and „going to‟, Have got, There is/are, some/any, much/a lot, a little/a bit

- Vocabulary: write the words under the correct heading, complete the sentences, match words with definitions and collocations, make sentences, do crosswords

- Listening: Note taking, Gap Filling, True/False questions, Comprehension questions, Chart Completion, Number the correct order

- Speaking: controlled practice of the target language in each unit that involved pair work and group work

- Reading: Multiple choices, Gap – filling, Comprehension Questions, True/False Statement, Chart Completion, Matching

- Writing: Writing e-mail, list, telephone message, fax, memo, catalogue description, company profile

3.3 The Survey Results

3.3.1 The Suitability of the Material to the Objectives of the Course

Question 1: Vocabulary enrichment

The answers to this question by T and S can be summarized in the following table:

Degree Teachers (%) Students (%)

Table 2: Students’ Vocabulary enrichment after the course

It can be seen from the Table that teachers and students gave the similar ideas More than half

of teachers and students recognized that the material helped students enrich much and very much vocabulary One fifth of the teachers and students found it „still poor‟, it means one fifth

of students failed to acquire a large amount of English Business and Daily Communication Vocabulary Therefore, the data collected showed that students‟ vocabulary enrichment partly matches the desired requirement

Question 2: Students’ abilities to do Tasks Required by the Course

Well

Not Well

at all

Making bookings and checking

Table 3: Students’ abilities to do Tasks Required by the Course

According to the statistics presented in Table 2, teachers pointed out seven tasks that their students are able to do well and very well as follows:

- Introducing yourself and others (95%)

- Talking about work and leisure (90%)

- Telephoning: solving problems (60%)

- Making bookings and checking arrangements (57%)

- Tipping-Entertaining (90%)

- Meetings: participating in discussions (65%)

- Starting a presentation (80%)

In contrast, students revealed that of all the nine tasks listed above, they could master only three ones

- Introducing yourself and others (93%)

- Talking about work and leisure (60%)

- Tipping-Entertaining (65%)

- Meetings: participating in discussions (80%)

It is clearly that teachers felt very optimistic about their students‟ abilities; they appreciated their students much more highly than students appreciated themselves Besides, teachers and students gave some opposite ideas, such as:

- Talking about work and leisure (not very well: T 10% - S 30%; not well at all: T 0% - S 10%)

- Telephoning: solving problems (very well: T 30% - S 15%; not well at all: T 18% - S 45%)

- Making bookings and checking arrangements (very well: T 30% - S 15%; well: T 27% - S 15%; not very well: T 20% - S 40%)

In conclusion, teachers seem to believe that their students can perform the tasks required by the course meanwhile students found it problematic and difficult to deal with

Question 3: Language Points that Help Students Do the Tasks Required by the Course

Table 4: Language Points that help Students Do the Tasks Required by the Course

The data displayed in the Table clarifies that Language Points do not cause many difficulties for students Both teachers and students shared the same ideas with the high percentages of

„well‟ and „very well‟ Low percentage is put on „not very well‟ and „not well at all‟ is not concerned with Unsurprisingly, students frankly mentioned that these language points had been taught in their secondary and high schools, even in primary school for some of them; therefore, it did not become their problem Besides, they also affirmed that their teachers paid much attention to language points, so they spent a lot of time to give their students practice exercises As the result, students achieved a good success of Language Points

Question 4: Students’ skills improvement after the course

In terms of skills improvement, students did not make much better progress in listening, speaking and writing Undoubtedly, both teachers and students complained much about the poor teaching and learning facilities including only CDs and cassettes with a large number of students in a class Certainly, it leads to the fact that students‟ speaking and listening abilities were not as improved as being required though teachers focused much time on these two skills Concerning writing skills, unsurprisingly, it is difficult for students to write fax, list, email, and telephone message without practicing Because of limited time, teachers could not pay much attention to writing while the focus seemed to be very much on the other three skills Additionally, students, in their daily life, always write emails or lists and telephone messages in Vietnamese, not English; thus, they were not familiar with these tasks In general, there is not a big difference between teachers and students‟ choices, and only reading skill does match the desired feature Listening and speaking skills are improved, but not much while writing skill improvement was still very poor

3.3.2 The Suitability of the Material to the Content Requirement

Question 5: Proportion of four macro skills in the Material

focused on

Adequately focused on

Not much focused on

Table 6: Proportion of four macro skills in the Material

As can be seen from the Table, the proportion of four macro skills in the Material is unequal Listening and speaking are much focused on in comparison with reading and writing