Thiết kế chương trình đọc hiểu bổ trợ cho học sinh chuyên Anh lớp 11 ở trường THPT chuyên Phan Bội Châu, Nghệ An

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES NGUYỄN THỊ HẢI DESIGNING A SUPPLEMENTARY READING SYLLABUS FOR GRADE 11 ENGLISH GIFTED STUDENTS AT PHA

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES

NGUYỄN THỊ HẢI DESIGNING A SUPPLEMENTARY READING SYLLABUS FOR GRADE 11 ENGLISH GIFTED STUDENTS AT PHAN BOI CHAU SPECIALIZING HIGH SCHOOL, NGHE AN (Thiết kế chương trình đọc hiểu bổ trợ cho hoc sinh chuyên Anh lớp

11 ở trường THPT chuyên Phan Bội Châu, Nghệ An)

MA Minor PROGRAMME Thesis

Field: English Teaching Methodology

Code: 601410 Supervisor: Phạm Minh Hiền, MA

Hanoi - 2010

TABLE OF CONTENTS

*Declaration……… i

*Acknowledgements……… ii

*Abstract……… iii

*List of tables ……… vi

PART A: INTRODUCTION……… 1

1 Rationales of the study……… 1

2 Aims of the study……… 1

3 Research questions……… 1

4 Scope of the study……… 2

5 Methods of the study……… 2

6 Significance of the study……… 2

7 Design of the study……… 2

PART B: DEVELOPMENT……… 3

CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW……… 3

I.1 An overview of syllabus design……… 3

I.1.1 Syllabus and curriculum……… 3

I.1.2 Definition of syllabus……… 3

I.2 Approaches to language syllabus design……… 4

I.2.1 Synthetic approach……… 4

I.2.2 Analytic approach……… 4

I.3 Types of language syllabus……… 4

I.3.1 Grammatical syllabus……… 5

I.3.2 Siuational syllabus……… 5

I.3.3 Notional - functional syllabus……… 6

I.3.4 Skilled – based syllabus……… 6

I.3.5 Topical syllabus……… 6

I.4 Steps to design a language syllabus ……… 7

I.4.1 Needs analysis in syllabus design……… 7

I.4.2 What is needs analysis? ……… 7

I.4.3 Setting goals and objectives……… 8

I.4.4 Content specification……… 8

I.4.5 Syllabus organization……… 8

I.5 Reading theory……… 10

I.5.1 Definition of reading……… 10

I.5.2 Reading and reading comprehension……… 10

I.5.3 Reading skills and comprehension skills……… 10

I.6 Summary……… 11

CHAPTER II: ANALYZING THE NEEDS AT PHAN BOI CHAU SPECIALIZING SCHOOL……… 12

II.1 Information……… 12

II.2 The situation of teaching English to grade 11 English gifted students at Phan Boi Chau Specializing School……… .12

II.2.1 The school……… 12

II.2.2 The teachers……… 12

II.2.3 The students……… 13

II.2.4 The currents reading syllabus for grade 11……… 13

II.2.4.1 The good points of the text book when used for reading and learning at Phan Boi Chau Specializing School II.2.4.2 The drawbacks of the text book when used for teaching and learning at Phan Boi Chau Specializing School II.3 THE SURVEY……… 14

II.3.1 The subjects……… 14

II.3.2 The instruments for collecting data……… 14

II.3.2.1 The questionnaire to teachers……… 14

II.3.2.2 The questionnaire to students……… 14

II.3.3 Data analysis and findings……… 14

II.3.3.1 Needs perceived by teachers……… 15

II.3.3.2 Needs perceived by students……… 21

CHAPTER III: DESIGNING THE SUPPLEMENTARY READING SYLLABUS FOR GRADE 11 ENGLISH GIFTED STUDENTS AT PHAN BOI CHAU

SPECIALIZING SCHOOL ………

III.1 Aims and objectives of the syllabus………

26 III.1.1 Aims of the syllabus……… 26

III.1.2 Objectives if the syllabus……… 26

III.2 Content specification of the syllabus……… 27

III.2.1 Topics in the syllabus……… 27

III.2.2 Reading skills and reading exercises in the syllabus………… 27

III.2.3 Grammar points in the syllabus……… 28

III.3 Time allotment for the syllabus……… 28

III.4 The organization of the syllabus……… 28

III.5 The proposed syllabus for grade 11 English gifted students at Phan Boi Chau Specializing School l………

29 III.6 Summary……… 34

CHAPTER IV: SUGGESTED TEACHING METHODS AND ASSESSMENT ……… 35

IV.1 Suggested teaching methods……… 35

IV.2 Suggested format of assessing reading skills……… 36

PART C: CONCLUSIONS……… 40

1 Conclusions of the study……… 40

2 Limitations and recommendation for further research……… 40

REFERENCES……… 42

A SAMPLE UNIT ……… XI

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

ESP: English for specific purposes

EFL: English as a Foreign Language

ESL: English as a Second Language

GPE: General Purpose English

MOET: Ministry of Education and Training

PBCSHS: Phan Boi Chau Specializing School

PART A: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationales of the study

The new compulsory English text books have been in use since 2006 They are quite different from the old ones Nevertheless, the compulsory English text books ( TIENG ANH –NANG CAO) used for gifted students at Phan Boi Chau Specializing School were not actually designed for gifted students Thus, they are not plentiful enough to meet the students’ needs as well as the demand of the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) tests for excellent students The new compulsory English text books are abundant in contents, concerning reading skill, however, up to now there have been no supplementary reading syllabus as well as supplementary reading materials for English gifted students

As we all know, gifted education plays a very important part in general education Gifted students always require a different education Being a member of the teaching staff and fully aware of the importance and necessity of a supplementary reading syllabus, the researcher of this study decided to do an intensive reseach on designing a supplementary reading syllabus for grade 11 English gifted students at Phan Boi Chau Specializing High School

2 Aims of the study

The study major aims at designing an appropriate supplementary reading syllabus for grade 11 English gifted students at Phan Boi Chau Specializing High School

- To achieve this aim, the researcher set the specific objective study as follows:

-To explore the current main trends in language syllabus design

-To propose a supplementary reading syllabus for grade 11 English gifted students Phan Boi Chau Specializing High School, which can meet both the MOET requirements on the curriculum for the gifted and on tests for excellent students’ needs

-To suggest teaching methods and ways of assessment appropriate to the teaching and learning situation at Phan Boi Chau Specializing High School

3 Research questions

1- What are the current trends of language syllabus design?

2-.What is the students’ expectation of reading syllabus ?

3-.How is the supplementary reading syllabus for grade 11 English gifted students Phan Boi Chau Specializing High School designed ?

4-What teaching methods and ways of assessment can be suggested ?

4 Scope of the study

Within its scope, this research paper mainly focuses on designing a supplementary reading syllabus, which is suitable to the local situation of Phan Boi Chau Specializing High School, it aims at only students in grade 11

5 Methods of the study

Both quanlitatives and quantatives methods are employed in this study

The quantitative method, which is used to collect data by questionnaires, aims at exploring the needs of the students, their expectations and opinions about the ESP course The qualitative method is used as the supporting method to collect information for the study through the discussion, informal interviews with students, teachers and academic specialists

6 Significance of the study

The study is hoped to provide English gifted students and the teachers at Phan Boi Chau Specializing High School with an appropriate and interesting supplemetary syllabus based on which reading materials can be systematically selected and developed

7 Design of the study

The study consists of three parts:

Part A: Introduction: It gives an overview of the study in terms of rationales aims, research questions, scope, method, significance and the design of the study

Part B: Development: it contains 4 chapters

Chapter I: provides an overview of the language syllabus design and reading skill Chapter II: is concerned with an analysis of the situation of teaching English Phan Boi Chau Specializing High School and an analysis of grade 11 English gifted students’ needs in terms of reading skill

Chapter III: focuses on proposing a supplementary syllabus with the description of aims and objectives, and the specification and sequencing of content into each unit

Chapter IV: suggests a teachng method and testing format that are suitable to the syllabus

Part C: Conclusion: - It gives a summary of the study, limitations and some suggestions for the future research

PART: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW I.1 An overview of the syllabus design

I.1.1 Syllabus and curriculum

This sudy bases its theoretical background on the syllabus design, theories given by Nunan (1985), Yalden (1987), Dubin & Olshtain (1985), White (1988), whose concepts and procedures for designing syllabus have paved the ways for those who are concerned with the art of language teaching material development and syllabus design What these researchers have in common in the theories of syllabus design is that the work must be based on the analysis of learners’ needs, objectives of the course, the methodology and material for the course

I.1.2 Definition of syllabus

“What do we mean by a syllabus ? “- This seems to be regarded as an unimportant question to most language teachers But in fact, it is not an easy task to attain a perfect

definition of “syllabus” in current literature because of the disagreement about the nature

of “the syllabus” All the same, the notion of “syllabus” has been defined in some different

ways by many different authors

As an advocate of the broad view, Yalden (1984: 14) pointed out that: “syllabus

replaces the concept of “ method” , and the syllabus is now seen as an instrument by which the teacher, with the help of the syllabus designer, can achieve a degree of “ fit” between the needs and the aims of the learners (as social being and as individual), and the activites which will take place in the class room.”

On the other hand, some other authors (for example, Nunan, 1988; Allen, 1984; Hutchinson and Waters, 1987), who adopted the narrow view, argued that there should be

the distinction between syllabus and methodology: “syllabus is concerned with a

specification of what units will be taught” (Allen 1984,:49) In addition, Nunan, another

narrow view supporter defines syllabus as follows: “syllabus design is seen as being

concerned essentially with the selection and grading of content, while methodology is concerned wirh the selection of learning task and activities.”

With the aim of designing a supplementary reading for the gifted, the term “Syllabus”

is used in its restricted sense

I.2 Approaches to language syllabus design

I.2.1 Synthetic approach

Specialists often group these approaches into two distinct types of approach Which

are labelled synthetic and analytic

The terms”sythetic” refers here to structural, lexical, notional, functiomal and most situational and topical syllabus, in which acquisition is a process of gradual accumulation

of seperately taught parts, building up to the whole structure of the language The learner is exposed to a deliberately limited sample of language at any time and has to “re- synthesize” the language that has been broken down into a large number of small pieces with the aim of making this learning task easier” ( Wilkins,1976: 2)

I.2.2 Analytic approach

In “analytic”prior analysis of the total language system into a set of discrete pieces of language is largely unnecessary: “Analytic approaches are organized in terms of purposes for which people are learning language and the kinds of the language performance that are necessary to meet those purposes” (Wilkins,1976:13.) Thus “analytic” refers not to what the syllabus designer does, but to the operations required of the learner “Since we are inviting the learner, directly or indirectly, to recognize the linguistic components of the language he is acquiring, we are in effect basing our approach on the learner’s analytic capabilities” (Wlkins,1976:14) Analytic syllabuses are presented inchunks, without linguistic interference or control, and rely on the learner’s ability to induce and infer language rules, as well as on innate knowledge of linguistic universals Procedural, process and task syllabus are example of the analytic syllabus (Long& Crookes, 1993: 11)

In practice, however, any course and syllabus could be placed somewhere on the continuum between the wholly synthetic and the wholly analytic And this proposed syllabus tends towards analytic syllabus

I.3 Types of language syllabus

A language teaching syllabus is the linguistic and subject matter that makes up the teaching It is agreed that the choice of an appropriate syllabus is a major decision in language teaching and it should be considered and made as carefully consciously and with much information as possible

I.3.1 Grammatical syllabus/ structural syllabus

Historically, this is the most prevalent type for the teaching of a language in which the selection and grading of the content is from frequent to less frequent or from easy to difficult The focus is on the outcomes or the product, so the learner is expected to master each structural step and add it to his grammar collection

However,”structurally graded syllabus misrepresented the complex nature of the language as a system and tended to focus on only one aspect of language, that is, formal grammar” ( Nunan, 1988:30) A popular feature of the structural syllabus is that it is

“supposedly” generative Having learnt paradigms and pattern sentences, learners are in position to use this knowledge to generate their own sentences to express their own meanings But in fact, the matter is that a structural syllabus appears, finally, to be bankrupt If we base our syllabus on pedagogic description, there is not as it were, that much grammar to learn: and we have all the experience of our students running out of new bits of grammar to be taught before they have begun to master what they already know

I.3.2 Situational syllabus

A situational syllabus focuses on the language used in society as a social medium, the language that “is always used in a social context and cannot fully understood without reference to that context” (Wilkins, 1976:16 )

Here, the principal organizing characteristic is a list of situations, which reflects the way language and behavior are used everyday outside the classroom

One advantage of the situational approach is that motivation will be heightened since it

is “learner rather than subject centered” (Wilkins, 1976:16 )

However, a situational syllabus will be limited for students whose needs were not encompassed by the situations in the syllabus Moreover, “it assumes that the syllabus design is able to predict accurately the situation in which the learners will find themselves” ( Bell, 1981:54 )

In summary, the content of language teaching is a collection of real or imaginary situations in which language occurs or used A situation usually involves several participants who are enaged in some activities in a specific setting The language combined into plausible segment of discourse The primary purpose of a situational language-teaching syllabus is to teach the language that occurs in the situation

I.3.3 Notional – functional syllabus

The notional syllabus is based on conceptual categories called notions such as quantity, quality, duration, location and so on These notions are the basis for organization and sequenced according to chronology, frequency or usefuless

Notional syllabus emphasizes the semantic knowledge and try to answer the question

“what do the learners need to express? “ (Wilkins, 1983: 86 ) Notional – syllabus focus on the learner and the learner’ communicative purposes and this is one of the strengths of this syllabus type Nevertheless, Cook (1985) points out that in the notional syllabus, a sound psychological basis for notion is lacking Crombie (1985) presents one more weakness of the notional syllabus, one notion is presented at the time, whereas notions actually co-occur

in discourse Moreover, it is an easy task to decide which notion is more coplex than others and this causes difficulties in sequencing the notion

I.3.4 Skill - based syllabuses

Skills are things that people must be able to do to be competent in a language, relatively independently of the situation or settings in which the language use can occur while situational syllabus group functions together into specific settings of language use, skill- based syllabus group linguistic competencies (pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar and discourse) together into generalized types of behavior, such as listening to spoken language for the main idea, writing well-formed paragraphs, giving effective oral presentations and

so on This type of syllabus can help English for specific purposes learnes to develop skills and strategies with the aims of learning the specific language skills and developing more general competence in the language Learners, therefore, are made into a better process of information while applying the language skills

I.3.5 Topic - based syllabus

With content-based instruction, learners are helped to acquire language through the study of a series of relevant topics with each topic being exploited in systematic ways and from different angles Topical syllabuses are a common and convenient method of organising ESL/ EFL textbooks, and share the motivational potential syllabus, especially if selection is based on needs identification performed in terms of topics The learners, therefore, are exposed to the language in various topics relevant to their needs However, they also share the difficulties of defining and distinguish situations and topics, dealing with grammatical forms, and grading and sequencing of content As Long & Crookes

(1993:20) point out, “There is in principle no way to grade situations in terms of difficulty

or as to which ones need to be “learned” before others”

Moreover, how does a syllabus designer ensure that the topics and texts chosen will give a sufficient exposure to the language that is a representative of the target situation? This is an important question related closely to the concept of linguistic coverage How can adequate and balanced coverage be assured? The syllabus designer must, in all fairness, produce a syllabus that is accountable to sponsors, testers and the learners themselves

I.4 Steps to design a language syllabus

I.4.1 Needs analysis in syllabus design

It is of great necessity to know the importance of Needs Analysis and Needs Analysis approaches, Target Needs and Learning Needs Thus, this part will mention about the importance of Needs Analysis, Needs Analysis approaches, Target Needs and Learning Needs

I.4.2 What is needs analysis?

Needs analysis is considered as the initial process for the specification of behavioral objectives It is from these objectives that detailed aspect of the syllabus such as functions, topics, lexis and structure are derived Nunan (1988: 75) pointed out” Needs analysis refers to a family of produres for gathering information about learners and about communication tasks for use in syllabus design”

Needs analysis is “the process of determining the needs for which a learner or group of learners requires a language and arranging the needs according to priorities” (Richards, Platt and Webber, 1986:189)

According to Robinson (1991:9), a careful needs analysis should involve “Present

Situation Analysis” (PSA) and “Target Situation Analysis” (TSA) PSA concerns the

students” state of language development at the beginning of the language programme, whereas students’ language requirements regarding the target situation are identified through TSA

Nowadays, needs analysis is crucial “to conduct an in-depth needs assessment before planning and inplementing a curriculum and material” (John, 1991; Robinson, 1991) especially in the context of ESP Therefore, these two approaches to needs analysis (PSA and TSA) must be considered and combined so as to achieve a full understanding of the learners’ needs

I.4.3 Setting goals and objectives

Aims obviously are likely to have a broader character than objective, and they are term goals These aims, which also refer to the underlying reasons for purposes of a course, are normally described in very general terms and illustrated by objectives clearly, precisely and appropriately Also, objectives are defined by Nunan (1998:61) as follows: “objectives are specific before contents and activities because their principle role is to act as a dependent on the target situation; this leads to the fact that this approach is learner- restricted Obviously, each approach has their own advantages as well as the drawback; thus, with the aim of creating appropriate ESP syllabuses for their own learners syllabus designers should adopt those well-tried approaches with the combinaton of the target situation, skills, competence and performance factors This way, undoubtedly, may maximize the strengths and minimize the drawback of the above-mentioned approaches Taken this idea into account, this interactive approach will be applied to design a supplementary reading syllabus for grade 11 English gifted students at PBCSHS

long-I.4.4 Content specification

After the general goals of a course have been set, the next step is to specify content to

be taught According to Richard, Platt and Webber (1986:253) they define “selection” in language teaching as follows: “the choice of linguistic content (vocabulary, grammar, ect.) for a language course, text book, ect Procedures for selecting language items to include in

a language course include the use of frequency counts, needs analysis and pedagogic grammar” So when selecting content, selecting grammatical components, selecting tasks grammatical and notional components should be taken into account Selectiing interesting and relevant content is a difficult task, however, it would seem that most course and material writers proceed on an intuitive basis when selecting content

I.4.5 Syllabus organization

The next step is to decide on an appropriate strategy of presentation, according to Munby, (1984:58) “It is here that decisions are made about the clustering or grouping of content into learning units, about grading and sequencing, introduction and recycling, etc” (Munby,1983:58) Taba (1962) seems to share the same stand when he advocates the general model of syllabus design which gives the following steps:

1 needs analysis

2 formulation of objects

3 selection of content

4 organization of content

5 selection of learning activities

6 organization learning of activities

7 decisions about what needs evaluating and how to evaluate

This movement, which takes need analysis as the point of departure, led in part to the development of English for Specific Purposes (ESP)

According to Nunan (1998), all language programs should take their form of departure from the goals and objectives that have been derived from an analysis of learner needs For him, designing a syllabus should involves the following steps:

1 needs analysis

2 setting goals

3 selecting and grading content

4 selecting and grading learning tasks

In defining ESP authors tend to distinguish between ESP and GPE (general purpose English) and the issues related to ESP and GPE syllabus design Richard (1984:7) states that “In contrast to students’ learning English for General Purposes for whom mastery of the language for its own sake or in order to pass a general examination is the primary goal, the ESP student is usually studying English in order to carry out a particular role, such as that of foreign student in an English-medium university, flight attendant, mechanic or doctor”

This study is aimed at designing a general purpose syllabus for gifted students which means designing a general purpose syllabus Additionally, gifted students who are the objects of the study, are not like other students who also learn general purpose English And they always have great expectations for the course So it is the intention of the author

to follow the four main stages of syllabus

I.5 Reading theory

I.5.1 Definition of reading

As we know, many linguistics, and second language reseachers have investigated about reading

The definitions of reading are likely to be abundant and various Nevertheless, owning

to the limittation of the mini-thesis, the author would like to quote only some definitions According to Williams.E (1990:2) “reading is a process whereby one looks at and understands what has been written” According to Frank Smith (1985:102) “reading is understanding the author’s thought”

I.5.2 Reading and reading comprehension

Grellet; F(1990) establishes the notion that “reading and comprehension or undersatnding a written text means extracting and requires information from it as effectively as possible” While William (1984:4) and Nuttal (1996:3) share the same view

on the ground that “reading accounts for understanding what has been written, reading is the act of reconstruction”

In summary, reading involves the communication of a message between an author and

a reader Readers with their knowledge about the field concerned can predict and expect what is to come leads to the fact that their understanding comprehension is better

I.5.3 Reading skills

In reading, readers have the task of incompletely recovering a message that has been incompletely the writer In order to do this well, readers have to utilize different skills and strategies to construct the meaning from the text

Concerning ways to exploit reading text, Nuttal (1996:48- 720) has given several reading skill of which some basic ones consists of:

Guessing the meaning of words based on structural and contextual clues

 Understanding syntax

 Recognising and interpreting chesive devices

 Interpreting discourse markers

 Recognizing text organization

 Recognising implications and making inferences

 Making prediction

At the end of the chapter, reading theories were expounded and reading skill from Nuttal will be employed to specify the content of the syllabus

CHAPTER II: THE STUDY II.1 Introduction

In this chapter, the current situation at Phan Boi Chau Specializing High School (PBCSHS) related to the study will be taken in close-up Reseach methodology for results

of analysis will also be discussed, followed by the results of the survey questionaires and conclusion about students’ needs

II.2 The situation of teaching English gifted students Phan Boi Chau Specializing High School (PBCSHS)

II.2.1 The school

Phan Boi Chau is the only Specializing High School in Nghe An which is responsible for training and fostering talented for province and for the country The major task of the school is to look for and foster talents for the country and to build the school into a higher quality education center It has the reputation of having a high rate of students passing the national exams for the excellent However things are not really good for regarding the national exams for English excellent students It is the only specialzing high school of the province but the facilities are not very sufficient Each classroom is only equipped with students’ desks, a teacher table, four ceiling fans, and a board The school has one library with rather many English books but they aren’t up-date The school also has a computer lab but they are not intended to devote to language learningclasses This causes difficulties for teachers to carry out their plans

II.2.2 The teachers

There are 12 English teachers aged between 24 and 54 Most of them have been trained

in Vietnam, only one teacher studied Master Degree abroad, three of them studied Master Degree at Hanoi National University of Foreign Languages and some are now studying for M.A degree there In general, they are well-trained and rather professionally experienced with at least 4 years in teaching After interviewing the teachers it is found that those who teach at English specializing classes find it extremely hard to supplement the curriculum and to add materials They also have very few opportunities to get further training in courses especially training course for teachers at specializing schools In addition, the teachers have a few chances to work or contact with native speakers, academic specialists and experts who can give useful assistance and consultation

Hopefully, the proposed supplementary syllabus is an attempt to help solve one of the above problems and it may help reduce the teachers’ work in preparing materials when teaching English gifted students

II.2.3 The students

The student population of school ranges from fifteen to eighteen years old Most of students in English classes are girls This is a typical feature of PBCSHS Most of them come from Vinh City, some come from different districts in the province Being students of language specializing classes, they are considered gifted students who have special command of English The English gifted are selected after an extrance exam in English which are only in written form and with the results of exam in Literature and Mathematics ( from the final exam) The problem is that some become English gifted students due to their good results in Maths and Literature although they are not realy very good at English From observation and interviews with teachers we found that the students’ motivation is one of the advantages of the school Most students are very keen on learning English and tend to search for rare and difficult exercises from various English books Almost 100% of them pass the provincial and university entrance exam with good results However, very few students could pass the national exam for the excellent with the high marks But in 2010, it

is the first time one student could pass with the first prize As a result some students are not motivated to take the national exam for the excellent especially grade 12 students

II.2.4 The current reading syllabus for grade 11

II.2.4.1 The good points of the text book when used for teaching and learning at PBCSHS

The text is much more culturally sensitive It is advantageous because the units are organised around 6 broad themes which are interesting and cross-curricular topics, which helps students concentrate on dealing with the English without spending too much time understanding the text Each broad theme is then subdivided into different themes in different units In summary, the text book contains lively and interesting materials It is much better than the old one

II.2.4.2 The drawbacks of the text book when used for teaching and learning at PBCSHS

Besides the advantages, “Tieng Anh 11 nang cao” (Advanced English 11) has some drawbacks when used in the school The foremost drawback is that the text book isn’t

sufficient enough to meet the demand of time allotment According the guideline of the school, in grade 11, English is taught in 35 weeks with 6 periods a week Another problem

is that these books are aimed at different kinds of students Students who would take the university entrance exam or those who would take the national exam for excellent students The lack of an appropriate syllabus guiding the selection has also resulted in inconsistent and unsystematically selection of teaching material

There, it is very important to have the supplement for the gifted

II.3 The survey

II.3.1 The subjects

The survey is carried out with the participation of 12 English teachers who are the teacher population of the English section and 36 grade 11 English gifted students

II 3.2 The instrument for collecting data

To achieve the aims of the study, questionnaires based on the analysis of the English teaching and learning at PBCSHS were conducted to both the teachers and grade 11 Englsih gifted students The questions were organised as follows:

Section 1: Difficulties in terms of reading skills

Section 2: Topics to be covered in the syllabus

Section 3: Grammatical terms should be included in the syllabus

Section 4: Time allocated for the syllabus

Questionnairs were conducted to collect information from the teachers, see

APPENDIX 1

The student questionnaire was a modified version of the teacher questionnaire but section 4 not included

Questionnaires were conducted to collect information from students, see APPENDIX 2

In conclusion, 156 copies of seven kinds of questionnaires were sent to the informants

in May, 2010 including 12 teachers and 36 students For the sake of accurate and effective interpretation of data, frequencies are used to find out the percentage of each item to work out the populations’ ideas about the target situation needs

II.3.3 Data analysis and findings

This part of the study presents the result of the questionnaires collected from ESP

teachers and 36 students The main issuses needed to discuss in this part including the

expectations about the ESP reading syllabus, topics, grammatical structures, reading skills and exercises needed for the syllabus

II.3.3.1 Needs perceived by teachers

As presented in the previous section, this survey questionnaire was designed and administered to 12 teachers who have been teaching English for at least 4 years

Section 1: To ask for the teachers’ opinion about difficulties in term of reading skills

Information from table 1a shows that the teachers’ responses regarded nearly all kinds

of reading exercises as essential for their inclusion in the reading syllabus The teachers were asked to identified how often their students have difficulties with the exercises The number of responses for each item is shown in table 1a, in which the figures in column 3, 4,

5, 6, 7, 8 represent the numbers of teachers who rank the items in the questionaire

The procedure followed in the analysis of the findings was to allocate a score (see column 9) for frequency of difficulties in terms of reading exercises to each item in the list

A six-point scale was used with 6 points for Not Applicable (N/A), 5 points for Very often (VO), 4 points for Often (O), 3 points for Sometimes (S), 2 points for Rarely (R) and

1 point for Never (N) Using this method we can obtain the highest scores for items that teachers perceived as those with which they experience difficulties most frequently

As can be seen from the table 1a, the items that cause difficulties most frequently to

students are those which have the highest scores, including item 14 (60 points) -Describe

the author’s attitude implied in the text; item 15 (59 points ) -Choosing the option that best describe the author’s attitude and item 16 (64 points) -Identifying the information that is not explicitly stated in a paragraph item

According to the teachers, the items that their students rarely have difficulties with are

those which have the lowest scores, including item 8 (35 points) -Answering

comprehension questions; item 11 (36 points) -Rearranging paragraphs into a text and

item 12 (36 points) -Rearranging sentences into paragraph(s) Consequently, exercises of

item 8, 11 and 12 seem to be the easiest skill for their students

Table 1 a: Teachers’s perceptions of their students’ frequencies of reading difficulties

Skimming

3

Choosing one of the title that fits the text best

text

8

Answering comprehension questions

meaning of new words in a text

9

meaning of new words based on the context

10

meaning of new words based on

12

Rearranging sentences into paragraph(s)

Section 2: Teachers’ perception of their students’ interest in Reading topics

In this term, the teachers are asked about which topics their students are interested in Basing on the requirements of the MOET, the compulsory textbooks, English tests of recent national examinations, twelve major topics were identified for analysis As indicated

in table 1b, column 3, 4, 5, 6 show the number of teachers who rank the level of interest of each item to their students

A four point scale was used for analysis of the findings with 4 points for Very interesting (VI), 3 points for Interesting (I), 2 points for Rather interesting (RI), 1 points for Not interesting at all (NI) In column 7, the total score is presented

As can be seen from table 1b, the level of interest of these topics which is shown in the

total score is rather different Item 4 - Nature obtains the highest score of all (45 points) Item 2 - Education ranks the second with 43 points Surprisingly, item 1 - Cultural

diversity, item 3 - Community and item 7 - Science and technology gain the same score (41

points) - rank the third The items which get the lowest scores are item 10 - AIDS with 25 points and item 11 - Transportation (26 points) Consequently, the low score of items

represents that they should not be included in the syllabus

author’s attitude

14

author’s attitude Implied in the text

Table 1b: Teachers’ perception of their students’ interest in Reading topics

Total score

As can be seen from Table 1c that most of the teachers believe their students should be taught the most difficult grammatical items in grade 11 It can be inferred that their students have a very good command of English grammar Meanwhile, it reveals that

teachers still focus on the teaching of grammar which isn’t appropriate to objectives specified by MOET

In conclusion, those that get the highest percentage 100% include item 2 - Verb and

verb phrases, item 9 - Conditional, item 11 - Inversion, item 12 - Subjunctive The low

percentage of other items suggests that they should not be included in the syllabus, such as

item 4 - Emphatic - structure, item 15 - Comparison, item 3 - Tenses and the sequences of

tenses

Table 1c: Teachers’ perceptions of language items needed by their students

teachers

Percentage of respondents

Section 4: Timing of the syllabus

This section is to seek the opinions of the teachers on the time allotment for the whole course

It is a matter of fact that the curriculum time assigned to English at PBSSHS has to speak on teaching the compulsory textbook and on training all the 4 skills: speaking, writing, reading and listening Obviously, there should be a special curriculum for the gifted to be taught in extra classes The time allotted to extra English classes by the school

is three two-hour classes need to be devoted to training reading and writing skills and extra curriculum activities The result shows that 10 teachers (83,3%) do think that the time for the whole course should be about 32 hours for the whole course 3 teachers choose 37 hours for the whole course Only one teacher suggests that 40 hours for the course should

be taught Noone chooses 16 hours for the course

Table 1d: Time allotment for the course

Time (durration) for the whole course

II.3.3.2 Needs perceived by students

Section 1: Students’ perception of their frequencies of reading difficulties

This part focuses on seeking out the students’ opinions on their frequencies of difficulties in reading exercises Sixteen items were designed to let students select according to their perception of the items in the syllabus The results are clearly presented

in table 2a

Obviously seen from table 2a, the students share almost the same point of view with the

teachers that they may always have difficulties with item 14- Describe the author’s attitude

implied in the text (158 point- the highest); item 7- Summarising a text (157 points); item

16- Identifying the information that is not explicitly stated in a paragraph/ text (156 points) and item 9 - Guessing the meaning of new words based on the context (154 points)

Apart from that, students also show concerns to item 5 - Choosing the topics that are

dealt with in the text (142 points) and item 13 - Choosing and putting phrases/ sentences to where they fit in a text (136 points) It shows that these items are those with which the

students have difficulties almost frequently These above items are also those which are the frequently tested skills in exams for the excellent

As can be seen from the total score, item 18- Answering comprehension questions with

111 points and item 12- Rearranging sentences into paragraph(s) (113 points) seem to be

the easiest, according to the study, the teachers also share this view

Table 2a: Students’ perception of their frequencies of reading difficulties

Items Reading exercises

Frequency of difficulties Total

Scanning

General comprehension

10

Guessing the meaning of new

words based on the word

Choosing and putting phrases/

sentences to where they fit in a

text

Understanding the author’s

attitude

Inferring

16

Identifying the information

that is not explicitly stated in a

paragraph/ text

Section 2: Students’ perception of their interest in Reading Topics

This section is intended to find out the topic that the students are interested in for reading lessons in the syllabus

The study, as can be seen from the table 2b, shown that most of the students are aware

of the significance of the topics

As figures shown, item 5 - Entertainment obtains the highest score - 136 points Item 6

- People and places (110 points) and item 1 - Cultural diversity (107 points) rank the second Then item 7 - Science and technology (93 points) Item 12 - English language and

learning languages (91 points) rank the third Of all items, item 10 - AIDS ranks the last

with 59 points

In short, the level of students’ interest in Reading topics is quite different

Table 2b: Students’ perception of their interest in Reading Topics

The major aim of this section is to find out the language items that are necessary to be covered in the syllabus The list covers up to 15 typical grammatical items, which are identified the same as those used for teachers in table 1c

Information from table 2c shows that, a high proportion of students (100%) considered the following grammatical items very necessary and call for special attention: item 1-

Nouns and - noun phrases; item 2 - Verbs and verb phrases; item 4 - Adjectives and adjectival phrases; item 6 - Prepositions and prepositional phrases; and item 11- Inversion

It is worth commenting that almost all students show less interest in such items as item

9- Conditionals; item 10 - Infinitive / Gerund This reveals that they should not be included

in the syllabus

Table 2c: Students’ perceptions of language items needed

students

respondents

CHAPTER III: Designing the supplementary reading syllabus for grade 11 English gifted students at Phan Boi Chau Specializing High School

III.1 Aim and objectives of the syllabus

Basing on the reseach findings through the analysis of data and situation teaching and learning at BPCSHS, an attempt is made to propose a supplementary reading syllabus for grade 11 English gifted students Noone can deny the fact that identifying basic objectives and aims is very important in designing syllabus, therefore the aims and objectives should

be clear, precise and appropriate

III.1.1 Aims of the syllabus

Basing on the data analysis from the survey among teachersand students, considering the requirements of theMOET and the demand of the national exams for the excellent in chapter II the aims of the reading supplementary syllabus for grade 11 English gifted students are set as follows:

1 To train students to use some reading techniques and skills

2 To understand and interpret the contents of authentic texts

3 To develop cross-curricular and cross-cultural knowledge

4 To help the students succeed in their study and the tests for excellent students

III.1.2 Objectives of the syllabus

Identifying basic objectives of the course is important because objectives “are notting more than a particular way of formulating or stating content and activities” (Nunan,1980:61) Consequently, the objectives of the syllabus is by the end of the course, students will be able to:

1 Skim for the main ideas and scan a text for specific information

2 Understand the writers’ attitudes and purposes and make inferences or conclusion

3 Cite major ideas and organization of ideas in what is read

4 Master advanced grammar items

5 Develop good reading habits

6 Improve comprehension skill

III.2 Content specification of the syllabus

Candlin (1984:90) states that content is drawn upon from “some content-bank” which is based on some stated objectives that are in turn derived from the needs assessment of learners

The content of reading syllabus will be targeted at the students’ study needs Therefore, the following four components should be taken into account: themes, skills, grammar and lexis Topic-based and skill-based are the primary principles for the organization of the reading skills Hence, the themes, skills and grammar points included in the syllabus will

be discussed in this section

III.2.1 Topics in the syllabus

Considerations of the survey and compulsory textbook helped to decide what topics should be included in the course

The following topics will be taken into account in the process of designing the syllabus

8 Science and technology

III.2.2 Reading skills and reading exercises in the syllabus

In reference to the course’s objectives and the result of the survey, the reading skills and exercises included in the syllabus are as follows:

1 Understanding the main point of the text

2 Skimming

3 Scanning

4 General comprehension

5 Recognise text organization

6 Understand the author’s attitude

7 Inferring