ESP teachers’ perceptions and practices in vietnamese context = cách hiểu và thực tế giảng dạy của giáo viên tiếng anh chuyên ngành trong bối cảnh việt nam doctor of linguistics 621401

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES LÊ THỊ HỒNG DUYÊN ESP TEACHERS’ PERCEPTIONS AND PRACTICES IN VIET

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

LÊ THỊ HỒNG DUYÊN

ESP TEACHERS’ PERCEPTIONS AND PRACTICES

IN VIETNAMESE CONTEXT

Cách hiểu và thực tế giảng dạy của giáo viên tiếng Anh chuyên ngành

trong bối cảnh Việt Nam

A thesis submitted in fulfillment of the requirements

for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy

Major: English Language Teaching Methodology Code: 62140111

Supervisors: Dr DƯƠNG THỊ NỤ

Dr ĐỖ TUẤN MINH

Hanoi, 2017

My thesis does not contain work extracted from a thesis, dissertation or research paper previously presented for another degree or diploma at this or any other university

Signature:

LÊ THỊ HỒNG DUYÊN

ABSTRACT

Compared to well-established research into language teacher cognition, little investigation has been conducted in the field of ESP teacher cognition In fact, ESP teachers‟ perceptions in relation to their practices are not fully documented in both local and global contexts

To address such research gap, a multiple case study was conducted with nine ESP teachers working in three selected universities of medicine and pharmacy in the northern part of Vietnam The study aimed at investigating those teachers‟ perceptions and practices of ESP teaching as well as contextual factors affecting their thoughts and instructional behaviors Data were collected from the three main research instruments including pre-interviews, classroom observations and post-class observation interviews

The findings showed that the teachers in this study used their intuition to assess their students‟ needs which were passing the exam and preparing for their future needs As for them, ESP teaching was generally not much different from EGP teaching; and the typical feature of ESP lay in the terminology of the field As such, their perceptions about teaching approach strongly oriented to the knowledge transmission, which focused on provision of basic terminology, grammar structures and basic skills Additionally, those teachers‟ practices, which were mainly characterized by Grammar Translation Method, were in accordance with their perceptions towards the transmission of knowledge The consistency in those teachers‟ thinking and instructions were explained by the three main influential factors including their lack of expert theories and professional development activities; available sources as institutional guiding norms such as course guides, course books, tests, experienced colleagues and limited time frame; and a number of national and institutional guiding authorities

Although this study does not aim at generalizing the findings to the whole context of Vietnam, it has depicted the picture of ESP teaching in some Vietnamese contexts The major contribution of this study lies in the interpretation of teachers‟ cognition and their instructions in light of their agency and their teaching ownership Besides, by placing the teachers‟ perceptions and practices under different contextual scales, this study argues that changing one single factor in the system could be insufficient to alter those teachers‟ cognition and instructional behaviors From the findings, some implications about theory, research and policy are offered

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

No one who achieves success does so without acknowledging the help of others

The wise and confident acknowledge this help with gratitude

-Alfred North Whitehead-

And with all of my gratitude, I would like to express my whole-hearted thanks to the ones who supported me during my PhD journey Without their help, my journey could not be completed

Firstly, I would like to express my thankfulness to my chief supervisor- Dr Dương Thị Nụ for her willingness to help me from the very start of the journey and her enthusiastic guidance and sincere sharing during the course I am also grateful to my associate supervisor- Dr Đỗ Tuấn Minh who has greatly inspired me with his professional working style and who gave me a lot of courage, especially when I got stuck on my way

Secondly, my sincere thanks also go to the former Dean Assoc Prof Dr Lê Hùng Tiến and the current Dean Dr Huỳnh Anh Tuấn as well as the staff members at the Faculty of Postgraduate Studies, University of Languages and International Studies (ULIS), Vietnam National University (VNU), who are always so kind and supportive during my study time

Thirdly, I also appreciate all the examiners: Prof Dr Nguyễn Hòa, Prof Hoàng Văn Vân, Assoc Prof Dr Trương Viên, Assoc Prof Dr Phan Văn Quế, Assoc Prof Dr Lưu Quý Khương, Assoc Prof Dr Lê Hùng Tiến, Assoc Prof Dr Lê Văn Canh, Assoc Prof Dr Nguyễn Phương Nga, Assoc Prof Dr Hoàng Tuyết Minh, Assoc Prof Dr Nguyễn Văn Trào, Dr Nguyễn Đức Hoạt, Dr Hoàng Thị Xuân Hoa, Dr Huỳnh Anh Tuấn, Dr Hoàng Thị Hạnh, Dr Dương Thu Mai, Dr Vũ Thị Thanh Nhã, Dr Trần Thị Duyên, Dr Nguyễn Thị Hương, Dr Trần Thanh Nhàn, Dr Trần Thị Thanh Phúc and Dr Ngô Thu Hương who commented on my qualifying papers and my final thesis Their insightful comments as well as hard questions sharpened

my mind and provided me with a great deal of ideas to develop my research on the right track

Fourthly, I would like to send my deepest gratitude to Dr Hoang Thi Hanh who unconditionally shared with me all the necessary skills and knowledge to do qualitative research Her extraordinary personality and profound thoughts gave me a lot of precious lessons which will be with me for my whole life

I also owe thanks to my colleagues at the Department of Foreign Languages, Haiphong University of Medicine and Pharmacy who continuously supported me and showed sympathy with my hard work

In addition, I would like to convey my thankfulness to all the participating teachers

at the 10 medical universities nationwide who participated in my preliminary research, especially the nine teachers who accompanied me during a long time of my main study The results I have achieved today partially belong to them

I will also never forget sincere friendship and support of my PhD fellow students:

Ms Lưu Kim Nhung, Ms Lê Hương Hoa and Ms Nguyễn Minh Trâm We have been together through thick and thin of our PhD journey I believe that our sisterhood will last long even when we are living in far distance I also recall my close friends and sisters: Ngọc, Việt, Linh, Tú, Mai and Mai Anh for their help and encouragement

Last but not least, unconditional love, sacrifice and care of my family members for

me during the journey cannot be expressed in words They are also the motivation for me to overcome all the difficulties and to become a better me now

TABLE OF CONTENTS

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP i

ABSTRACT ii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS v

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS viii

LIST OF FIGURES ix

LIST OF TABLES x

INTRODUCTION 1

1 Statement of the problem 1

2 Research aims 3

3 Scope of the study 3

4 Significance of the study 4

5 Context of the study 5

6 Organization of the thesis 8

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 9

1.1 Development of English for Specific Purposes (ESP) 9

1.1.1 Defining ESP 9

1.1.2 ESP development as a global trend 12

1.1.3 ESP development in Vietnamese context 14

1.2 Major foci in ESP 18

1.2.1 Needs Analysis 18

1.2.2 ESP practitioners 20

1.2.3 Distinguishing ESP and EGP teaching methodology 22

1.2.4 ESP teaching approaches 24

1.3 Teachers‟ perceptions 29

1.3.1 Defining teachers‟ perceptions 29

1.3.2 Factors affecting teachers‟ perceptions 30

1.4 Teachers‟ practices 33

1.4.1 Defining teachers‟ practices 33

1.4.2 Factors affecting teachers‟ practices 33

1.5 Studies on language teachers‟ perceptions and practices 34

1.5.1 Relationship between teachers‟ perceptions and practices 34

1.5.2 Some theoretical frameworks for exploring teachers‟ perceptions and practices 36

1.6 Studies on ESP teachers‟ perceptions and practices 41

1.7 Summary 48

CHAPTER 2: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 50

2.1 Selection of methodology to the study 50

2.2 Setting of the study 53

2.2.1 Selecting the cases and research sites 53

2.2.2 Researcher positioning 60

2.3 The analytical framework of the study 62

2.4 Data collection methods 65

2.4.1 Semi-structured interviews 66

2.4.1.1 Pre-interviews 66

2.4.1.2 Post-class observation interviews 68

2.4.2 Classroom observations 69

2.5 Transcription and analysis of the data 70

2.5.1 Transcription of the data 70

2.5.2 Data analysis 72

2.5.2.1 Analysis of the interview data 72

2.5.2.2 Analysis of the observational data 77

2.6 Trustworthiness 79

2.6.1 Credibility 79

2.6.2 Transferability 80

2.6.3 Dependability 80

2.6.4 Confirmability 81

2.7 Ethical considerations 81

2.8 Summary 82

CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS ABOUT ESP TEACHERS‟ PERCEPTIONS AND PRACTICES 83

3.1 Teachers‟ perceptions of ESP teaching 84

3.1.1 Teachers‟ views of students‟ needs 84

3.1.2 Teachers‟ perceptions of ESP teaching aims 87

3.1.3 ESP teaching approaches: Teachers‟ orientation to knowledge transmission 95

3.2 Teachers‟ perceptions as reflected in their teaching practices 99

3.2.1 Isolated vocabulary teaching 99

3.2.2 Explicit instruction of grammar points 110

3.2.3 Focus on translation and reading 119

3.2.4 Importance of accuracy and memorization 128

3.3 Factors affecting teachers‟ perceptions and practices 132

3.3.1 Teachers‟ lack of expert theories and professional development activities .133

3.3.2 Available sources as institutional guiding norms 139

3.3.3 Guiding authorities 146

3.4 Summary 151

CHAPTER 4: DISCUSION OF THE FINDINGS 154

4.1 Revisiting the research questions 154

4.2 Reflecting the findings on the analytical framework 164

4.3 Summary 166

CONCLUSION 169

1 Summary of the research 169

2 Implications of the study 172

3 Limitations of the study 175

4 Future research avenues 177

REFERENCES 179 APPENDIX A: CONSENT LETTER FORM

APPENDIX B: WORKING SCHEDULE WITH PARTICIPATING TEACHERS APPENDIX C: PRE-INTERVIEW GUIDELINES

APPENDIX D: SAMPLE OF A PRE-INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT

APPENDIX E: SAMPLE OF A POST-CLASS INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT

APPENDIX F: INFORMATION ABOUT CLASSROOM OBSERVATIONS

APPENDIX G: SAMPLE OF A CLASS OBSERVATION TRANSCRIPT

APPENDIX H: THE INITIAL CODING SYSTEM

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

EAP English for Academic Purposes EFL English as a Foreign Language EGP English for General Purposes ELT English Language Teaching EOP English for Occupational Purposes ESL English as a Second Language ESP English for Specific Purposes EST English for Science and Technology

GE General English IELTS International English Language Testing System TOEFL Test of English as a Foreign Language

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1.1: Needs Analysis jigsaw (Songhori, 2008, p 22) 19

Figure 1.2: A time-line of approaches to ESP (Adopted from Nelson, 2000) 25

Figure 1.3: Burns‟ (1992) intercontextuality framework 37

Figure 1.4: Borg‟s (1997) teacher cognition elements 39

Figure 1.5: Alzaanin‟s (2014) Cognitive-Ecological Model (CEM) of teaching EFL writing 40

Figure 2.1: The analytical framework of the study 63

Figure 2.2: An example of coding episodes in the observational data 78

Figure 3.1: A summary of the main findings of the study 153

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1.1: Summary of topics and methodologies used in previous studies on

ESP teachers‟ cognition 46 Table 2.1: Researcher‟s choice of qualitative/ inductive research approach 51 Table 2.2: Background information about the participants of the study 56 Table 2.3: Tentative sub-elements within each layer of the adapted analytical

framework 63 Table 2.4: An example of sorting and storing one identified code in the

interview data 73 Table 2.5: Potential themes and supporting codes 75 Table 3.1: Frequency of teachers‟ words regarding knowledge transmission 95

INTRODUCTION

1 Statement of the problem

Keeping pace with continuous changes of our society and rapid growth of globalization, English language teaching (ELT) has become a challenging and demanding occupation

“One of the effects of the growing importance of global English in professional contexts has been the rise of ESP teaching at all levels” (Huttner, Smit & Mehlmauer-Larcher,

2009, p 99) ESP teaching has become a growing trend and mainstream in many areas and regions, especially in Asia, as what Johns and Dudley-Evans (2001) confirm that

“the demand for English for specific purposes continues to increase and expand throughout the world” (p 115) In fact, since its emergence, a lot of efforts have been made by researchers, educators and teachers in order to find better ways and initiatives to facilitate ESP teaching and learning

In Vietnam, ESP teaching is still in its development Within the allocated time frame for the English curriculum by the Ministry of Education and Training (MoET), most teachers of English who work in non-English major universities or vocational colleges normally take charge of at least one ESP course (Dung & Anh, 2010; Khanh, 2015) Although there are articles and studies detailing the reality of ESP teaching as well as the challenges of implementing ESP courses within Vietnamese contexts (Hong, 2005; Oanh, Chau & Chi, 2005; Tuan, 2007; Dung & Anh, 2010; Huong, 2013; Khanh, 2015), little evidence was given about the ways ESP teachers really think and act, i.e how they understand about ESP teaching; how they deliver their ESP classes; and what factors might influence their thinking and behaviors In order

to depict accurately the picture of ESP teaching in Vietnamese context, it is necessary

to take those issues under ESP teachers‟ lenses into consideration

In addition, since teaching and learning has been reconceptualized over the last 50 years, “when considering the nature of teaching and what teachers have to learn, conceptions have moved from process-product perspectives that focus on teaching as

a technical transmission activity to conceptions of teaching as requiring contextualized decision making” (Schnellert et al., 2008, p 4) This leads to a focus

of research on how teachers‟ cognition affects their behaviors in classrooms This trend has been seen through a myriad of studies examining teachers‟ cognition from different aspects (e.g Dobson & Dobson, 1983; Pearson, 1985; Thompson, 1992; Woods, 1996; Aguirre & Speer, 2000; Phipps & Borg, 2009; Kuzborska, 2011; Melketo, 2012) However, with regard to the ESP field, such type of research is still very limited, leaving ESP teachers‟ perceptions and practices in the “strange and uncharted land” (Hutchinson & Waters, 1987, p 158) of ESP far from being fully explored and documented The present study, thus, tried to fill in such research gap of teachers‟ cognition and practices within ESP domain in both global and Vietnamese contexts

Furthermore, a personal and intrinsic motivation to conduct the research comes from

my own experience as an ESP teacher, working at a medical university in Vietnam Since my initial steps of teaching ESP seven years ago, I have had opportunities to observe the teaching practices of teachers at my university and reflect on my own practice During such a long time, I have not seen much improvement in the way ESP courses are taught; we are still teaching the same old book year after year; and our teaching seems to be routinized I have wondered if the same situation is happening

in other contexts of ESP teaching; and if we want to improve such stagnant situation, what should be done and what will be the first step As aforementioned, although a wide range of challenges and difficulties of ESP teaching were pointed in current studies in Vietnam, along with some suggestions such as changing the course book, designing suitable materials, extending the timeframe and reconsidering the course assessment format, they seemed to be the mere description of common ESP teaching situations in Vietnam from the authors‟ experiences rather than deep exploitation of the root causes Not until four years ago when I started to read about teachers‟ cognition and its impacts on teachers‟ practices did I identify the importance of researching teachers‟ thoughts and behaviors in relation to contextual factors so as to figure out the real teaching situation Therefore, with close examination in teachers‟ perceptions and practices, the implementation of this present study helped me to depict a clearer picture of ESP teaching in Vietnam from the lens of those important

insiders- ESP teachers- with reference to influential factors in their teaching contexts From that, I could see some ways out for my own situation in particular and give some suggestions for the improvement of such practices to wider contexts in the country

2 Research aims

The overall aim of this study is to explore the perceptions and practices of some groups of ESP teachers working at some medical universities in Vietnam and the influential factors In particular, the study seeks to answer the following research questions:

(1) What are teachers‟ perceptions of ESP teaching?

(2) To what extent are those ESP teachers‟ perceptions reflected in their teaching practices?

(3) What factors affect those ESP teachers‟ perceptions and their practices?

To address these questions, the research adopted the qualitative approach, using a multiple-case study in collecting and analyzing data

3 Scope of the study

This study did not aim at covering all ESP realms or all of the university teachers of English but within the scope of a qualitative multiple-case study, it focused on examining nine cases at three selected medical universities in the northern part of Vietnam, which fitted the research conditions and the established research purpose

Although there are different mental constructs related to the concept of teacher cognition, in this study, the notion of teachers‟ perceptions is used as a type of teacher cognition which means “what teachers think, know and believe” (Borg, 2003,

p 81) Therefore, in this study, the term “teachers‟ perceptions” is used interchangeably with teachers‟ cognition Within this study, teachers‟ perceptions about different aspects relating to ESP teaching such as ESP teachers‟ roles, the concept of ESP, ESP pedagogy and their views on the impact of influential factors in their teaching context were investigated

Besides, regarding teachers‟ practices, this study mainly dealt with the investigation

of teachers‟ instruction of ESP in their classrooms including their teaching procedures, teaching foci and teaching approach Therefore, in this study, teachers‟ instructional behaviors, decisions and choices were used to refer to their practices

Although the results of the study are not intended for generalization, there is possibility of transferring the findings to other similar contexts

4 Significance of the study

In theory, by adapting Alzaanin‟s (2014) Cognitive-Ecological Model (CEM) as the main analytical framework, the study calls for the consideration of teachers‟ perceptions and practices in light of various contextual factors from different scales

Besides, the qualitative multiple-case approach adopted for this study makes a methodological contribution to the lack of classroom-based qualitative studies which have not been well-established within the context of Vietnam In this study, details about data collection instruments and procedures of data analysis might be useful for Vietnamese researchers to conduct similar studies regarding to teachers‟ cognition and practices

Additionally, in practice, the study is significant in raising the awareness of ESP teachers of their own teaching Through the cases of the teachers in this study, other ESP teachers in relatable contexts may have opportunities to reflect on their own teaching This, therefore, might help to awaken their agency and ownership in teaching On the other hand, the study also confirms the importance of viewing contextual factors systematically in the process of making policy decisions

Finally, the findings of this study will shed more light on reality of ESP teaching in the country as well as contextual factors that influence teachers‟ perceptions and instructional behaviors This might help to stimulate discussion and promote further work among teacher educators and policy makers with respect to the improvement of ESP teaching quality in Vietnamese context

5 Context of the study

This section provides an overview of ESP teaching within Vietnamese educational and socioeconomic contexts In particular, it briefly presents the influences of socio-economic conditions and educational policies on the development and status of ESP teaching From that, the present status quo of ESP teaching in Vietnamese context is delineated

Vietnam‟s socio-economic context has placed a lot of impacts on the national foreign language education Noticeably, the economic reform in 1986 attracted a huge flow

of foreign investments to Vietnam, which motivated Vietnamese people to learn English in the hope of accessing scientific knowledge of the western world and to seek for better job opportunities in foreign companies Such condition led to “English language fever” (Canh, 2011, p 17) nationwide and made English “a de facto foreign language” (Khanh, 2015, p 227) in Vietnam During such period, “a greater desire for specialized study of English became apparent as more Vietnamese desired these language skills for specific work environments” (Shapiro, 1995, p.8) This trend also marked the growth of English for Specific Purposes (ESP) teaching and learning in Vietnam English for various disciplines has been introduced into English language curriculum in most universities with the aim to prepare labor sources who are not only specialists of their fields but also confident in communicating with foreign partners

However, the increasing demands of the market economy and the surge of English language learning in general and ESP in particular did not ensure the provision of competent English-speaking employees as expected In fact, “Vietnamese universities are not producing the educated workforce that Vietnam‟s economy and society demand […] as many as 50 percent of Vietnamese graduates are unable to find jobs

in their area of specialization” (Vallely & Wikinson, 2008, p 1) One of the main reasons was identified as their low English proficiency This became one of the obstacles preventing Vietnam to integrate with the world economy (Tu, 2006) Therefore, the incidence of Vietnam‟s integration into the World Trade Organization

(WTO) in 2007 required the Government and the Ministry of Education and Training (MoET) to seek for measures to improve the situation

In recognition of the importance of English to the development of national economy and with the determination in reforming the whole foreign language education system

of the country, the Government approved the National Foreign Language Project

2020 according to the Prime Ministerial Decision number 1400/QĐ-TTg dated 30thSeptember, 2008 with total investment of VND 9,378 billion from 2008 to 2020 The project‟s major goal is that “by 2020, most Vietnamese students graduating from secondary, vocational schools, colleges and universities will be able to use a foreign language confidently in their daily communication, their study and work in an integrated, multi-cultural and multi-lingual environment, making foreign languages a comparative advantage of development for Vietnamese people in the cause of industrialization and modernization of the country” (Article 1, Decision 1400/QĐ-TTg) Accordingly, students graduating from primary schools, secondary schools, high schools and non-English major universities have to achieve the corresponding levels of A1, A2 and B1- Common European Framework for Reference (CEFR) However, such objectives seem to be too far beyond the fact After being implemented for several years, although the project has raised Vietnamese people‟s awareness on the importance of learning English, it seems not to achieve the desired results In fact, a majority of graduates are still unable to use English Even in big universities like Da Nang University, 80% of students from master courses could not achieve the required level as stated by the project (Hai, 2011)

With regards to ESP teaching at tertiary level, the quality of ESP courses seems to be doubtful (Dong, 2011) A wide range of challenges and difficulties are identified such

as outdated course books, students‟ low English proficiency, teachers‟ lack of expertise, limited time frame and ineffective assessment (Dung & Anh, 2010; Hai, 2011; Khanh, 2015; Hoa & Mai, 2016), which lead to the ineffectiveness of ESP courses at universities Many questions have been raised about the quality of English education in general and ESP in particular at tertiary level such as “why are graduates who were taught ESP at universities unable to use English in their real jobs?”, “what

should we do to train students according to the needs of society?”, “what do we miss

in our training program?” or “why are many staff and officials retrained their English while they were officially trained at universities?” (Dung & Anh, 2010) Although a number of suggestions for the situation have been offered such as changing the course books, extending time frame for the course, providing training courses for teachers or reconsidering the assessment format, they seem to be a list of recommendations without any strategic planning from the higher authorities

Furthermore, the implementation of the 2020 Project seems to put more pressure on administrators at universities in ensuring the required level of English for graduates Many students graduated from high schools cannot achieve B1 level as required; therefore, when they enter universities, they have to be retrained from the start (Hoa, 2011) While the time allocation for English education at tertiary level stays the same and is even cut down, a number of universities have to sacrifice the ESP section in their English curriculum in order to spare time for General English (Dong, 2011) Meanwhile, in other universities where ESP courses are being run, the situation seems to be “stagnant” (Duyen, 2014)

Based on such status quo, the question of whether ESP courses should be maintained

in Vietnamese context is still of concern (Van, 2010) In other words, there is general skepticism towards the existence of ESP that Dong (2011) called as a “dilemma” Perhaps, removing ESP is considered as a temporary solution of some universities in order to focus on the requirement regarding graduates‟ English level In the long run, ESP teaching is still a necessary step towards learning through English (LTE) which aims at the integration and renovation of the country (Hoa, 2011) This calls for a careful review of the situation and strategic plans from higher authorities However,

at the moment, ESP teachers seem to be struggling with the challenges in their teaching contexts

In short, by sketching out educational and socioeconomic contexts of Vietnam in relation to ESP teaching at tertiary level, the context of the study has been provided Besides, the specific contexts of the three universities will be shown in details in

formed and mediated In order to investigate what teachers perceive about ESP teaching and how they teach ESP as well as influential factors, it is necessary to take such contexts into consideration

6 Organization of the thesis

This thesis comprises three main parts The first part is the introduction to the study, which briefly presents the statement of the problem, research aims, scope and significance of the study This part also provides information about the context of the study detailing the overall context of ESP teaching in Vietnam where the study was conducted

Following the first part, the second part consists of four chapters Chapter One reviews relevant literature to this study including the development of ESP in both global and Vietnamese contexts, a number of major foci in ESP, teachers‟ perceptions and teachers‟ practices In this chapter, previous studies on ESP teachers‟ perceptions and practices are extensively reviewed in order to identify the research gaps that this study tries to fulfill After that, Chapter Two demonstrates in detail the research methodology of the study from the selection of research philosophy, research approach to the description of data collection and data analysis procedures as well as the criteria for ensuring that the study was conducted in reliable and ethical conditions Chapter Three is followed with the presentation of three main findings of the study in line with three established research questions regarding teachers‟ perceptions of ESP teaching, teachers‟ perceptions as reflected in their practices and the influential factors Then discussions about the findings are made in Chapter Four with reference to the literature, the research questions and the analytical framework of the study, from which the picture of ESP teaching in some Vietnamese contexts is highlighted

The final part in this thesis concludes with a summary of the entire research, which is then followed by implications of the study from both theoretical and practical perspectives Besides, some limitations that the researcher had to deal with during the research process are acknowledged Finally, a number of suggested avenues for future research in the area of ESP teaching and teacher cognition are proposed

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter reviews a number of relevant concepts and studies to the present study Section 1.1 begins with how ESP is defined and the history of ESP development in both global and Vietnamese contexts with typical characteristics and related research trends Then, a number of major foci in ESP including needs analysis, ESP practitioners, distinguishing ESP and EGP teaching methodology and some current ESP teaching approaches are presented in Section 1.2 This is followed by Section 1.3 and Section 1.4, in which the concept of teachers‟ perceptions, teachers‟ practices and influential factors are discussed The next two sections critically review previous studies on the relationship between teachers‟ perceptions and practices and with the focus on related teacher cognition research in ESP field The final section summarizes this chapter and highlights the research gap which this study aims to fulfill

1.1 Development of English for Specific Purposes (ESP)

1.1.1 Defining ESP

Since its emergence in the 60s of the previous century, undergoing a lot of controversies and development over the decades, ESP has grown to become one of the most prominent parts of EFL teaching (Anthony, 1997) Considered as “an exciting fast-developing multi-disciplinary subject of study” in the world (Chen,

2009, p 56), ESP is gaining more and more attention in the English teaching area and many other fields However, “a definition of ESP that is both simple and watertight is not easy to produce” (Strevens, 1980, p 109)

The literature has seen a great deal of efforts in defining ESP In the early days, ESP was considered as the teaching of technical vocabulary of a given field (Swales,

1971) Later on, Hutchinson and Waters (1987), instead of showing directly what ESP

is, described what ESP isn’t, from which three main claims are made, including (1)

ESP is not a matter of teaching „specialized varieties‟ of English or any special forms

of the language; (2) ESP is not just a matter of science words and grammar for Scientists, Hotel words and grammar for Hotel Staff but there is much more to communication than just the surface features that we read and hear; (3) ESP is not

different in kind from any other form of language teaching in that it should be based

in the first instance on principles of effective and efficient learning (p 18) Considering such aspects, they concluded that “ESP is an approach to language teaching in which all decisions as to content and method are based on the learner‟s reason for learning” (Hutchinson &Waters, 1987, p 19) This definition marked the widespread awareness of ESP community about the importance of learner needs

A decade later, another effort in defining ESP made by Dudley-Evans and St Johns (1998) when they tried to identify „absolute‟ characteristics and „variable‟ characteristics which were followed by earlier work by Strevens (1988):

Absolute Characteristics

 ESP is defined to meet specific needs of the learners

 ESP makes use of underlying methodology and activities of the discipline it

serves

 ESP is centered on the language appropriate to these activities in terms of

grammar, lexis, register, study skills, discourse and genre

Variable Characteristics

 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 It could, however, be for learners

at secondary school level

 ESP is generally designed for intermediate or advanced students

 Most ESP courses assume some basic knowledge of the language systems

(Dudley-Evans & St Johns, 1998, pp 4-5)

Here, “probability in definition makes it open to flexibility, expanding and overlapping nature of ESP” (Far, 2008, p 3) The proposal for such characteristics of ESP adds more evidence to what is ESP and what is not ESP as previously defined by Hutchinson and Waters (1987)

Along with the growing demand of English for various purposes, the concept of ESP has been interpreted with more practical views, reflecting practicality of ESP courses For instance, Smoak (2003), from her experience as an ESP practitioner, found that

“ESP is English instruction based on actual and immediate needs of learners who have to successfully perform real-life tasks unrelated to merely passing an English class or exam” (p 27) Similarly, Harding (2007) also emphasized that in ESP “the purpose for learning is paramount and related directly to what the learner needs to do

in their vocation or job” (p 6) It could be seen that the focus is not only on meeting the learners‟ needs but also on typical discourses and real-life tasks that the learners have to deal with in the target situations

Drawing on different definitions of ESP in the literature, it is true to Ibrahim‟s (2010) statement that:

“Most of ESP definitions distinguish three themes: the nature of language to

be taught and used, the learners and the setting in which the other two would

occur These three aspects of ESP are very much connected together ESP is

the teaching of specific English (specialized discourse) to learners (adults),

who will use it, in a particular setting (business, engineer, medical field,

science, etc.) in order to realize a practical purpose.” (p 202)

In Vietnam, the term “English for specific purposes” is generally translated in

Vietnamese as “Tiếng Anh chuyên ngành” which means English for specific

disciplines (Dong, 2011) Such interpretation might lead to insufficient understanding about the nature of ESP which focuses on specific purposes of the learners, reflecting the reality of teaching ESP without basing on learner needs at many non-English major universities nationwide (Thanh, 2011) Vague understanding of the concept might also cause the big gap between the training of ESP and the needs of learners as well as the society needs Therefore, it is necessary to build up a working definition

of ESP which can be applied as the guideline for implementing effective ESP courses

in Vietnam

Combining the review of the established definitions of ESP in the literature and

ESP (ESP teaching) is understood as (the teaching of) English for specific disciplines with typical discourses and real-life tasks, which enable learners to use English

effectively in their study and/or their future jobs related to such disciplines This

definition focuses on the teaching of discourses and tasks which students need to deal with in their study and their future jobs based on their own needs and the needs of society It also emphasizes the importance of training students the ability to use English according to their academic and/or occupational purposes

1.1.2 ESP development as a global trend

As stated by Hutchinson and Waters (1987) in their view of its origins, “ESP was not

a planned and coherent movement, but rather a phenomenon that grew out of a number of converging trends” (p 6) Accordingly, three main trends were identified

by the two authors as the most affected to the emergence of ESP Firstly, it was the expansion of technology and commerce after the Second World War with the advantageous economic status of the United States, which led to the demand of learning English with clearly defined goals for surviving in the international market place Secondly, the revolution in linguistics at the same period of time that shifted from a traditional way of studying language focusing on the rules of English usage to the exploration of the ways English is used in various situations of communication This trend paved a new way in that “the English needed by a particular group of learners could be identified by analyzing the linguistic characteristics of their specialist area of work or study” (Hutchinson & Waters, 1987, p 8) The rise of ESP was also accounted for achievements and new developments within the field of educational psychology with its emphasis on the learners and their learning attitudes This had great influence on the orientation of English courses towards learners‟ needs

so as to achieve teaching effectiveness

Since its early days of emergence, ESP has experienced different phases of development A comprehensive picture of ESP development in time-line fashion is depicted by Johns (2013) when she identifies four main periods that ESP has undergone namely the Early Years (1962-1981), the Recent Past (1981-1990), the

Modern Era (1990-2011) and the Future (2011 plus) The first period began in the years following the Second World War During that time, ESP research mainly focused on English for Science and Technology (EST) The first approach was seen

as an attempt to determine some general sentence-level characteristics of EST Then

it was soon overridden by the trend of contrastive discourse analyses together with rhetorical concerns The turning point for ESP in this period was seen with the devotion of Tarone et al (1981) who brought about two influential approaches in ESP methodology which were „consultations with subject-specialist informants‟ and

„rhetorical/grammatical analyses‟ of text types in EST disciplines At the end of this period, the trend was towards more narrowly defined ESP research topics and texts The more recent past period from 1981 to 1990 was marked with the appearance of

„Genre Analysis approach‟ This was considered as the period of broadening the scope and introducing central concepts such as needs assessment, linguistic devices and their rhetorical purposes At this stage, “much of ESP research continue to operate within a narrow topical range, as the principal interest of researchers often focused on English for academic purposes, particularly science and technology” (Johns, 2013, p 12) The next period of “Modern age in ESP” has seen the flourishing of ESP research in many countries like Taiwan, China, the US, Iran, Malaysia This means ESP has spread widely to the international scale The foci of this period were on genres and corpora The final stage is “the Future” with the anticipated directions such as international authorship, varied methodologies and triangulation, multimodalities and varied locales (Johns, 2013)

Regarding ESP development on global scale, Hewings (2003) highlighted five major

trendy impacts of ESP as follows: (1) Internationalization – this trend promotes the

continuous spread of ESP research and practice worldwide with the estimated most flourishing areas in Eastern and Mediterranean Europe and in China; (2)

Specialization- more and more specific contexts are being investigated proving the

increased attention paying to specialization of ESP courses; (3) Growth of Business

English- the blossom of Business courses in universities, institutions and centers

together with increased numbers of publications on this field leave a lot of spaces and

land for researchers to cultivate; (4) Continued influence of genre analysis, corpus

analysis and SFL (Systemic Functional Linguistics)- these three areas are still

believed to continue to be trendy theories and methodologies used by many

researchers of ESP; (5) The effect of English as an international language- this trend

is no doubt a source of influence on the development of ESP in that the growing use

of English among international community has put great impact on the types of ESP courses

Based on the journey of development of ESP tracked in the literature, it is true to what Brunton (2009) asserts that the demand for ESP “will not decrease but only rise” (p 8) and “ESP is today more vibrant than ever with a bewildering number of terms created to fit the increasing range of occupations that have taken shelter under the ESP umbrella” (p 8) because it now encompasses an “ever-diversifying and expanding ranges of purposes” (Belcher, 2006, p 134)

To conclude, ESP in global context has experienced changes over periods characterized by a great number of remarkable studies establishing different streams

of research within the realms of ESP So far, ESP has appeared in various corners of the world, placing the issues of ESP in the international context with distinguished characteristics of different local contexts

1.1.3 ESP development in Vietnamese context

Currently, there are no official documents that fully record the origin and development of ESP in Vietnam; rather it is only briefly mentioned in a few articles and books (e.g Tuan, 2007; Van, 2010; Khanh, 2015) According to Van (2010), in Vietnam, ESP started to gain attention from the early 1980s The trend of teaching ESP, in fact, was „imported‟ to Vietnam by a number of teachers and lecturers at some English-major universities after they were sent to Great Britain, Australia and New Zealand to study for diploma and master‟s ELT courses As a result, some courses mainly geared towards English for Occupational Purposes (EOP) provided at the Hanoi University of Foreign Studies (or Hanoi University, as it is called now) After that, other similar courses were organized in various language learning centers

By the end of the 1980s, especially after the United States lifted the economic embargo on Vietnam in 1993, the question of what specific registers should be taught

at universities in Vietnam attracted the concern of educators, curriculum developers, and syllabus designers nationwide Gradually, a wide range of English course books

oriented towards specific disciplines appeared in Vietnam, for instance, Economics

(Yates, 1995), Oxford English for Computing (Boeckner & Brown, 1999), Basic English for Computing (Glendinning & McEwan, 2000), Business Matters: The Business Course with a Lexical Approach (Powell, 2000) and English for International Tourism (Jakob & Strutt, 2004) Such types of books were mainly

designed by foreign authors for specific groups of learners at particular levels, with the belief that after studying the course book they would be able to communicate with foreign partners in their specific fields

Besides these points about the emergence of ESP in Vietnam, Van (2010) also summarizes three main standpoints towards the teaching of ESP at universities nationwide, which are (1) the position of only focusing upon General English; (2) the position of teaching General English (GE) before teaching ESP; and (3) the position

of only focusing on teaching ESP

For the first position, the arguments for only focusing on GE are mainly based on the idea that the only difference between GE and ESP is the matter of terminology They believe that with a certain amount of knowledge of English pronunciation, grammar, and vocabulary, individuals may be able to use the language confidently and might not find much difficulty in studying ESP themselves Their reasons for focusing only

on GE are also connected to the fact that a number of scientists and civil servants were taught only GE, but still use English at their workplace effectively through self-learning Moreover, the vocabulary used in standardized tests of English competence such as TOEFL, IELTS mainly fall into General English rather than jargon or specific terminology

The second standpoint, which is taken for granted at most non-English major universities in Vietnam, according to Van (2010), is to allocate GE prior to the study

of ESP In fact, this arrangement with the ratio of a 2/3 time-frame spent for GE, and 1/3 for ESP or alike, has been widely applied in most universities and colleges in the country (Dung & Anh, 2010) According to this position, although students have at least three years‟ experience of studying English at high schools before they enter universities or colleges, the knowledge and skills they have gained from those years

is still very modest Therefore, it is argued that they still need to be consolidated with

GE knowledge so as to be confident to enter the second phase of ESP learning Up to the present, this second standpoint seems to be the common model of ESP teaching in Vietnam, although the effectiveness of these ESP courses taught at universities is very much in doubt

In contrast with the above two points of view which emphasize the importance of

GE, the third trend focuses on teaching ESP only The basis for this viewpoint can be found in Strevens‟ (1988) arguments that the teaching of English should be geared towards learners‟ specific purposes and needs In addition, according to those supporting this position, the priority for students at universities should be English for academic study and the discipline that they are studying, rather than for daily communication Therefore, it might be a waste of time if the learners have to study what they do not really need Since the time allocation for English at the tertiary level

is limited, it is believed that students should take advantage of the allotted time to study ESP directly in order to quickly improve their knowledge of English content in the particular field as well as prepare for their future working environment However, according to Van (2010), this idea seems to be questioned because of students‟ low-level of English

With regard to the difficulties and challenges of ESP teaching in the current Vietnamese context, a wide range of problems is identified in some articles and studies in the country Khanh (2015) and Hoa and Mai (2016) categorized the problems into three main groups which are related to students, teachers and other issues Firstly, in terms of students-related difficulties, students‟ low English proficiency, their mixed language levels, their negative attitudes towards ESP are considered as the hurdles of ESP teaching (Tung & Thu, 2005; Dung & Anh, 2010;

Hai, 2011; Dong, 2011; Khanh; 2015; Hoa & Mai, 2016) Additionally, students‟ passive learning style is another problem mentioned by Khanh (2015) and Hoa and Mai (2016) Regarding teachers‟ difficulties, teachers‟ deficiency of specialist knowledge and their lack of ESP training are among the most challenging issues Many teachers are still using traditional methods of teaching which do not motivate students to study (Thuy, 2005; Dung & Anh, 2010; Khanh, 2015; Hoa & Mai, 2016) Apart from that, other issues are also figured as large-sized classes, lack of resources, outdated course books, limited time allocation for ESP courses and heavily-focused examination which prevent teachers and students from being active and creative in their teaching and learning activities (Hong, 2005; Tao, 2005; Dung & Anh, 2010; Hai, 2011; Khanh, 2015; Hoa & Mai, 2016)

Due to such a wide range of challenges, there seems to be general skepticism towards the effectiveness of current ESP programs (Dong, 2011) Additionally, a majority of ESP courses in Vietnam seem not to meet the needs of society (Dung & Anh, 2010; Dung, 2011; Hoa & Mai, 2016) Moreover, as described in Section 5 of the Introduction part regarding the context of the study, at the moment, facing the pressure of ensuring students‟ required level of English before graduating, some universities have to temporarily remove ESP courses to spare time for GE courses While there seems not to be any strategic plans for the improvement and development of ESP, the existence of ESP courses may be still questionable (Van, 2010) However, in the long run, it is still necessary to maintain ESP courses which enable students to approach their disciplines in English and enhance their working ability in integrated environment (Hoa, 2011)

In sum, ESP teaching in Vietnam is still in its development with a lot of challenges and even the “dilemma” (Dong, 2011) Therefore, it is crucial to review the picture of ESP teaching in Vietnamese contexts with great care in order to propose practical measures for improving the situation

1.2 Major foci in ESP

With the development of ESP over the past decades, there have been a lot of issues to

be emerged and discussed In this study, a number of major foci in ESP namely needs analysis, ESP practitioners, distinguishing ESP and EGP teaching methodology as well as some current ESP teaching approaches are presented in the following sections

so as to bring about theoretical backgrounds to the study

1.2.1 Needs Analysis

One of the typical and absolute characteristics of ESP is its “goal-directedness” (Robinson, 1991) that is to meet specific needs of learners This is, therefore, important to take this issue into consideration From the early days, needs analysis was mainly focused on linguistics and register analysis so as to identify the typical grammar structures or vocabulary used for each discipline With the publication of the book entitled “Communicative Syllabus Design”, Munby (1978) brought about the idea of function and situation as important aspects in needs analysis His proposal

of “Communicative Needs Processor” (CNP) in the book was highly appreciated by ESP researchers and practitioners that “it seemed as if ESP had come of age” (Hutchinson & Waters, 1987, p 54) Despite its great impact for later works on needs analysis and course design, Munby‟s list of microfunctions in his CNP was then criticized for being “inflexible, complex and time-consuming” (West, 1994, p 9) and only captured the viewpoint of the needs analyst and excluded the views of the important others such as the learners and the institutions Subsequently, Hutchinson and Waters (1987) attempted to supplement such framework with the distinction of

target/product-oriented needs (requirement in the target situation) and learning/ process-oriented needs (learning conditions and learners‟ existing skills and

knowledge) Under the target needs, they identified the three important components including necessities (the type of need determined by the demands of the target situation), lacks (the gap between the existing proficiency of the learner and the target proficiency) and wants (subjective needs of learners) In line with the increasing

awareness on the importance of needs analysis, other terms regarding needs were

introduced in pairs such as objective needs (inferred from factual information of learners) and subjective needs (inferred from affective and cognitive factors of learners) (Brindley, 1989); perceived needs (drawn from teachers or institutions‟ experience) and felt needs (learners‟ own needs) (Berwick, 1989); immediate needs (the needs that students have at the time of the course) and delayed needs (the needs

that will become more significant later) (Dudley-Evans & St John, 1998) Drawing

on such different types of needs, Dudley-Evans and St John (1998) synthesizes all the aspects from different existing approaches into categories of information that the needs analyst should determine Such categories were summarized and demonstrated through the image of needs analysis jigsaw by Songhori (2008):

Figure 1.1: Needs Analysis jigsaw (Songhori, 2008, p 22)

The diagram above helps to depict a holistic approach to needs analysis that ESP teachers should be aware of

From the aforementioned development of needs analysis, two important points could

be drawn Firstly, it is very important to include needs analysis as the first step to any ESP courses as stated by Dudley-Evans and St John (1998) that it is “the corner stone

of ESP and leads to a very focused course” (p 122) Secondly, since needs analysis

“involves consideration of not just one perspective or one context but multiple perspectives and multiple contexts” (Huhta, Vogt, Johnson & Tulkki, 2013, p 10), it should be based on evidence rather than intuition of any stakeholders such as teachers

or materials writers (Long, 2005; Huhta et al., 2013)

1.2.2 ESP practitioners

The concept of “ESP practitioners” was first introduced by Swales (1988) with the purpose to emphasize other responsibilities of ESP teachers besides their teaching role Regarding the roles of an ESP practitioner, Dudley-Evans and St John (1998) identified five key roles namely a teacher, a course designer and materials provider, a collaborator, a researcher and an evaluator According to the authors, as in the role of

a teacher, an ESP practitioner is suggested to “draw on students‟ knowledge of the content in order to generate genuine communication in the classroom” (p 13) and to negotiate with students in suitable ways to reach lesson goals Besides, an ESP teacher in many cases should be a course designer and provide materials by selecting, adapting and even writing materials to suit the learners‟ needs By the role of a collaborator, an ESP practitioner should be interested in working with content departments, subject matter teachers and specialists of the field in order to engage with the disciplines he or she is undertaking The fourth role refers to the ability to carry out research on learners‟ needs analysis, target situation analysis and on genre analysis or the discourse of the text types that are related to the discipline Another important role of an evaluator is also mentioned referring to the assessment on students‟ learning, the evaluation of the courses and teaching materials

Another aspect regarding ESP teachers/practitioners is that what kinds of knowledge base are required for them According to Tom and Valli (1990), the term „knowledge base‟ refers to the repertoire of knowledge, skills and dispositions that teachers are

required to effectively carry out classroom practices Based on the aforementioned roles of ESP practitioners, it can be inferred that besides the required knowledge of language teaching in general (in the role of a teacher), they also need to know theories of ESP teaching such as knowledge of needs analysis, course design, ESP teaching approaches (in the roles of a course designer, a materials provider, a researcher, an evaluator) and the knowledge of subject matter (in the role of a collaborator)

In terms of ESP teachers‟ knowledge of subject matter, a number of debates have arisen among ESP researchers about who should teach ESP- English language teachers or subject specialists (Ahmadi, 2008; Maleki, 2008; Rajabi, Kiany & Maftoon, 2011) with preference to the EFL teachers In this regard, Hutchinson and Waters (1987) state that ESP teachers “have to struggle to master language and subject matter beyond the bounds of their previous experience” (p 60) However, they contend that ESP teachers need three things only including i) a positive attitude towards the ESP content; ii) a knowledge of the fundamental principles of the subject are; iii) an awareness of how much they probably already know (Hutchinson & Waters, 1987, p 163) Reflecting on this point, Bell (2002) adds that the depth of knowledge of a subject matter that an ESP teacher is required depends on a number of variables including: i) how much do the learners know about their specialism?; ii) are the students pre-experience or post-experience learners?; iii) how specific and detailed are the language, skills and genres that the learners need to learn? Accordingly, ESP teachers perhaps do not need to be

an expert in a specialist area, they do need to have some awareness and a feel for a particular vocational area, or in Hutchinson and Waters‟s words, “ESP teacher should not become a teacher of the subject matter, but rather an interested student of the subject matter” (p 163)

With the continuous and fast development of ESP teaching, “being an ESP instructor may now look like an even taller order than might first have been envisioned, calling for knowledge of genre theory, corpus tools, scaffolding techniques, as well as metacognitive and metadiscoursal awareness-building strategies” (Belcher, 2009, p 11) Those are theories of ESP practice that ESP teachers should also be equipped

However, facing with the required roles and knowledge base, ESP teachers seem to have limited training In fact, lack of official and professional training seems to be a challenge for ESP practitioners in many contexts worldwide such as Taiwan (e.g Chen, 2000), Iran (e.g Estaji & Nazari, 2015), Greece (e.g Chostelidou, Griva & Tsakiridou, 2009) and Pakistan (e.g Abdulaziz, Shah, Mahmood & Haq, 2012) In Vietnam, it is also mentioned as one of the problems facing ESP teachers (Tung & Thu, 2005; Dung & Anh, 2010; Hoa & Mai, 2016) and even one of the reasons attributed to the failure of the ESP program (Oanh, Chau & Chi, 2005)

By and large, in order to carry out the job in ESP teaching profession, ESP teachers are required to handle different roles and to possess certain knowledge base or the expert theories, i.e theories about both GE and ESP teaching, so as to become more confident and fully qualified ESP practitioners This might call for more research on a range of issues related to ESP teacher training and the impact of ESP teachers‟ knowledge base on their practices

1.2.3 Distinguishing ESP and EGP teaching methodology

Referring to ESP pedagogy, the question about the differences between EGP and ESP has been raised by a lot of researchers and practitioners since the very early days of ESP emergence (e.g Widdowson, 1983; Hutchinson & Waters, 1987; Strevens, 1988; Anthony, 1997) While Strevens (1988) claims ESP as in contrast with GE, Anthony (1997) observes the vague line between GE and ESP courses; and Chen (2009) asserts that “EGP is the premier stage for ESP and ESP is the advanced stage for EGP teaching” (p 57)

In response to this issue, Hutchinson and Waters (1987) states that what distinguishes ESP from GE is an “awareness of the need” (p 53) According to them, although there is variation in the contents delivered for ESP and EGP, the methodologies used

in ESP classrooms can be applied to any English classes That is the reason why they put forwards their opinion on the difference between GE and ESP simply that “in theory nothing, in practice a great deal” (p 53) Drawing on Hutchinson and Waters‟s view, Chen (2009) acquires two important points The first point is that the similarity

between ESP and EGP is more distinguishable than their difference Secondly, the teaching principles and procedure implemented in both ESP and EGP classes are not different in essence

In another attempt, Far (2008) tries to figure out distinctive features between ESP and EGP by some important observations about ESP classes in comparison with EGP ones Firstly, ESP learners are often adults who possess a certain background of English and their purposes of learning are for performing particular tasks or functions related to their profession while in EGP classes, there is variation in learners‟ ages and English is simply a subject Secondly, EGP classes focus on four skills equally, whereas, the priority of instruction and syllabus design is placed on certain English skills based on the learners‟ needs Thirdly, in EGP classes, more concentration is put

on language, but in a typical ESP class, context to specific disciplines and learners‟ real working situation is emphasized Fourthly, the integration of subject matter with English language in particular meaningful contexts in ESP classes helps to promote students‟ motivation Finally, according to the author, ESP enables them to use the English they know to learn even more English

With regard to ESP teaching methodology, different ideas have been generated To start with Widdowson (1983), it is reflected that “methodology has generally been neglected in ESP” (p 87) Particularly, Hutchinson and Waters (1987) claim that

there is no specific methodology for ESP because “ESP is not different from any other

form of language teaching, in that it should be based in the first instance on principles

of effective and efficient learning” (p 18) Although Dudley-Evans and St John (1998) agree that in certain situations, such as pre-study or pre-work courses in which learners have not yet begun their academic professional work and have poor subject knowledge, methods of teaching ESP courses may be similar to those of GE, they still maintain that “ESP may use, in specific situations, a different methodology from that

of general English” (p 5) and that “specific ESP teaching has its own methodology” (p 4)

In a more recent point of view, with the flourishing emergence of various ESP courses, such a question on differences between ESP and GE seem not to be important but “clearly different methodologies have to be used according to the course design and goals and outcomes of those courses” (Brunton, 2009, p 4) This once again echoes the widely accepted fact that ESP is “an approach to language teaching in which all decisions as to content and method are based on the learner‟s reason for learning” (Hutchinson & Waters, 1987, p 19)

1.2.4 ESP teaching approaches

Emerged as an inevitable “phenomenon that grew out of a number of converging trends” (Hutchinson & Waters, 1987, p 6), ESP has undergone many stages in which approaches to ESP teaching have been affected by the shifts in linguistics and psychology Accordingly, some main ESP teaching approaches have been identified through a number of studies in the literature

In reviewing the development of ESP, Hutchinson and Waters (1987) describes five phases including register analysis, rhetorical discourse, target situation analysis, skills and strategies and a learning-centered approach Based on such phases, Nelson (2000) creates a time-line of approaches to ESP through different periods of ESP development adding more approaches as follows:

Figure 1.2: A time-line of approaches to ESP (Adopted from Nelson, 2000)

Drawing heavily on this time-line, Jablonkai (2010) groups the approaches to ESP

into five main foci, namely Focus on learning, Focus on needs, Focus on skills and

strategies, Focus on the discipline and Focus on language

Focus on needs

As clearly presented in Section 1.2.1 about Needs Analysis, it is suggested that “the role of Needs Analysis in any ESP course is indisputable” (Songhori, 2008, p 3) and

“any course should be based on an analysis of learner need” (Hutchinson & Waters,

1987, p 53) It also requires ESP teachers to take on the role of researchers to conduct needs analysis from different sources relevant to their courses:

Acceptance of this needs-identifying responsibility means that well before

actual instruction begins, ESP course designers will have collected and

examined data, usually in the form of sample texts and audio or video

recordings, from the target community, often with guidance, via interviews,

from community insiders (Belcher, 2009, p 3)

When applied to practice, needs analysis provides good sources of information on the tasks that the learners need to perform Therefore, functional/notional approach and task-based approach can be seen as representatives for the focus on needs

Focus on skills and strategies

Skill-centered approach is seen as “an attempt to look below the surface and to consider not the language itself but the thinking processes that underlie language use” (Hutchinson & Waters, 1987, p 13) In contrast with the approaches of register analysis and discourse analysis, this approach does not focus on the language forms, rather it places the importance on the skills required for the learners to extract meaning from discourse Also, the focus of this approach is to equip learners with interpretive strategies so as to deal with language forms effectively such as guessing words‟ meanings from certain contexts, using visual structures of texts to determine text types and related meaning From the very first stage in the history of ESP teaching, the skills-centered approach mainly focused on reading skills and strategies, gradually it has spread to listening and speaking skills Now it also captures social skills like negotiating, giving presentations, socializing Besides the skills-centered

approach, the instrumental approach is another name mentioned with the focus on

skills and strategies Apart from that, case studies can also be considered as a good

and preferable approach especially in Business English so as to help learners practise skills in real life contexts

Focus on the discipline

Another trend in ESP teaching which also attracts attention from the ESP community

is the focus on the discipline According to Dudley-Evans and Johns (1998), ESP should be seen as a multi-disciplinary activity in which ESP teaching is closely related to the insights of researchers from wide-ranging disciplines They believe that

“there is a need for some specificity in both EAP and EOP teaching” (Dudley-Evans

& St Johns, 1998, p 17)

Regarding the level of specificity in ESP courses, a great deal of debates has been recorded in the literature about the two main perspectives related to the matter of specificity of the discipline, which are wide-angled or narrow-angled ones (Lackstrom et al., 1973; Biber, 1988; Dudley-Evans & St Johns, 1998; Hyland, 2002; Huckin, 2003; Paltridge, 2009) The wide-angled perspective suggests ESP teachers deliver courses basing on the „common core‟ of such multi-disciplines because the teaching of ESP is related to the teaching of „real content‟ rather than „carrier content‟ (Dudley-Evans & St Johns, 1998) Additionally, the ultimate goal of ESP courses is

to equip learners with skills and strategies to communicate in real world situations which are ever changing In contrast, adherents of the narrow-angled perspective argue on the fact that the learners should be taught with their specific needs which are closely attached to their specific disciplines This perspective has led to content-based instruction which is known as Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) (Stoller, 2004) This trend seems to become popular in institutions where English as a medium of instruction is focused The purpose of this instruction type is to teach a content subject such as biology, physics via the medium of a foreign language Such integration facilitates language to be developed naturally in real-life situations Moreover, learning is improved through learners‟ increased motivation and the study

of natural language in contexts Some researchers such as Stoller (2004) and Song (2006) indicated that this type of instruction helps learners to have better performance

and achieve higher grades in ESP courses rather than the ones of non-content-based instruction

Focus on language

Back to the early stage of ESP development in the 1960s and early 1970s, centeredness was the main approach used by most ESP practitioners of that time (e.g Strevens, 1977; Ewer & Latorre, 1969; Swales, 1971) The focus of this approach is

language-to identify and analyze grammatical and lexical features of specific registers of different disciplines Based on those linguistic features, teaching materials and syllabi were designed accordingly, paying more attention to the high priority of language forms which learners would cope with in the texts of their disciplines or professions Due to its limited consideration at the sentence level, the next shift of development marked a change in viewing language beyond the sentence Along with this view, rhetorical or discourse analysis emerged and overtook register analysis approach Such approach guided students to “recognize textual patterns and discourse markers mainly by means of text-diagramming exercises” (Hutchinson & Waters, 1987, p 12), which was referred to Genre Analysis (Swales, 1990) This approach has taken

up its prominent position among ESP directions up to now (Paltridge, 2009) Besides genre analysis, register analysis marks its return with the support of computer software and concordance programs, which are viewed as corpus analysis Via this approach, corpora consisting of databank of written and spoken texts are analyzed to reveal patterns of authentic language use When applied to ESP teaching, it helps teachers to determine and embed into the syllabus with the language items linked to the target registers Further, learners in ESP classrooms can be trained to use the computer to analyze the corpora of their specific texts and to discover the typical features of language use on their own This certainly helps to motivate students in learning and raise their awareness of linguistic features of target texts in their studies

or future workplaces (Belcher, 2009)

From the above review, it could be seen that each approach to ESP teaching has its own strengths and weaknesses To quote Dudley-Evans and St John‟s (1998) claim:

“there is currently no dominating movement in ESP […] As in other branches of ELT and many other human activities, there is now acceptance of many different approaches and willingness to mix different types of materials and methodologies” (p 30) Regarding this point, the authors give examples of four types of EAP situation, namely EAP in an English-speaking country, EAP in ESL situations, EAP situations in which certain subjects are taught in English and EAP situations where subject courses are taught in the national language By analyzing the features of each situation and its different foci on the courses, they suggest that “teachers need to think carefully about whether the success claimed for one kind of situation will transfer to another” (p 34) In other words, ESP practitioners should be aware of each approach and make a wise decision upon one specific approach or a mixed one based

on their context and learners

Although a number of discussions have been initiated about ESP teaching approaches, little evidence has been found about ESP teachers‟ actual implementation

of such teaching approaches and foci In Vietnam, discussions made on ESP teachers‟ teaching methodology seem to be mainly subjective judgments about Vietnamese teachers‟ traditional teacher-centered approach (Khanh, 2015; Hoa & Mai, 2016) Although in some other studies (Oanh, Chau & Chi, 2005; Huong, 2013), researchers tried to elicit teachers‟ teaching practice, their instructions were still mainly inferred from the self-report instrument of a survey questionnaire Such research gap, therefore, should be fulfilled to add more empirical evidence about Vietnamese ESP teachers‟ teaching practices

1.3 Teachers’ perceptions

1.3.1 Defining teachers’ perceptions

Tracing back the literature history, teacher cognition research started to grow rapidly since the 1970s With the development of cognitive psychology during such period, perspectives about teaching changed from simply investigating teachers‟ behaviors discretely to examining “individual teachers‟ works and cognitions in a more holistic and qualitative manner” (Borg, 2015, p 7)