An investigation into students’ communicative needs in english the case of university of labour and social affairs

In the lastfew years, first L1 and second L2 language acquisition research into languageteaching have led to an increased interest in investigating the most effective ways ofimproving th

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF

SINH VIÊN TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC LAO ĐỘNG XÃ HỘI)

M.A MINOR THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology

Code: 60 14 10

HÀ NỘI, 2012

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF

(NGHIÊN CỨU ĐIỀU TRA VỀ NHU CẦU GIAO TIẾP TIẾNG ANH CỦA

SINH VIÊN TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC LAO ĐỘNG XÃ HỘI)

M.A MINOR THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60 14 10

Supervisor : M.A Văn Thi Thanḥ Binhh

HÀ NỘI, 2012

TABLE OF CONTENT

Part A: INTRODUCTION 1

1 Rationale 1

2 Scope of the study 4

3 Aims of the study 4

4 Subjects and Methodology of the study 4

5 Research question 5

6 Design of the study 6

Part B: DEVELOPMENT 7

CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 7

1.1 "COMMUNICATIVENESS" AND COMPETENCE 7

1.1.1 What is ―communicativeness‖? 7

1.1.2 Communicative competence 7

1.1.3 Communicative performance 9

1.1.4 Needs 10

1.1.5 Needs analysis 11

1.1.6 Changing the communicative needs 12

1.1.7 The impact of integrated language skills in communication 19

CHAPTER 2: THE STUDY 21

2.1 Data and Methodology 21

2.2 Results and Discussion 23

2.2.1 Students‘ Needs and Actual Use 23

2.2.2 Students' Wants 28

2.2.3 Students‘ lacks 30

PART C: CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATION 34

1 Conclusions and implications 34

2 Limitation and suggestion for further study 36

References 38 APPENDIX………I

LIST OF TABLE AND DIAGRAM

Tables

Table 1: Students‘ needs of listening by type of jobTable 2: Students‘ needs of speaking by type of jobTable 3: Students‘ needs of reading by type of jobTable 4: Students‘ needs of writing by type of jobTable 5: students‘ wants by type of work

Table 6 Response percentages: Language proficiency assessment) by type of work

(self-Table 7 Response percentages: skills used in the workplace bytype of work

PART A: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale

English is undoubtedly considered a golden key to open the door of such fields

as commerce, science and technology throughout the world Therefore, it is necessary

to teach this language in educational establishments of all levels One of the mostimportant purposes of learning English is to communicate with other people especiallynative speakers while communication is mainly based on speaking in which intonation

is an important aspect Therefore, how to speak English smoothly and fluently with anaccurate intonation is essential to any learners of English including Vietnameselearners However, during the course of the research‘s study and teaching practice, it isfound that little or even no attention is paid to the teaching and learning ofcommunicativeness In addition, among many aspects of the teaching and learningEnglish, communicativeness is often neglected at non-major language colleges.Students are taught about this issue when they are in university or college; so many ofthem find it difficult to communicate because of their pronunciation or because theycan‘t pronounce an utterance with accurate intonation As a result, their English doesnot sound native-like Similarly, students always have troubles in listening andunderstanding native speakers This leads to the fact that a lot of them feel shy and lack

of confidence in speaking English

During the past 20 years, the explosion in business and communicationstechnology has revolutionized the field of English language teaching, and hasradically shifted the attention of course designers from teaching English forAcademic purposes to teaching English for more specialized purposes In the lastfew years, first (L1) and second (L2) language acquisition research into languageteaching have led to an increased interest in investigating the most effective ways ofimproving the ability of workers in using English for specific purposes in theworkplace (Li So-mui and Mead, 2000; Louhiala-Salminen 1996) Several recentstudies of ESP have provided evidence of the importance of teaching English forspecific purposes (Li So-mui and Mead, 2000; Edwards, 2000; Lohiala-Salinen,

1996; Huchinson and Waters, 1987) For example, it has been observed that the type

of language used by each worker is influenced by the worker‘s working instrument(see for example, Pogner, 2003; Zak and Dudley-Evans, 1986), by his aims andprofessional constraints, as well as by his specialization and the type of dutiesassigned to him, and by the texts the worker produces and deals with (e.g.,Edwards, 2000; Macintosh, 1990) These educational studies have been developing

in tandem with a recognition that learning English for specific purposes playimportant roles in workers‘ and administrators‘ success in their fields of work andbusiness environments

Over the last few years, many researchers have offered a number of booksand articles bringing out new insights and approaches from different theoreticalperspectives For instance, an important survey was conducted in Finland in 1998

by the National Board of Education on the language and communication skills inthe fields of industry and business It studied language/ communication needs ofindustry and business employees and was aimed at showing how language teachingcould best equip students with the skills required in professional life The surveyhas revealed that compared with engineers, employees in production jobs,installation and repair workers do not need to use foreign languages as much as themembers of the other group However it is clear that they have to read instructions,socialize and travel They rarely get involved with writing formal papers, givingpresentations or negotiating The study thus has shown that the need for oralcommunication overrides written skills (reading and writing) in the first group,while the discrepancy in the second is smaller (Reported in Viel 2002:1)

Similar studies have been carried out in other European and Asian countries(see Perrin, 2003; Ponger, 2003; Edwards, 2000; Le So-Mui and Mead, 2000) Inhis study on writing and interacting in the discourse community of engineers,Pogner (2003:865) has concluded that writing in the discourse community ofengineers cannot be isolated from its contexts, from the chains of communication of

which it is a part, or from the interaction between the writers (consultants) or

readers (Clients) On this issue, Pogner also adds:

Text production and revision by consultant engineers are not only cognitive problem-solving and communication processes … but also

means of negotiation professional standards and roles; defining strategic functions of texts and genres; establishing, maintaining or changing the text’s and interaction’s context by helping the readers/users of the text carry out their own complex technological and business tasks.

In like manner, in a study which took place in a specialized business contextinvolving senior German bankers, Edwards (2000) has observed that there is acorrelational relationship between the place of work and the effective needs ofworkers in terms of language skills practiced, terminology used, and syllabus designand materials preparation for the workers

This work arose from a long-standing association between the on-goingprocess of research in the field of teaching/learning English for Specific purposes inGeneral, and the study plan towards a Bachelor of Arts degree from the Department

of English for Applied studies at the University of Labor and Social Affairs(ULSA) More specifically, it developed from an attempt to revise the study plancontinuously based on the results of other studies on ESP along with an authenticanalysis of learners' perceptions of needs, wants and lacks in the workplace in thefuture The rationale behind choosing these two areas of students‘ future work(accounting and insurance) for the purpose of investigation is because they are two

of the most important fields in which English is used extensively

So, for a better understanding of the day-to-day activities and the ‗realworld‘ needs of these students, an empirical investigation was carried out so as tosee whether the type of material and skills being taught to our students suit their

needs or not Another aim of this study is to see whether there is a need to modifyour objectives or to update our programs in light of the results of this investigation.

So this study will concern itself partially with studying language use, and theworkers‘ perceptions of ESP in light of their abilities and ‗real world‘ need

2 Scope of the study

The research is based on data collected from thirty respondents in fourdifferent classes at University of Labor and Social Affairs in Hanoi, Vietnam Theparticipants in the survey were students in the major of accounting and insurance

This paper is an exploratory study of the use of English by accounting andinsurance students It attempts to examine the communication needs of the students

in the workplace by shedding light on their perceptions of needs, wants and lacks

3 Aims of the study

This study was conducted for the purpose of achieving a betterunderstanding of the communication needs placed upon Vietnamese accounting andinsurance students Moreover, this study was to identify the students‘ needs, wants,lacks of English for the purpose of including in our curriculum what is needed byour students and excluding what deemed to be less important to them

This study also was carried out so as to see whether the type of material andskills being taught to our students suit their needs or not Another aim of this study

is to see whether there is a need to modify our objectives or to update our programs

in light of the results of this investigation

4 Subjects and Methodology of the study

The design of this investigation is based on the work of Hutchinson andWaters (1987), and Dudley-Evans and Jo ST John (1998), in which they defineneeds in terms of ―target needs (i.e what the learner needs to do in the targetsituation) and Learning needs (i.e what the learner needs to do in order to learn).‖The main concern of this investigation will be an analysis of the target needs of thesubjects in these two areas of workplaces However, as all the subjects of this study

are university undergraduates, no attempt will be made here to investigate theirlearning needs To understand the undergraduates‘ preferred ways of learning, it ishighly recommended that such investigation to be conducted at the University ofLabor and Social Affairs in Hanoi, Vietnam, where several ESP courses are taught

to the university students

According to Hutchinson and Waters (1987), and Dudley-Evans and Jo STJohn (1998), the best methodology for studying the target needs of any particulargroup of students is to use such methods as Questionnaires, follow-up interviews,collection of authentic workplace texts, and visits to the workplace

The corpus of this study was collected with the assistance of three ESPstudents enrolled in the Department of English for Applied Studies at University ofLabor and Social Affairs (ULSA) by means of a questionnaire and interviews Datacollection methods used in this study include calculating percentage of answers inthe questionnaire Details of methodology applied in the study are discussed in part

B, chapter 2

Some of the interviews were conducted by me The present research is based ondata collected from thirty respondents in leading positions in four different classes:accounting and insurance The participants in the survey were students in the major

of accounting and insurance, all of whom are Vietnamese-English balancedbilinguals capable of using English for different purposes Fifteen of them study inthe field of accounting and the other fifteen in the field of insurance The sample iscomposed of twenty-two males and only eight females

5 Research question

The main purpose of the study is to investigate the students‘ communicative needs

in the workplace by shedding light on their perceptions of needs, wants, lacks ofEnglish and the use of English in the workplace To achieve this objective, the studyseeks the answers to the following questions:

1. What are the students’ perceived English communicative needs?

2. How to they self-evaluate their ability to communicate in English?

3. What is the gap between their perceived communicative needs and their self-evaluated communicative ability?

6. Design of the study

The research is divided into three parts as follows:

objectives, the scope, the methodology and the design of the study

of two chapters:

Chapter 1 provides theoretical background knowledge of the studied issue touched

upon in the research There are seven sub parts in this chapter This part outlines theevolving definitions of Communicativeness, and Communicative competence andperformance, Needs, Needs analysis, Changing the communicative

Chapter 2 covers methodology applied in the study The research question comes

first, followed by an introduction to the subjects of the research, the datainstruments and the procedures and methodology used for data collection In thischapter, the discussion and interpretation of the collected data is given to find outerrors made by the subjects of the research in producing the glide up based on ananalysis of their performance in the listening and pronunciation tests

followed by implications and suggestions for teachers and learners of English.Limitation of the study and suggestions

PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

In this chapter, some theoretical background of ―communicativeness‖ andcompetence is included This chapter consists of seven sub-parts: section 1.1 revisesdefinition of communicativeness, section 1.2 introduces communicativecompetence, communicative performance is introduced in the section 1.3, followed

by need in section 1.4 and need analysis in the section 1.5 and section 1.6 discussesabout changing the communicative needs and finally, section 1.7 deals with theimpact of integrated language skills in communication

1.1 "COMMUNICATIVENESS" AND COMPETENCE

1.1.1 What is “communicativeness”?

'Communicativeness' is a widely used word, often signifying rather vague

notions.Ellis (1982) states the term "has no clearly understood and received meaning" (p.73).

Similarly, 'communicative competence' is a concept still evolving in

definition towards recognizing language use, following its solidly linguisticbackground To avoid the multifarious "myths" surrounding these terms, we must

"clarify which version of 'communicative' is being referred to"

(Johnson,1996.p.173), and determine what constitutes competence

Allwright's (1979) succinct enquiry "Are we teaching language (for communication)? or Are we teaching communication (via language)?" (p.167)

centralizes this critical issue

1.1.2 Communicative competence

Widdowson's(1978) assertion that acquisition of communicative competence is

"the ultimate aim in language learning‖(p.67), necessitates reconciling these

distinctions for practical classroom purposes Widdowson usefully and pertinently

recognized that communicative competence is ―not a list of learnt items, but a set of

strategies or procedures 'for realizing the value of linguistic elements in contexts

of use” (1979a, p.248).

In answer to Allwright, it is probable that both are essential Richards and

Rogers (1986) assert "communicativeness involves acknowledging the

interdependence of language and communication" (p.66) However, materials have

traditionally focused on the first concept, that linguistic knowledge is central to communication Chomsky (1956), Hymes (1971), Canale and Swain(1980) and Canale (1983) all separated knowledge and actual use Unlike Chomsky, who posited that knowledge of grammar alone was sufficient, Hymes recognized a

sociolinguistic importance, stating "There are rules of use without which the rules

of grammar would be useless" (in Brumfit and Johnson,1979.p15).

Canale's assertion that a primarily knowledge-oriented focus is "an exercise in futility and frustration [which fails] to help learners to master the necessary skills in using knowledge" (1983,p.15) advanced a more interactive model, inclusive of

discoursal and strategic competencies However, he excluded performance, assuming preparation to communicate rather than communication, or "actual use" (p.5),

constituted competence, “the main goal is to prepare and encourage learners to exploit in an optimal way their limited communicative competence in the second language in order to participate in actual communication.”

(1983, p.17)Conversely, Halliday (1973) highlighted the functional importance of language, recognizing knowledge (or potential ability), and use (actualised

potential) as being interdependent This accords with Krashen and Terrell's (1983) Acquisition-Learning Hypothesis, which recognized two separate processes, that oflearning, through conscious studying; and acquisition, through the subconscious

processes of comprehending language "that is a little beyond our current level of (acquired) competence" (p.32) Here knowledge and learning, and use and

acquisition can be viewed as the separable components of communicative

competence as defined by Chomsky, Hymes and Canale Widdowson's (1978) assertion that acquisition of communicative competence is "the ultimate aim in language learning" (p.67), necessitates reconciling these distinctions for practical classroom purposes Widdowson usefully and pertinently recognized that

communicative competence is ―not a list of learnt items, but a set of strategies or procedures 'for realizing the value of linguistic elements in contexts of use' (1979a,

p.248)

1.1.3 Communicative performance

Communication has become fully accepted as an essential and major

component of the “product' of language teaching, but it has not yet been given more than a token place, as an essential and major component of the 'process' A logical extension of the argument would suggest that if communication is THE aim, then it should be THE major element in the process.

(Allright, 1979, p.167)

Allright's call for the centrality of performance is fundamental to teachinglanguage communicatively Brown (1994) recognizes "students' eventual need toapply classroom learning to heretofore unrehearsed contexts in the real world"

(p29) Materials need to provide the contexts in which knowledge and use, or

learning and acquisition can be tested, applied and evaluated, as Ellis recognized,

Communicative opportunity is both necessary and sufficient for acquisition to take place; the contribution of language teaching materials must be to provide this.

(1982, p.75)Performance identifies for learners how pronunciation and successful

communication are mutually dependent, through breakdowns in communication Thesecreate immediate, focused and relevant teaching opportunities to "bring students to the point where they can utilize the outside world" (Krashen,1982.p.183) Similarly,

Widdowson urges learners do the things they will recognize as purposeful and have some resemblance to what they use their own language to do (1990, p.160)

This combination of competence (knowledge) and performance is termed

"communicative performance" by Canale and Swain, or "the realization of

competencies and their interaction in the actual production and comprehension

of utterances" (1980,p.6) They succinctly encapsulate the essence of

communicativeness,

The primary objective of a communication-oriented second language

programme must be to provide learners with the information, practice, and much of the experience needed to meet their communicative needs in the second language.

(ibid, p.28)

Performance also necessitates intelligible pronunciation, also essential to communicative competence (Morley,1987) This provides clear interactive goals and requires actual use Pennington (1996) states "no communication can take place without a certain level of mutual intelligibility" (p.220) Celce-Murcia et al (1996) cite evidence indicating a threshold level of phonological competence, below which intelligibility and communication will suffer regardless of

grammatical and lexical proficiency

1.1.4 Needs

The first, essential, point to make is that needs do not have themselves anobjective reality (Brindley, 57.p.65) ―What is finally established as a ―need‖ is amatter for agreement and judgement not discovery‖ (Lawson, 75.p.37) quoted inBrindley (57 p 65) The needs that are established for a particular group ofstudents will be an outcome of a needs analysis project and will be influenced bythe ideological preconceptions of analysts A different group of analysts workingwith the same group of students, but with different views on teaching and learningwould be highly likely to produce a different set of needs

A number of people, for example Berwick (55), Brindley (57), Mountford81),Widdowson (326) have discussed the different meanings or types of needs

First, needs can refer to students‘ study or job requirements that is what they have

to be able to do at the end of their language course This is a goal-orienteddefinition of needs (Widdowson, 326, p.2) needs in this sense are perhaps moreappropriately described as ―objectives‖(Berwick, 55 P 57) Second, needs canmean ―what the user-institution or society at large regards as necessary ordesirable to be learnt from a program of language instruction‖ (Mountford, 81 P.27) Third, we can consider what the learner needs to do to actually require thelanguage This is a process-oriented definition of needs and relate to transitionalbehavior (Widdowson, 326 p 2) Fourth, we can consider what the studentsthemselves would like to gain from the language course This view of needs impliesthat students may have personal aims in addition to (or even in opposition to) therequirements of their language course (Berwick, 55 p 57) is that such personalneeds may be another devalued by being viewed as wants or desires Finally, wemay interpret needs is what the students do not know or cannot do in English

The answer to this very reasonable question is in theory nothing, in practice agreat deal, it is often argued that the needs of the General English learner, forexample the schoolchild, are not specifiable This is an assumption that owes more

to instructional inertia and the weight of tradition than to any reality, but it is a

powerful force nevertheless In fact, this is the weakest of all arguments, because it

is always possible to specify needs, even if it is only the needs to pass the exam atthe end of the school year There is always an identifiable need of some sort

What distinguishes ESP from General English is not the existence of a need

as such but rather an awareness of the need If learners, sponsors and teachers knowwhy the learners need English, that awareness will have an influence on what will

be acceptable as reasonable content in the language course and on the positive side,what potential can be exploited Thus, although it might appear on the surface thatthe ESP course is characterized by its content ( Science, Medicine, Commerce,Tourism, banking, etc.), this is, in fact, only a secondary consequence of theprimary matter of being able to readily specify why the learners need English Putbriefly, it is not so much the nature of the need which distinguishes the ESP fromthe General course but rather the awareness of a need

This being said we would still maintain that any course should be based onand can have an useful effect on General English and indicates once more the needfor a common approach The answer to the analysis will probably be different, butthe questions that need to be asked are the same Nevertheless, for the time being,the tradition persists in General English that learner needs can‘t be specified and as

a result no attempt is usually made to discover learners‘ true needs Thus, if we had

to state in practical terms the irreducible minimum of an ESP approach to coursedesign, it would be needs analysis, since it is the awareness of an target situation- adefinable need to communicate in English-that distinguishes the ESP learner fromthe learner of General English

1.1.6 Changing the communicative needs

Discusses on testing of English as an international language have beenshaped by the discourse on colonization and postcolonial orientations to English

We have to consider the changes in the communicative order to examine whetherthese discourses are still relevant

Colonization was influenced by what Stuart Hall (1997) called modernistglobalization In this form of geopolitical relationship, communities related to eachother in a hierarchical and unilateral fashion The dominant communities assumedthe superiority of their cultural and social systems, even that of their language, andattempted to spread their influence at the cost of local traditions However, the newsocial and technological forces unleashed by this form of globalization havegenerated a new relationship between communities.

Some have labeled this position the International English perspective(Davies, Hamp-Lyons, & Kemp, 2003) But this is a misnomer Making a case forstandard British or American English as the norm for testing cannot be treated asbeing international in any meaningful sense of the term Besides, the school oflingua franca English (Jenkins, 2006; Seidlhofer, 2004) holds a position at variancewith the International English perspective It is therefore important to distinguishthese two perspectives.pora groups; the Internet; transnational production andeconomic relationships; and the compression of time and space through travel,media, and communication account for what Hall called postmodern globalization.This social context is marked by traits that are different from those of previoussocial formations: The first is the interaction between communities is multilateral—that is, international involvement at diverse levels is needed in today‘s economicand production enterprises The second is national boundaries have become porous

—people, goods, and ideas flow easily between borders The third is languages,communities, and cultures have become hybrid, shaped by this fluid flow of socialand economic relationships English enables, and is in turn shaped by, these trans-cultural flows To understand the radical implications for English, we need to re-examine the assumptions of the World English model which was introduced byKachru in 1986 This model raises disturbing questions for assessment practices: Itbrought into crisis our previous assumptions on the nature of English language; andwith all the other communities increasingly using English as a foreign language,primarily for international purposes, labeled the expanding

circle and positioned further in the periphery More important, the modelestablished the legitimacy of the new varieties of English in the outer circle,affirming their norms and usage The model thus pluralized the English language.

We are now unable to treat English as a homogeneous language characterized by auniform norm or grammatical system However, the conditions featuringpostmodern globalization call into question some of the assumptions behind theKachruvian model (Kachru, 1986): firstly the model legitimizes each variety in theouter circle in terms of its national identity Thus, Indian English is valid for India,Nigerian English for Nigeria, and Singaporean English for Singapore, and so on.However, these varieties of English have started to leak outside their nationalborders in postmodern globalization Indian English is relevant not just for Indiansanymore Personnel from the outsourced companies in Madras or Bangalore usetheir variety of English when they conduct business with people from othercountries More important, British or American nationals cannot be satisfied withtheir prestigious varieties anymore Americans now have to transact many importanttypes of domestic and personal business with companies outside their border IndianEnglish is now necessary for Americans They should at least have receptive skills

in World English to transact business with outsourced companies On the otherhand, speakers in the expanding circle do not use English solely for extra-community relations For countries such as China, Vietnam, Philippines, and Brazil,English performs many important functions within borders What about theimportance of international news, popular culture, and advanced education in thesecountries? There have been reports in scholarly literature on how hip-hop music inEnglish is appropriated and re-created in a range of communities-Belgium, Japan,Holland-for local consumption These considerations call into question theESL/EFL (English as a second language–English as a foreign language) distinctionand demand that we take account of the increasing currency of English inexpanding-circle countries More important, we are learning that expanding-circlecommunities are developing new norms as they use English for lingua franca

communication We cannot treat them strictly as norm dependent, as Kachru labeledthem Multilingual speakers do not seem to defer to inner-circle norms when theycommunicate with each other in English Lastly if there is still a grudgingacceptance in the Kachruvian model that the inner-circle countries enjoy ownershipover English—that is, although Kachru labeled the other two circles normdeveloping and norm dependent, he called the inner circle norm providing— thespread of English questions this assumption The oft-cited statistics by Graddol(1999) and Crystal (1997) have shown that speakers outside the inner circle havegrown in number In terms of the currency and usage of the language, there isclearer evidence that English is used more in multinational contexts by multilingualspeakers than it is in homogeneous contexts of monolingual speakers Theseconsiderations raise questions about the periphery status of the outer and expandingcircles in the Kachruvian model The latter communities are quite central to thecharacter and currency of English today.

These developments demand a re-conceptualization of the relationshipbetween the diverse varieties of English It is not necessary to announce the death ofthe native speaker and usher in the dominance of the periphery in theorizations ofEnglish language We have to at least move closer to the position that English is aheterogeneous language with multiple norms and diverse grammars We have tostart working with Crystal‘s notion of English (2004) as ―a family of languages‖(p 49) or McArthur‘s egalitarian model (1987) where the different varieties relate

to each other on a single level (and not on three hierarchies, as in Kachru‘s model

In a context where we have to constantly shuttle between different varietiesand communities, proficiency becomes complex To be really proficient in Englishtoday, one has to be multidialectal This does not mean that one needs productionskills in all the varieties of English One needs the capacity to negotiate diversevarieties to facilitate communication The passive competence to understand newvarieties is part of this multidialectal competence Therefore, we have to move fromthe ―either–or‖ orientation in the testing debate to a ―both and more‖ perspective

Let me spell out what proficiency in English entails in the postmodern context ofcommunication: first, although I am in sympathy with the need to assess outer-circle speakers according to endogenous norms, this is not enough They must beready to engage with inner-circle and expanding-circle communities in order toaccomplish important communicative and socioeconomic functions Second,proficiency in communicating with inner-circle communities is not enough forouter-circle and expanding-circle communities, because much of thecommunication in English happens among multilingual speakers in nonnativeinteractions Researchers on English as a lingua franca point out that when speakers

in the outer and expanding circles speak to each other, they are able to negotiatetheir differences in their own terms and accomplish their communicative e needseffectively without deferring to inner-circle norms (Jenkins, 2006; Seidlhofer,2004) Standard American or British English does not have any relevance to manycommunicative activities of millions of multilingual speakers outside the innercircle Third, proficiency means, then, the ability to shuttle between differentvarieties of English and different speech communities In this sense, the argumentbecomes irrelevant whether local standards or inner-circle standards matter Weneed both and more—that is, the ability to negotiate the varieties in other outer- andexpanding-circle communities as well Last, this orientation to globalization doesnot mean that speakers of English today have to be proficient in all the varietiesunder the sun What we find from research on English as a lingua franca is theimportance of negotiation skills—such as speech accommodation—for shuttlingbetween English varieties and speech communities Such realizations suggest theneed for an important shift in assessment practices From focusing overly onproficiency in grammar or in abstract linguistic features, we have to focus more onproficiency in pragmatics Sociolinguistic skills of dialect differentiation, codeswitching, style shifting, interpersonal communication, conversation management,and discourse strategies are important for shuttling between English varieties(McKay, 2005) We have to be open to the fact that although interlocutors may use

convergence strategies to facilitate communication, they can adopt divergencestrategies to distance themselves from each other (Jenkins, 2006) In such cases, wecannot treat the breakdown in interaction as miscommunication but as a creativerhetorical act.

In effect, in our attitude to proficiency, we have to shift our emphases fromlanguage as a system to language as social practice, from grammar to pragmatics,from competence to performance Of course, these constructs are not exclusive.However, the bias in language teaching and testing circles is still very much on thefirst construct in each pair Defining language use as performative involves placing

an emphasis on the second construct in each pair and considering how languagediversity is actively negotiated in acts of communication under changing contextualconditions In other words, it is not what we know as much as it is the versatilitywith which we do things with English that defines proficiency What implicationsdoes the aforementioned communicative scenario hold for norms? We realize thatnorms are relative, variable, heterogeneous, and changing Posing the options aseither ―native English norms‖ or ―new English norms‖ is misleading A proficientspeaker of English in the postmodern world needs an awareness of both He or sheshould be able to shuttle between different norms, recognizing the systematic andlegitimate status of different varieties of English in this diverse family of languages.More interesting, research on English as a lingua franca has shown that there arenew norms developing when multilingual people communicate with each other Thesearch is on for the lingua franca core (Seidlhofer, 2004) As multilingual speakersfocus more on intelligibility rather than on grammatical correctness, they aredeveloping new norms of English that are different from both the local and themetropolitan varieties

All this leads to the view of English as a heterogeneous language withmultiple norms, with each norm coming into play at different levels of socialinteraction Proficiency in the world of postmodern globalization requires the ability

to negotiate this variability We might have to address the fact that there are

different norms that come into play at different levels of social interaction Althoughlingua franca core comes into play in multilingual contexts, the local norm mayhave to be used in clearly demarcated contexts of inner-circle or outer-circle usage.

In extremely formal institutional contexts where inner-circle norms areconventional (such as in academic communication), one has to adopt the establishednorms This multi-layering of norms does not have to be confusing as it sounds.Although pedagogy and assessment still largely focus on unitary norms, research onthe everyday communication of multilingual students and adults has shown thatthey draw from intuitive resources and skills to negotiate diversity effectively.Students adapt to the varieties of neighboring communities for symbolic andaffective reasons outside the classroom This might be considered a convergencestrategy of adopting the language variety of another group to express solidarity andfacilitate intelligibility Harris, Leung, and Rampton (2000) showed how a Bengalistudent picked up Rastafarian English from the Jamaican communities in hisneighborhood to communicate with them Bengalis in London have probably foundthat Rastafarian English facilitates friendship and other social transactions with theJamaican community Ibrahim (1999) found that Somali students in Torontoadopted hip-hop English for certain contexts They found Afro-Canadian identityand cultural features important in order to develop an urbane identity Lam (2000)found that a Chinese American student who was defined as limited Englishproficient in the classroom negotiated diverse varieties with his Internet buddiesfrom other countries as they successfully discussed topics in pop and teen culture.Such untutored strategies of negotiation develop in social practice as multilingualpeople engage with speakers of other languages in their linguistically diverseenvironments According to the South Asian perspective on identity and communityarticulated by Khubchandani (1997), such strategies are native to peripherycommunities because of their multilingual history

1.1.7 The impact of integrated language skills in communication

The proposed model ESP syllabus is basically skills based syllabusintegrated with the types of personal group and mass communication andinterrelating with the types of speaking and writing activities The students should

be engaged in interactional communication activities to improve speaking skills.Engaging the students in interpersonal communication activities like providing self-introduction, small talk, extempore, conversation, chatting, interview and role play;group communication activities like conducting business meetings, groupdiscussions, panel discussions, brain storming and problem solving; and masscommunication activities like delivering lectures, public speaking, seminars,symposiums, conferences will make the students to participate and perform in theinteractive tasks The students will be able to execute oral tasks with sheerconfidence and attempt to display fluency in both language and communication.Working in pairs, groups and acting as an audience to witness the activities willhelp the students to realize themselves about their level of participation andperformance The comments and the feedback provided by both the colleagues andfaculties will make them to understand to perform better in subsequent oral tasks.Teachers should train the students in the speaking activities like greeting andwishing one another, introducing and briefing oneself, presenting about oneself,revealing personal profile, presenting a short lecture, public speaking, presenting onany topic of interest, engaging in informal chatting with short dialogues,participating in mock interviews, performing a role play, presenting a business ortechnical paper, participating in meetings with an agenda of scrutinizing businessdevelopments, thinking logically and critically on any business or technical issues,providing a solution to the problem will make the students to literally develop theirprofessional and technical communication The students should be specificallygiven tasks to improve speech on discourse and rhetoric (Widdowson, 1983) Theyshould be able to engage in narrative, descriptive, explanative and interrogativemode of language tasks Narrating an ordeal or experience, describing a process or

any graphical representations like graphs, diagrams, pictures and maps, providing

an explanation on a given situation and analyzing a case through oral questionnairewill make the students to improve their communicative ability to engage inrhetorical discourse

Speech on rhetoric and discourse should be trained through practicing toquestion variedly and to prepare questionnaires on any inquiries on any desirablesubject, will improve interrogative skills to process arguments and to precedejudgment on any issues.They should be able to frame questions like to put tagquestions in conversations, yes/no type and wh‘ type for extracting inquiries indiscussions

Writing skills should be adequately improved by providing tasks in writingcomposition, letters and reports They need to be given practice to write error-freesentences They should be able to think and organize their ideas in a logicalsequence and should use discourse markers for ascertaining coherence in theirthought and writing They should be able to write with good spelling andpunctuation They should also be given practice to identify and distinguish theinternational use of English language styles like MLA, APA and LSA

Students should be able to practice both formal and informal letter writing tocorrespond on any official and administrative letters, business mails and reportwriting They should be able to write official letters, memoranda, inter-officememo, circular, agenda, minutes and notices They should be acquainted with thevivid practice of writing business letters and e-mails They should be able tounderstand the distinctive use of formalized informal mails, informal formalizedmails, formal and informal mails They should be given an adequate training oncalling quotations, placing orders, complaining on any issues, appreciating on anyservices, asking for clarification and explanation on any new products, givingsuggestions, instructions, directions, seeking recommendations and reference letters

on any context Letters of application with CV, writing personal and professionalprofile should be encouraged to practice

Writing a proposal on any project, writing the layout of the project, writingproject reports, industrial reports, and business reports should be often practiced toimprove their project and research writing Students should be assigned to engage inindividual, pair or a group to undertake some mini projects and to do some fieldsurvey to improve their research skills and subsequently to put the report in writing.Research skills are highly scholastic and eventually it leads to impart high degree ofspeaking and writing ability to enhance professional and technical communication.

Chapter 2: the study

This chapter will be devoted to present some aspects of methodology of theresearch The methodology will be discussed under two sub-headings Section 2.1introduces a description of the subjects of the research, data instruments with themethodology, the data collection procedure Section 2.2 provides the results fromthe collected data and the discussion of those results at the same time aboutstudents‘ needs and actual use, students‘ wants, students‘ workers‘ lacks as well aslanguage attitude

2.1 Data and Methodology

The design of this investigation is based on the work of Hutchinson andWaters (1987), and Dudley-Evans and Jo ST John (1998), in which they defineneeds in terms of ―target needs (i.e what the learner needs to do in the targetsituation) and Learning needs (i.e what the learner needs to do in order to learn).‖The main concern of this investigation will be an analysis of the target needs of thesubjects in these two areas of workplaces However, as all the subjects of this studyare university undergraduates, no attempt will be made here to investigate theirlearning needs To understand the undergraduates‘ preferred ways of learning, it ishighly recommended that such investigation to be conducted at the University ofLabor and Social Affairs in Hanoi, Vietnam, where several ESP courses are taught

to the university students The target needs, the focus of this work, are further

broken down into the necessities, wants and lacks of the students For moreclarification of these three elements an attempt will be made here to examine thestudents‘ attitudes toward English in general and English for specific purposes inparticular According to Hutchinson and Waters (1987), and Dudley-Evans and Jo

ST John (1998), the best methodology for studying the target needs of anyparticular group of students is to use such methods as Questionnaires, follow-upinterviews, collection of authentic workplace texts, and visits to the workplace

The corpus of this study was collected with the assistance of three ESPstudents enrolled in the Department of English for Applied Studies at University ofLabor and Social Affairs (ULSA) by means of a questionnaire and interviews Some

of the interviews were conducted by me The present research is based on datacollected from thirty respondents in leading positions in four different classes:accounting and insurance The participants in the survey were students in the major

of accounting and insurance, all of whom are Vietnamese-English balancedbilinguals capable of using English for different purposes Fifteen of them study inthe field of accounting and the other fifteen in the field of insurance The sample iscomposed of twenty-two males and only eight females The unbalanced distribution

of the sample by sex is due to the fact that the chances of females in Vietnamesesociety in occupying these areas of working All of respondents are supposed tohave studied English as a foreign language for eight to ten years and their educationfor the university degree (B.A., M.Sc.) was English medium Also it is worth notingthat all those students have studied for duration of two to three years in theirrespective fields of study

The linguistic questionnaire utilized in this research was largely influenced

by those used in previous works on needs analysis, language use, function andattitudes (e.g., Huthinson and Waters, 1987; Dudley-Evans and Jo ST John, 1998;Louhiala-Salminon, 1996; Li So-mui and Mead, 2000; Perrin, 2003; Alm, 2003;among others) However, the questionnaire was modified in a way so as to betterserve the purposes of this study with these particular workplaces The questionnaire