Cảm nhận của sinh viên về khóa học tiếng anh chuyên ngànhnghiên cứu trường hợp điển hình khóa tiếng anh ngành kế toán đại học kinh tế quốc dân

This study aims at exploring Accounting and Auditing majored students’ perceptions towards the English for Accounting course at National Economics University and suggest possible solutio

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHER EDUCATION

GRADUATION PAPER

STUDENTS’ PERCEPTIONS TOWARDS ESP COURSE: A CASE STUDY OF ENGLISH FOR ACCOUNTING COURSE AT NATIONAL ECONOMICS UNIVERSITY

Supervisor: Ms Nguyễn Thuỵ Phương Lan, M.A

Student: Chu Hứa Minh Hiền Course: QH2015.F1.E1

HANOI – 2019

ĐẠI HỌC QUỐC GIA HÀ NỘI

TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ

KHOA SƯ PHẠM TIẾNG ANH

KHÓA LUẬN TỐT NGHIỆP CẢM NHẬN CỦA SINH VIÊN VỀ KHÓA HỌC TIẾNG ANH CHUYÊN NGÀNH: NGHIÊN CỨU TRƯỜNG HỢP ĐIỂN HÌNH KHÓA TIẾNG ANH NGÀNH KẾ TOÁN, ĐẠI HỌC KINH TẾ QUỐC DÂN

Giáo viên hướng dẫn: Th.S Nguyễn Thuỵ Phương Lan Sinh viên: Chu Hứa Minh Hiền

Khóa: QH2015.F1.E1

HÀ NỘI - 2019

I hereby state that I: Chu Hua Minh Hien, class QH2015.F1.E1, being a candidate for the degree of Bachelor of Arts (Honors program) accept the requirements of the College relating to the retention and use of Bachelor’s Graduation Paper deposited in the library

In terms of these conditions, I agree that the origin of my paper deposited

in the library should be accessible for the purposes of study and research, in accordance with the normal conditions established by the librarian for the care, loan or reproduction of the paper

Signature:

Date:

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First and foremost, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to Ms Nguyen Thuy Phuong Lan, M.A for her supervision, guidance and wholehearted support throughout every step of this study

In addition, I would like to send my sincere thanks to the students and teachers who participated in this research Without their kindness and willingness

to spend time sharing their invaluable perceptions, this study would not have been possible

I also would like to thank my parents and other family members, To Giang, Bao Chau, Phan Hien, Phuong Thao, Thanh Tra, my friend Khuong Nga and my classmates from 15E1 for their great support and encouragement, my favorite band BTS for keeping me awake at night with their music Thanks to them, I was highly motivated to persist in the face of adversity and finish this paper

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ABSTRACT

Course evaluation is one of the most important processes to ensure the quality of an entire program, and it is particularly essential in the ESP context This study aims at exploring Accounting and Auditing majored students’ perceptions towards the English for Accounting course at National Economics University and suggest possible solutions to improve the quality of the course

To achieve these targets, a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods is used with two data collection instruments, namely questionnaire and semi-structured interview The findings reveal that there are both strong points and weaknesses of the course regarding fulfillment of learner needs, authenticity, and fostering of learner autonomy The results suggest certain modification being made in terms of the course duration, materials, content and teaching methodologies for future improvements

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LIST OF FIGURES, TABLES, AND ABBREVIATIONS

1 Table 1: Kirkpatrick’s Four Levels of Evaluation

(Kirkpatrick & Kirkpatrick, 2009, p.3)

4 Table 3: Specialized courses in Accounting and Auditing

majors curriculum at NEU

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5 Figure 2: Students’ purposes for taking English for

Accounting course

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6 Figure 3: Students’ perceptions towards the course in terms

of meeting learners’ needs

9 Figure 4: Students’ English proficiency level 25

10 Table 6: The suitability of the course with students’ English

level compared among three groups of students

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11 Table 7: Students’ perceptions towards the authenticity of

the course materials

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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

ESP: English for Specific Purposes

NEU: National Economics University

SAA: School of Accounting and Auditing

IBM: International Business Machines Corporation

SPSS: Statistical Package for the Social Sciences

ACCA: Association of Chartered Certified Accountants

ICAEW: The Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS i

ABSTRACT ii

LIST OF FIGURES, TABLES, AND ABBREVIATIONS iii

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Statement of research problem and research questions 1

1.2 Scope of the study 2

1.3 Significance of the study 3

1.4 Organization 3

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 4

2.1 General overview of course evaluation 4

2.2 Course evaluation in ESP context 5

2.2.1 Distinct characteristics of ESP 5

2.2.2 ESP course evaluation framework 6

2.3 Description of English for Accounting course 12

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 15

3.1 Sampling 15

3.2 Data collection 16

3.3 Data analysis 18

3.4 Ethical considerations 18

CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 19

4.1 Fulfillment of learners’ needs 19

4.2 The authenticity of course materials and tasks 27

4.3 Fostering of learner autonomy 30

4.4 Suggestions to improve the course 33

4.5 Recapitulations 34

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION 38

5.1 Summary of major findings and implications 38

5.2 Limitations and suggestions for further research 39

REFERENCES 41

APPENDICES 46

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CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

1.1 Statement of research problem and research questions

Course evaluation is a key component in every process of learning and teaching, since it ―helps to assess whether the course objectives are being met — whether the course, in other words, is doing what it was designed to do‖ (Hutchinson & Waters, 1987, p.144) In the ESP (English for Specific Purposes) context, course evaluation plays a particularly significant role due to the distinct learner-centered feature of ESP courses: aiming to fulfill learners’ ever-changing needs and help them meet the requirements of their target profession/academic environments (Basturkmen, 2010) In fact, the matter of designing and developing ESP courses has always been a great concern of teachers and educators all over the world (Graves, 1996) As part of the course developing process, in order to ensure the quality of the course or revise it for further improvement, the developer first needs to know how effective the course is in reality This emphasizes the significant role of course evaluation through examining perceptions of effectiveness

However, despite the utmost importance of evaluation, it is in fact not implemented on a regular basis due to the complexity and consumption of time and resources (Silvia, 2016) Upon interaction with students currently taking English for Accounting course at National Economics University, the researcher

of this study realized that whether the course satisfies learners’ needs is questionable It is not evident that there has been any needs analysis or research conducted to improve the quality of the course The researcher decides to conduct this study partly due to her personal interests in working at this university in the future, and it is also the researcher’s belief that the identification and analysis of students’ perception towards the course would help improve its quality, hence benefitting both the learners and the lecturers

The purpose of the research is to explore students’ evaluation of their English for Accounting course at National Economics University To be specific, the researcher seeks the answers to the following questions:

1.2 Scope of the study

The research is conducted at National Economics University (NEU), one

of the most prestigious institutes educating Economics, Public Management and Business Administration in Vietnam (Linh, 2017) The researcher aims to gather data from all Auditing and Accounting-majored students who took the English for Accounting course this semester, along with some alumni from the same majors who graduated from NEU 1-2 years ago, and lecturers who were in charge of teaching the course

Regarding the scope of data gathered, this research focuses on the subjective evaluation of the ESP course That is to say, students’ perceptions were explored in terms of three major aspects: learner needs, authenticity, and learner autonomy The data gained from undergraduates and alumni could complement each other, since the students who recently finished the course had fresher memory of it; on the other hand, the alumni’s frequent exposure to the target situations at their workplace could help them further evaluate the usefulness of the course The lecturers’ responses serve the purpose of triangulating the data collected from student participants, as well as enriching the analysis of results

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1.3 Significance of the study

The researcher hopes that this study could contribute as a reference for future studies in the field of ESP education, course evaluation in particular The more attention is drawn towards course evaluation, the more researchers and course designers and would be aware of its importance, thus being motivated to gather information from students and consider learners’ feedback thoroughly in designing ESP courses

In addition, it is believed that the findings of this study could be useful for lecturers at School of Accounting and Auditing (SAA), NEU in revising and improving the English for Accounting course Despite the small scale of the case study, it is also hoped that the research results could serve as reference materials for developing as well as improving other ESP courses in the relevant fields

1.4 Organization

The research content is organized into five chapters as the main text This chapter, Chapter 1, provides an introduction to the study; including the research problem and research questions, scope and significance The next chapters after the introduction include the following content:

- Chapter 2, Literature Review, explores relevant literature about course evaluation in ESP, as well as provides background information about the ESP course at NEU, the context of this study

- Chapter 3, Methodology, justifies the research methods used for the study and demonstrate the procedures of selecting samples, collecting and analyzing data

- Chapter 4, Findings and Discussion, reports data analysis results and further discusses the research questions alongside the literature from Chapter 2

- Chapter 5, Conclusion, summarizes the major findings and identifies limitations of the research, as well as practical implications for further studies

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CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter reviews relevant research on evaluation and course evaluation in ESP, as well as background information about the ESP course in the context of National Economics University

2.1 General overview of course evaluation

Oxford English Dictionary defines a course as ―a series of lectures or lessons in a particular subject, leading to an examination or qualification‖ (Course, n.d.) In the context of Vietnamese higher education, the definition applies, yet slightly differs in the way that a course is designed as part of a training program, and usually completes after one academic term (Ministry of Education and Training, 2007) Regardless of the differences, in general there are three major components that a course possesses: course objectives (or learning outcomes), assessments, and teaching methodologies; the alignment of all three contributes to the overall success of the course (Biggs, 2014) Therefore, evaluating the effectiveness of a course involves not only judging those components individually, but also examining their connection with one another

In order to maintain and improve the quality of a course, evaluation is of utmost importance Course evaluation is viewed as a process of collecting and synthesizing information that leads to conclusions about the worth and quality of

a course (Fournier, 2005) However, researchers believe that the true nature of course evaluation is a tool for course development, rather than merely a test of effectiveness (Bruner, 1966; Edstrom, 2008; Ramsden, 2003) It is widely agreed that course evaluation is not an isolated process, but should be regarded as providing further insight into teaching and learning, contributing to the educational decisions (Belluigi, 2015; Patton, 2008)

Regarding how to evaluate a course, two primary methods are commonly used The former, objective evaluation, includes thorough examination of the syllabus as well as how closely the course content, teaching methods and assessments align with achieving the objectives of the course (Barrick & Deeds,

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1986); while the latter, subjective evaluation, involves analysis of teachers’ and students’ perceptions towards that course (McCormick & BrckaLorenz, 2015; Schmelkin, Spencer, & Gellman, 1997) A course could be evaluated either subjectively or objectively, or with the combination of both; however, taking the scope of a graduation thesis into account, the researcher of this study decided to focus on the latter aspect - subjective evaluation of the ESP course

2.2 Course evaluation in ESP context

2.2.1 Distinct characteristics of ESP

Generally, English for Specific Purposes (ESP) is described by Paltridge and Starfield (2013) as ―the teaching and learning of English as a second or foreign language where the goal of the learners is to use English in a particular domain‖ Many scholars such as Belcher (2006), Dudley-Evans & St John (1998) and Strevens (1977) even went further by categorizing the specific domains into English for Academic Purposes (EAP) and English for Occupational Purposes (EOP) In other words, ESP learners study English not because of their interests in the language or culture, but for study or work purposes (Basturkmen, 2006; Robinson, 1991)

Dudley-Evans and St John (1998) lists out key characteristics of ESP as followed:

Absolute Characteristics:

1 ESP is defined to meet specific needs of the learners;

2 ESP makes use of underlying methodology and activities of the discipline it serves;

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

Variable Characteristics:

1 ESP may be related to or designed for specific disciplines;

2 ESP may use, in specific teaching situations, a different methodology from that of General English;

3 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;

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4 ESP is generally designed for intermediate or advanced students Most ESP courses assume some basic knowledge of the language systems, but it can be used with beginners

(Dudley-Evans & St John, 1998, p.4) Accordingly, a major feature of ESP is that the course objectives, content and teaching methodologies are learners’ needs-oriented Therefore, in order for

an ESP course to be practical and successful, all the aspects of an ESP course need to be based on learners’ needs and directed towards helping learners meet language requirements of their environments (Basturkmen, 2010)

2.2.2 ESP course evaluation framework

One of the most classic learning evaluation frameworks is Kirkpatrick’s Four Levels of Evaluation, the original version of which dates back to 1959 In this model, four concepts serve as foundation for evaluation of any course or educational program – reaction, learning, behavior, and results

Level 1: Reaction To what degree participants react favorably to the

learning event

Level 2: Learning To what degree participants acquire the intended

knowledge, skills, and attitudes based on their participation in the learning event

Level 3: Behavior To what degree participants apply what they learned

during training when they are back on the job

Level 4: Results To what degree targeted outcomes occur, as a result of

the learning event(s) and subsequent reinforcement

Table 1: Kirkpatrick’s Four Levels of Evaluation (Kirkpatrick & Kirkpatrick,

2009, p.3)

The framework is highly praised for its process-oriented characteristics, which provide a comprehensive insight into the impacts of a course on learners (Rouse, 2011) However, it is also deemed inapplicable for evaluating all four levels of the course, especially Level 3 and 4, without the help of supervising mechanisms (Downes, 2015) Likewise, since the researcher of this study primarily explores students’ perceptions and is unable to observe their

Figure 1: Tsou and Chen’s ESP course evaluation framework (2014)

The framework is built on the basis of Hutchinson and Waters’ ESP course evaluation model, which was adapted from Alderson and Waters’ four major criteria (1983):

1 What should be evaluated?

2 How can ESP courses be evaluated?

3 Who should be involved in the evaluation?

4 When (and how often) should evaluation take place?

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1 What should be evaluated? Everything of significance, with

consideration of two constraints:

a) Researcher’s ability to collect the information

b) Researcher’s ability to use the information once it has been collected

2 How can ESP courses be evaluated? Evaluation can be done in some ways

such as: test results, questionnaires, discussion, Interviews, informal means (unsolicited comments, casual chats, etc.)

3 Who should be involved in the

evaluation?

ESP teaching institution, ESP teachers, learners, sponsors

4 When (and how often) should

evaluation take place?

In the first week of the course

At regular intervals throughout the course, for example every half term

At the end of the course

After the course

Table 2: Hutchinson and Waters’ ESP course evaluation model (1987)

This model provides detailed guidelines and aims to cover everything necessary for evaluating an ESP course However, it is proposed for the purpose

of conducting longitudinal course evaluation studies, as part of the program evaluation process Regarding the scale of a bachelor thesis, it is in fact impractical for the present research to evaluate all the aspects of the course Since the decision of what to evaluate could be made to suit the timing and the method

of data collection (Dudley-Evans & St John, 1998), the researcher would adapt Tsou and Chen’s framework, which is more updated and feasible for the scope of this study Accordingly, it focuses on three main questions: whether learner needs have been fulfilled, whether the materials and tasks are authentic, and whether the course has successfully fostered learner autonomy

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After reviewing the theoretical frameworks revolving around course evaluation in ESP, this research would proceed with discussing relevant literature related to the following aspects: learner needs, authenticity, and learner autonomy

* Learner needs:

Although the concept of needs could vary, in ESP there are two main approaches to learner needs: target needs and learning needs While target needs refer to what language or skills learners need to perform in the target situation, learning needs focus on what skills or strategies they would apply in order to achieve the target language (Hutchinson & Waters, 1987) According to Kaewpet (2009, p.211), learner needs also involve the following elements:

 Teaching and learning styles with which the learners are familiar

 Appropriate or ineffective teaching and learning methods

 Knowledge of specialized contents that teachers should have

 Suitable instructional materials and study location

 Time of study and status of ESP courses

 Expectations about what learners should achieve in the courses

 How necessary the courses are for the learners

Due to the learner-centered characteristics of ESP, it is essential to conduct needs analysis in the process of developing an ESP course However, mismatches between learner needs and the courses element could still persist (Basturkmen, 2006), which emphasizes the importance of ongoing course evaluations to identify which areas of needs are unfulfilled, as well as the sources

of the problems A common issue found by past studies is the conflict between the institution’s assumptions and subjective needs of the learners For example,

in Celik’s research (2018) it is expected that teachers using English actively in the ESP classroom would be beneficial, yet the findings revealed that in the case

of Turkish university students, the lacks in the learners’ language abilities make

it difficult for them to comprehend

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When evaluating the course effectiveness based on learner needs, a potential problem is that learners may not be reliable sources of information about their own needs, especially if they are unfamiliar with their future job or academic study (Long, 1996) This research aims to bridge such gap by setting the time of data collection to be after the students’ internship period, so that the participants could refer to their working experience when giving perceptions about the ESP course

* Authenticity:

It is widely agreed that authenticity is a key concept in ESP courses

(Basturkmen, 2006; Dudley-Evans & St John, 1998; Kennedy & Bolitho, 1984;

Robinson, 1991) Authenticity is divided into two major aspects: text authenticity and task authenticity First, text authenticity is broadened as to include real-world texts which are as close to the learners’ target situations in their jobs as possible (Wegener, 2008) The second aspect, task authenticity, refers to the degree of similarity between the task learners have to perform in the classroom and the target language use task in the real world (Bachman & Palmer, 1996) In other words, ESP materials need to employ the skills and strategies required in learners’ target situation for high level of authenticity

ESP authentic materials are generally classified by Vaiciuniene and Uzpaliene (2010, p 95) into three primary types for teachers to find based on target situation analysis:

 Daily objects (business cards, bank leaflets, photographs, receipts, catalogues, currency, reports, financial statements, instructions, bank accounts, application forms, pictures, registration forms, letters/emails, diagrams, agreements, etc.);

 Broadcast texts (newspapers, journals, TV and radio programs, films, documentaries, general or special literature, etc.);

 Websites

However, simply selecting suitable authentic materials is not enough Bondarenko (2018) argues that only by combining materials with authentic tasks and activities of proper quality could authenticity of ESP be achieved Sharing

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the same opinion, McGrath (2002) emphasizes that authentic tasks in the classroom help learners replicate or rehearse the communicative behaviors which they would be required to conduct in their real study or job-related field It is suggested by Mishan (2005, p 75) that in order for tasks to be authentic, they should be designed to:

1 Reflect the original communicative purpose of the text on which they are based

2 Be appropriate to the text on which they are based

3 Elicit response to/engagement with the text on which they are based

4 Approximate real-life tasks

5 Activate learners' existing knowledge of the target language and culture

6 Involve purposeful communication between learners

The fostering of learner autonomy in language learning is achieved by implementing three interacting principles, according to Little (2007): learner involvement, learner reflection, and appropriate target language use In other words, it is important for courses to engage students in their learning, help them acquire suitable strategies and learning styles and encourage them to reflect on their own learning (Dam, 2003) Proper group assignments could also be a good approach, since the interaction with peers and teachers adds to the social aspect

of learner autonomy (Tassinari, 2012), thus further enhancing learner reflection and give learners more control of their own learning

These principles not only serve as guidelines to develop learner autonomy, but also contribute to assessment of learner autonomy promotion in a course A

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perception survey targeting at learners’ beliefs and attitudes could help determine whether the course provides learners with opportunities for self-studying, and whether they cater to the individual needs of learners at all levels For example, a survey can ask about the effectiveness of a teaching tool, task, project or activity that encourages independent learning, self-planning, reflection, performance, and progression of autonomous learning (Little, 2009)

2.3 Description of English for Accounting course

In the context of National Economics University, Accounting and Auditing-majored students are required to take the English for Accounting course before doing practicum or internships Although the name of the course is

―English for Accounting‖, it includes English for Auditing in the course content, which is why the course is compulsory for both Accounting and Auditing majors

Before enrolling in this course, students have to finish three pre-requisite General English courses – English 1, 2, and 3 – in the previous semesters, in which they learn English through 4 skills (listening, speaking, reading, writing), revise basic grammar and learn more vocabulary related to Business English The materials for these three courses include teacher-handouts of business-related vocabulary and ―Intelligent Business Coursebook: Pre-intermediate Business English‖ by Christine Johnson Therefore, learners’ English proficiency is assumed to be at around pre-intermediate level before taking the English course, and they are usually third and final-year students In addition, students from both Accounting and Auditing majors are expected to have studied a number of specialized subjects in Vietnamese, as can be seen in Table 3 below

Table 3: Specialized courses in Accounting and Auditing majors’ curriculum

at NEU

Regarding the course content, the 15-week course consists of three parts - English for Financial accounting, English for Managerial accounting, and English for Auditing - which are taught in chronological order by three different lecturers from School of Accounting and Auditing department (SAA) at NEU Specifically, each lecturer would teach one part of the course for 5 lessons Each lesson lasts for 1.5 hour, and one lesson takes place each week At the beginning

of the course, students would be sent a set of PowerPoint slides via email, which contain all the contents to be covered in the course Additional materials are given throughout the lessons in the forms of handouts, usually consisting of the relevant vocabulary for each lesson There are also handouts with listening or reading exercises as homework

Further information about the course is stated on the first lesson’s slides The course objectives as well as forms of assessment are informed by the lecturer

in the first lesson, yet one-sidedly and very briefly by oral means Accordingly, the course aims to provide students with an understanding of the underlying

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terminology and fundamental concepts of Accounting and Auditing in English Students will learn English related to Accounting and Auditing through 4 skills (listening, speaking, reading and writing) It is announced to all classes that forms of assessment include attendance and participation (10%), mid-term exam (20%) and final exam (70%), yet the assessment criteria are not discussed to students This is partly because the content of the mid-term tests or assignments differs for every class, since they are designed and administered by the lecturer teaching that class Some examples of the exercises and quizzes could be seen in Appendix 3 However, the final examination, which is conducted two weeks after the course has ended, is the same for all students taking the course It includes a number of multiple-choice, matching, gap-filling and true-false questions, a reading comprehension task and an essay question

& Jack, 2008)

To be specific, the ESP course presented in this study is the English for Accounting course, with the population consisting of Accounting and Auditing-majored students at NEU As mentioned in the previous chapter, the students were supposed to have pre-intermediate level of English proficiency, after having used pre-intermediate coursebooks in their prerequisite English courses Due to the small scale of student research, the participants were selected through purposive sampling In order to guarantee fresh memory of the ESP course, the participants are 94 final-year students who took the course in the last semester (September – December 2018) By the time of data collection, the participants had finished their internship at companies and got first-hand experience of their future jobs Therefore, they would be able to judge how well the course prepared them for the target situations they are in

Besides, the researcher also conducted interviews with 8 alumni and 3 lecturers teaching the English for Accounting course in order to enrich and triangulate the data gained from the final-year students’ responses The alumni, who had graduated from the school for 1-2 years, were chosen through convenience sampling The similar strategy was used to select the lecturers, who

The questionnaires and interviews data aim to answer the following research questions:

1 What are the merits and shortcomings of the course in terms of meeting learners’ needs, as perceived by students?

2 What are the merits and shortcomings of the course in terms of authentic tasks and materials, as perceived by students?

3 What are the merits and shortcomings of the course in terms of learner autonomy, as perceived by students?

4 What changes could be made to improve the course, as suggested by students?

Accordingly, there are four sections of the questionnaire in total with 27 detailed items (Appendix 1), which ask students to give their opinions about the English for Accounting course Section 1 focuses on perceptions towards the course in terms of fulfillment of learners’ needs; Section 2 asks respondents to evaluate the authenticity of tasks and materials; and Section 3 seeks opinions on how the course fostered learner autonomy Most of the questionnaire items are close-ended in the forms of 5-point Likert scale questions After the first three section and at Section 4 (Suggestions to improve the course quality), there is an

or assessment The next part consists of further questions to find out more about the materials and tasks’ authenticity, as well as whether students were encouraged or provided with opportunities to develop learner autonomy in the course The final three questions ask participants to explain their choices or responses in the survey

In this research, the sequential mixed methods data collection strategies, in which data collected in one phase would contribute to the later (Harris & Brown, 2010), was employed After being piloted, the survey was given to all of the classes studying English for Accounting course in the form of paper and online questionnaire The survey was written in Vietnamese to suit the students’ language proficiency and to avoid confusion Afterwards, face-to-face semi-structured interviews were conducted with 12 survey respondents, along with alumni and lecturers teaching the course in order to triangulate the data from the survey and gather more detailed information The use of semi-structured interview offers flexibility and deeper data from the participants, while still focusing on the pre-specified research aims and objectives with some prepared questions (Gill & Johnson, 2002) Due to privacy and ethical matters, the interviewees’ identities would remain anonymous and be referred to by pseudonyms instead of their real names in the paper

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3.3 Data analysis

Regarding analysis of survey data, descriptive statistics were analyzed and generated into tables and charts using IBM SPSS 23 for Windows Any possibly interesting pattern arising was noted by the researcher to schedule follow-up interviews Answers to open-ended questions were manually categorized, in which the researcher omitted ambiguous responses or asked the participants to clarify through follow-up interviews

In the next stage, after all the interviews had been conducted, the data were analyzed using content analysis, a method of categorizing information in themes to be more quantifiable and structured to accomplish research objectives (Moore, McCabe, & Craig, 2012) Accordingly, recordings of the interviews were transcribed and coded into different themes The researcher then interpreted the data along with the themes, while simultaneously referring to the literature review and the previous responses from the survey

3.4 Ethical considerations

This study is subject to certain rules of ethics All of the participants must

be fully aware of the research aims before giving consent to take part in the study The general information about the study was shared by the researcher herself when contacting the participants, and was also printed at the beginning of the questionnaire The participants were also reassured that their participation in the research would be voluntary By completing the survey, it was understood that they had decided to be a part of this study

It was also stated in the questionnaire that the participants’ information and responses to the survey/interview would be treated as confidential and used for research purposes only As previously mentioned, the participants’ identities remain anonymous and replaced with pseudonyms when needed throughout the paper Additionally, participants were not abused or forced by any means in the research process

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CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

This chapter analyzes data collected from questionnaires and structured interview to find answers for the research questions, as well as offers some suggestions to resolve the given problems

semi-4.1 Fulfillment of learners’ needs

Section 1 of the questionnaire, ―Students’ perceptions towards the course

in terms of meeting learner needs‖, was designed to find answers to the first research question It consists of two multiple-choice questions asking about which purposes students have when taking the course, and how much the course met their expectations The third question asks the participants to rate 11 items

on a Likert scale from 1 to 5, in order to explore students’ satisfaction levels regarding each objective and other aspects of the course

To be specific, Question 1 of this section asks the respondents about their purposes and expectations when taking the English for Accounting course The results were displayed in Figure 2 below, with the majority of students (82 out of 94) aiming to gain more knowledge and skills relevant to their major Another two primary objectives are to increase career chances at international corporations (72.34% of the responses), and to have better English ability (58.51%) One student who chose both ―improve English proficiency‖ and

―increase job opportunity‖ specifically stated that she wished to earn a salary job thanks to higher English proficiency level

high-Figure 2: Students’ purposes for taking the English for Accounting course

82

68

55

acquire more knowledge and skills

related to major field

increase job opportunities

improve English proficiency

Purposes for taking the course (N = 94)

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In the interview, it was also clarified by some students that they had already taken numerous courses related to their major; therefore, they only expected to improve their English and successfully impress their recruiters Meanwhile, others explained that they had little expectation towards such a short course and did not intend to use English later in their job, thus choosing

―acquiring knowledge and skills related to major field‖ as the sole purpose

Question 2 of the section targets at the level of learner needs fulfillment,

by asking participants to choose among the options of ―Completely‖, ―Mostly‖,

―Inadequately‖, and ―Not at all‖ As illustrated in Figure 3 below, more than half

of the students felt that the course did not satisfy their initial needs adequately

Figure 3: Students’ perceptions towards the course in terms of meeting

learners’ needs

―Mostly‖ came close with 37 out of 94 students picking this choice, followed by 3 respondents choosing ―Completely‖ All three of them previously picked ―acquire knowledge and skills related to major‖ as their only expectation when taking the course This means that the course may have successfully achieved this objective, while having certain shortcomings in meeting students’ needs to improve their English or career opportunities One student who chose

―Not at all‖ claimed that while the course managed to give students a lot of

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technical terms and vocabulary for their major, she did not remember them due

to lack of exposure to English in her current job, which does not require foreign language use

Question 3a of the survey required the participants to rate their opinions

on a Likert scale, from ―Strongly Disagree‖ to ―Strongly Agree‖ regarding a set

of statements, which concern specifically which objectives set out by the course were fulfilled as perceived by the students The objectives mentioned in the statements (Table 4) were also written in the official slides sent to the students before taking the course However, all lecturers admitted in their interviews that within 15 sessions, the course serves only one main purpose: to provide students with technical terms related to Accounting and Auditing in English

3a The English for Accounting course helped me… Mean SD

(1) understand the underlying terminology and fundamental

concepts of Accounting and Auditing in English 3.70 0.85 (2) increase my job opportunities at international corporations 3.35 0.98

Table 4: Students’ perceptions of the course regarding objectives achievement

It is evident from Table 4 that the first objective of the course – understanding the terms and concepts of Accounting and Auditing in English – was considered by most students to be achieved successfully Item (1), which indicates that the course was helpful in this aspect, was agreed by 77.7% of the survey respondents, making it reach the highest mean of 3.70 among all sentences To be more specific, all interviewees said that they were given a set of vocabulary at the beginning of each lesson, whose meanings would later be explained by the lecturer The final exam also had one section that asked students

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to match a number of terms with their definitions, which required students to focus on those terms and concepts when revising for the exam However, those choosing to disagree with the statement claimed that teachers gave ―too much‖ explanation on the terms in English, since they already understood the concepts thanks to previous specialized courses in Vietnamese Instead, they would prefer

to see more examples of how those terms are used in real documents

Following closely were item (2) ―increase my job opportunities at international corporations‖ (M = 3.35) and item (3) ―improve my English reading skill‖ (M = 3.34) Interviewees also mentioned that thanks to the new words they were taught, they are now able to read accounting and auditing materials in English when working as interns at international companies However, some rated ―Disagree‖ to the former item because they did not find the course contents sufficient for them to meet the recruiters’ requirements

In terms of improving English writing skill (M = 3.04) and listening skill (M = 2.99), about half of the students chose ―Neutral‖ and students’ attitudes varied significantly It was explained that listening and writing exercises were included in the midterm and final exams; however, the students were not sure if there was any improvement in their skills after the course Due to the limited lesson time, listening exercises were given as homework for students, which were claimed to be ―useful to only those who had the time to do them‖ Meanwhile, students did not have any references or guidance regarding English writing, thus they had to figure out how to do writing tasks by themselves

The last item, ―improve my English speaking skill‖, had the lowest mean

of 2.76, which was justified by interviewees that there was no compulsory speaking practice in the course It depended on the lecturer themselves, and in very few classes that assigned presentation tasks, students thought that they may have been able to improve on their pronunciation

The next items to rate in this section belonged to Question 3b, which aimed to discover students’ attitude towards needs fulfillment from other aspects

of the course such as the course time, materials, teaching methodologies, and

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suitability with learners’ ability and style (Table 5) Firstly, item (1) ―using appropriate materials‖ had the highest mean of 3.38, since it was agreed that the materials were closely associated with the three key areas in the course: English for Financial accounting, English for Managerial accounting, and English for Auditing They were also provided in the forms of handouts and specifically designed for each lesson, which increased their relevance to the lecture’s content However, one interviewee mentioned that the large number of handouts may cause some inconvenience, as she kept losing them and would rather have a compiled book than separate papers Many participants also complained that too much content to cover in one lesson resulted in lecturers leaving the unfinished parts of the materials for students to self-study at home, which they were unwilling to

Likewise, the general opinion for item (2) about the lecture time (M = 3.34) was that 15 sessions were inadequate for the course, considering there are three aspects to teach while in Vietnamese, there were three different courses designed for such amount of knowledge, even though it was agreed that 90 minutes per lesson was an appropriate duration to maintain students’ concentration

(1) uses appropriate materials for the majors 3.38 0.84

(4) applies suitable teaching methodologies 3.07 0.85

Table 5: Students’ perceptions towards other aspects of the course

The teaching methodologies (4) and suitability with students’ learning styles (5) were items with the lowest means, 3.07 and 2.98 respectively Different opinions arose regarding these matters – while most students found it boring that

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most lecturers applied traditional lecturing methods, some admitted that they felt satisfied as long as what they taught was included in the tests and exams It also bothered some students of advanced English level that their lecturers’ flawed pronunciation distracted them from focusing on the lesson content Furthermore,

it was widely agreed that students need more chances to have practice tasks, or to

be introduced to real cases in the lectures to pique their interests and increase the teaching effectiveness

Towards these responses, interviewed lecturers explained that for each English for Accounting class, three different lecturers were assigned to teach the course, which aimed at allowing students to be exposed to multiple approaches and teaching methodologies The teachers of this course come from SAA, a university faculty specialized in accounting and auditing instead of English faculty Therefore, they were confident about their professional knowledge of subject matter, yet not as much in terms of language However, after considering the pros and cons, it was decided by the council that assigning lecturers from SAA for the course would be a better choice, and the teachers would attend additional training courses in language pedagogy to make up for any shortcomings They also believed that despite not being put into practice yet, need analysis should be conducted by the teachers to understand students’ expectation better

With item (3) concerning whether the course suits students’ English proficiency level (M = 3.29), while half of the respondents felt that the difficulty level of the course was appropriate, many still claimed that it was either too easy

or too difficult for them Before answering this section of the survey, the participants were asked to rate their own English proficiency level The results from Figure 4 below shows that there were differences in language ability among the students taking the English for Accounting course, all of whom were required

to take three basic English courses as prerequisites for this course

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Figure 4: Students’ English proficiency level

With regards to students at upper-immediate and advanced English levels, more than half of the participants chose ―Neutral‖ or ―Agree‖ to the statement

―The course suited my English level‖, saying they were glad that the course was easy enough for them to get good grades Meanwhile, the other half expressed disagreement, saying that the course ―wasted [their] money and time‖ and they should be exempted from taking it if they had an English certificate; making this group of students giving responses with the lowest mean of 2.63

On the other hand, interviewees belonging to the beginner and intermediate group (M = 2.97) claimed to struggle to do reading comprehension exercises and listening tasks due to limited vocabulary range, thus some confessed that they chose to ignore them and memorized only necessary new words for the final exams without trouble The separate descriptive results of the three groups were illustrated in Table 6 below

Upperintermediate Advanced

Table 6: The suitability of the course with students’ English level compared

among three groups of students

It appeared that the group of immediate students (SD = 0.66) had the highest mean of 3.54 and the most homogenous conclusions, with roughly 56% choosing ―agree/strongly agree‖ on the matter In the interviews, lecturers also pointed out that they frequently had to deal with mixed-ability classes, which made it difficult for them to guarantee all students’ understanding of the lesson

It was suggested by students that teachers should conduct a vocabulary and skills test at the beginning of the course to get a grasp of their learners’ ability, and then adjust the difficulty level of the course accordingly

In short, regarding the fulfillment of learners’ needs, the course was

believed to have achieved its primary objective, since students were able to understand accounting and auditing-related terminology and concepts in English after the course However, more than half of the participants rated the extent of needs fulfillment as inadequate, as they wished to improve their English proficiency more, especially at listening and speaking skills, with the help of this course They also asked for more realistic examples related to the field in order to better understand the usage of new words Concerning the suitability with students’ level, learners of intermediate English proficiency level were most suited to the course, yet the mixed ability among the students caused difficulties for both students and the lecturers teaching the course

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4.2 The authenticity of course materials and tasks

To answer the second research question, Section 2 of the survey asks participants to evaluate the authenticity of the English for Accounting course by rating the materials and tasks on a scale from 1 (the lowest) to 5 (the highest)

In the first part of this section, students gave their opinions regarding the authenticity of the course materials Their responses to the questions are presented in Table 7 below It is evident that the materials were compatible to the course objectives on an average level (M = 3.37), whereas their representativeness of students’ target situations was lower, with the mean of item (2) staying at 2.97

1 On which level do the course materials: Mean SD

(2) represent the language used in your target situations? 2.97 0.86

Table 7: Students’ perceptions towards the authenticity of the course materials

It was explained by the interviewees that students were sent the PowerPoint slides of all the course content at the beginning of the course Other materials were given in the course separately in each lesson, including separate handouts of vocabulary and key terms that accompanied the PowerPoint lecture slides, along with exercises as homework Overall, the materials were praised for covering the basic concepts and explanations, which correlated with the course objective of providing students with basic terminologies and concepts of Accounting and Auditing in English However, students who worked as interns at domestic companies did not come across those terms again in their working environment and ―ended up forgetting everything after a while‖

Besides, the difficulty level in terms of language in the materials was said

to be ―an obstacle‖ during the course Five of the interviewees, who are students

at beginner and pre-intermediate English level, claimed that the texts contained such a large number of new words that they had trouble doing reading

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comprehension tasks or listening cloze tests Despite the difficulties, they believed their low level of English proficiency attributed to this problem and it may not be the case for those with better English, which resulted in their hesitation to give feedbacks on this matter to the teachers

The lack of cited source and reference materials were also mentioned in the interviews The materials received by students did not have source citations and were assumed by almost all interviewees to be compiled by lecturers from SAA (NEU) However, the PowerPoint slides file credited Coby Harmon, professor from University of California, Santa Barbara, and Westmont College as

an author Another reason was that the content resembled what they had learned

in the previous course, although some students would like to have other reference materials to rely on One lecturer did introduce additional books to their class, yet they were either expensive or hard to obtain

In terms of the course materials, all the interviewed lecturers believed that

it was a ―double-edged sword‖ The course content shared among the teachers was compiled from multiple foreign sources rather than translated from Vietnamese materials, which created an authentic sense However, since the cases included in those materials were from other countries, there were certain differences from the Vietnamese context, causing them to sound uncommon to students Another problem was that the choices of foreign materials were based

on each course developer’s own experience instead of a certain standard, which caused other lecturers teaching the course to be unfamiliar with them as well It is also difficult for them to find interesting materials but suitable enough for students’ English level

Secondly, items regarding the course tasks’ authenticity were rated by survey respondents in the latter half of Section 2 As informed by the students, there were midterm tests and the final exam, whose format was a combination of multiple-choice questions, listening or reading cloze tests, reading comprehension exercises, a matching-terms-with-definition exercise, and an essay question The midterm tests could consist of one or many types of

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exercises listed above In other words, the tasks attempted to assess students’ listening, reading, and writing skills along with their understanding of vocabulary, which suited the course objectives However, the speaking skill was barely present in the course tasks, except for some classes that added presentation

as 10% of the total grade Therefore, students’ rating of the first item ―match the course objectives‖ stayed at an average level of 3.34, as can be seen in Table 8

2 On which level do the learning and assessment tasks: Mean SD

(2) assess language and skills representative of target situations

(3) stimulate scenarios resembling your future target situations? 2.99 0.90

Table 8: Students’ perceptions of the course in terms of task authenticity

The means of responses for the item (2) ―assess representative language and skills‖ and (3) ―stimulate scenarios resembling future target situations‖ were lower, with 3.01 and 2.99 respectively While some interviewees mentioned being able to use vocabulary learned from the course for their special assignments (a final assignment of their curriculum which weighs 2 credits), others criticized that the course tasks were mainly theoretical rather than involving practical case studies

In return, the lecturer interviewees said that it was up to individual teachers to decide the learning tasks for the course Furthermore, although some tried to integrate listening, reading and writing skills into various exercises, they also found them not effective enough as the students were not willing to do them

as homework The lack of time for practice tasks in the classroom was seen as a reason, as the teachers felt that they had to utilize all given time for lecturing One lecturer who included case studies for students gave the opinion that learners need to spend time reading and looking them up beforehand in order for the