Khai thác case studies trong việc học nói tiếng anh kinh tế cho sinh viên năm nhất ngành kép đại học ngoại ngữ

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHER EDUCATION GRADUATION PAPER THE EXPLOITATION OF CASE STUDIES IN

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHER EDUCATION

GRADUATION PAPER

THE EXPLOITATION OF CASE STUDIES IN

LEARNING BUSINESS ENGLISH SPEAKING BY ULIS FIRST YEAR DOUBLE-MAJOR STUDENTS

Supervisor: Hoàng Thị Mỵ

Student: Phạm Thị Vân

Course: QH2011.F1.E11

HÀ NỘI – 2015

ĐẠI HỌC QUỐC GIA HÀ NỘI

TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ KHOA SƯ PHẠM TIẾNG ANH

KHÓA LUẬN TỐT NGHIỆP

KHAI THÁC CASE STUDIES TRONG VIỆC HỌC NÓI TIẾNG ANH KINH TẾ CHO SINH VIÊN NĂM NHẤT NGHÀNH KÉP ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ

Giáo viên hướng dẫn: Hoàng Thị Mỵ Sinh viên: Phạm Thị Vân

Khóa: QH2011.F1.E11

HÀ NỘI – 2015

ACCEPTANCE PAGE

I hereby state that I: Pham Thi Van – QH2011.F1.E11, being a candidate for the degree of Bachelor of Arts (TEFL) 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 assessable for the purposes of study and research, in accordance with the normal conditions established by the librarian for the case, loan or reproduction of the paper

Signature of Supervisor:

Signature of Researcher:

Date:

Secondly, I am thankful to my beloved family for cheering me up in foul mood time and providing me with essential financial assistance in time Owing to their extra backup, I had the motivation to finalize the research contentiously and successfully

Last but not least, I wish to show my thanks to my friends who facilitated

my data collecting and analyzing process Especially, I would like to fully appreciate my dear friend, Ms Nguyen Thi Quynh for her priceless support ever

Without all these assistance, the research could not be completed successfully

ABSTRACT

Over the years, English has remained potentially a communicative medium and come to aid in daily commercial transactions throughout the globe Therefore, since people have attempted to master their English proficiency, case study emerges as a beneficial learning method and receives widespread acknowledgement in most schools and universities

The principal objectives of this research were to explore case studies’ contributions to ULIS 1st year double-major students’ Business Speaking, to determine the most favorite and helpful activities as well as to find out challenges met up by students, then to offer recommendations for further effective case studies A survey was conducted in which a total of 50 students were invited for the research questionnaire and 10 students for the private intensive interview

It was found that, as perceived by students, among four regular activities, discussion and debating were in the best interest while discussion and presentation were graded as the most beneficial ones Concerning its advantages, case studies could encourage students to use business vocabulary, actualize the usage of words, improve speaking proficiency and enhance business communication Unlike the researcher’s initial prediction, however, case studies failed to prove its strong power in facilitating students’ words memorizing and the main difficulties during case studies implementation as investigated mostly derived from subjective elements

Taking into account of students’ difficulties, a number of recommendations were provided notably Be Change Agent, In-group consensus and Language Evaluation Paper Besides suggestions for students, two-way contract and deeper involvement initiatives for teachers were also offered

Eventually, the researcher would like to call for further researches intensively studying about double-major students’ learning activities

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACCEPTANCE PAGE iii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii

ABSTRACT .iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS iv

LISTS OF CHARTS AND TABLES vi

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS vii

PART A: INTRODUCTION 1

1 The statement of the problem and the rationale for the study 2

2 Aims and objectives of the study 4

3 Research questions 4

4 Significance of the study 5

5 Organization of the study 5

PART B: DEVELOPMENT 7

CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW 8

1 Theoretical backgrounds of Business English Speaking 8

1.1 Nature of speaking 8

1.2 Speaking and Oral Business Communication 9

2 Theoretical backgrounds of case studies 10

2.1 Definitions of Case studies 10

2.2 Characteristics of successful learning via case studies 11

2.3 Case studies exploitation at ULIS 11

3 Previous studies on the topic 12

CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY 15

1 Research design 15

2 Participants and participant selection method 15

3 ULIS English double-major students Overview 16

4 Data collection methods 16

5 Data collection procedures 17

6 Data analysis method and procedure 18

CHAPTER IV: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS 20

1 Case studies exploitation and the acknowledgement of advantages 21

1.1 Case studies on enhancing and practicing Business Vocabulary 21

1.2 Case studies on improving Business English Speaking ability 26

1.3 Case studies on understanding and memorizing Business knowledge 29

1.4 Case studies on enhancing business communication 31

2 Case studies exploitation and 1 st DMS’ encountered difficulties 34

3 Case studies exploitation and students’ preference 37

4 Obstacles-based recommendations 39

4.1 For the students 39

4.2 For the teachers 43

PART C: CONCLUSION 46

1 Summary of the findings 47

2 Limitation of the study 48

3 Suggestions for further studies 49

REFERENCES 51

APPENDIX A: 54

APPENDIX B: 61

APPENDIX C: 62

LISTS OF CHARTS AND TABLES

Diagram 1: Common case studies exploitation procedure for ULIS 1stDMS

Diagram 2: Be Change Agent’s influence overview

Chart 1: The advantages of case studies in enhancing and practicing Business Vocabulary

Chart 2: Students' attitude towards the impact of case studies on memorizing vocabulary compared with traditional note-taking method

Chart 3: Block A's attitude towards the effect of case studies on actualizing business vocabulary

Chart 4: Block B's attitude towards the effect of case studies on actualizing business vocabulary

Chart 5: The effect of case studies on improving Business English Speaking proficiency

Chart 6: The second question's consensual degrees proportion

Chart 7: The effect of case studies on understanding and memorizing business knowledge

Chart 8: The effect of case studies on enhancing business communication

Chart 9: Difficulties encountered by students during case studies

Chart 10: Block C's attitude towards vocabulary memorizing effect of case studies

Chart 11: Block C's ability in recalling vocabulary used in case studies

Chart 12: The interest of students towards case studies activities

Chart 13: The evaluation of students towards activities' helpfulness

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

ULIS: University of Languages and International Studies

FELTE: Faculty of English Language Teacher Education

DMS: Double-major students

1 st DMS: First year double-major students

LEP: Language Evaluation Paper

BCA: Be Change Agents

PART A: INTRODUCTION

1 The statement of the problem and the rationale for the study

Since the 21st century, Free Trade as a consequence of Globalization has emerged as a powerful wave indicated by the establishment of many regional and international trade agreements and organizations namely Association of Southeast Asian Nations (1967), World Trade Organization (1995), Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership Agreement (2005), etc The common purposes of these establishments are to create a freer trade zone, to promote active collaboration and mutual assistance among members contributing to the global economic growth Consequently, protectionism including tariff and non-tariff barriers, trade embargo and boycotts causing inefficiency in the global economy has been gradually removed to encourage the international business transaction As a foreseeable future, the power of integration in business has pushed countries into using the same monetary form and language In fact, deriving from the strength of economy, U.S dollar continues holding a leading position in foreign exchange trading and becomes the most common currency in business deals while in terms

of language, the predominance and ubiquity of English is truly undeniable

As a means of communication, in today’s global world, English plays a vital role in various sectors including Technology, Engineering, Education, especially

in Business as a power facilitator to maintain the tight relationship among nations and promoting the international economic development Clark (2012), the author

of the newly-released “Reinventing You: Define your brand, imagine your future” supported that the ability to speak a second (or third) language is clearly important for becoming a global leader Nowadays, it seems that English may be the most essential language for global business success Therefore, besides vocational experience, human resource equipped with adequate English skills will

be an essential prerequisite for any business organization that expects to open out

to other countries and to expand globally and competitively Being aware of that, Singapore has applied bilingual education policy where all students in governmental schools are taught by English as their first language which

nowadays becomes this country’s comparative advantage and contributes greatly

to its firm standing in the global economy Similarly, Turkey has also favored English as the medium of instruction at its universities in order to support students in finding high-quality jobs, communicating with the international world

as well as accessing scientific sources in the students’ major fields Realistically,

no other language can be convenient for searching information from foreign sources, updating new technologies, negotiating deals or going on business trips

as English Aiming at fully integrating with the global community, nowadays, Vietnamese people have paid more attention to English than ever before indicated

by the rapid increase of English learners and the improvement of English teaching methods However, the fact remains that among 4 essential skills, Vietnamese English Speaking is still at a relatively low level compared with other countries, especially Business English Speaking Separated by business color characterized

by meeting, negotiation, presentation, marketing, advertising, etc, Busines s English Speaking seems to be more demanding than normal English Speaking As

a consequence, case studies which immerse students into realistic business situations are now diversified and applied more frequently in teaching and learning Business English Speaking

At the University of Languages and International Studies (ULIS), case studies have been also exploited through inviting students to participate in meetings to discuss, make decisions, negotiate contracts, settle disputes or deliver presentations These case studies activities provide opportunities for students not only to practice speaking, review lessons, but also to become familiar with business situations in reality, enrich business culture knowledge; hence they can

be able to well prepare for their future career The first year students are those who experience the transition from high school to tertiary education collocated with the huge changes in learning method, thus case studies seem to be a promise

of a both interesting and challenging learning method

Based on the demand of the more effective exploitation of case studies for

the freshmen, the researcher herself decided to do a research with the title: “A

study on the exploitation of case studies in lea rning business English speaking

by ULIS first year double-major students”

2 Aims and objectives of the study

Up to now, there have been many studies concerning English Speaking learning methods Besides providing an in-depth research on students’ case study exploitation for speaking improvement purpose, the research deeply studied about case studies for double-major students which were characterized by business elements The core objectives of this paper are listed as follows:

 Investigate students’ attitude towards using case studies in learning Business English Speaking

 Examine how case studies are currently employed in learning Business Speaking for ULIS 1stDMS

 Find out how case studies contribute to students’ Business Speaking development

 Determine difficulties during case studies application and provide recommendations for a better use

3 Research questions

To obtain these mentioned ultimate aims and objectives, the paper is going

to answer three main questions listed below:

 Which case-study activities are organized by teachers to improve Business English Speaking skill for ULIS 1stDMS? Which activity is the most favorite one as perceived by students? Which activity is the most effective one as perceived by students?

 What are the benefits of using case studies in learning Business English Speaking as perceived by students?

 What are the difficulties in exploiting case studies as perceived by students? How to get over these difficulties?

4 Significance of the study

Theoretically, the research’s achievements are expected to be a part of academic qualified document resource discussing interactive learning methods for English students in general and for English double-major students in particular In addition, the research’s methodologies and sequence of organization could come

in useful for later associated research, especially for the students in confusion over research conducting procedure and the studies specializing in DMS featured

by unique demands and learning styles

Practically, by achieving these principal objectives, the researcher herself primarily wishes to raise both teachers and students’ awareness of the necessity, the advantages as well as the constraints during the application of case studies Furthermore, the recommendations on offer are expected to actively assist the teachers and the students in boosting the real quality of every hour of learning through effectively making use of advantages and overcoming difficulties of case studies implementation For personal use, by deeply studying case studies, the author could be able to execute research’s outcomes into learning business as well

as sharing with her classmates

5 Organization of the study

For the purpose of clarity and coherence, the paper content is divided into three main parts:

Part B: Development

It is believed that development is the backbone of the study made up by core values and the author’s determined effort Initially, Literature Review is the collection of topic-related theoretical background and associated previous studies that are thoroughly extracted from a number of online and offline references Secondly, the methodology section introduces research’s objectives and data collection and processing procedure in order that the readers could remain faithful

to the eventual research results Findings and discussions and recommendation are the center of part B in which the literature review, the collected data and the researcher’s prediction are integrated to generate particular outcomes that are the response questions raised in part A while recommendation are offered for a better case studies exploitation

Part C: Conclusion

The conclusion part summarizes the graduation paper outcomes and gives suggestions for further studies

PART B: DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter provides a brief overview of literature review on the research topic for the aim of laying theoretical foundation for the whole paper Initially, the perspectives of theorists towards key terms namely “Speaking”, “Business Speaking”, “Case studies” were explained Afterwards, representatively conducted research, which shared common base with the paper regarding the exploitation of some interactive activities in learning English Speaking, were also reviewed to contextualize the research paper In a sense, the researcher had no ambition to review all aspects in case studies exploitation; this study’s literature review only covered these issues contributing to the research development

1 Theoretical backgrounds of Business English Speaking

1.1 Nature of speaking

Among four skills, speaking, as it is fundamental to human communication and the whole of human history, was built upon communication Over the years, many orators, philosophers and educators tried to capture the essence of human communication – speaking as one of its forms MaryAnn (1999) proposed that speaking was an interactive process involving producing and receiving and processing information among speakers to construct a specific meaning (as cited

in Brown, 1994; Burns & Joyce, 1997) However, the readers might wonder whether monologue, any composition in which a single person spoke alone, was speaking or not Differently, Carol (1999) claimed that speaking was a productive skill in oral mode including three situations that were interactive speaking, partially interactive speaking and non-interactive speaking It was realizable that the scope of speaking in Carol perspective was larger than MaryAnn one; by inference, face to face conversations in which speakers listened and spoke alternatively, teachers delivered lectures to students or even speeches from radio broadcast were all forms of speaking Another study also agreed with Carol’s

attitude to define speaking as convention ways of expressing ideas, thoughts, information in our mind (as cited in Nunan 1991:40) However, due to the intrinsic characteristics of case studies which were currently applied for ULIS

1stDMS emphasizing the mutual interaction, Mary Ann’s definition was believed

to be more appropriate

1.2 Speaking and Oral Business Communication

It was determined that Speaking was the best tool that we could possibly have for communicating the value of what we were doing in business According

to Joey (2015), business communication was “any form of communication, verbal and nonverbal, that was used to relay a message, promote a product or service or share information” Specifically, there were two typical types of Business Communication in an organization which were Internal Communication and External Communication

Internal Communication included all communication within an organization from formal to informal functions and was delivered in various forms to employees Good internal communication might help to increase job satisfaction, productivities and decrease grievances and turnover Under Internal Business Communication type, there came

 Upward Communication: the flow of information from subordinates to

superiors or from employee to management to exchange information, offer ideas, express enthusiasm or provide feedback

 Downward Communication: the flow of information from the top of the

organizational management hierarchy to the lower level staff to transmit vital information, give instruction or provide motivation

 Horizontal Communication: the flow of information among staff with the

similar rank in an organization to solve problems, accomplishing tasks or improve teamwork

While Internal Communication ensured the stability and fluency inside of organization, maintaining good External Communication facilitated tight relationship with customers, vendors and investors as well as contributed to organizational goals achievement For more detail, External Communication activities were represented by meetings, negotiations, discussions among partners targeting at capturing the beneficial deals and contracts contributing to common company growth

In general, in this scope of research, the researcher would like to lay emphasis

on External Communication which students were expected to enhance though case studies participation

2 Theoretical backgrounds of case studies

2.1 Definitions of Case studies

It was believed that “Knowing” was totally different from “Doing” and the core of case studies was the facilitation of students learning and it packed more experience into every hour of learning than any other instructional approaches

According to Harvard Business School (2014), “Case method teaching immerses students into realistic business situations Cases provide the reality of managerial decision making – which includes incomplete information, time constraints, and conflicting goals – as students learn how to analyze business situation […] Not only is it the most relevant and practical way to learn managerial skills, it’s exciting and fun” (p.1)

It was defined that case studies were realistic and complex stories or situations involving dilemma, conflict or problem that required negotiation and discussion; it “bridged the gap between theory and practice and between the academy and the worked place” (as cited in Barkley, Cross, and Major 2005, p.182) and “provided a real or hypothetical situation with problem is contained to help people realize the complexities they might face with in their workplaces” (Pam, Jean, & Tracey, 2002)

Visibly, the definition or the inside nature of case studies was considerably various in different approaches; however, in common, case studies provided participants with opportunities to practice identifying, arguing, evaluating and solving problems incurred in situations Due to the scope of the research which

mainly focused on business English, the definition, provided by Harvard

Business for Education with more precise and comprehensive, were utilized as

the research’s theoretical platform

2.2 Characteristics of successful learning via case studies

Case study, which greatly boosted students’ critical thinking, communication, and interpersonal skills, has formed the basis of learning at many universities around the world Theoretically, Michelle claimed that the evaluation

of a successful case studies could be based on student’s engagement and enthusiasm towards delegated topics and their ability of applying what they had learned from the previous case studies in assignments and exams (as cited in Garvin 2004) For more specific understanding, in class, successful case studies exploitation could be measured by student’s entire involvement and the final outcomes regarding to their business knowledge, business communication improvement after learning courses However, knowledge obtained did not make any sense if it could not be applied in real business activities Therefore, successful Business English Speaking learns were those who could utilize their understandings in future business activities

2.3 Case studies exploitation at ULIS

College’s course guide based on and appropriate adaptations made, case studies were exploited in various ways at ULIS As a consequence of mass questionnaire survey, private interviews and personal practical experience, the usual case studies implementation procedure for ULIS 1stDMS were shown in diagram 1 as below:

At the beginning of case studies implementation, teachers provided students with necessary instructions relevant to topic talk; afterwards, time was spent for students’ discussion and the next activity was chosen depending on the characteristics of case studies Finally, report writing, which recorded the process and eventual outcomes of case studies, was required by teacher (For more detail

of case studies implementation procedure, see Appendix B)

3 Previous studies on the topic

Among four fundamental skills of English containing Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing, nowadays, Speaking has received an increasing attention by society, especially by researchers who are seeking for simple and effective methods to enhance and develop speaking capacity On the evidence of growing concern, a wide variety of researches have been conducted and certain valuable findings have been generated which promisingly lay the solid foundation for the further studies

In fact, there were a certain number of theses and scientific research studying about Speaking enhancing instruments As stated by Le (2007), through

using group discussion, students could have more time “to raise their voice, broader understanding on the discussion issues and reach the best ideas” (p.49) Moreover, as group discussion became a prominent activity at colleges and universities, learners and learners’ expectations were becoming the center of language class; the teachers, therefore, need to know and motivate students to reach what they really wanted

Another relevant research was also conducted emphasizing the influence of several basic factors to group discussion success as well as the disadvantages of this method of learning Initially, according to Le (2006), most of students were aware of the importance of learning speaking to their study and future career development Among speaking learning methods, both teachers and students all agreed that group discussion were a “good way to improve speaking skill” (p.32) Retrieving from data analysis, 85 percent of participants preferred to work in groups or pairs because of its helpfulness to their speaking fluency (66% of students) and their pronunciation (40% of students) However, in order to effectively exploit its enormous advantages, group discussion required and emphasized more teachers’ genuine concern Le (2006) also found that “teachers did not always remain conscious of their students during and after group discussion, that why they might not know what was happening in each group” (p.33) Due to this disconnected supervision, students could not complete tasks at right direction and possibly move to topics not related to lesson or gossips Besides it, task goal oriented, language proficiency, simplicity and preparation were other basic factors affecting discussion effective needs Le (2006) proved that “result must be written down, picked off, listed, set down in form that can be presented to the teacher and the rest of class” (p.8) In addition, “If task is too complex, teachers explanation of students my is understand or have no idea of what they are going to do” (p.9)

It was recognized that although there was great attention paid to in-class

interactive activities, the fact remains that most of the existing researches mainly

targeted high schools students or non-English major students The available

research sources recorded for English major students was significantly limited,

especially for English double-major students whose learning demands generated

by business aims were argued to be specially different from others objects

Furthermore, concerning the core content, these researches commonly

concentrated on singly interactive activities such as discussion or role -play only

whereas no research regarding case studies, which were the combination of more

than one activity concurrently, have been conducted yet Acknowledging the

current shortcoming, the researcher herself desired to produce a trailblazing

scientific research specializing in practical demands of DCM which primarily

fulfilled the gap and secondly laid the foundation for further studies

CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY

1 Research design

This research is a research in which questionnaires and interview were utilized to collect data Based on the essence of survey research, the researcher chose the quantitative approach in collecting, classifying, and analyzing the figures This method is suitable to this study because the quantitative method

helped the researcher “achieved gathered data at high level of reliability due to

mass surveys” (as cited in Balseley, 1970) Moreover, with quantitative approach,

the researcher could follow “resolutely the original set of research goals, arrive

at more objective conclusions, test hypothesis, determine the issues of causality and eliminate or minimize subjectivity of judgment” (Kealey & Protheroe, 1996)

2 Participants and participant selection method

For its huge advantages, over the years, case studies have been exploited widely in a variety of forms at ULIS Among many different approaches, the

1stDMS was chosen as the research subject due to two main motivations listed below:

Firstly, most of the 1stDMS had not ever experienced case studies when they were at high school yet; as a result, applying case studies in learning at tertiary education might generate both positive and negative impacts on their studies Moreover, case studies used for Business training are dissimilar from the one applied in other sectors concerning its degree of difficulty and uniqueness of characteristics; hence even having taken part in case studies before, 1stDMS might go through different experiences and confront with new difficulties

Secondly, compared with sophomores, juniors and seniors, first year student

is the simpler object who is relatively willing to share point of views, raise voice

if necessary and actively support information gathering process

For all the above reasons going along with the purpose of height measurement, 50 1stDMS at FELTE were invited to participate in the research data collection phase

3 ULIS English double-major students Overview

By double-major program, students were provided both theoretical and practical experience associated with English and Business Specifically, learning course targeted at training the participants with intensive English language and culture while supported them in approaching outstanding knowledge related to International Business, Business Administration or Banking and Finance of Vietnam and Foreign countries simultaneously Interestingly, English for double -major students was definitely characterized by Business color illustrated through the inner relationship among vocabulary, texts, audios and reports

In general, Business learning was integrated intentionally and ingeniously into English learning so that students could master their understanding in both areas Furthermore, learning course was expected to teach students methods to employ their knowledge after graduating in both national and international workplaces and in an increasing intellectual era

4 Data collection methods

As one of the most important stage of research, the questionnaire was fully employed due to its convenience for large size sample and information synthesis

In terms of structure, the survey questionnaire for students was separated into three main parts:

Part I included 2 multiple choice questions aiming at collecting general information about students’ previous case studies experience which was believed

to partially affect their participation at university as well as finding out case studies activities currently organized by teacher in speaking class

Part II of the questionnaire consisted of rating close-ended questions to deeply investigate students’ attitude towards case studies advantages In this part, students were required to rank, by ticking on the boxes, their degree of agreement

about assumptions ranging from “Strongly Disagree” to “Strongly Agree” One of

five questions was designed to examine the students’ frequency in range amongst

“always” to “never” towards some possible obstacles in terms of time frame,

personal habits or teacher involvement during in-class speaking lessons The results of this question contributed basis to recommendations for a better use of case studies

Besides using the survey questionnaire, semi-structured private interviews with 10 special students were carried out to investigate the underlying reasons for the difference between their answers and other students in the questionnaire as well as to encourage them to supply more private thoughts Notebook and recorder also were utilized to support data collection process

Part III offered two open-ended questions allowing participants to respond with their most favorite and most useful cases studies activities

5 Data collection procedures

Data collection procedure was preceded by three stages:

Step 1: Preparing

Initially, the researcher contacted with three monitors of double-major classes to ask for their assistance This very first step helped to introduce the research’s topic and the survey content that students were going to attend, by which they could be in a good preparation During this period, open questions were sent to the monitors to collect threshold information about in-class case studies, their feelings and personal expectations so that the researcher could complete questionnaire in a comprehensive manner

Step 2: Designing

Based on the monitors’ answers in step 1 and the researcher’s brainstorming, the final version of survey questionnaire and the intended interview questions were generated To avoid any misunderstanding and ambiguity, the questionnaire was translated into Vietnamese

Step 3: Collecting

After having the final version of all instruments, survey questionnaire was distributed to all double-major students at hands added small gifts as bonus encouraging collaboration Before delivering, a brief introduction about the research’s topic once again was delivered so that students would have better orientation to their answers and be aware of their vital contribution to the research success Besides, the researcher was willing to answer any confusing question related to the research or the research questionnaire by giving oral instructions Afterwards, all the papers of questionnaire was collected and kept careful ly in an envelope to ensure quantity and confidentiality of the data

6 Data analysis method and procedure

Admittedly, data analysis was the process of ordering and extracting meaning from the accumulated data In this research, mean, mode, median and standard deviation scores were employed to organize data to make sense of the great amount of information For more detail:

 Mean: the sum of all the elements of a set divided by the number of

elements in the set

 Median: the middle value of a set

 Mode: the most frequent value in a dataset

 Standard Deviation (Std Dev): is finding out how much the values of the

dataset differ from the mean

√

Besides, to increase the reliability of measurement, qualitative information collected from intensive interviews were gathered, analyzed and compared with the quantitative data achieved from questionnaire

CHAPTER IV: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS

In the preceding chapter, the methodology applied in this study had been clarified with detailed description of participants, the instruments and the process

of data collection and analysis In this finding chapter – the heart of the research, all collected data was accumulated, branched out and analyzed to disclose the final answers of three key questions raised at research questions section

Questionnaire, as pointed out, had been deployed as the main instruments of the information collecting process In part I of the questionnaire, at the beginning, students were asked about the present implementation of case studies

in English lessons at high schools; as predicted, 91.8 percent of them had not participated in case studies before entering tertiary education while only a minor proportion (8.91 percent) said “Yes” Glancing up high schools, especially the ones in rural areas, while teaching condition has remained relatively poor, speaking has not been paid sufficient attention as Grammar and Vocabulary; hence the outcome of this question turned into understandable

Reaching the higher level, it was at university that most of the students could gain opportunities to participate and utilize case studies as a useful and multifunctional learning instrument Actually, activities exploiting case studies to learn English diversified and changed from class to class depending on the standard of students’ speaking proficiency and business knowledge On the whole, statistics showing in the following pages presented that discussion, presentation, and role-play were the most popular activities while debating and decision-making received fewer votes from the students

Part B of the questionnaire was formed by five multiple-choice questions containing smaller multidimensional assumptions aiming at deeply and comprehensively investigating students’ case studies deployment in learning Business English as well as their encountered difficulties during case studies

1 Case studies exploitation and the acknowledgement of advantages

1.1 Case studies on enhancing and practicing Business Vocabulary

As presented in the survey questionnaire (Appendix A), both positive and negative assumptions towards the advantages of case studies in enhancing and practicing Business Vocabulary were designed to intentionally lay the foundation for participants categorization of data processing period The later outcomes were displayed by Chart 1 in which numbers ranging from 1 to 8 respectively represented eighth statements of the first question:

It was apparent from the chart 1 that the prevalent answer of the respondents towards all case studies positive assumptions fluctuated between Neutral and Totally Agree illustrated by statistical mean changing from 3.37 to 4.16 Among these statements, the first one, which asserted that case studies required students

to use new business words and phrases suggested in lessons to discuss and finish the tasks successfully, received the highest mean score ( =4.16/5) presenting the degree of agreement of students from Agree (49%) to Strongly Agree (36.7%) It was also noteworthy that this statement got the relatively low standard deviation value (Std Dev = 0.85) which could be deduced that the data points marke d by the

Chart 1: The advantages of case studies in enhancing and

practicing Business Vocabulary

Mean STDV

respondents for choices tended to be very similar demonstrated by the mean ( = 4.16) with less 1 point away from mean

Besides positive feedbacks, one and only negative idea was recorded denying the great impact of case studies on motivating students to use target business vocabulary Consequently, an unintended private interview, conducted with the owner of the answer, exposed that by applying common words, the interviewee could still well complete case studies tasks by applying the common words which explained why she did not highly appreciate the effectiveness of case studies in this field In a sense, there was no doubt that students could be able to finish tasks without making use of target words provided in each unit; nonetheless, as proved in literature review section, a successful case study was featured by its business color, especially the professionalism contained inside

Therefore, the participant had partly misjudged this effect of case studies On the

whole, it was firmly concluded that via creating case studies with respect to lessons, the researched learning method appeared to be helpful in motivating students to use recommended business target vocabulary aiming at completing tasks professionally and commercially

That applying target vocabulary in case studies, however, did not strongly proved a longer word memorizing was a decisive reason for the attendance of negative judgment which assumed that the learners found learning vocabulary through case studies as not effective as traditional note taking method As statistics mapped out in the chart 1, the answer of students changed from Disagree

to Neutral ( = 2.61) and Neutral was the most frequent one therein (Mo=3) The pie chart below provided a deeper insight into students’ attitudes towards assumption: “I find that memorizing business vocabulary through case studies is not effective compared with note taking method”

:

At the first glance of chart 2, the two outstanding trends were Neutrality account for almost a half (45%) and Disagreement – the second largest proportion (31%) while only 12 percent of students got agree with the assumption To heighten the conclusion reliability, one student belonging to the minority group who strongly consented to the statement and one student from disagreement party were picked up for intensive interviews The result, afterwards, was such an interesting fact

“During case studies, we only concentrate on settling disputes to fulfill delegated tasks instead of trying to manipulate new business words No matter whether

we use new words sometimes, our main aim is just to make saying more weirdly and professionally We have no intention of remembering all these business words.” (Student A)

“Our group always tries to use target words oriented by our teacher The final evaluation is generally good because it adds business color to our talks, and then makes it much more professionally However, there is a fact that we could not remember all words we used; thus combining case studies with note taking method is actually an awesome idea Actually, we do not deny the effect of case studies on memorizing words, but we more highly evaluate the way it teaches

us to use different words in different situations” (Student B)

12%

31%

45%

8% 4%

Chart 2: Students' attitude towards the impact of case studies on

memorizing vocabulary compared with traditional note-taking method

Totally Disagree Disagree Neutral Agree Totally Agee

As such the common ground of these two responses was the effort of students to conduct case studies successfully as well as to deliver their speeches

in a professional manner without any special intention to words memorizing In a

nutshell, it was noticeable that students could not reach a consensus about the advantage of case studies in memorizing vocabulary yet

For further analysis, based on the outcomes of the third assumption, the participants were divided into 2 blocks: those who Totally Agree, Agree and Neutral (57%) belonged to Block A and those who Totally Disagree and Disagree (43%) belonged to Block B with the aim of observing their attitude towards other benefits of case studies

The most striking result extracted from the statistics was that none of Block

A students disagreed with the statement concluding the effect of case studies on actualizing business vocabulary and clarifying the usage of words in particular situations while nearly two-third of them (61%) got agreed Especially, two of 48 students who previously strongly agreed that memorizing business vocabulary

0% 0%

39%

43%

18%

Chart 3: Block A's attitude towards the effect of case studies

on actualizing business vocabulary

Totally Disagree Disagree Neutral Agree Totally Agree

through case studies was not as effective as note-taking method, both expressed strong consensus with this assumption

The most striking result emerging from the data was that no significant difference was made between the Block A and Block B’s students’ attitude For more detail, none of Block B students disagreed, 17 percent of them agreed and a half of them totally agreed with the helpfulness of case studies in actualizing business vocabulary

For the sake of discussion, it was argued that language and its hidden meaning were such of beauty and diversification without exception Since each unit of word included its surface and implicit meaning, recognizing and using appropriate words in respective circumstances not only supported speaker’s precise expression but also limited unexpected misunderstanding In business negotiation, tactful and brilliant words choice played a vital role in keeping current relationships up and capturing valuable contracts

All in all, it seemed to be that case studies had not strongly shown its power in memorizing business vocabulary but it was no doubt to firmly

0% 0%

33%

17%

50%

Chart 4: Block B's attitude towards the effect of case studies on

actualizing business vocabulary

Totally Disagree Disagree Neutral Agree Totally Agree

conclude that by case studies participation, students could recognize the usage

of business words, then make use of them for appropriate situations

Aside from the advantages listed in the previous sections, the researcher also came into question whether students’ vocabulary could be expanded into other fields through completing case studies The result, as shown in the 8th statement

of Chart 1, indicated the attitude of students lied in the range of average value of choice between Neutral to Agree ( and Std Dev = 0.84), specifically approximately 70% students agreed and totally agreed while about 30% of them

remained neutral with the assumption Some respondents highlighted that “[they]

could widen their vocabulary box into some other fields such as jurisprudence, psychology or even environment.”

In conclusion, unlike the researcher’s personal predictions, case studies did not illustrate its strong effect on supporting students to memorize their learning business vocabulary, but rather intensively he lping them understand the usage of words in various situations as well as broaden vocabulary box into other field occasionally

1.2 Case studies on improving Business English Speaking ability

Speaking proficiency is one of the main objectives necessarily achieved after first year of learning course by which the freshmen could produce stretches

of language with fairly even tempo, use a variety of linking words efficiently to mark clearly the relationships between ideas, specially understand and exchange complex information and advice on the full range of matters related to business It

is case studies – the key instruments to pursuit these purposes A panoramic view over this aspect was shown in chart 5 and chart 6 as follows: