ABSTRACT The study investigated and analyzed the needs of tour guide students in Nha Trang College of Culture, Arts and Tourism, as well as the recruiters’ and the graduates’ needs at w
INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale
Research aims
This thesis aims at the following targets Firstly, this research seeks to collect empirical data informing to what extent the current ESP syllabus for students of the tour guide majors at NTCCAT meets the students, the recruiters and the graduates’ needs Secondly, basing on the findings, the researcher hope to provide recommendations for improving the syllabus for tour guide majored students.
Research questions
There are three research questions as the follows:
To what extent does the current ESP syllabus meet the students’ needs?
To what extent does the current ESP syllabus meet the graduates’ needs?
To what extent does the current ESP syllabus meet the recruiters’ needs?
Research significance
The results of this research will be of significance to the ESP learning and teaching at NTCCAT in different aspects First, the study can provides the administrative staff with the necessary and useful information of the needs to design the suitable ESP courses for students of Tourism Faculty, NTCCAT Second, being conscious of the match and mismatch between the current ESP syllabus and the students’ needs and interests, the teachers in charge of ESP courses in the college will have to look back on their own ESP teaching Consequently, they will orient the teaching methodology and material adaptation to bridge the gap between what students actually need in their ESP courses and how the current ESP syllabus facilitates their needs Third, the study also raises the awareness of the importance of an ESP syllabus suitable to learners’ needs for the program building in the future Lastly, this study suggests recommendations for improving the tour guide syllabus, which hopes to prepare students more efficiently for their future job.
Research scope
The study and recommendations will be limited to the syllabus of the specialized stage (so-called the ESP syllabus) for tour guide majors only in the NTCCAT context In addition, this thesis deals only with the needs of the domestic travel agencies at Nha Trang City which usually have foreign tourists as clients, and which have employed many graduated students (graduated in 2007 and 2008) of tour guide majors at NTCCAT.
An overview of the English teaching and learning for tour guide major at
1.6.1 English courses for tour guide majors
All students of two majors at the Tourism Faculty (tour guide and hotel-restaurant administration) have to spend three years with six semesters at NTCCAT The training system is divided into two stages: The general stage and the specialized stage During the two stages, students are equipped with two general English courses and three ESP ones The two general English courses are taught respectively in the first two semesters Then, students are required to attend the three ESP courses in the next three semesters At the last semester, they do not study English, for they must take part in the practicum and prepare for the graduating exam
The general stage for students at the Tourism Faculty consists of two courses lasting 300 periods (150 periods each) with the aims at helping the learners to drill down the four basic language skills and providing them the foundation preparing for learning the professional English The specialized stage aims at firstly continuing to help learners drill down the four basic language skills; secondly helping learners obtain the language knowledge, i.e vocabulary and grammar; thirdly providing learners with specialized knowledge and terms; and last but not least, preparing the students for future employment As to the time allocation, there are 165 periods totally for the specialized stage allocated in three courses in three semesters Learners have to study three subject areas: Nha Trang tours and festivals (60 periods), central highland and heritages (45 periods) and hotel – restaurant administration (60 periods)
According to the tour guide syllabus at NTCCAT, the course aims at, first, developing students’ four skills with the focus on improving students’ communicative skills, i.e listening and speaking, so that they can deal with practical situations within the working environment; second, providing students with language knowledge essential for working in tourism industry; and last, providing students the professional knowledge of tour guide majors
At the end of the course, students will be able to comprehend the technical terms relating to tour guide majors and grasp the language structures essential for use in this career Moreover, they can read and comprehend documents relating to tourism such as timetables, forms, maps, brochures, menus etc using skimming and scanning techniques as well as writing tasks encountered in the tourism industry Last but not least, students will be able to present speeches fluently and communicate effectively with customers through telephones or face-to-face conversations
For the general English courses, the course book “ Cutting Edge –
Lower Intermediate ” (Cunningham, Petermoor & Cornyns, 2005) have been used since 2007 With the Cutting Edge, students are simultaneously taught four language skills with general knowledge and terms The aim of using this book is to familiarize students with basic tourism English as the foundation on which their ESP will be built
At the specialized stage, there has not been an official textbook, for NTCCAT English teachers are not able to write English course books with tour guide contents Hence, each teacher has to choose several appropriate excerpts from different materials to teach, based on the syllabus approved by the school Teaching materials can be taken from various sources such as newspapers, tourism magazines, tourism books available in the market and on Internet websites
Students must attend 80% of the scheduled class times For ESP courses, there are two kinds of tests: the oral test and the writing test The oral test is conducted throughout the course and in the form of presentation speeches Students present itineraries and destinations of one of the tours they have learnt Students are assessed through what and how they present in the test, i.e the content and language performance Meanwhile, the writing test is conducted once in the middle of the course and in the form of paper-and- pencil The score of each course is an average of the oral and writing test
* Part 1: Nha Trang tours and festivals = 60 periods
* Part 2: Central highland and heritages = 45 periods
6 5 PHONG NHA - KE BANG NATIONAL PARK
2 5 KHANH HOA- NHA TRANG OVERVIEW
3 5 LONG SON PAGODA- NHA TRANG CATHEDRAL
6 5 PO NAGAR CHAM TOWERS/ PO NAGAR FESTIVAL
9 5 NHA TRANG INSTITUTE OF OCEANOGRAPHY
10 5 VAN PHONG BAY- HON YEN (SWIFTLET ISLANDS)
11 5 THAP BA HOT SPRING CENTER - VINPEARL LAND
* Part 3: Hotel – restaurant administration = 60 periods
2 5 PHRASES USED TO EXPLAIN AND INSTRUCT POLITELY
BY PHONE, EMAIL AND FAX
1.6.3 The teaching and learning situation
The students at Tourism Faculty study English not only because it is one of the compulsory subjects but also because it is useful for their jobs in the future All the students always expect to be able to read the English materials of tourism and to communicate in their specific field However, in reality, the time available for teaching the ESP courses is not enough to provide students with sufficient knowledge of the language, and we cannot make students know everything after the course With 165 teaching periods, it is too difficult for teachers to cover all the lessons with many activities of professional skills such as performing professional conversations or writing itineraryreports
In addition, with very big classes (from 50 to 70 students) the teachers and students have difficulty in teaching and learning English It prevents the instructor from applying the communicative approach Opportunities of practicing speaking are given as many as possible but only few of students take these chances
1.6.4 Characteristics of the teaching staff
NTCCAT has a staff of 12 English teachers, aged from 25 to 39 All of the teachers have BA degrees in language teaching The staff also attaches special importance to further training and updating their knowledge There have been five teachers being awarded MA degrees in TESOL, four attending
MA courses and one starting her PhD course Most of these teachers are in charge of the specialized stage They play the roles as guides for classroom activities and facilitators to help students with their problems The teachers are generally very enthusiastic, experienced and willing to apply new techniques and methods The majority of the staff always welcome every chance to try out a new syllabus or materials to make learning and teaching at the institution more effective
Among 12 teachers of English, only eight teachers has experience with ESP teaching The seem-to-be-problematic issue is that most of the staff, as most language teachers in Vietnamese universities, has had little or no formal training in ESP All of them are not specialized in tourism, either However, they are in charge of teaching ESP to two main majors of Tourism Faculty including English for hotel-restaurant administration and English for tour guide Therefore, it may be a challenge for the ESP teachers when they are in charge of teaching ESP to about 30 classes with over 2,000 students
Most students, in fact, have studied English for seven years or more (from the sixth grade to the twelfth grade) before entering the college Some of them got national certificates of English (levels A, B, C) However, for most of the time, students focus on learning grammar and vocabulary in order to encounter the final exams In addition, they only focused on learning by heart, not on practicing skills at the junior and senior high schools Listening and speaking skills seemed to be neglected
When attending the college, the students appreciate communicative approach in learning English They are highly motivated when doing communicative activities, which are included in the GE program but not in ESP For tour guide students, they have to study a large amount of information of professional knowledge in a limited time during their ESP courses The class often consists of lecturing, not lots of communicative activities being applied Students study harder if the texts are relevant to their major, and there are interesting interactions between the students and the texts Communicative competence in general and communicative competence in ESP in particular helps them obtain good jobs and opportunities of promotion.
The organization of the thesis
The thesis is divided into five chapters as follows:
Chapter 1, “Introduction”, presents the rationale, the aims of the study, the research questions, the significance of the study, the scope of the study and the organization of the study This chapter also provides a description of the English courses of the tour guide major at NTCCAT with the purpose of providing sufficient data for understanding the problems mentioned in the thesis
Chapter 2, “Literature review”, consists of discussions for various viewpoints on needs, needs analysis and syllabus It also includes the components of the syllabus design The issues related to syllabus given in this chapter act as the foundation for the development of the next chapters
Chapter 3, “Methodology”, mentions the methodology employed, including research questions and research design which covers the characteristics of subjects, the instruments and the data collection procedure The results collected from methodology will be discussed in Chapter 4
Chapter 4, “Findings and discussions”, mainly concentrates on the data collected from the students’ and the graduates’ needs questionnaire as well as interviews with the recruiters In this chapter, the data collected will be analyzed to answer the research questions A discussion is conducted basing on the data collected at the same time In the last chapter (Chapter 5), suggestions for improving the current syllabus are presented.
LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 ESP
Needs and needs analysis
Hutchinson and Waters (1987) define needs are the reasons for which the student is learning English, which will vary from study purposes such as following a postgraduate course in an English - speaking country to work purposes such as participating in business meetings or taking hotel bookings These purposes are the starting points, which determine the language to be taught
Munby (1978) may be the pioneer in placing emphasis on needs when he points out that language learning needs is the preliminary to the specification or design of a syllabus Richterich (1983) shares the same viewpoint with Munby in saying that the identification of language needs is a prerequisite to the task of setting objectives Specifically, Nunan (1985) adds that the most powerful argument in favor of needs-based courses is a motivational one One way of improving motivation is to orientate content towards those areas that most interest learners and which are perceived by them as being most relevant, and to develop methodologies, which enhance the learner’s self-concept rather than destroying it
Hutchinson and Waters (1987) state that what distinguishes ESP from General English is not the existence of a need as such but rather an awareness of the need They suppose that if learners, sponsors, and teachers know why the learners need English, that awareness will have an influence on what will be acceptable as reasonable content in the language course, and on the positive side, what potential can be exploited In fact, it is not so much the nature of the need which distinguishes the ESP from the General English course but rather the awareness of a need
There are many types of needs such as objective needs and subjective needs, target needs and learning needs, content needs and process needs
The difference between objective and subjective needs, in Brindley’s words (cited in Robinson, 1991), are that the former refers to needs that are derivable from different kinds of factual information about learners, their use of language in real-life communication situations as well as their current language proficiency and language difficulties On the contrary, the latter refers to the cognitive and affective needs of the learner in the learning situation, derivable from information about affective and cognitive factors such as personality, confidence, attitudes, learners’ wants and expectations with regard to the learning of English and their individual cognitive style and learning strategies
According to Robinson (1991), a basic choice must be made between the outsider and the insider as with needs analysis Robinson (1991) assumes that an outsider is a person who has not been involved in the program and hence brings an objective approach to it An outsider may be free of local politics and prejudices but no observer is truly objective The insiders are most likely be the course designers and the teachers, but students also may be involved, and in the case of in-company language training, a representative from the management Robinson (1991) also mentions that when analyzing objective needs, we take into account different kinds of factual information about learners We ask how they use language in real-life communications, as well as their current language abilities and difficulties With reference to subjective needs, Robinson (1991) suggests that subjective needs can be grouped into factors such as personality, confidence, attitudes, learners’ wants and expectations, and learning styles
2.2.1.2.2 Target needs and learning needs
The basic distinction between target needs and learning needs lies in that target needs is what learner needs to do in the target situation and learning needs is what the learner needs to do in order to learn (Hutchinson & Waters, 1987)
Hutchinson and Waters (1987) distinguish target needs into necessities, lack and wants Necessities is what students have to know in order to function effectively in the target situation Lacks may be understood as the target proficiency needs to be matched against the existing proficiency of learners Wants is what the learners needs It refers to subjective needs or the needs perceived by the learner It means that what the learners really want or need is related to their motivation
With regard to learning needs, Hutchinson and Water (1987) indicate that learning needs looks beyond the language use and investigates how learners learn to do what they do with language It takes into account the factors of circumstances of a language course, i.e why the learners take the course, how they learn, where and when the course takes place
Lastly, other kinds of needs such as content needs and process needs are mentioned by Nunan (1988) He describes that content needs include the selection and sequencing of such things as topics, grammar, function, notions and vocabulary which are traditionally considered as the domain of syllabus design, whereas process needs refer to the selection and sequencing of learning tasks and experiences which are traditionally seen as the domain of methodology
Needs analysis in this study focuses on clarifying target needs and learning needs of students in their ESP course, since the aims of the tour guide syllabus at NTCCAT are providing students with language knowledge, developing students’ four skills, and improving students’ specialized knowledge for tour guide majors Therefore, the needs in this study related to the target level performance which belong to target needs; meanwhile the needs about the students’ current deficiency referring to learning needs Clearly, there is a close link between target needs and learning needs with the learner’s language learning process Each kind of needs shares an equal role in determining the success of the learning process
2.2.2.1 The meaning of needs analysis
Regarding needs analysis, many different terms have been used to define needs analysis Richards, Platt and Weber (cited in Brown, 1995: 35-
36) consider needs analysis as “the process of determining the needs for which a learners or group of learners requires a language and arranging the needs according to priorities.” In formal terms, needs analysis has been defined as “a set of procedures used to collect information about learners’ needs and specify the parameters of a course of study” (Brown, 1995: 36)
The results of needs analysis; therefore, is a realistic list of language ideas or skills to be achieved based on the present proficiency and future needs and wants of the learners (Nunan, 1988) Needs analysis, therefore, should be the logical first step in curriculum development (Richards, 1990; Hutchinson & Waters, 1987; Nunan, 1988; Yalden, 1984; Brown, 1995)
Richards (1990: 5) points out the three main functions of needs analysis as follow Needs analysis serves the purposes of providing a mechanism for obtaining a wider range of input into the content, design and implementation of a language program through involving such people as learners, teachers, administrators, and employers in the planning process Moreover, needs analysis identifies general or specific language needs that can be addressed in developing goals, objectives and content for the syllabus Finally, it provides data that can serve as the basis for reviewing and evaluating an existing syllabus
Later, Brown (1995) adds that a logical outcome of the thorough study of learners’ needs in a language program should be twofold Firstly, goals should be specified so that general statements can be made about what is to be accomplished Secondly, precise statements about what content or skills students must master to attain those particular goals should be made With a thorough needs analysis, all other activities in the course design process may more readily be performed Needs analysis also helps all the other parties (i.e test developers, materials developers, actual teachers, etc.) focus on appropriate content Such data, for example, would inform instructions on how to go about their practice in the classroom
The significance of needs analysis is further described by Dudley- Evans and John (1998) as the corner stone of ESP and the lead to a much focused course This means needs analysis aims at establishing the content and framework of a language course Graves (2000) also shed light on the role of needs analysis that it is a dialogue between the teacher and the learners and among the learners during the learning process In its simplest form needs analysis should, according to Nation (2000), firstly, assess how the learners will need to use the language after they leave the course; secondly, measure the learners’ present level of proficiency; and thirdly, ask the learners what they consider to be most important to them Thus, the overall aim of needs analysis is not only to identify elements but also to establish relative importance, to find out what is indispensable, necessary, or merely desirable
Syllabus
So far, several definitions of syllabus have been worked out Widdowson (1984: 24) describes it as “a framework within which activities can be carried out: a teaching device to facilitate learning.” Being more specific than Widdowson, Breen (cited in Nunan, 1988:6) holds that “any syllabus will express - however indirectly - certain assumptions about language, about the psychological process of learning, and about the pedagogic and social processes within a classroom.”
Ten years later, Renandya (1998) develops the above definitions when he states that a syllabus describes the major units that will be used for planning the program and provides the basis for its instructional focus and content It also reflects the planners’ assumptions about the nature of language and language use Moreover, it provides the planners’ view of what the most essential elements of language are and how these can be organized as an efficient basis for second language learning The author also shares Renandya’s point of view Hence, in this research, syllabus is a document which provides the major units, its instructional focus and content Its content includes the most essential elements of language and its arrangement
There is a variety of syllabuses in existence However, according to Brown (1995), they can be classified into the following types: situational syllabus, functional syllabus, notional syllabus, task-based syllabus, structural syllabus, skills-based syllabus, topical syllabus, and mixed or layered syllabus
The first kind is situational syllabus with the organization based on common situations like the following: at a party, at the beach, at the airport, etc The selection of situations is based on the likelihood that students will encounter such situations The next type is functional syllabus using functions such as identifying, reporting, describing and so on, as the organizing principle These functions are sequenced by some sense of chronology, frequency, or hierarchy of usefulness Notional syllabus is the third kind Conceptual categories called notions (such as duration, quantity, location, and so forth) are the basis of organization In the next kind, task-based syllabus, materials are organized around different types of tasks that students might be required to perform in the language, for example drawing maps, following directions, etc Both the notional and task-based syllabuses are sequenced by the idea of chronology or usefulness of each notion or task
The fifth type is structural syllabus in which grammatical or phonological structures are the organizing principles – sequenced from easy to difficult or frequent to less frequent Skills-based syllabus is the next one Skills (such as listening for main ideas, scanning a passage for specific information, and so on) serve as the basis for organization, sequenced by some sense of chronology or usefulness of each skill Next is topical syllabus forming the organizing principle by topics or themes The topics are selected by the textbook author on the basis of his or her sense of the importance of the topics or themes to the lives of the students for whom the text is designed Mixed or layered syllabus is the last one This type of syllabus occurs when two or more types of syllabuses mix together, or there may be secondary or tertiary syllabuses operating in layers underneath the primary syllabus With this way of classification, the syllabus at NTCCAT is a topical syllabus, since it is organized based on the themes of the professional knowledge of the tour guides major
In this part the definitions and classification of syllabus have just been presented The theory of syllabus design will be drawn out in the next part.
Syllabus design
In this study, the researcher only focuses on the following components of syllabus design: language knowledge which includes selection and organization of vocabulary and grammar; four language skills; specialized knowledge of tour guide majors
Vocabulary is one of the most obvious components of language and one of the first things applied linguists turned their attention to However, what words should be taught in a second language? This depends on the objectives of the course and the amount of time available for teaching (Richards, 2001) He further explains that not all the words that native speakers know are necessarily useful for second language learners who have only a limited available for learning In this case, word frequencies are important in planning word lists for language teaching But frequency is not necessarily the same thing as usefulness because the frequency of words depends on the types of language samples that are analyzed
In order to ensure that the frequency of occurrence of words in a corpus corresponds to their relative importance for language learners, the texts or language samples chosen as the basis for the corpus must be relevant to the needs of learners and words must be frequent in a wide range of different language samples Hence, words with the highest frequency and the widest range are considered to be the most useful ones for the purposes of language teaching According to Richards (2001), there are also other criteria used in determining word lists such as teachability, similarity, availability, coverage, defining power, etc
The procedures of vocabulary selection lead to the compilation of a basic vocabulary (or what is now called a lexical syllabus), that is a target vocabulary for a language course usually grouped or graded into levels, such as the first 500 words, the second 500 words and so on In the ESP courses at NTCCAT, the vocabulary is grouped based on the fields in the contents of the ESP syllabus The vocabulary of each field is about 2,000
In the case of grammar, selection is closely linked to the issue of gradation Gradation is concerned with the grouping and sequencing of teaching items in a syllabus Grammar selection and gradation specifies both the set of grammatical structures to be taught and the order in which they should be taught Richards (2001: 11) states that grammar selection and gradation “have generally been developed from different principles based not on the frequency of occurrence of grammatical items in texts but on intuitive criteria of simplicity and learnability” The goal has been to develop a list of structures, graded into a logical progression
Richards (2001) also suggests the following principles used as a basis for grammar selection and gradation The first one is simplicity and centrality This recommends choosing structures that are simple and more central to the basic structure of the language than those that are complex and peripheral The second principle is frequency Frequency of occurrence has also been proposed, but relatively little progress was made in this area for some time because of the difficulty of deciding on appropriate grammatical units to count and the difficulty of coding grammatical structures for analysis The last one is learnability Although the validity of this acquisition sequence has been questioned, the idea that grammatical structures are acquired in a natural order and that this order should inform teaching has been proposed
At NTCCAT, the grammatical structure produced for all of the ESP courses including the following form: tenses, voices, prefixes and suffixes, types of phrases, clauses and sentences, etc These grammatical points have been selected and graded with the purpose of providing an accessible and gradual introduction to the grammar of English
With the current ESP syllabus at NTCCAT, students have opportunities to practice four language skills With the speaking and listening subjects, in each lesson, topics which are relevant to the tour guides’ job are raised so that students will bring their knowledge and experience to discussions while practicing acquired language skills
The emphasis in practicing reading skill is on the understanding of information presented in the reading passage This section helps students develop such sub-skills as reading for the main ideas or reading for specific information With the writing skill, students are taught to re-write the sentences in logical order, to build sentences with the provided words, and to write formal letters and reports related to their job in future
2.4.3 Professional knowledge of tour guide majors
Professional knowledge is defined as the historical, economic, sociological, philosophical, and psychological understanding of each career in society It also includes knowledge about learning, diversity, technology, professional ethics, legal and policy issues, and the roles and responsibilities of the professions (www.kyepsb.net/teacherprep/CART/glossary1.asp) In tour guide majors, professional knowledge is the general knowledge about the land and the people, history, music, language, religions, etc serving the tour guides’ work
In teaching and learning English at NTCCAT, professional knowledge includes three fields in the contents of the ESP syllabus They are Nha Trang tours and festivals, central highland and heritages, and hotel – restaurant administration This seems to be unsufficient for most of the visitors want to get satisfactory answers to their numerous questions about Vietnam In the survey carried out by Nguyen (1999), 70% of the visitors’ questions were about Vietnamese culture and the same number, 70% of 50 Vietnamese guides, were unable to answer all the various questions asked by the visitors Hence, most of the Vietnamese guides felt that a supplementary training course in English on Vietnamese culture would be necessary related to some of the aspects of Vietnamese history and culture.
METHODOLOGY 3.1 Research design
Participants
There were three groups of participants in the present study: questionnaire participants including two smaller groups: second - year students and graduates, and interview participants - recruiters The participants of this study were divided into three groups as the second - year students to get the students’ needs when they attend the ESP courses, the graduates to get their needs at work, and the recruiters to identify their requirements of tour guides Needs analysis in this study focuses on clarifying target needs and learning needs of students in their ESP course, since the aims of the tour guide syllabus at NTCCAT are providing students with language knowledge, developing students’ four skills, and improving students’ professional knowledge for tour guide majors Therefore, the needs in this study related to the target level performance which belong to target needs; meanwhile the needs about the students’ current deficiency referring to learning needs
The participants were all the second-year students of the Tourism Faculty whose major is tour guide at NTCCAT These students were administered in two classes – VNH K30 A and VNH K30 B with the total of
120 Their ages ranged from 19 to 24, however, most of the students were 19 years old They were both male and female students, the majority of whom were female All of them were required to take a two-semester Basic English course at the beginning of their academic course at the college
Table 3.1: Gender and age of second-year students
In this study, the author investigated the second-year students for the information relating to their needs in terms of present situation analysis and deficiency analysis The data collected from this group is used to judge to what extent the current ESP syllabus meets the learners’ needs
The second group of questionnaire participants consisted of 45 graduated students of Tourism Faculty whose major was tour guide These graduates were the convenient sample units, for they had completed their academic achievement at college level in the two years 2007 or 2008, and they are now going to follow higher education, i.e university one Information about questionnaire participants is presented in Table 3.1 below:
Table 3.2: Gender and age of graduates
The participants’ ages ranged from 22 to 27 They were both male and female graduates, the majority of whom were female All of them had finished the current ESP course one or two years ago, and have been now working as tour guides at Nha Trang City
With the target-situation analysis and deficiency analysis approaches, the graduates provided information concerning their needs of language knowledge and skills at work, especially their evaluations about the professional knowledge of the ESP syllabus at NTCCAT
They were the Personnel Managers of three domestic travel agencies in Nha Trang City which usually have foreign clients (so the tour guides must use English as a tool of their work) and many graduates of tour guide major at NTCCAT have been employed (so they can give comments about the English competence of the graduated students of this college) Among the interviewees, two of them were male and one was female These recruiters could give their requirements and suggestions for future employment, which were essential to the syllabus improvement, and their recommendation for the tour guide syllabus at NTCCAT Information about interview participants is presented in Table 3.3 below:
Female 36 years old Male 1 27 years old Male 2 52 years old
Table 3.3: Gender and age of recruiters
Data collection instruments
In this study two data collection instruments were employed: questionnaires and interviews Questionnaires were conducted with the students and the graduates, and interviews were administered to the recruiters
Two sets of questionnaires were formulated and administered collectively to the tour guide students and graduates, for questionnaires are the most commonly used descriptive method in educational research, especially in any kind of curriculum development projects They can also be used to answer any research questions that require exploration, description or explanation of people’s characteristics, attitudes, viewpoints, etc Moreover, according to Brown (1995), this kind of data collection method can help to make the learners’ fear, embarrassment resulting from direct contact be avoided Last but not least, Richards (1990: 10) confirms that “questionnaires are useful ways of gathering information about effective dimensions of teaching and learning, and enable a teacher to collect a large amount of information relatively quickly.”
The first set of questionnaires was designed for second-year students of Tourism Faculty whose major is tour guide (see Appendix 1) The questionnaire used in this study was modified from that of Pham (2009), for it covered three aspects of needs analysis: the present situation analysis, deficiency analysis, and the target situation analysis The first two approaches to needs analysis are suitable to investigate the students’ needs and the last one suites for analyzing the graduates and recruiters’ needs The questionnaire focused on three areas: (1) the students’ background, (2) the students’ needs of skills and language knowledge, and (3) the students’ needs of professional knowledge
The first part of the questionnaire consisted of seven questions about the general information of students including their age, sex, time of learning English, their result in basic English course, the students’ self-assessment of their proficiency in language skills, the students’ self-assessment of their strength and weaknesses in learning English The present situation analysis and the deficiency analysis were applied in the next section of the questionnaire to analyze the students’ needs and lacks of four skills with four parts A, B, C, D referring to listening, speaking, reading and writing skills respectively; and parts E, F for language knowledge, i.e vocabulary and grammar, which were set out in the current syllabus The two questions in the last section were used for analyzing the students’ needs of professional knowledge
At the beginning of the questionnaire, a brief and clear-cut explanation about the purpose of the survey was given The question items were varied from close-ended to open-ended or multiple choice The wide range of question forms suggested a diversity of answers for participants to choose from and considerably facilitated the completeness and honesty of the responses All the questions in the surveys were written in English and translated into Vietnamese to ensure learners’ comprehension of the questions and their right way of giving responses
The second set of questionnaires designed for graduates consisted of three sections The first part was about the personal details of the graduates which included the information of their gender and age, their English certificates or degree, the graduates’ self-assessment of their proficiency in language skills, the graduates’ self-assessment of their strength and weaknesses in learning English The second section was about their target – situation needs analysis in which the first two questions were about the usage frequency and deficiency of English concerning the language knowledge and skills Their evaluations about the professional knowledge of the ESP syllabus at NTCCAT lied in two questions in the last section These questions were the same as the ones in the students’ questionnaire, so that it could help compare the needs of the students and the graduates The questionnaire also included a clear-cut explanation about the purpose of the survey and a wide range of question forms varied from close-ended to open-ended or multiple choice (see Appendix 2)
In this research, interviews were used because “interviews are by definition oral, more like conversations” (Wallace, 1998: 124); hence, Punch (2004: 174) states clearly that “the interview is a very good way of accessing people’s perceptions” and “it allows for richer interaction and more personalized responses” (Mc Donough and McDonough, 1997: 184) In addition, Kumar (1996) believes that the interview are considered to be useful for collecting in-depth information, appropriate for complex situations, in which the information can be supplemented and questions can be explained
Wallace (1998: 124) also suggests three types of interview The first one is structured interviews in which the questions will probably be ready from a carefully prepare interview schedule, similar to a questionnaire but used orally The second type is unstructured interviews implying interviews with a relaxed atmosphere, but without losing sight of the research purpose Lastly, semi-structured interviews are those in which the questions will probably be open questions Comments, examples or follow-up questions may be included in the interview of this kind in order to encourage the interviewee to give more detailed responses
Semi-structured interviews were conducted in this study in order to gather in-depth information and extensive data on a small number of topics The recruiters were chosen to be interviewed to get the target needs, which all current students and graduates always aim at The interview guide consisted of questions related to three topics The first question was about the way of recruiting at these recruiters’ companies The next two questions were about the language skills and knowledge as well as the professional knowledge which the current students were required to obtain in order to work as tour guides in the future The last question related to the recruiters' remarks about the current ESP syllabus (see Appendix 3) It was expected that the qualitative data from the interviews would provide the recruiters’ requirements so that the current ESP syllabus could be revised appropriately.
Procedure
First of all, the first set of questionnaires were given to the students In the academic year 2009 - 2010, 120 copies of needs analysis questionnaire were distributed to all of the second – year students majoring in tour guide in their classrooms at the beginning of the second session falling in early of March, 2010 Since this was the beginning of a new year, the number of students showing up that day were only 120 out of 150
Each student was given a copy of the questionnaire and expected to write his or her responses The guides from the researcher helped the students produce accurate responses to the questionnaires The questionnaire was written in Vietnamese to ensure that the learners understood the questionnaire well 120 questionnaires were distributed and collected at the end of the class with a 100% return ratio Absolute percentage of feedback was easily explainable It took the students approximately 20 minutes to finish the questionnaire
With the help of the teacher responsible for this class and the class monitor, the second set of questionnaires were distributed to the graduates The sample population consists of 50 graduates, however, 45 copies were returned
The interviews were administered to the Personnel Managers of three domestic travel agents in Nha Trang City Every effort was made to probe responses for in-depth information Firstly, all the interviews were conducted in Vietnamese in order that the respondents could understand the question items more easily Then, the results of all interviews were translated into English The next step was the interpretation of the interviews returning to the recruiters to read and check The presentation of the interview results was the last step of the task when all the recruiters had agreed with them The time spent on these interviews was varied from 20 to 30 minutes.
Data analysis
First of all, percentage was utilized to examine the data obtained from the closed items in the questionnaires The data was analyzed by using descriptive statistics, through presenting the frequency counts of the responses for each item in the questionnaires In addition, percentage was chosen because it is simple and easy for the readers to understand the information examined in this research
Meanwhile, open-ended items in the questionnaires were analyzed by listing all raw data, i.e all the individual responses, under each item Then, the researcher grouped the similar responses, identified common themes, and counted frequencies
For analyzing interviews, Patton (1990) describes two strategies: case analysis and cross-case analysis Implementing case analysis means writing a case study for each person interviewed or each unit studied However, using cross-case analysis means grouping together answers from different people to common questions or analyzing and grouping different perspectives on central issues In this study, cross-case analysis was used for analyzing interviews, since the data obtained from the interviews would be better and more easily integrated to the data from questionnaires
Finally, the collected data were categorized into three major groups according to the research questions: (i) The extent to which the current ESP syllabus meets the students’ needs when they attend the course; (ii) the graduates’ needs for their current work; lastly (iii) the extent to which the current ESP syllabus meets the recruiters' requirements for their tour guides.
DISCUSSION OF RESULTS AND FINDINGS 4.1 Questionnaire to students
Students’ background
The findings from Question 3 showed that the learning experience was unequal among students This was illustrated in Table 4.1 by 68 students having studied English for 9 years, 36 having studied English for 7 years, 6 having studied for 3 years, 7 having studied for less than 3 years and 3 having never studied English before
Table 4.1: Students’ year of studying English
Number of years Informants (N= 120) Percentage (%)
Others: less than 3 years or none
The students were required to take a two-semester Basic English course since they started their college curriculum In this study, the students’ results of the last semester were examined Table 4.2 answering to Question 4 indicated the result of the students’ previous course, and it showed that the students’ background knowledge was varied So, they had different previous course results, with 80.8 % gaining fairly good marks, 15% obtaining good marks and 4.2% gaining weak marks
Table 4.2: Students’ previous course result
Tables 4.1 and 4.2 revealed that students’ English proficiency may vary largely Moreover, students’ different English learning experience was one reason that led to their different previous course results This result indicated that the general level of students in the college was average (ranging from lower intermediate to intermediate) This fact also corresponded to students’ self-assessment of language proficiency, with 71.6% of students claiming to be fairly good at English
In addition to the course result, the students’ background knowledge was also measured by the students’ self-assessment (the students’ English proficiency from students’ perspectives) In Question 5, the majority of students believed that they were at average level, with 0% claiming to be very good, 6.7% good, 71.6% fairly good and 21.7 % weak (see Table 4.3)
Table 4.3: Students’ self-assessment of language proficiency
Students’ self-assessment Informants (N= 120) Percentage (%)
In Questions 6 and 7, students were also asked to identify their current strengths and weaknesses in learning English (see Tables 4.4 and 4.5) Students’ self-assessment of their strengths and weaknesses pointed out that most students believed they may be good at reading while not good at listening and speaking
As indicated from Table 4.4, a considerable percentage of students (50.8%) thought that they were good at reading A slight number of students (21.7%) considered writing as their strength Meanwhile, the proportion of students who chose speaking and vocabulary as their strengths was not high, which accounted for 18.3% and 16.7% respectively Next, 16 out of 120 students, taking up 13.3%, believed that they were good at listening Finally, only 12 students (10%) found grammar easy for them to study
Besides the strong points, the students’ weak points were also presented in Table 4.5 More than half of students, accounting for 63.3%, thought that their listening skill was still weak A considerable percentage of students (43.3%) chose grammar as their weakness Next, 36.7% of students said that their speaking skill was not good enough Lastly, not many students said that they were bad at vocabulary (17.5%), writing (16.7%) and reading (8.3%)
Students’ needs of skills and language knowledge
In the students’ needs survey, students were also asked about the language skills/knowledge they expect related to their work (Question 8) It is indicated from Table 4.6 that almost students, accounting for 88.3%, believed that speaking skill would be closely related to their job in future The majority of students, 76.7%, thought that listening was essential to their work too Next, vocabulary was chosen by 34.2% of students as an important area Only 10.8% of students expected reading would be needed Additionally, a quarter of them (24.2%) thought that they needed grammar for their work Lastly, few students, 10%, expected writing skill related to the tour guides’ work
Table 4.6: The language skills/knowledge students expected related to their work
The language skills/ knowledge students expect related to their work
The following tables from Table 4.7 to Table 4.12 show the preference of learning activities in class, providing results of Question 9 The interests of students in listening led students’ interests in the classroom activities Since listening was considered a skill that students lacked most and needed to improve a lot, listening activities drew much interests from students Students’ interests in various listening activities were revealed through Table 4.7 below Listening for gist was most favored by 38.3% of students and patchwork listening was least favored by 5.8% of students The number of students who disliked the above kinds of listening activities was unnoticeable
Generally, students seemed to appreciate the listening activities but with different degrees
Table 4.7: The interests of students in listening activities (N= 120)
Very much Not very much
From Table 4.8, a noticeable number of students, accounting for 55% of students, tended to cooperate in pairs and in groups to practice speaking Meanwhile, the number of students who very much favored free practice and practice with the teacher was not very high, accounting for 30.8% for the former and 21.7% for the latter In this point, we may assume that students enjoyed collaborative activities, especially in pairs and in groups
Table 4.8: The interests of students in speaking activities (N= 120)
Very much Not very much A little Not at all
As far as reading activities are concerned, it seemed that the majority of students preferred the mixture of various reading activities such as skimming, scanning, prediction and deducing the meanings of unfamiliar words It is shown from Table 4.9 that the difference between the proportions in the four degrees of preference for different kinds of reading activities was not too big This refers to a fact that students may like a mixture of reading activities with the balance on improving both main skill and sub-skills
Table 4.9: The interests of students in reading activities (N= 120)
Very much Not very much A little Not at all
Deducing the meanings of unfamiliar words
As shown in Table 4.10, writing activities seemed to be not very much favored by students In fact, students rather preferred a combination of many kinds of writing activities such as group brainstorming, quick writing, group writing, board writing and free composition writing This fact was statistically illustrated in very much column by 35.8% of students choosing group writing, 34.2% choosing free composition writing and 24.2% choosing board writing
It can be figured out from this fact that students rather liked to cooperate in doing writing tasks and to feel free to promote their imagination in writing
Table 4.10: The interests of students in writing activities (N= 120)
Very much Not very much A little Not at all
In addition to activities relating to four skills, grammar activities were taken into consideration as well As seen from Table 4.11, students showed much interest in communicative grammar activities/exercises and grammar games This was illustrated by 60% of students quite keen on communicative grammar activities/exercises and 43.3% quite fond of joining grammar games Grammar quizzes and extra hand-outs on grammar exercises were less favored by the majority of students Students’ preference for communicative grammar activities or exercises and grammar games showed that students may like to learn grammar in a more open way, not in a traditional way with many grammar rules and formulae This also mirrors their communicative needs in a language class
Table 4.11: The interests of students in grammar activities (N= 120)
Grammar activities Degree of preference
Very much Not very much A little Not at all
Extra hand-outs on grammar exercises
Next, vocabulary activities also seemed to receive support from students Students’ need in vocabulary is reasonable since they are supposed to deal with many professional items in the ESP courses Similar to learning grammar, students preferred learning English vocabulary in a relaxed way Regarding vocabulary activities, students preferred learning English vocabulary through games the best, illustrated in Table 4.12 by 54 students liked vocabulary games very much and 51 students rather liked them With 40 students and 48 students chose the degree very much and not very much for word puzzles, students showed less favor for word puzzles than they did with vocabulary games However, students did not neglect other vocabulary activities such as extra handouts on vocabulary exercises This means they might want to make use of different activities to learn and drill vocabulary
Table 4.12: The interests of students in vocabulary activities (N= 120)
Very much Not very much A little Not at all
Extra handouts on vocabulary exercises
Question 10 shows the difficulties of students in their learning, presented in the Table 4.13 below
Table 4.13: Difficulties of students in their learning
Using a wide range of vocabulary when speaking
Using a variety of grammar structures when speaking
Expressing what you want to say clearly
Giving oral reports and short talks
Reading to get the main idea from a text
Reading carefully to understand all the information in a text
Using a wide range of vocabulary when writing
Using a variety of grammar structures when writing
Among the three sub-skills of listening, understanding informal language is the most challenging for 28.6%, and understanding different accents ranked second with 23.8% Thus, their main problem may be a lack of vocabulary
For the five sub-skills relating to speaking, there was a relatively equal dispersion on a lot, some, and a little of difficulty Especially, using a wide range of vocabulary was the most difficult for the students (35.7%)
For sub-skills of reading and writing, the trends were positive toward a little and none, a large part of the population had a little and even none of difficulty reading for main ideas and understand all the information in a text
Especially, 69% of students responded “a little” difficulty in spelling whereas 52.4% of them admitted that they had some difficulties in using a variety of grammar structures when writing
Especially, when being asked to specify other difficulties concerning language knowledge and skills, 79 students confessed that they encountered a lot of difficulties in intonation and pronunciation, accounting for 21 students for the former and 58 students for the latter Besides, students had difficulties in pronunciation due to the fact that most of them only paid attention to the meanings, not the way to pronounce, when their teachers presented new words Furthermore, students expressed that intonation were rarely taught in speaking.
Students’ needs of professional knowledge
The content of the syllabus is a core part of a course It has close relationship with learners’ needs and has certain effect on learners’ motivation Thus, Question 11 provided the content areas that students expected to learn from the course
It was indicated from Table 4.14 that more than half of students expected to learn English for destinations (60%), and most of them (80 students = 66.7 %) also stated that this was the most important content area A fair number of students liked itineraries (29.2%) On being asked to indicate the most important content areas, 107 out of 120 students chose itineraries and destinations A few of them liked festivals (2.5%) and history (2.5%)
Some of the students, accounting for 5.8%, wanted to learn more about customs and habits of international tourists Obviously, these students were keen on learning things relevant most to their major In addition, international tourists’ eating - drinking culture (i.e the cuisine) as well as their customs and habits were mentioned as extra areas students wanted to get to know Although the number of students who favored these areas was not high, it reflected students’ wish to enrich their knowledge about tourism This point should be taken into consideration in the improvement of the ESP syllabus
Table 4.14: The content areas students needed to learn in the course The content areas students need to learn
Others: the cuisine, customs and habits of international tourists
In Question 12, students were also asked about the content areas in the current ESP syllabus for tour guides Nearly all of them (90%) said the content areas of professional knowledge of the current syllabus was just right
A few students thought the contents were not enough (5%) On the other hand, the same number of students believed the contents in the ESP syllabus were more than sufficient (5%) These students believed that English of hotel
– restaurant administration was unnecessary This was their misconception because tour guides should also know about hotels and restaurants to serve the tourists well during their tours (see Table 4.15)
Table 4.15: Students’ remarks about the content areas in the current ESP syllabus
Students’ remarks about the content areas in the current
Questionnaire to graduates
This section presents the findings about the graduates’ needs through the result collected from the needs analysis questionnaire Similar to the students’ questionnaire, the two questions, number 1 and 2, about the graduates’ age and sex were mentioned in 3.3.2 The analysis is also divided into two sections: graduates’ background and graduates’ needs at work
Table 4.16 indicates the result of the graduates’ English certificates or degree (Question 3)
Table 4.16: Graduates’ English certificates or degree
Graduates’ English certificates or degree
Table 4.16 shows that all of the graduates had the English certificate of level B because this was the requirement of graduation from NTCCAT Only
14 of them (31.1%) had the English certificate of level C
In Question 4, the graduates’ background knowledge was measured by the graduates’ English proficiency from graduates’ perspectives It was indicated from the findings that the majority of graduates were above average level; none claimed to be very good, 24.4% good, 62.2% fairly good and 13.3
Table 4.17: Graduates’ self-assessment of language proficiency
Graduates’ self-assessment Informants (N= 45) Percentage (%)
The findings from the Tables 4.16 and 4.17 showed that the general level of graduates may be intermediate, ranging from intermediate to upper intermediate This figure corresponded to the graduates’ self-assessment of language proficiency, with 86.6% of them claiming to be good and fairly good at English
In Questions 5 and 6, graduates were also asked to identify their current strengths and weaknesses in learning English (see Tables 4.18 and 4.19)
As indicated from Table 4.18, a considerable percentage of graduates (35.5%) thought that they were good at reading Meanwhile, the proportion of graduates who chose grammar and vocabulary as their strengths was not high, which accounted for 17.7% each area Next, 10 out of 45 graduates, believed that they were good at listening and writing, sharing the same 11.1% Finally, only 3 graduates (6.6%) found speaking easy for them in their job
Besides the strong points, the graduates’ weak points were also presented in Table 4.19 It is clear from the table that more than half of graduates, accounting for 53.3%, thought that their listening skill was still weak A considerable percentage of graduates (33.3%) chose speaking as their weakness Next, 26.6% of graduates said that their writing skill was not good enough The proportion of graduates who chose grammar and vocabulary as their weaknesses was 22.2% for each area Lastly, not many graduates said that they were bad at reading (4 graduates)
In general, students’ self-assessment of their strengths and weaknesses pointed out that most students believed they were good at reading while not good at listening and speaking In comparison with students, graduates’ self- assessment showed that their strength was also reading but their weaknesses were not only listening and speaking but also writing Only five graduates reported writing as their strength This was the first difference between students and graduates, which graduates seemed to recognize it after working as tour guides for a period of time
4.2.2 Graduates’ needs of skills and language knowledge
In Question 7, graduates were also asked about the language skills/knowledge related to their work It is indicated from Table 4.20 that 100% of them reported speaking skill directly related to their job Almost all of them, accounting for 86.6%, expressed that they used listening skill for their work This was the same as the students’ expectation However, there was a difference between students and graduates that 71.1% of graduates expressed reading was essential for their job, meanwhile only 10.8% students expected reading needed for their work In an informal talk with the researcher, many graduates said that they had to read a lot of materials in both Vietnamese and English to enlarge their knowledge Next, vocabulary was chosen by 62.2% of graduates as an important area Besides, 40% of graduates thought that they needed writing skill for their work Lastly, several graduates reported grammar related to the tour guides’ work, illustrated by only 22.2%
Table 4.20: The language skills/knowledge related to the graduates’ work
The language skills/knowledge related to the graduates’ work
Table 4.21 below shows the difficulties that the graduates encountered in their careers (Question 8)
Table 4.21: Difficulties that the graduates encountered in their careers
Using a wide range of vocabulary when speaking
Using a variety of grammar structures when speaking
Expressing what you want to say clearly
Giving oral reports and short talks
Reading to get the main idea from a text
Reading carefully to understand all the information in a text
Using a wide range of vocabulary when writing
Using a variety of grammar structures when writing
The deficiency analysis revealed that, for sub-skills relating to listening, 31.1% of graduates reported a lot of difficulties in understanding different accents This was the most difficult sub-skill with graduates Meanwhile, understanding informal language was the most challenging one for students On the other hand, both of the students and graduates expressed a little difficulty in recognizing individual words with 42.5% and 20% respectively
Among the sub-skills of speaking, graduates found it was the most difficult for them to use a wide range of vocabulary (28.8%) and a variety of grammar structures when speaking (31.1%) This was similar to the results from the students’ questionnaire results However, if 71.1% of students thought they met none difficulties when expressing what they wanted to say clearly; the highest figure of graduates was belong to giving oral reports and short talks (20%)
For sub-skills of reading, both of the students and graduates reported a little and even none of difficulty in reading for main ideas and understand all the information in a text Whereas, for sub-skills relating to writing, there were also some similarities between students and graduates when the two found it was easy in spelling but difficult in using a variety of vocabulary and grammar structures
In sum, all of the questionnaire participants may show their difficulties in listening and speaking The most difficult areas of students seemed to be understanding informal language in listening and using a wide range of vocabulary in speaking Meanwhile, those sub-skills of graduates were understanding different accents in listening and to use a variety of grammar structures in speaking On the contrary, a little and none of difficulties reported for sub-skills of reading
When being asked to specify other difficulties in language knowledge and skills, eight graduates confessed they met some difficulties in grammar and vocabulary With grammar, they stated that they only learned the basic grammar structures, which were similar to those at high schools They had not been taught complex grammar structures so that they could intertranslate materials about tourism Furthermore, graduates wanted to enrich the vocabulary of tourism, since many of them felt confused when explaining something outside their prepared speeches for the tourists
4.2.3 Graduates’ needs of professional knowledge
Table 4.22, providing results of Question 9, showed that a majority of graduates expressed that itineraries and destinations were the most important to their job (40%) Nearly half of them reported that festivals and history were less important than the two content areas above, with the percentages of “less important” were 44.4% and 51.1% respectively Especially, 40% graduates answered that other content areas such as language, music, religions, etc were also important for their job
Table 4.22: The content areas graduates ranked from the most to the least important to their work
The content areas graduates ranked
(from the least important to the most important)
When being asked about the content areas in the current ESP syllabus for tour guides (Question 10), the majority of them (84.5%) said the contents of the current syllabus was not enough Only 5 graduates thought the contents were just right (11.1%), and the rest believed the content areas in the ESP syllabus were more than sufficient (4.4%)
Table 4.23: Graduates’ remarks about the content areas in the current ESP syllabus
Graduates’ remarks about the content areas in the current ESP syllabus
In general, with regarding to the professional knowledge, students had a right expectation when they chose destinations and itineraries as the most essential contents they needed to learn in the course This was approved by graduates This fact was reasonable for the tour guides’ work was instructing the tourists during their tours Hence, it was inevitable for them to apprehend the destinations and itineraries of those tours, which lead to the tour guides’ success Nevertheless, if only a few students expected to learn more professional knowledge beside the three content areas of the current ESP syllabus, nearly half of the graduates reported that other knowledge was rather important
Interview with three recruiters
The interviews were accomplished with joys of the three recruiters, who frequently employed tour guide graduates of NTCCAT The first recruiter was Ms Nguyen Lan Huong, General Director of Huong Duong travel agency Mr Dinh Manh Dung, Vice-Manager of Personnel Department and Chairman of Trade Union of Khatoco Tourist Company was the second one The last person was Mr Tran Van Dong, the Manager of Nha Trang Tourist Company They were friendly and enthusiastic over the issues raised
Answering the first question about the way of recruiting, all of the recruiters stated that their companies directly interview the candidates in English, not basing on their scoreboard of English learning results Ms Nguyen explained in details:
“For the reason of working in an international communicative environment with foreigners, candidates have to pass an English interview with our American Managing Director With an English Certificate TOEFL 400 or equivalent, candidates will be tested again in all skills such as listening, speaking, reading, writing and interpreting about professional topics The two skills listening and speaking are highly regarded.”
When being asked about the candidates’ English skills and language knowledge, three of them shared the same ideas that in recent interviews, they found that most candidates were weak at communicative skills in English Some of them could be good at reading comprehension, but not at listening and speaking Few could speak English very well, nor could not intertranslate professional materials Others could understand what the foreigners said but they could not follow the conversation, for they did not have a large amount of vocabulary Nevertheless, in some special cases, candidates who are good at professional knowledge but not at English competence are accepted and given a six-month-trial This is a chance for them to improve their English competence
Regarding to the professional knowledge of the current ESP syllabus at NTCCAT, Ms Nguyen thought that the contents were not enough She suggested to add a part arousing the awareness of the role and duties of a tour guide As she stated “A tour guide had problems in being aware of what behaviors are correct or incorrect when dealing with visitors from many other nations A guide must know that foreign visitors quite often need assistance in understanding Vietnamese customs and behaviors Many things a Westerner may do could offend the local people A guide must understand that these things might not be rude in another country.” She hoped that the contents would provide a wider range of issues involving the cultural differences
In addition, Mr Dinh and Mr Tran asserted that students should be taught to answer the kinds of question tourists often asked “There should be one more section of the tourists’ popular questions This section was intended to give the students experience in answering the kinds of question tourists might ask For instance, what do Vietnamese people usually eat for breakfast? how do Vietnamese parents choose their children’s names?” Mr Dinh said.
Conclusions
With reference to the three research questions: (1) To what extent does the current ESP syllabus meet the students’ needs? (2) To what extent does the current ESP syllabus meet the graduates’ needs? And (3) To what extent does the current ESP syllabus meet the recruiters’ needs?; and from the results of the survey, the following things were found
Concerning the real needs for ESP learning of the students in NTCCAT, it can be assumed that the students wished to have both learning needs and target needs to be adequately satisfied Being aware of their deficiency in the background knowledge, the students really wanted to make up for this by being actively engaged in their language learning process With regarding to language skills, nearly all students desired to improve their speaking and listening skills, and considered speaking and listening as the two most important skills of the four In details, more than half of students, accounting for 63.3%, thought that their listening skill was still weak A considerable percentage of students (36.7%) confessed that speaking skill was their weakness Especially, they wanted to improve their intonation and pronunciation Students’ preferences may arise from their awareness of the characteristics of their future work, with an emphasis on the communication skills Besides, students might like to join in different activities when studying English in classes They rather enjoyed collaborative activities such as pair work or group work, and also liked to cooperate in doing tasks
About language knowledge, students liked to learn grammar and vocabulary in a relaxed way In details, they did not want to learn grammar in a traditional way with many rules and formulae, but preferred to learn it in an open way with communicative grammar activities or exercises and grammar games This is illustrated by 60% of students quite keen on communicative grammar activities/exercises and 43.3% quite fond of joining grammar games Furthermore, they liked a mixture of activities to learn and drill vocabulary Most importantly, relating to professional knowledge, the students desired to learn and practice what were most relevant to and useful for their professional needs
In order to compare the findings taken from the students’ perspectives, the graduates’ and recruiters’ needs at work were also explored in the research They all shared the common need of good speaking and listening skills Graduates’ self - evaluation of language skills showed that, they had a strong need of improving not only listening and speaking but also writing When being asked about the language skills/areas related to their work, a large part of the graduates reported that they needed listening and speaking skills for their careers In details, 100% of them reported speaking skill directly related to their job Almost all of them, accounting for 86.6%, expressed that they used listening skill for their work This was the same as the students’ expectation However, there was a difference between students and graduates that many graduates (71.1%) expressed reading was essential for their job, meanwhile only a few students (10.8%) expected reading needed for their work
In the deficiency analysis, if students wanted to improve their understanding of informal language in listening and using a wide range of vocabulary in speaking, accounting for 28.6% and 35.7% Many graduates (31.1% ) really wished to improve their listening of different accents and to use a variety of grammar structures in speaking On the contrary, a little and none of difficulties reported for sub-skills of reading In sum, all of the questionnaire participants reported their difficulties in listening and speaking This was similar to the recruiters’ opinions that the candidates need much improvement in these two skills
With regarding to professional knowledge, if a large part of students (90%) thought that the professional knowledge they learned was just right, nearly all of the graduates’ remarks about the content areas was not enough, accounting for 84.5% Graduates reported that, to meet the requirements of tour guides’ job, they need more knowledge about Vietnamese education, music, culture, religions, etc as well as the newly-opened tourist attractions Hence, there should be added more sections into the current ESP syllabus The recruiters asserted that students needed to learn more about the tourists’ popular questions as well as the role and duties of tour guides due to the different cultures so that they can be successful in their future careers
In summary, it was realized that from students’ perspectives, the current ESP syllabus could meet students’ needs to a large extent, which revealed by the following findings
First, students seemed to be satisfied with the current ESP syllabus about the language knowledge and skills, except for their strong needs of improving the two skills of listening and speaking; especially, the intonation and pronunciation, accounting for 17.5 % of students for the former and 48.3% of students for the latter
Second, 60% of students expected to learn English for destinations, and 29% of them liked itineraries Moreover, on being asked to indicate the most important content areas, nearly all of the students (89.1%) chose itineraries and destinations Satisfactorily, those contents were included in the current ESP syllabus Last, nearly all of them (90%) said the content of the current syllabus was just right This showed that the contents of the tour guide syllabus could meet the students’ needs from their perspectives
Meanwhile, from graduates’ and recruiters’ perspectives, the current ESP syllabus seemed not to satisfy them completely First of all, the survey’ results showed that the current ESP syllabus could not satisfy graduates with their communicative skills, i.e speaking and listening skills, as well as writing skills This proved by the fact that many graduates chose listening and speaking as their weaknesses, accounting for 53.3% and 33.3% respectively
In addition, 26.6% of graduates said that their writing skill was not good enough
Additionally, both the graduates and the recruiters expressed that the contents of the current ESP syllabus of tour guide majors at NTCCAT were not sufficient, accounted by 100% of recruiters and the majority of the graduates (84.5%) Hence, they suggested to add more professional knowledge into the contents
This chapter presents the findings and discussions relating to (1) students’ needs in the ESP courses, (2) graduates’ and the recruiters’ needs at work Then, the suggestions for improving the tour guide syllabus at NTCCAT based on the above results will be mentioned in the next chapter.