Innovations in the english program for non major sophomores at binh duong university an assessment

The aims of this study were 1 to find out the innovations in the English program/curriculum for non-English-major sophomores at BDU according to the perspectives of English teachers and

BINH DUONG PROVINCIAL PEOPLE‟S COMMITTEE

THU DAU MOT UNIVERSITY

LE THI NGOC DIEM

INNOVATIONS IN THE ENGLISH PROGRAM FOR NON-MAJOR SOPHOMORES AT BINH DUONG

UNIVERSITY: AN ASSESSMENT

MAJOR: ENGLISH LANGUAGE MAJOR CODE: 8220201

MASTER THESIS IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE

BINH DUONG PROVINCE - 2020

BINH DUONG PROVINCIAL PEOPLE‟S COMMITTEE

THU DAU MOT UNIVERSITY

LE THI NGOC DIEM

INNOVATIONS IN THE ENGLISH PROGRAM FOR NON-MAJOR SOPHOMORES AT BINH DUONG

UNIVERSITY: AN ASSESSMENT

MAJOR: ENGLISH LANGUAGE MAJOR CODE: 8220201

MASTER THESIS IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE

SUPERVISED BY NGUYEN THI THANH TAM Ph.D

BINH DUONG PROVINCE - 2020

I gratefully acknowledge Thu Dau Mot University in general, Postgraduate Department and Foreign Languages Department at Thu Dau Mot University in particular for allowing me to pursue this study I also thank to Dr Tran Thanh Du and other teachers and professors for their encouragement and lectures while I was taking the Master of Arts course at Thu Dau Mot University

I also thank to my classmates in the Master of Arts course in the academic years 2017-2019 for their friendship and support throughout the years

I highly show my gratitude to the Principal of Binh Duong University for letting me conduct this study freely on the university campus I also would like to express my appreciation to my co-teachers and my beloved non-English-major students who were participants in this study

Finally, I would like to express my greatest love to my beloved family, especially my husband and my children for their motivation and understanding throughout the years I thought that I could not finish this study without their encouragement and love

To all these significant people, I hope that the achievement of this study would make them feel pleased and satisfied enough

DECLARATION BY RESEARCHER

I declare that this study titled “Innovations in the English Program for

Non-major Sophomores at Binh Duong University: An Assessment” was

created by my own findings With the best of my knowledge and understanding including the help of reference materials, this study was conducted by using author‟s work and it was submitted after a carefully checking progress of supervisor in order to fulfill the partial requirements of the Master‟s Degree

Researcher’s Signature

Lê Thị Ngọc Điểm

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT i

DECLARATION BY RESEARCHER ii

TABLE OF CONTENTS iii

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS vii

LIST OF TABLES viii

LIST OF FIGURES ix

LIST OF APPENDICES x

ABSTRACT xi

Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 The Research Background 1

1.1.1 An Introduction of Binh Duong University (BDU) 2

1.1.2 An Introduction of BDU‟s English Program for Non-English-Major Students 2

1.2 The Aims of the Study 3

1.3 Research Questions 3

1.4 Scope of the Study 4

1.5 Significance of the Study 5

1.6 Definitions of Terms 6

1.7 Structure of the Study 6

Chapter 2 LITERATURE REVIEW 8

2.1 Innovation 8

2.1.1 The Nature of Innovation 8

2.1.2 Curriculum Innovations 9

2.1.3 Reasons for Innovation 10

2.1.4 Models of Curriculum Innovations 10

2.2 Curriculum 11

2.2.1 Definition of Curriculum 11

2.2.2 Curriculum Assessment 13

2.2.2.1 Definition of Curriculum Assessment 13

2.2.2.2 Approaches for Curriculum Assessment 14

2.2.3 Curriculum Implementation 16

2.2.4 The Importance of Curriculum Assessment 17

2.2.5 Effective Curriculum Design 17

2.3 Analysis of Needs 18

2.3.1 The Overview of Analysis of Needs 18

2.3.2 The Importance of Analysis of Needs 19

2.3.3 Types of Analysis of Needs 20

2.3.4 Steps of Analysis of Needs 21

2.4 Conceptual Framework 22

2.5 Previous Studies 23

Chapter 3 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 27

3.1 The Overall Design of the Study 27

3.2 Research Design 27

3.3 Research Questions 28

3.4 Setting and Participants 28

3.4.1 Setting in this Study 28

3.4.2 Participants in this Study 29

3.5 Research Method 30

3.6 Data Collection Instrument 30

3.6.1 English Teachers‟ and the English Program Director‟s Questionnaire 31

3.6.2 Non-English-Major Sophomores‟ Questionnaire 31

3.7 Data Analysis 32

3.8 Ethical Consideration 32

Chapter 4 DATA ANALYSIS 34

4.1 Data Analysis Procedure 34

4.2 Findings from the Current English Curriculum (see in Appendix C) 34

4.3 Findings from Research Questions in the Study 37

4.3.1 Results from Research Question 1 37

4.3.1.1 Demographic Information of English Teachers (questions 1-6 in English Teachers‟ and The English Program Director‟s Questionnaire) 37

4.3.1.2 The Innovations in the English Program at BDU 39

4.3.2 Results from Research Question 2 41

4.3.2.1 Demographic Information of Non-English-Major Sophomores (questions 1-4 in the Non-English-Major Sophomores‟ Questionnaire) 41

4.3.2.2 Students‟ Needs in the English Program at BDU (question 5 in the Non-English-Major Sophomores‟ Questionnaire) 43

4.3.3 Results from Research Question 3 44

4.3.3.1 The Degree of Satisfaction on the English Program for Non-English-Major Sophomores at BDU 44

4.3.3.2 Students‟ Assessment on the Factors of Innovations in the English Program at BDU 46

 Assessment on Course Content (statements 1-5) 47

 Assessment on Independent Learning (statements 6-8) 48

 Assessment on Materials and Textbooks (statements 9-11) 49  Assessment on Testing and Assignment (statements 12-15) 50  Assessment on Academic Instructors (statements 16-20) 52

4.4 Findings from The Final Examination Results of Non-English-Major Sophomores at BDU 53

Chapter 5 CONCLUSION, DISCUSSION, AND SUGGESTIONS 55 5.1 Summary and Discussion of the Study 55

5.2 Implications of the Study 58

5.3 Limitations of the Study 58

5.4 Suggestions from the Findings 59

5.4.1 For Non-English-Major Students 59

5.4.2 For English Teachers and Administrators 60

5.4.3 For Further Studies 60

REFERENCES 62

APPENDICES 1

Appendix A Non-English-Major Sophomores‟ Questionnaire 1

Appendix B English Teachers‟ and The English Program Director‟s Questionnaire 7

Appendix C Detailed Outlines for Non-Major Basic English 1,2,3,4,5

Appendix D Final Examination Results

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS BDU Binh Duong University

EAP English for Academic Purposes

EFL English as a Foreign Language

ELT English Language Teaching

GCE General Certificate of Education

GEP General English Program

HaUI Hanoi University of Industry

HUWR Hanoi University of Water Resources

MA Master of Arts

MoET Ministry of Education and Training

MSLU Minsk State Language University

NCE National Center of Excellence Program

NEC Certificate in English Language (New England College)

PNU Pusan National University

ROI Return-On-Investment

SSCE The Senior Secondary School Certificate

TDMU Thu Dau Mot University

YTU Yildiz Teknik University

LIST OF TABLES Table 4.1 Information about the English Curriculum for Non-English-Major

Sophomores at BDU 34

Table 4.2 Demographic Information of English Teachers 37

Table 4.3 Demographic Information of Non-English-Major Sophomores 41

Table 4.4 Other Purposes to Join in the English Program at BDU 44

Table 4.5 Assessment on Course Content in the Curriculum 47

Table 4.6 Assessment on Independent Learning in the Curriculum 48

Table 4.7 Assessment on Materials and Textbooks in the Curriculum 49

Table 4.8 Assessment on Testing and Assignment in the Curriculum 50

Table 4.9 Assessment on Academic Instructors in the Curriculum 52

LIST OF FIGURES Figure 4.1 Innovations in the English Program at BDU 39 Figure 4.2 Students‟ Needs in the English Program at BDU 43 Figure 4.3 Students‟ Satisfaction on the English Program at BDU (question 6 in

Students‟ Questionnaire) 45

Figure 4.4 English Teachers‟ Satisfaction on the English Program at BDU

(question 8 in English Teachers‟ Questionnaire) 46

Figure 4.5 Final Examination Results of Non-English-Major Sophomores 54

LIST OF APPENDICES Appendix A Non-English-Major Sophomores‟ Questionnaire 1 Appendix B English Teachers‟ and The English Program Director‟s

Questionnaire 7

Appendix C Detailed Outlines for Non-Major Basic English 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 Appendix D Final Examination Results

ABSTRACT

Hoang (2008a) stated that non-English-major students in educational universities in Vietnam considered learning English process as a pressure Consequently, Gadner (1985) showed that “identifying these students‟ demands

in learning English plays an important role in designing an English curriculum in

an educational university since it is the foundation for the English teachers and students in order to investigate the flexible techniques in teaching and learning English as a foreign language with the highest achievement” With these remarkable issues, it is obvious that innovations in English curriculum are widely required in order to fulfill the students‟ various needs

The aims of this study were (1) to find out the innovations in the English program/curriculum for non-English-major sophomores at BDU according to the perspectives of English teachers and the English program director; (2) to identify the needs of non-English-major sophomores in the English program/curriculum

at BDU according to the perceptions of students; (3) to determine the degree that the innovations in the English program/curriculum at BDU meet the different expectations of non-English-major sophomores

In order to obtain these purposes, quantitative method was employed Questionnaires with 300 non-English-major sophomores in the academic years 2018-2019 in different departments at BDU, 10 English teachers (including 5 full-time English teachers and 5 part-time English teachers who have got at least one year experience in teaching the English program at BDU), and one English program director were the main instrument to collect data Throughout the research method, this study provided significant implementations and useful data for curriculum developers, English teachers and administrators not only at Binh Duong University context but also in Binh Duong province context in the career

of developing teaching and learing English language

Keywords: Innovations, the English program, non-English-major sophomores,

curriculum assessment, analysis of needs

Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 The Research Background

The process of learning and mastering a foreign language is one of important requirements for the young generation in the 21st century and the process of designing a curriculum that meets the learners‟ different needs and the course‟s objectives is to keep a highly significant part for curriculum designers/planners Cochran-Smith (2003, pp.5-28) informed that “the development of a curriculum for teachers and policies that might support the improvement of what teachers need to know and do in order to meet the various demands of students now gains little attention on” Moreover, there was a broadly belief that these policies did not succeed in educational universities, especially in public universities (Nunan, 2003)

In recent centuries, many countries added curriculum innovations into educational systems with the hope of improving the position of English language teaching and learning in these countries These innovations, on the contrary, did not often gain the intentions of people who designed and planned these curriculum innovations during the implementation process

In the scope of learning and teaching English language in educational universities in Vietnam, especially at Binh Duong Universty (BDU) context, although the English program/curriculum for non-English-major students was designed by this university, it was based on the foundation of the requirement of

MoET for non-English-major students under the Plan 808/KH-BGDĐT 2012 implementing the 2020 Foreign Language Project in higher education institutes for the period of 2012-2020 issued by the Ministry of Education and Training about the English output standard Moreover, the English program/curriculum

was also designed based on the various demands of non-English-major students

in developing their English language skills

1.1.1 An Introduction of Binh Duong University (BDU)

Binh Duong University (BDU) is located at the address of No 504 Binh Duong Avenue, Hiep Thanh Ward, Thu Dau Mot City, Binh Duong Province, Vietnam It is one of the private schools in the center of Binh Duong province in Vietnam, which is one of the fastest developing business and industrial provinces

in the country Binh Duong province is just around 25 km away from Ho Chi Minh City (Sai Gon) to the southeast Since Binh Duong University (BDU) was established in 1997, it has trained various levels throughout the years During the period of time, BDU has confirmed its brand and its career in fulfilling the learners‟ educational expectations as well as the needs for economic growth in the province In the year 2019, there were over 22.000 students from all villages around Vietnam enrolling in the university at different education levels including Intermediate vocational education level, higher education, Undergraduates, Postgraduates and Distance education As an education network, BDU has been making considerable contributions to the socio-economic development of the southern region, as well as the scientific and technological development of the country

1.1.2 An Introduction of BDU’s English Program for

Non-English-Major Students

According to Hoang (2008a), there were 94% of Vietnamese students who learnt English in non-English-major programs in educational universities at the time of his study According to National Assemply of Vietnam (2012), educational universities were allowed to design on how much time was spent on teaching English and what degree it would be taught in a non-English-major program/curriculum In the context of teaching and learning English at BDU, the current English program/curriculum for non-English-major students was designed based on the MoET‟s requirement and the students‟ needs It has been implemented widely at BDU for all non-English-major classes for several years with the desire of meeting the MoET‟s requirement about the English outcome standard for non-English-major students at universities and focusing on

developing two English listening and speaking skills for students Though, there have not been any studies conducted on the university campus to access the quality of the English curriculum and examine whether the curriculum has been working effectively as its intentions or not During its implementation, it seemed that most of students and English teachers were satisfied with the English program/curriculum The English curriculum comprises five courses under the names of Non-English-Basic English 1, Non-English-Basic English 2, Non-English-Basic English 3, Non-English-Basic English 4, and Non-English-Basic English 5 (see in Appendix C), which must be taken by non-English-major students during 4 years at the university A new series of textbooks “Life” of Helen Stephenson, Paul Dummet, John Hughes (2018) by National Geographic Learning, Cengage Learning Vietnam Edition was used with the hope of fulfilling students‟ English listening and speaking skills

1.2 The Aims of the Study

The study aims:

1 to find out the innovations in the English program for

non-English-major students at BDU according to the perspectives of English teachers and the English program director

2 to identify the non-English-major sophomores‟ needs in the English

program at BDU according to the perceptions of students

3 to determine the degree that the innovations in the English program

at BDU meet the students‟ needs

non-English-2 What are the needs of non-English-major sophomores in the English program at BDU according to the perceptions of students?

3 To what degree do the innovations in the English program at BDU meet the needs of non-English-major sophomores?

1.4 Scope of the Study

Hutchinson (1993) showed that there were a number of factors that should

be evaluated in curriculum assessment including audience, contents, methodology, materials, textbooks, and so forth Though, in the study, due to the limitation of time and the extent of a Master Thesis, the scope of the study were (1) to find out the innovations in the English program/curriculum for non-English-major sophomores at BDU according to the perspectives of English teachers and the English program director; (2) to identify the needs of non-English-major sophomores in the English program/curriculum at BDU according

to the perceptions of students; (3) to determine the degree that the innovations in the English program/curriculum at BDU meet the different expectations of non-English-major sophomores

The participants in this study were 300 non-English-major sophomores who were from different departments at BDU in the academic years 2018-2019,

10 English teachers (including 5 full-time English teachers and 5 part-time English teachers who have got at least one year experience in teaching the English curriculum at BDU), and one English program director Second year students were selected in this study for (1) they were familiar with the previous English courses and they were still taking similar English courses at BDU for the following academic semesters; (2) they stabilized not only in their English learning at the beginning of the New School Year but also in their understanding and recognition on how important English is in their future career The study was conducted at BDU context for they accepted magnificent number of students and hence they kept important role in the society in future With the reasons stated above, this study hoped that the data collected were validity in the source of participants and they were useful data for English teachers and English program developers/planners The study was also conducted on Binh Duong University campus because the researcher could get the data easily as an English teacher at

this university and the researcher would like to make a contribution in the English language teaching and learning process at this university where the researcher has been working as an English teacher

1.5 Significance of the Study

This study was conducted with a number of its contributions as follows:

(1) There have not been any studies with the same topic conducted on the BDU campus before (according to the records of BDU‟s library information source checked on 30 August, 2019 by the researcher) to assess the quality of the English program and check whether the English program have been working effectively as its intentions or not since the English program was implemented at BDU officially

(2) The findings in this study could make a contribution in developing the English language teaching and learning process not only at Binh Duong University (BDU) but also in Binh Duong province because based on the data from this study, English teachers and program/curriculum designers will find out the suitable strategies to develop English language skills for students

(3) This study came out from the intention of the Principal of Binh Duong University (BDU) with the desire of assessing the innovations in the English program for non-English-major students in adapting students‟ various needs in studying English at BDU

(4) Most of the previous studies on curriculum assessment in Vietnam have been conducted with assessing materials or textbooks, or assessing curriculum based on students‟ needs, howevere, and this study was conducted with the combination between two purposes of assessing the innovations in the English program and examining the students‟ needs by using the quantitative method

It is hoped that the findings of this study must be able to provide valuable information to decision makers to assist them in making innovations and

improvements in order to design a more innovative curriculum that fits with the English needs of different departments in educational universities

 Curriculum Innovation: “Curriculum innovation is stated as

considerable actions in order to improve a learning language environment throughout adapting a new method of using materials to students”

 Curriculum: “Curriculum is the number of activities, which aims to

strengthen educational programs so that students will have been improved their opportunities of language learning”

 Curriculum Assessment: “Curriculum assessment is an ongoing process

of collecting, analyzing, synthesizing, and interpreting information to

further understand what students know and what they can do”

 Curriculum Development: “Curriculum development is a process of

planning, identifying needs, and selecting of content, materials, and methods and assessing the curriculum”

 Analysis of Needs: “Analysis of needs is the number of the processes in

collecting information about the learners‟ current and future language needs in order to develop a curriculum which will meet the needs of students”

1.7 Structure of the Study

This study was organized in five chapters as follows:

Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION

This chapter introduced the research background, the aims of the study, research questions, scope of the study, research method, definitions

of terms, and structure of the study

Chapter 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter presented a theoretical framework of innovations, curriculum innovations, curriculum, curriculum assessment, curriculum development, analysis of needs and based on these theories in order to assess the effectiveness of English program for non-English-major students at BDU

Chapter 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

This chapter outlined the methodology of this study It started with the overall design of this study, and then it mentioned on the research design, data collection instruments, and setting and participants This chapter also described data collection and analysis procedure and the techniques which were applied to make sure the quality of data Finally, the ethical consideration of this study was presented as well

Chapter 4: DATA ANALYSIS

This chapter presented an analysis of quantitative data in details throughout the questionnaires to non-English-major sophomores, English teachers, and the English program director This chapter included statistical data analysis

Chapter 5: CONCLUSION, DISCUSSION, AND SUGGESTIONS

This chapter concluded the findings from this study in chapter 4 of the English program for non-English-major students at BDU This chapter also presented the implications arising from this study and its contributions Finally, this chapter ended with possible suggestions for non-English-major students, for English teachers and administrators, and for further studies

Chapter 2 LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Innovation

2.1.1 The Nature of Innovation

Fullan (2007) mentioned that “reform or innovation refers to change Changes in education depend on specific context and they can be initiated either internally or externally” He also defined innovation as “the content of a given new program” (Fullan, 2007, p.11) Furthermore, Fullan (2001) and Rudduck (1986) stated that “the nature of innovation itself can have a crucial acceptability and implementation process” The nature of the innovation included new practices which differ from the existing practice There, however, have been problems arised in curriculum as follows

Inconsistency in a curriculum innovation may include the unsuitability between the curriculum materials and the examination system, or the mismatch between the curriculum designers‟ intentions and the teachers‟ beliefs/practices

Complexity related to the difficulties and changes which were required for the implementers of the innovation Brindley and Hood (1990) argued that “the more complex an innovation is, the less likely it is to be adopted” They also proposed that “when complex changes are required in teacher behavior, it is more difficult to bring about the successful adaption of an innovation in teaching methods” This viewpoint did not get the agreement from Fullan (2001) who suggested that “while complexity creates problems for implementation, it may result in greater change because more is being attempted” In order to support the above viewpoint, Chan (2002) conducted a study based on teachers‟ responses to the introduction of task based learning process in Hong Kong In his study, Chan (2002) reported that teachers could not make the innovations come true by themselves because of its complex structure and its multiple theories He also claimed that when teachers felt the innovations inconsistent with the real context, they intended to switch back to their traditional approaches of teaching

Clarity of the innovation also had an important influence on the implementation process Teachers were often forced to apply a curriculum innovation in their teaching process without a clear explanation on how to apply the innovation in practice Fullan (2001) warned that “lack of clarity, lengthy goals, and unspecified means of implementation represent a major problem at the implementation process, teachers find that change is not very clear as to what it means in practice” Fullan (2001) also made further suggestion that “unclear and unspecified changes can cause great anxiety and failure to those who were truly trying to implement them”

In any circumstances, an innovation should be required and applied not only on a small scale but also on a large scale with the improvement On the contrary, conducting the innovations on a small scale should be priority to reduce

a lot of potential risks This experiment would provide all stakeholders who get involved in the curriculum innovations some ideas about any obstacles that might affect on the implementation process

2.1.2 Curriculum Innovations

Curriculum innovation is one of the complicated approaches in educational change because there are various factors related to the teaching process An important factor that created the success of curriculum innovation is teachers who applied new approaches/methods in practice Fullan and Stiegelbauer (1997) stated, “Educational curriculum innovation is the staring point of a long process towards educational change”

One of essential strategies to bring the improvement of teachers and students is curriculum innovations According to Fullan (2000), “Innovation is not always synonymous with change and reform because it refers to specific curriculum change” He also defined that “curriculum change as any replacement

in the factors of a curriculum such as philosophy, values, objectives, organizational structures, teaching strategies, student experiences, assessment and learning outcomes” (Fullan, 2000) Curriculum innovations should be based

on two major principles such as the students‟ needs and the success of methods, procedures and techniques of teaching

2.1.3 Reasons for Innovation

According to literature, there were different reasons that created innovations in educational universities/systems (Nation & Macalister, 2010) These reasons of innovations may be included in social contexts or from outside influences (Datnow & Stringfield, 2000; Morris & Adamson, 2010) Generally, Stoller (2009) stated that “the environment also creates circumstances for innovations and three important reasons for innovations are dissatisfaction with the status quo, stated or implicit desire for more professionalism, and top-down directives from higher administration or government legistration” Sabatier (1986) showed, “these reasons are embedded in the debate about bottom-up and top-down approaches for introducing changes”

Furthermore, Morris and Adamson (2010) revealed that “there were various factors creating innovation including education access and the changes in structure, organization, system and pedagogics” According to Brentley (2010),

“change due to purposes of access refers to expanding evaluation opportunities in countries”

2.1.4 Models of Curriculum Innovations

The process of identifying some suitable models of languages teaching has had three important obstacles including (1) the lack of some models based mainly on curriculum innovations; (2) the lack of some models which are adapted suitably with the specificity of majors; (3) the lack of the programs of initial training for teachers Therefore, there were seven significant educational models based on the implementation of some innovative programs as follows:

The first model, Johnson (1989) suggested that “the implementation of some educational syllabi based on innovation as a process that requires a careful study of forming educational policies, of planning and developing a valid program, of training teachers and assessing the whole process”;

The second model, Markee (1997) stated that “the relationship between curriculum development and professional development in a process of diffusion

of innovation the communicational method”;

The third model, Lamie (2004) focused strictly on “developing capabicities in using languages by creating a realistic context for learning”;

The fourth model, Laurenz (et al, 2005) stated that “the basic curriculum and educational practices focus on the consideration changes that are connected

to the educational context”;

The fifth model, Waters and Vilches (2005) insisted that “teaching languages should start from contents of grammar and the entire educational process is developed in a context of the collaboration between schools and students”;

The last model, Ogilvie (2010) suggested that “the consideration both philosophical aspects and methodological ones also play an important role in the stage of teachers‟ initial training”

2.2 Curricuculum

2.2.1 Definition of Curriculum

In term of curriculum, there were different concepts of curriculum In some studies, researchers considered the concept of curriculum as subject matters, on the other hand, others described curriculum as experiences that a student acquired during the period at a college or a university Five different definitions were provided by Ornstern and Hunkins (2004) for the concept of curriculum and they were listed as follows:

(1) “Curriculum is a desire of action or printed materials that involves approaches for accomplishing anticipated aims”

(2) “A curriculum can be said in general terms to involve the proficiencies of the learners”

(3) “It can be also seen as a structure for guiding people so as to measure the expected goal of a system”

(4) “A curriculum can also be regarded as a framework for study”

(5) “A curriculum can be seen as subject matter or content”

Venville et al, (2012) argued with Scott (2008) who defined curriculum through what it should be contained Venville (et al., 2012) stated that “These are aims, objectives, content or subject matter, methods or procedures, and assessment or evaluation” Bloch (2013) also viewed curriculum as “both a process and a product”

According to Pratt (1980), “A curriculum is a process of activities which aims to strengthen educational programs so that students might have improved in learning opportunities” A curriculum helps students, parents, teachers, and administrators of a language program to develop learning and teaching activities The language program will be better unless the curriculum is more responsive to the various needs of students

Researchers‟ opinions of curriculum are similar The main features of a curriculum include the purposes, implementation, process to promote learning and assessment in a language program Nunan (1988) stated that “curriculum is

as a product to be taught, a process for driving materials, a methodology, and a plan of a program” Moreover, according to Hutchinson and Waters (1987, p 65), “curriculum is as integrating series of teaching and learning experiences whose ultimate aim is to lead the students to a particular state of knowledge” Meanwhile, Pratt (1980) considered that “curriculum is as an organized set of formal, educational, and training rules in the program” In the similar view, Dubin and Olshtain (1986) described curriculum “as a program in operation” Tyler (as cited in Nunan, 1988) also showed more details about curriculum when

he said that “curriculum consists of a content, methodology, and assessment of a teaching program”

A curriculum should link to the students‟ needs, the goals of the teaching program, the contents of the program, and the implementation of the teaching activities, methodology, and the textbooks Students keep an important part in language teaching programs They are expected to take an active part in learning process They should acknowledge their responsibilities, make their own

decisions, evaluate their own progress, and develop individual issues As a result, students-centered curriculum should be achieved In recent years, the importance

of the students in the curriculum designing process has been paid more attention

on If language learning is to be successful, the students‟ needs must be the basic instrument of the language in curriculum development All stakeholders who keep the success of a curriculum are current students, former students, teachers and administrators It is crucial that curriculum develpement tends to make better programs and meet the students‟ demands

2.2.2 Curriculum Assessment

2.2.2.1 Definition of Curriculum Assessment

According to Brown (1989, p.223), “assessment is as the systematic collection and analysis of the all necessary information to promote the improvement of the curriculum and assess its effectiveness within the context of particular instructions involved” In some cases, an examination of some sort can

be used to compare opinions of students towards a program with similar programs

According to Scriven (1967), “assessment has been distinguished as formative assessment and summative assessment” Formative assessment is concerned with the assessing process about the program values for improvement Formative assessment of a curriculum relates to evaluate and check the sequence

of content, spelling mistakes and the effectiveness of learning techniques before the implementation of the curriculum On the other hand, summative assessment

is usually applied at the end of a program It is used to determine the learning outcomes of the students Brown (1989) showed that “summative is not final as its results”

Curriculum assessment is a process of evaluating the quality of an educational activity whether it is an effective project or a simple exercise (Kelly, 2004) Worthen and Sanders (1987) considered curriculum assessment as “it is concerned with how worth, the quality and standard of a program, project, process or curriculum is formally determined” It has also been asserted by Mc

Cormick and James (1990) that “the concern of curriculum assessment is about questions on teaching to be done in class and realization of such teaching in class” In short, curriculum assessment can check the effectiveness of an English program

A curriculum can be checked for different purposes It could be to evaluate whether the curriculum has achieved its goals or to compare its approach to another curriculum Hamilton (1976, p.11) stated that “whatever our finding are, they may serve a useful purpose and assessment is a multi-faceted phenomenon encompassing a range of diverse properties”

2.2.2.2 Approaches for Curriculum Assessment

There are different ways to conduct curriculum assessment in terms of the timing of the assessment, the used instruments, and the purposes Scriven (1991) introduced into the literature two kinds of curriculum assessment including formative assessment and summative assessment

Formative assessment requires collecting and sharing information for program improvement According to Morris and Fitz-Gibbon (1978), “while a program is being installed, the formative assessor works to provide the program planners and staff with information to help adjust it to the setting and improve it” Scriven (1991) stated that “Formative assessment is typically conducted during the development or improvement of a program or product or person and

so on and it is conducted often more than once” The purpose of formative assessment is to validate and make sure that the aims of the instruction are being achieved and to improve the effectivensess of instruction if necessary throughout the ways of identification and solving problematic aspects (Weston, Mc Alphine

& Bordonaro, 1995) Fisher and Frey (2007) showed “Formative assessment or classroom assessment is ongoing assessment” Graves (2000), Torrance and Pryor (1996) showed that “It takes place as the course in progress” and Brindley (2001) stated that “it is carried out by teachers during the learning process with the aim of using the results to improve instruction” According to Shermis and Di Vesta (2011), teachers can base on the results of formative assessement to know

the effectivenesss of their teaching and students learning in instructional practices Teachers use formative assessment to improve instructional methods throughout the teaching and learning‟s process Formative assessment is also conducted during the operation of a program to provide ways to evaluate useful information in improving the program

Summative assessment, on the contrary, is conducted at the end of a program to provide potential consumers with judgements about the quality of a program Summative assessment is typically used to assess the effectiveness of instruction, programs, and services at the end of a course The goal of summative assessment is to judge students‟ achievement or provide aggregated information

on program outcomes after an instructional phase is completed (Torrance & Pryor, 1996; Fisher & Frey, 2007; Brindley, 2001) For example, after a curriculum is completely developed, a summative assessment might be conducted to determine how effective the curriculum is with a sample of school, teachers and students at the level for which it is developed (Worthern & Sanders, 1998) The summative assessor‟s tasks are not only to work with the staff and suggest improvements while the program is implementing but also to collect data and to write a summary report to show how the program works and what goals that the program needs to achieve Summative assessment is the final goal of an educational activity because it provides the useful data for decision-makers Summative assessment leads to decisions that concern about the continuation of program, the expansion of program, the adoption of program, and so on

Audiences and purposes of the two kinds of curriculum assessment are also different In formative assessment, the audiences are program personnel or those take responsibility for developing the curriculum On the other hand, summative assessment audiences are students, teachers, sources, and supervisors However, both formative assessment and summative assessment are necessary because decisions are made both from development stages of a program to improve and strengthen it and when it is stabilized to judge its final worth or determine its future

According to Garba (2004), “curriculum implementation has also been described as making the curriculum operational so that the goals for which the curriculum has been desgined can be achieved” Furthermore, Fullan (1996) mentioned, “it is also the practical ultiization of innovation” These definitions suggested that well-planned programs must be translated into practice When a curriculum is not implemented, any efforts become useless or worthless

Fullan (1992) stated that “the implementation phase of a curriculum is the most important phase in the curriculum change” It is also the phase that assesses the quality or effectiveness of a curriculum Fullan (2010) also metioned that “the problem of implementation is related to the quality of implementation It has been claimed that the quality implementation is 90% of the problem” However, the quality of teachers can determine the quality of education in a country and it can also determine the effectiveness of curriculum implementation As stated by Fullan and Pomfret (1979, p.391) that “effective implementation of innovations requires time, personal interaction and contact, in-service training and other forms of people-based support” The implementation of a curriculum requires both inside and outside motivation As a result that the implementation of the curriculum must be motivated for it to be effective, however, the internal motivation keeps the most important role

According to Stenhouse (1975, p.4), “teachers play important roles in the curriculum implementation process” Okello and Kagoire (1996) also stated that

“the success of the curriculum may depend on the teachers” Beauchamp (1975) noted that “the implementation of a curriculum is enhanced when teachers are involved in planning it” Curriculum implementaters should be teachers, examiners, head teachers, and standard officers in the implementation of the curriculum Beauchamp (1968) mentioned that “the implementation of a curriculum cannot be achieved when the workers are not committed” McKimm (2007) also mentioned that “the methods of monitoring curriculum implementation include observation, feedback questionnaire, and focus groups/meetings for interviews, students‟ assessment results, and reports”

2.2.4 The Importance of Curriculum Assessment

Meinke (1990) stated that “program assessment is not virgin territory; it is

a well-developed land encompassing our field and all the other varieties of human training and development” We can save our effort and widen our knowledge by finding out or recognizing the advantages from others who have already made

Assessment is an important factor of the educational process Thus, it is the critical and challenging mission Kelly (1999) defined curriculum assessment

“as the process which we attempt to gauge the value and the effectiveness of any particular piece of educational activity” Lynch (1996) stated that “the two popular goals of program assessment are evaluating a program‟s effectiveness in absolute terms and/or assessing its quality against that of comparable program” Curriculum assessment not only provides useful information to insiders on how the current program can be improved but also gives responsibilities to outside stakeholders It aims to discover whether the designed and implemented curriculum can produce its desired results or not Assessment can highlight the streghths and weaknesses of the curriculum before the implementation and the effectiveness of its implementation

2.2.5 Effective Curriculum Design

Another decisive element of a remarkable English program is related to effective curriculum development According to National Curriculum (2008), “an

effective curriculum should encourage students to become (1) successful learners

who enjoy learning and making progress; (2) confident individuals who are able

to use all English language skills they have learned from the course; (3)

responsible citizens who are able to make a position contribution to local,

national, and even international communities or societies”

In other words, education is supposed to provide our students with an

appropriate environment for developing their knowledge, skills, motivation, and

attitudes to achieve self-fulfillment during their ongoing learning process

An effective curriculum helps students become lifelong learners which

should be the aim of every school and educational university It is necessary to

add multiple factors in curriculum design such as spirituality, morality, cultural

awareness, mental, and physical development in order to help students to learn,

to think, to solve problems, and to make appropriate decisions in learning

context, at work, and in educational settings The combination of these factors

can better help students access, evaluate, organize, and use all their knowledge

and skills, and provide them with opportunities to link their needs with society‟s

requirements and real-world situations Moreover, Brown (2007) pointed that

“those physical arrangements are also crucial to consider while creating an

effective curriculum such as securing housing, confirming transportation, issuing

contrasts to teachers, reserving classroom space, and ensuring that immigration

regulations were being made”

2.3 Analysis of Needs

2.3.1 The Overview of Analysis of Needs

Dudley-Evans and St John (1989) defined analysis of needs is “a

systematic way of indentifying the specific sets of skills, texts, linguistic forms

and communicative practices that a particular group of learners must acquire”

Brown (1995) and Richterich and Chancerel (1980) also stated that whenever

students‟ needs have been defined, we can set our goals and objectives As a

technique, Hutchinson (1988, p.71) showed “analysis of needs can tell us about

the nature and content of the learners‟ target language needs” and Hyland (2006)

showed “it has often been regarded as the critical initial step when developing appropriate learning syllabus and course materials” Moreover, Richards (1984) stated that “analyzing the learners‟ expectations is also a critical mean to find criteria for reviewing and assessing the existing curriculum” because analysis of needs is a tool of collecting information about students, program, and teachers

Brown (1995, p.35) defined analysis of needs as “a process of gathering information that will serve as the basic for developing a curriculum that will meet the learning needs of a particular group of students” Analysis of needs process is necessary in planning educational programs

2.3.2 The Importance of Analysis of Needs

Analysis of needs may be used for different purposes in language teaching process According to Richards (2001), “the purposes of analysis of needs are to find out what language skills a student desires; to help determine whether the existing course addresses the students‟ needs; to collect information about students‟ particular problems; to find out the attitudes of students towards language learning and program; and to provide data to serve as the basic for reviewing and assessing the existing program”

The same idea as Richards, Graves (1996) also mentioned that “the basic goal of an analysis of needs is to define the purpose of a language program” Analyzing needs in a language program aims to find out the language needs of students in order to (1) help the program developers design and assess the existing curriculum; (2) explore the gap between what students need to learn and what teachers expect from students; and (3) assess the courses and textbooks used in the programs Brown (1995, p.35) emphasized the importance of analysis

of needs as “… since sound analysis of needs as basis for all the other components of a systematic language curriculum, examining the aims, procedures and the application of needs assessment will create a basic background for further discussion of the curriculum”

2.3.3 Types of Analysis of Needs

In literature, there were multiple definitions about types of analysis of needs According to Brindley (1989), “the concept of language needs has never been clearly defined and remains ambiguity” He also stated that different researchers recognized a various need within analysis of needs including the objective and subjective needs Brindley (1989) and Richterich (1980, cited in Graves, 1996) distinguished the difference between objective and subjective needs They defined objective needs as “derivable from different kinds of factual information about learners, their use of language in real life communication situations and their current language proficiency and difficulty” They viewed subjective needs as “the cognitive and affective needs of the learners in the language situation” Moreover, Brindley (1989, p.70) mentioned that “the subjective needs are based on a variety of interaction including affective and cognitive factors such as personality, confidence, attitudes, learners‟ needs and expectations with regard to the English learning” Researchers can include some factors including students‟ attitudes toward the target language and culture, and toward learning in assessing process of subjective needs However, the researchers should focus on these kinds of information such as students which may consist of origin, culture, age, and other personal information in evaluating process of objective needs

Hutchinson and Waters (1987) made a distinction between target needs and learning needs According to them, “target needs are what the learners need

to do in the target situation and learning needs are what learners need to do in order to learn” Needs assessment can be successful when students have identified target needs including needs to work abroad, needs to study at a foreign university, so teachers can assess and define their objectives and they can turn the students‟ needs into real goals In order to analyze learning needs, researchers should use a checklist of why the learners are taking the course; how the learners learn; and what resources are available

Berwich (cited in Johnson, 1989) distinguished between felt needs and perceived needs According to him, “felt needs are related to the feelings and thoughts of the learners and perceived needs are thoughts of experts about the educational gaps in other people‟s experience Perceived needs are real and objective because they reflect teachers‟ perceptions of learners‟ needs”

Brown (1995) distinguished between situation and language needs He said that “some situational needs are based on the program‟s human aspects such

as physical, social, and physical context in which learning takes place” According to Brown (1995, p.40), “such needs are related to administrative, financial, logistical, manpower, pedagogic, religious, cultural, personal, or other factors that might have an impact on the program” They also defined “language needs are about the target linguistic behaviours that the learners will acquire” The information about the language needs is the learners‟ reasons to learn the target language and details about situation in which the language will be used”

2.3.4 Steps of Analysis of Needs

Brown (1995) stated that there were three steps in analysis of needs such

as (1) making the basic decisions about the analysis of needs; (2) gathering information; (3) and using the information Before any analysis of needs studies happen, researchers should identify certain decisions about people who got involved in the analysis of needs and the types of information to be gathered

Brown (1995) mentioned that “four categories of people may be involved

in an analysis of needs including target group, the audience, the analysts, and the resource group” The taget group refers to people who will be asked for getting information The audience refers to all people who will apply the results of analysis such as teachers and program administrators The needs analysts are people who are responsible for conducting the analysis of needs The resource group consists of any people who may serve as sources of information about the target group

There were various techniques which were used to collect data for an analysis of needs Information may be gathered from existing information, tests,

observations, meetings, interviews, and questionnaires Brown (1995) claimed that “the first three instruments may leave the needs analysts in the position of being an outsider but the other three force the needs analysts back into the process of actively gathering information from the participants” According to Brown (1995) and Hutchinson and Waters (1987), “Tests can provide information about general ability levels and specific language problems of students Observations involve watching individuals or groups of students and recording their behaviours Interviews are used to collect personal information and views privately or in small groups with questions that allow more completed responses than with questionnaires Meetings can be useful to reach an agreement among people who have different ideas Questionnaires which are more efficient for gathering information on large scale require less effort by the researchers”

The last step is to use collected data which will be analyzed by statistical programs and explained by the researchers Collected data should be analyzed to obtain the results of the investigation The next step is the interpretation of the results and the discussion on the results The analysis and interpretation of the results need to be reported in order to use in curriculum design

2.4 Conceptual Framework

The conceptual framework was based on the literature review related to characteristics of innovation, curriculum innovations, curriculum, curriculum assessment, analysis of needs

In term of theories about characteristics, the researcher took the viewpoint

of definitions of some terms as follows:

In term of innovation, Fullan (2007) mentioned that “reform or innovation refers to change Changes in education depend on specific context and they can

be initiated either internally or externally” Fullan (2007, p.11) also defined innovation as “the content of a given new program”

In term of curriculum innovation, Fullan (2000) defined “innovation is not always synonymous with change and reform because it refers to specific

curriculum change” Fullan (2000) also mentioned that “curriculum change as any replacement in the factors of a curriculum such as philosophy, values, objectives, organizational structures, teaching strategies, student experiences, assessment and learning outcomes”

In term of curriculum, according to Nunan (1988, p.23) that “curriculum is

as a product to be taught, a process for driving materials, a methodology, and a plan of a program” Furthermore, Pratt (1980) defined curriculum “as an organized set of formal, educational, and training rules in the program” Furthermore, Tyler (cited in Nunan, 1988) also showed more details about curriculum that “curriculum consists of a content, methodology, and assessment

of teaching program”

In term of curriculum assessment, Brown (1989, p.223) showed that

“assessment is as the systematic collection and analysis of the all necessary information to promote the improvement of the curriculum and assess its effectiveness within the context of particular instructions involved”

In term of analysis of needs, Hutchinson (1988, p.71) showed “analysis of needs can tell us about the nature and content of the learners‟ target language needs” Furthermore, Hyland (2006) showed that “analysis of needs has often been regarded as the critical initial step when developing appropriate learning syllabus and course materials”

It is certain that, due to the scope of this study, the limitation of time, and the extent of the Master thesis, this study has just focused on assessing the innovations in the English program for non-English-major students at BDU in adapting the students‟ needs based on the theoretical framework above

2.5 Previous Studies

Since assessment has achieved much attention on education, a great deal

of assessment studies that were different in terms of their purposes, emphasis and methodologies have been conducted in a variety of educational settings These studies generally investigated whether the educational institutes met the students‟

goals and objectives by assessing their textbooks, curriculum and so on based on the perceptions of teachers, program administrators, and so on

In the educational context in Vietnam, there were some researchers conducted studies by assessing a specific factor in a curriculum as follows:

Mr Canh (2008) used instruments such as questionnaires and structured interviews to get information about the new English curriculum with the new textbook which is theme-based, task-based, and learner-centered based

semi-on upper secsemi-ondary teachers beliefs, self-report of the implementatisemi-on Findings showed that although teachers‟ beliefs about the new textbooks were positive, their self-report of actual classroom practice did not seem to be consistent with their stated beliefs According to their self-report through semi-structured interviews teachers found that the teaching methodology in the new textbook did not match up with their students‟ level of proficiency and expectations as well as with the physical conditions of their school Teachers taught the new textbook which is communicative and task-based in a conventional manner The study supported the idea that innovation is unlikely to be fully implemented if it is just transmitted through the introduction of a new curriculum Also, the study reinforced the fact that there can be no curriculum development without teacher development

Apart from the program assessment studies which were conducted in various foreign language contexts abroad, many program assessment studies related to English language teaching and learning process have been conducted around the world While some of these studies were made in a whole program assessment, some others were conducted with only one specific aspect of a program including the studies of Henry and Roseberry (1999), Yildiz (2004), Coskun (2013), Oner and Mede (2015), and Akpur (2017)

In Henry and Roseberry‟s study (1999), they assessed the teaching method and materials used in the writing course based on the process-genre approach at the university of Brunei Darussalam The study aimed to identify whether the participants could be improved their abilities in writing and whether they could

produce texts closer to acceptable structure after genre-based language instruction Data collected from the essay written before and after instruction revealed that students showed their improvement in using structure in their essay introductions and their abilities to texture their writing effectively

In Yildiz‟s study (2004), the study aimed to investigate the Turkish Language Teaching Program for foreigners at MSLU in Belarus It intended to identify the differences between the current status and the desired outcomes of the Turkish program at MSLU Data were collected from the perspectives of students and their parents, instructors, and the authorities at the educational institution, and the employers of the graduates of this program Questionnaires and interviews were conducted with the target groups and written documents were analyzed too The results of the study revealed that the language program at MSLU partially met the demands of the learners because the Tzurkish language proficiency among the students, graduates, and the university authorities was higher than it was expected

In Coskun‟s study (2013), the study aimed to assess the EPP at a Turkish State university about its effectiveness related to course materials, teaching learning processes and assessment components The participants in the study were 381 students and 22 teachers Students were delivered questionnaires which were designed by the researcher, while the teachers participated in interviews The results from the study revealed that the course materials were sufficient except the ones designed to suit the students‟ needs and they did not link to the needs of each department from the university Concerns raised by teachers based

on the teaching and learning process were about the implementation of the modular system and the intensity of the weekly teaching hours and assessment dimension of the program was found to be effective by students However, they also complained about the abundance of quizzes and the online homework

In Oner and Mede‟s study (2015), the study evaluated A1 level EPP program in Istanbul based on the perceptions of students, instructors, level coordinators, and program administrators Data were gathered by administrating

questionnaires to students and semi-structured interviews were used to all the participants The findings from the study demonstrated that the program was perceived to be effective in general All stakeholders, on the other hand, thought that the speaking skill of students and the materials used to develop their speaking skill need to be revised to encourage students to speak up in English through discussions, games, and role plays

In Akpur‟s study (2017), the study assessed the EPP at YTU through students‟ viewpoints by applying questionnaires The data analysis showed that the curriculum contained some weaknesses including students‟ level of motivation to learn English was low; the curriculum did not provide the students with enough input of listening and speaking skills; the duration of the program was not long enough to learn English efficiently On the other hand, students found that the curriculum were effective by its contribution to their reading and writing skills

Based on the above studies, it could be implied that recent studies have focused on the process of assessing a program based on students‟ needs In spite

of high number of studies that have investigated the role of program assessment

in language teaching and learning process, most of them attempted to identify the general needs of the students In order to fulfill this gap, the present study aimed (1) to find out the innovations in the English curriculum for non-English-major students at BDU according to the perspectives of English teachers and the English program director; (2) to identify the students‟ needs in the English program at BDU according to the perceptions of students; (3) to decide what degree that the innovations in the English program at BDU meet the students‟ needs

Chapter 3 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 3.1 The Overall Design of the Study

The purposes of this study were (1) to find out the innovations in the English curriculum for non-English-major students at BDU according to the perspectives of English teachers and the English program director; (2) to identify the students‟ needs in the English program at BDU according to the perceptions

of students; (3) to decide what degree that the innovations in the English program

at BDU meet the students‟ needs Based on the theoretical framework of innovations (Fullan, 2007, p.11), curriculum innovations (Fullan, 2000), curriculum (Nunan, 1988; Tyler, cited in Nunan, 1988), curriculum assessment (Brown, 1909, p.223), analysis of needs (Richards, 1984; Brown, 1995; Hutchinson, 1988, p.71; Hyland, 2006) (mentioned in Chapter 2), data were gathered and analyzed mainly through questionnaire instrument to three groups

of participants including the group of 10 English teachers (who have got at least one experience year in teaching the English program), the group of one English program director (who designed the English program), the group of 300 non-English-major sophomores (including 5 full-time English teachers and 5 part-time English teachers who were from different departments at BDU in the academic years 2018-2019 at BDU) This study was considered as an initial step for developing a curriculum for this recently founded program and this study will make a contribution to the process of English teaching and learning not only at BDU context but also at Binh Duong province context

3.2 Research Design

In order to provide an accurate picture of a given state of affair as fully and carefully as possible (Wallen & Hyun, 2012, p.15) and in order to achieve a better understanding of the research questions, the study was used quantitative method with questionnaire instrument to all the three groups of participants to collect data with two phases In the first phase of this study, quantitative data