vietnam national university, hanoi college of foreign languages department of post graduate studies ********* NGUYỄN VĂN THUẬT designing an esp reading syllabus for third - year students at the social department, bac ninh teachers’ training college THIẾT KẾ CHƯƠNG TRÌNH ĐỌC HIỂU TIẾNG ANH CHUYÊN NGÀNH SỬ HỌC CHO SINH VIÊN NĂM THỨ BA KHOA XÃ HỘI, TRƯỜNG CAO ĐẲNG SƯ PHẠM BẮC NINH MINOR THESIS FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY CODE: 601410 HANOI - 2009 vietnam national university, hanoi college of foreign languages department of post graduate studies ********* NGUYỄN VĂN THUẬT designing an esp reading syllabus for third - year students at the social department, bac ninh teachers’ training college THIẾT KẾ CHƯƠNG TRÌNH ĐỌC HIỂU TIẾNG ANH CHUYÊN NGÀNH SỬ HỌC CHO SINH VIÊN NĂM THỨ BA KHOA XÃ HỘI, TRƯỜNG CAO ĐẲNG SƯ PHẠM BẮC NINH MINOR THESIS FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY CODE: 601410 SUPERVISOR: ĐỖ BÁ QUÝ, M.Ed HANOI - 2009 Tables of contents     Acknowledgement Abstract List of abbreviation List of tables and figures Part one: Introduction Rationale for the study Aims and objectives of the study Scope of the study Method of the study Organization of the study Part two: Development Chapter I: Literature review Page 2 I An overview of ESP I.1.1 Definition of ESP I.1.2 Types of ESP I.1.3 General English vs English for special purpose 4 I.2 An overview of syllabus design I.2.1 Definitions of syllabus I.2.2 Syllabus design I.2.3 Types of syllabus I.2.3.1 Content – based syllabus I.2.3.1.1 Structural syllabus I.2.3.1.2 Notional / functional syllabus I.2.3.1.3 Situational syllabus I.2.3.1.4 Topic - based syllabus I.2.3.2 Skill – based syllabus I.2.3.3 Method – based syllabus I.2.3.3.1 Task – based syllabus I.2.3.3.2 Process syllabus 7 9 9 9 10 10 10 11 I.3 Needs analysis in syllabus design I.3.1 Needs analysis I.3.2 Types of needs I.3.2.1 Target needs I.3.2.2 Learning needs I.4 An overview of reading I.4.1 Reading skills in ESP 11 11 12 12 13 14 14 I.4.2 Reading skills/ strategies I.5 Summary 15 16 Chapter II: The study II.1 Situation analysis II.1.1 The teaching and learning situation at BTTC II.1.2 Resources and Administrative constraints II.1.3 The teachers II.1.4 The students II.2 The study II.2.1 The participants II.2.2 Instrument for collecting data II.3 The findings and discussion II.3.1 Needs perceived by the teachers of the English Department II.3.2 Needs perceived by the 3rd year – students of History at the SD II.4 Summary of the findings and discussion 17 17 17 18 18 19 19 19 20 20 26 30 Chapter III: Designing an ESP reading syllabus for the 3rd year students of History at the SD, BTTC III.1 Aims and objectives of the expected reading syllabus III.2 Selecting a type of syllabus for ESP students at the SD, BTTC III.3 Sequencing the content in the syllabus III.3.1 Topics in the syllabus III.3.2 Reading skills and learning activities III.3.3 The organization of the syllabus III.3.4 Designing tests for the ESP reading course III.4 The proposed syllabus for the third - year students at the SD, BTTC III.5 Suggestions for the implementations of the proposed syllabus III.5.1 To the teacher III.5.2 To the student III.5.3 To the material designer 31 32 32 32 33 34 35 35 37 37 37 38 Part three: Conclusion Conclusions Limitations of the study Suggestions for further study Appendix 1: TEACHERS SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE Appendix 2: STUDENTS SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE REFERENCE 39 39 40 List of abbreviations BTTC: Bac Ninh Teachers’ Training College EAP: English for Academic Purposes EH: English for History ELT: English Language Teaching EOP: English for Occupational Purposes ESP: English for Specific Purposes GE: General English NA: Needs Analysis SD: Social Department list of tables and figures Figure 1: ESP classification by experience Chart1: ESP teachers’ ideas on the current textbook and their opinions on designing a new ESP reading syllabus Chart 2: Teachers’opinion about the objectives of the syllabus Chart 3: Teachers’opinion about the consolidation of grammar in the syllabus Table1: Teachers’ ranking the objectives of the syllabus in order of importance Table 2: Teachers’ rating the topics relevant to English for History Table 3: The teachers’ attitudes to the language and reading exercises Table 4: Students’ ideas on objectives expected at the end of the reading syllabus Table 5: Students’ rating the appropriateness of the topics relevant to the syllabus Table 6: : Students’ opinions of the language and reading exercises Part one: Introduction Rationale for the study Over the last few decades, together with the development of General English (GE), English for Specific Purposes (ESP) has become an indispensable branch in English Language Teaching (ELT) in Vietnam to meet the growing demand for communicating with foreigners and updating information as well as technology in the fields of computer science and engineering, electronics, telecommunications, tourism, etc Besides, the spread of English as a result of globalization has brought impacts to the world As an international language, it is instrumental in enhancing economic, political, social and diplomatic relations and scientific exchanges between many countries, providing access to advanced technology and information According to Crystal (1997), 85% of international organizations in the world make official use of English, at least 85% of the world film makers are in English and approximately 90% of published articles in some academic fields are written in English For these reasons, the fever of learning English in the world as well as in Viet Nam has never been abated Although people in the above - mentioned areas all speak the same language, they use it in different environments and for different purposes English learners need to learn English for their specific purposes and ELT, therefore, has been showing an inevitable tendency of shifting from GE to ESP In addition to his specific purposes, each learner starts an ESP course with his own background knowledge of the subject matter and his own available competence Learners of different - target needs really have different necessities, lacks and wants These require the design of special syllabus and special materials for a specific target group of learners The syllabus is designed on the ground of the 15th decision made by the Ministry of Education and Training which focuses on renovating the methods of teaching and learning It is also based on the plans for the academic school year 2003 - 2004 of Bac Ninh Teacher Training College (BTTC), one of which aims at changing and improving teaching and learning methods between teachers and students Accordingly, designing an ESP reading syllabus for the third – year students has been an urgent task for the development of ESP teaching and learning at BTTC Aims and objectives of the study The study aims at choosing an approach to designing an ESP reading syllabus for a group of history students who are learning to become teachers of history at lower secondary schools and who are learning English as a foreign language with a view to reading English materials The researcher defined the major objectives of the study as follows: - to identify the needs of the third - year history students of the Social Department (SD) at BTTC - to design an ESP reading syllabus for the target students which is relevant to their needs and requirements for their future jobs Scope of the study The study mainly focuses on the designing of an ESP reading syllabus for a group of students of history at BTTC - SD, who are at pre - intermediate level of English proficiency Methods of the study In order to successfully fulfill the tasks and achieve the objectives of the study, attention should firstly be paid to the kind of syllabus, which would be appropriate for the target students Qualitative method is employed in the research by means of survey questionnaires, informal interviews and document analysis To identify students‟ needs and expectation, the useful topics and appropriate learning tasks and activities in the ESP course to facilitate the design of an ESP reading syllabus for the third - year of students of history, two questionnaires are employed to the targeted students and the teaching staff of BTTC, English Department To clarify the information collected through the survey questionnaires and to get a thorough picture of the actual learning and teaching of English at BTTC, informal interviews with the target students as well as the teachers will be conducted Last but not least, constant discussion with the supervisor and colleagues are of great significance Organization of the study The study is divided into three parts which are briefly presented as follows: Part I is the introduction which presents rationale, aims, scope, research method and organization of the study Part II is the development of the study, consisting of the three chapters - Chapter provides the theory of ESP, course and syllabus design - Chapter presents the background to the study Need analysis, including learning needs and target needs, with data analysis of the study - Chapter proposes an ESP reading syllabus based on the findings of the study Part III is the conclusion which summarizes the overall study and states its limitations and suggestions for further research Part two: Development Chapter I: Literature review This chapter will present different definitions of ESP to highlight the characteristics of an ESP course and factors to be taken into account in designing an ESP course This chapter also discuses needs analysis in the syllabus designs I.1 An overview of ESP I.1.1 Definitions of ESP In fact, there have been a number of definitions for ESP defined by different people because different people have given different emphases to the variety of elements that characterize ESP Fitzjohn (in Robinson 1980: 9) mentions the time factor as a characteristic feature of ESP He states: The very concept of ‘special purposes’ implies that foreign language study is a subsidiary contribution to another, main interest, and that there will normally be pressure to achieve the required level of linguistic competence in the minimum time Pauline Robinson (1991) shared the same idea One of her features is that ESP courses are generally constrained by a limited time period That is the objectives must be achieved within a short period of time, the learners must obtain the required level of linguistic competence Hutchinson and Waters typically stated: An ESP syllabus is expressed in terms of aspects language which (a) are important and appropriate to a specific academic or occupational situation and (b) meet the needs of the learner (Hutchinson and Waters, 1987: 13) Robinson‟s another characteristic is that ESP is taught to adults homogeneous classes in terms of their work or specialist study Most of learners in an ESP course are to be adults, not children Long cited Robinson (1980: 9) points out: The number of people wanting to learn English for Special purposes is spiraling ... designing an esp reading syllabus for third - year students at the social department, bac ninh teachers’ training college THIẾT KẾ CHƯƠNG TRÌNH ĐỌC HIỂU TIẾNG ANH CHUYÊN NGÀNH SỬ HỌC CHO SINH VIÊN... KẾ CHƯƠNG TRÌNH ĐỌC HIỂU TIẾNG ANH CHUYÊN NGÀNH SỬ HỌC CHO SINH VIÊN NĂM THỨ BA KHOA XÃ HỘI, TRƯỜNG CAO ĐẲNG SƯ PHẠM BẮC NINH MINOR THESIS FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY CODE: 601410 SUPERVISOR:... Education and Training which focuses on renovating the methods of teaching and learning It is also based on the plans for the academic school year 2003 - 2004 of Bac Ninh Teacher Training College