1 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ***************** NGUYỄN THỊ LÝ DESIGNING A TASK-BASED ESP SYLLABUS FOR THE SECOND- YEAR STUDENTS OF ACCOUNTING AT TUYEN QUANG ECONOMIC AND TECHNICAL SECONDARY SCHOOL THIẾT KẾ CHƯƠNG TRÌNH TIẾNG ANH CHUYÊN NGÀNH THEO NHIỆM VỤ CHO HỌC SINH NĂM THỨ HAI CHUYÊN NGÀNH KẾ TOÁN TRƯỜNG TRUNG HỌC KINH TẾ KỸ THUẬT TUYÊN QUANG M.A MINOR THESIS Field: English Teaching methodology Code: 60 14 10 HANOI – 2011 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ***************** NGUYỄN THỊ LÝ DESIGNING A TASK-BASED ESP SYLLABUS FOR THE SECOND- YEAR STUDENTS OF ACCOUNTING AT TUYEN QUANG ECONOMIC AND TECHNICAL SECONDARY SCHOOL THIẾT KẾ CHƯƠNG TRÌNH TIẾNG ANH CHUYÊN NGÀNH THEO NHIỆM VỤ CHO HỌC SINH NĂM THỨ HAI CHUYÊN NGÀNH KẾ TOÁN TRƯỜNG TRUNG HỌC KINH TẾ KỸ THUẬT TUYÊN QUANG M.A MINOR THESIS Field: English Teaching Mehodology Code: 60 14 10 SUPERVISOR: LÊ VĂN CANH, Ph.D HANOI – 2011 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ESP: English for Specific Purposes GE: General English TQETSS: Tuyen Quang Economic and Technical Secondary School ESS: English for the Social Sciences EST: English for the Science and Technology EAP: English for Academic Purposes EOP: English for Occupational Purposes TBLT: Task- Based Language Teaching LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES Page Figure 1: Bases for language syllabus design Table 1: Students‟ reasons for learning English 21 Table 2: Students‟ opinions on prospective job and workplace 22 Table 3: Students‟ anticipated possibilities to use English at work in the future 23 Table Ex-students‟ situations of using English at work 25 Table 5: Students‟ opinions on tasks which should be included in the course book 26 Table Ex-students‟ opinions on tasks which should be included in the course book 28 Table 7: Students‟ evaluation of the current ESP course book 29 Table 8: The proposed syllabus for the second-year students of Accounting at TQETSS (see Appendix 1) TABLE OF CONTENTS Declaration i Acknowledgement ii Abstract iii List of abbreviations iv Lists of figures and tables v Table of contents vi PART A: INTRODUCTION 1 Rationale Aims and objectives of the study Research questions Scope of the study Method of the study Structure of the study Summary PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 Definition of ESP 1.2 Types of ESP 1.3 Syllabus Design 1.3.1 Definitions of syllabus 1.3.2 Approaches to ESP Language Syllabus Design 1.3.2.1 Language- centred approach 1.3.2.2 Skills- centred approach 1.3.2.3 Learning- centred approach 1.3.3 Types of syllabus 1.3.3.1 Structural /grammatical syllabus 1.3.3.2 Situational syllabus 1.3.3.3 Functional Notional syllabus 1.3.3.4 Topic-based syllabus 10 1.3.3.5 Skills-based syllabus 10 1.3.3.6 Process syllabus 10 1.3.4 Task-based Syllabus 11 1.3.4.1 Definition of „task” 11 1.3.4.2 Task-based syllabus 12 1.3.4.3 Characteristics of Task-based Syllabus 12 1.3.4.3 Theoretical Advantages of Task-based Syllabus 13 1.2.4.4 Limitations of Task-based Syllabus 14 1.3.5 Rationale of choosing Task-based Syllabus 15 1.3.6 Needs analysis in syllabus design 16 1.3.6.1.The important of needs analysis 16 1.3.6.2.Target needs and learning needs 16 1.4 Summary 17 CHAPTER 2: NEEDS ANALYSIS OF STUDENTS OF ACCOUNTING AT 18 TUYEN QUANG ECONOMIC AND TECHNICAL SECONDARY SCHOOL 2.1 The teaching and learning ESP at TQETSS 18 2.2 The students 18 2.3 The teachers 19 2.4 The study 19 2.4.1 The subjects 19 2.4.2 Instruments for collecting data 19 2.4.3 Data analysis and major findings 20 2.4.3.1 Data from survey questionnaires 20 2.4.3.2 Results from the interviews with ESP teachers 30 2.2.4.3 Major findings 32 2.5 Summary 33 CHAPTER 3: THE PROPOSED SYLLABUS CONTENT FOR THE SECOND- 34 YEAR STUDENTS OF ACCOUNTING AT TQETSS 3.1 Aims and objectives of the syllabus 34 3.2 Type of syllabus 34 3.3 Tasks in the syllabus 34 3.4 The proposed syllabus 35 10 3.4.1 Time schedule 35 3.4.2 The organization of the syllabus 35 3.5 Teaching and assessment methodology 35 3.5.1 Teaching methodology 35 3.5.2 Assessment methodology 36 3.6 Syllabus evaluation 36 3.7 Summary 37 PART C: CONCLUSION 38 Conclusion 38 Limitations and suggestions for further study 39 References 40 Appendices I Appendix 1: The proposed syllabus for the second-year students of accounting at I TQETSS Appendix 2: A sample unit V Appendix 3: Questionnaire for students XI Appendix 4: Questionnaire for ex-students XIV Appendix : Questions for interviews with ESP teachers XVI Appendix : Transcript for interviews with ESP teachers XVII 11 PART A: INTRODUCTION Rationale Nowadays, with the development of Science and Technology and integration and globalization of the world economy, the demand for English in general and English for Specific Purposes (ESP) in particular is increasing ESP has become an insensible branch in English language teaching in Vietnam to meet the growing demand for professional communication and the job market in the period of international economic integration At Tuyen Quang Economic and Technical Secondary School, English is a compulsory subject which are being taught to all students of all majors It consists of two parts: General English (GE) and English for Specific Purposes (ESP) According to the training curriculum, the ESP course is to be delivered after students finish GE course However, teaching ESP has encountered a number of problems such as inappropriate materials, content burden, lack of experience ESP teachers The most concern of ESP teachers is the course books The current ESP course book for students of accounting is compiled by the teachers of English section After few years of implementing, it has revealed a number of limitations in terms of content and methodology This is because the materials are based on the syllabus which was developed without reference to learner needs This gives rise to the need of developing a syllabus which is task-based and learnercentred And this is the motivation of this study Aims and objectives of the study The study aims at designing a task-based ESP syllabus for the second-year students of accounting at Tuyen Quang Economic and Technical Secondary School To achieve this aim, the major objectives of the study are: - to identify the rationale for a task-based syllabus design - to identify the learning needs of the second-year students of accounting through a needs analysis - to develop a task-based ESP syllabus which based on the learners‟ needs at Tuyen Quang Economic and Technical Secondary School Research questions With the aim stated above, the author proposed the three following questions for the study: 12 What are the undergraduate students‟ perceived needs of ESP? To what extent are the students‟ perceived needs different from those of the teachers and ex-students? How are the needs of all stakeholders transferred into tasks which are integrated in an ESP syllabus? Scope of the study In this thesis, the author only focuses on designing a task-based ESP syllabus for the second- year students majoring in Business accounting at TQETSS Method of the study In order to achieve the aim mentioned above, two survey questionnaires for undergraduate students and ex-students who were working as accountants in different companies were used as one of the tools to collect information about the students' needs as well as to identify tasks which should be included in the syllabus for the second-year students of accounting Also, informal interviews with ESP teachers were conducted in order to know about their opinions of tasks to be included in the syllabus and their experience in doing needs analysis Thus, both quantitative and qualitative methods were employed in this study Structure of the study The study is divided into three parts:  Part A is the introduction including the rationale, the aims, the research questions, the scope, the method and the structure of the study  Part B is the development that consists of chapters: - Chapter is about literature review of ESP and syllabus design - Chapter presents situational analysis of ESP teaching and learning at TQETSS and gives descriptions of subjects of the study, instruments for data collection and analysis of the results from two questionnaires and interviews - Chapter proposes an ESP task-based syllabus for the second- year students of accounting at TQETSS with the methodology of teaching and assessment and syllabus evaluation  Part C is the conclusion that consists of concluding ideas, limitations and suggestions for further study 13 Summary This part presents the rationale of designing a task-based syllabus for the second-year students of accounting at Tuyen Quang Economic and Technical secondary school Also, the aims, the research questions, the scope, the methodology and the structure of the study are presented The Literature review, Needs analysis and the Proposed syllabus will be presented in the part B below ... learnercentred And this is the motivation of this study Aims and objectives of the study The study aims at designing a task-based ESP syllabus for the second-year students of accounting at Tuyen Quang Economic. .. limitations and suggestions for further study 13 Summary This part presents the rationale of designing a task-based syllabus for the second-year students of accounting at Tuyen Quang Economic and. .. that students understand the task and what they are doing, and not act in a mechanical way” Task-based teaching differs from situation- based teaching in that while situational teaching has the