4 TABLE OF CONTENTS CONTENTS PAGE Declaration i Acknowledgement ii Abstract iii List of tables and figures viii List of abbreviations ix PART A: INTRODUCTION Rationale of the study Aims and objectives of the study 3 Scope of the study Methods of the study Significance of the study Overview of the study PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW Defining tasks Types of tasks Task-based framework 10 Text-based tasks 12 4.1 Defining texts in language teaching 12 4.2 Tasks based on texts 12 4.3 Designing text-based task 13 5 Considerations in task design 13 Using texts in the teaching of English for Specific Purpose 15 Summary 16 CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY Background of the study 17 1.1 Current learning and teaching of English in general and ESP in particular at Vietnam Maritime University 17 1.2 Identification of the problem 17 Research questions 19 Participants 19 Implementation of the action research 20 Data collection procedures 21 5.1 Description of the pre-treatment questionnaire 21 5.2 Description of the pre-treatment interview 22 5.3 Description of the students’ diary 22 5.4 Description of the post – treatment questionnaire 23 5.5 Description of the post – treatment interview 24 Data analysis procedures 24 Summary 24 CHAPTER 3: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Phase One: Conducting pre-treatment questionnaire survey and interview 25 1.1 The results of the pre-treatment questionnaire survey 25 1.1.1 Students’ needs 25 1.1.2 The ESP course 26 1.2 The results of the pre-treatment interview 30 Phase Two: Conducting the trial lessons 32 2.1 The implementation of the trial lessons 32 2.2 The results of the students’ diary 32 Phase Three: Conducting post-treatment questionnaire survey and interview 33 3.1 The results of the post-treatment questionnaire survey 33 3.1.1 Students’ motivations 33 3.1.2 Language skill development 33 3.1.3 The trial lessons’ sequence 34 3.2 The results of the post-treatment interview 37 Summary 38 PART 3: CONCLUSION Summary and conclusions 39 Pedagogical implications 40 Limitations of the study and suggestions for further study 41 REFERENCES 43 APPENDICES Appendix 1: A sample unit in the course book “Business English for Seamen” I Appendix 2: A sample lesson plan IV Appendix 3: Two samples of students’ diaries XIII Appendix 4: Pre-treatment questionnaire survey (English version) XV Appendix 5: Pre-treatment questionnaire survey (Vietnamese version) XVIII Appendix 6: Post-treatment questionnaire survey (English version) XXI Appendix 7: Post-treatment questionnaire survey (Vietnamese version) XXIV List of tables and figures Tables Table 1: A framework for designing task-based lesson by Ellis (2003) Page 11 Table 2: Participants’ information 20 Table 3: Students’ assessments on the themes in the current ESP course book 26 Table 4: Why students like the pre-task cycle 35 Table 5: Why students like the task cycle 36 Table 6: Why students like the post-task cycle 37 Figures Page Figure 1: Task-based framework by Willis (1996) 11 Figure 2: Components for analyzing tasks by Nunan (1989) 14 Figure 3: How the current ESP course meets the students’ needs 25 Figure 4: Percentage of students expressing their needs to the teachers 26 Figure 5: Skills students want to learn more 26 Figure 6: Students’ assessments on the activities in the course book 28 Figure 7: Activities that ESP teachers often use 28 Figure 8: Classroom management in current ESP lessons 29 Figure 9: Frequency of using supplementary materials in current ESP lessons 29 Figure 10: Sources of materials 30 Figure 11: Students’ assessments on the trial lessons 33 Figure 12: Skills students have improved through the trial lessons 34 Figure 13: Frequency of skill integration 34 Figure 14: Activities students like doing in pre-task phase 35 Figure 15: Activities students like doing in during-task phase 36 Figure 16: Activities students like doing in post-task phase 37 List of abbreviations GE: General English ESP: English for Specific Purpose Vimaru: Vietnam Maritime University PART A: INTRODUCTION Rationale of the study Focus on English for seafarers In the world of international transport and shipping, English is chosen to be the language for achieving effective ship-to-ship and ship-to-shore communication The use of 10 English language is becoming a mandatory requirement for many categories of seafarers An adequate standard of English is not only an international requirement for the certificate of seafarers but also a key element in ensuring safe, efficient and profitable ship operation Recent amendments to the Safety of Life at Sea convention or SOLAS underline the need for a common working language in the interest of safety at sea Unless the personnel involved speak another common language, English must now be used as the working language for bridge-to-bridge and bridge-to-shore safety communications, and communications on board between the pilot and bridge watch-keeping personnel Officers of the navigational watch now require adequate knowledge of written and spoken English to understand charts, nautical publications, meteorological information and messages concerning the ship’s safety and operation Seafarers must now demonstrate a knowledge of English adequate for professional and safety purposes Although many seafarers bring some understanding of maritime English to the workplace, their language skills may not be sufficient for communicating instructions and commands This deficiency is most apparent among multi-national crews in emergency situations when language accuracy is critical The International Maritime Human Element Bulletin (Issue No 14 May 2007) asserts that: The ability to properly convey information by word of mouth and/or by written communication is important not only to the safety of ships’ crews, visitors and passengers, but also to the wellbeing of crews It would seem that the standard of English of some seafarers is so bad that they have difficulty communicating not only between themselves but also with agencies outside the ship (p.5) Teaching English for seafarers Teaching English for seafarers is by no means an easy task The maritime world, like many specialized areas of activity, has language of its own Some of the words and phrases are unlikely to mean anything outside this specific area, or if the words are understood literally, the reader will gain a wrong and possibly odd understanding Some typical examples may be: forward spring – a kind of mooring rope, a gypsy – part of the windlass, monkey island – on top of the wheelhouse Thus, the teaching of English to seafarers, first and foremost, must be focused on the teaching of technical vocabulary used commonly for the job at sea and in nautical publications 11 However, mastering the words only is not enough The work of a seafarer, unlike the work of an architect whose job mainly centers on the silent reading of technical drawings, requires a great deal of oral interactions Once communication at sea fails, disastrous accidents may occur “The core of the communication failures was found to be lack of skills in use of maritime English by seafarers of various types and ranks” (Ziarati, Calbas & Imla, 2008) Therefore, it is also an urgent need for the teaching of English for seafarers to concentrate on speaking skill and listening skill as well All things considered, a nautical student before going to sea must be equipped with a comprehensive knowledge of English which enables him to communicate successfully at sea for the sake of safety Arising from this demand, teaching English for seafarers is hard work, requiring from teachers much energy, passion and enthusiasm 1.3 The currently-used ESP course book at the Navigation Faculty of Vietnam Maritime University The course book in use for teaching English to the third-year students of Navigation Faculty in Vietnam Maritime University is named “Business English for Seafarers” This book was written in the 1970s by V.I Brobski It consists of 13 units which are taught in two semesters Each unit is concerned with one theme familiar with sailors’ actual job Every unit includes a text on the topic and some related exercises followed In my humble opinion, the themes and the texts in this book are practical and suitable to the students’ major The problem is that they only focus on developing reading skill, not to mention that reading activities are few, repeated and simple The text-based activities are typically “Answer the following questions on the text” or “Translating the text into your own language” It does not at all offer communicative tasks in which students can improve their four integrated language skills Beside this main textbook, teachers are encouraged to use other supplementary materials Another matter arises Almost all ESP materials exist in the form of texts Consequently, the teachers will go into the same boring track, asking student to read, translate and answer the questions Hardly any teachers have the habit of thinking new ways to provide students with comprehensive skills This is not because the teachers are incapable or lazy but mainly because they are not guided how to devise interesting tasks to motivate students basing on the available texts Many shipping companies which are the 12 potential employers of the nautical students often complain about the inability of the graduates to communicate successfully with the foreign ships at sea and business partners in international ports though they can read documents quite well Inspired by all the aforementioned reasons, I am highly motivated to conduct this thesis “Designing text-based tasks for the third-year students of Navigation Faculty in Vietnam Maritime University” Aims of the study The study is conducted to:  identify navigation students’ attitudes and viewpoints towards the current ESP course  find out what the nautical students expect to learn in the ESP course and how they want to it  suggest effective ways to design different tasks basing on the available texts in the course book to meet students’ demand, helping teachers select, adapt or create their own design of effective communicative tasks and make their college English teaching more successful Scope of the study As the title of the thesis implies, this research only focuses on the field of ESP teaching, not on general English teaching The participants of the study will be the students from Navigation faculty of Vietnam Maritime University Moreover, since the nautical students not learn ESP until they come to the third year at university, only the third-year students can take part in this study This study does not involve freshmen, sophomores and seniors Methods of the study Action research, which “allows us to build records of our improvements” (Kemmis and Mc Taggart, 1982, p34), is chosen as the research method for the current study The author specially prefers action research to other more conventional or traditional types of research by the fact that “it is very focused on individual or small group professional practice and it is not so concerned with making general statement … The main function of action research is to facilitate the reflective cycle and in this way provide an effective method for improving professional action” (Wallace, 1997, p.16) 13 The researcher also exerts mixed method which includes both quantitative and qualitative features with a view to obtaining an all-round picture of the data First, two survey questionnaires which have always been considered as a representative of quantitative method will be used to collect primary data In designing the questionnaires, the researcher uses the questions of both open type and closed type Closed form or restricted types of questions offer the respondent a choice of alternatives The open form (unrestricted) type of questions, calling for a free response, provides greater depth of response Second, interviews with all the students will be carried out in order to complete the unfinished parts of the questionnaires, to clarify any misunderstanding and get more insightful and truthful data As diary is “an attractive way of gathering information about the way individuals spend their time”, and that “they can provide valuable information about work pattern and activities” (Bell, 2008, p.173), diaries will also be used as an instrument of collecting data Significance of the study The study, if successfully conducted, will be of great importance to the current situation of teaching ESP in Vietnam Maritime University, and more ambitiously, to the teaching of ESP in Vietnam universities It is obvious that in the age of information boom today an ESP teacher can easily find supplementary materials from different sources such as the internet, newspapers, magazines, or advertisements The problem is that these materials mainly come in the form of written texts Not all teachers are willing to spend time creating interesting tasks basing on these texts, which is really time-consuming Even if they have the will, not all are capable of designing good communicative tasks to better their English teaching process Resulted from this fact, this thesis touches upon and suggests the effective ways and procedures to create different kinds of tasks based on available texts With one and the same text, a teacher can devise many types of activities which can improve four language skills Accordingly, this study may have an application value to all ESP teachers who have the desire to renovate their traditional ways of teaching ESP which is inherently considered as technical and boring Overview of the study This thesis is composed of three main parts: Introduction, Development and Conclusion ... 1.3 The currently-used ESP course book at the Navigation Faculty of Vietnam Maritime University The course book in use for teaching English to the third-year students of Navigation Faculty in Vietnam. .. issues in designing communicative tasks Then the author provides the methodology of the study which consists of the background of the study, the statement of the problem, the research questions, the. .. focuses on the field of ESP teaching, not on general English teaching The participants of the study will be the students from Navigation faculty of Vietnam Maritime University Moreover, since the nautical