1 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES PHAN THỊ HIỀN TEACHING ESP TO STUDENTS OF ACCOUNTING MAJOR AT HAI DUONG COLLEGE OF ECONOMICS AND TECHNOLOGY: PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS (Dạy tiếng Anh chuyên ngành cho sinh viên chuyên ngành Kế toán trường Cao đẳng Kinh tế- Kỹ thuật Hải Dương: Vấn đề giải pháp) M.A Minor thesis Field: English teaching methodology Code: 60 14 10 Hanoi, 2010 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES PHAN THỊ HIỀN TEACHING ESP TO STUDENTS OF ACCOUNTING MAJOR AT HAI DUONG COLLEGE OF ECONOMICS AND TECHNOLOGY: PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS (Dạy tiếng Anh chuyên ngành cho sinh viên chuyên ngành Kế toán trường Cao đẳng Kinh tế- Kỹ thuật Hải Dương: Vấn đề giải pháp) M.A Minor thesis Field: English teaching methodology Code: 60 14 10 Supervisor: Lâm Thị Phúc Hân, M.A Hanoi, 2010 TABLE OF CONTENTS Certificate of originality of the thesis ……………………………………………………i Acknowledgements ……………………………………………………………………… ii Abstract ………………………………………………………………………………… iii Table of contents …………………………………………………………………… …iv List of abbreviations …………………………………………………………………… vi List of tables and charts ……………………………………………………………… vii PART A: INTRODUCTION ……………………………………………………………1 Rationales ……………………………… … ……………………………….……… Aims of the study ……………………………….………………………………………1 Methods of the study ………………… ………….……… ………………………….2 Scope of the study ………………………………… …….… ……………………… Organization of the study ………………………… ………………… …….……….2 PART B: DEVELOPMENT …………………………………………………………….3 CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW …………………………………… …………3 1.1 Overview of ESP ……………………………………….… ……………….…… 1.1.1 Definition …………………………… ………….………… ……………… 1.1.2 Classification of ESP ………………………………… ……………………….4 1.2 Roles of ESP teachers ……………………………… …….…………… ……… 1.3 Development and approaches to teach ESP…….…………… ………… … … 1.4 Difficulties in teaching ESP ………………….….……… …………… .…… CHAPTER 2: THE TEACHING CONTEXT … ………………………….…………11 ESP course and the objectives of teaching and learning ESP … … …… 11 2 The teachers ……………………………………………… ………….……… 11 The learners ……………………………………………… ………… ………12 The materials ………………………………………………… … ………… 13 CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ………… …………….……… … 15 …………………………………………… ……………15 3.1 Research questions 3.2 Participants ………… …………….……… ….….… ……………….……… 15 3.3 Data collection instrument ………… ……… ……… ……… … ………15 3.4 Data collection procedure …………………….……………………… ………16 3.5 Data analysis procedure ……………………… ………………… … ………16 CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION ……………………… …………… 17 4.1 Teachers’ and students’ attitudes toward the ESP course ……… … ……… 17 4.2 Difficulties in teaching ESP ………………………………………… ………… 18 4.2.1.Difficulties in terms of teachers ………………………………………… …… 18 4.2.1.1 Teachers’ background knowledge of the subject matter…… …………… 18 4.2.1.2 ESP teaching methodology ……………………… ………………………19 4.2.2 Difficulties in terms of students ……………………………… ……………… 23 4.2.2.1 Students’ background knowledge ……… ……………………………… 23 4.2.2.2 Students’ competence in reading skill …………………… ………………25 4.2.3 Difficulties in dealing with the current teaching material ……………… …… 26 4.3 Teachers’ and students’ expectations ………… 27 4.3.1 Teachers‟ opinions of the further training courses ………… …………….……27 4.3.2 Students‟ expectations in terms of teaching method …… ………….………….28 4.3.3 Teachers‟ and students‟ expectations in terms of teaching material ………….29 4.3.4 Teachers‟ and students‟ views of using supplementary materials …… ………30 4.3.5 Teachers‟ and students‟ opinions about the time of ESP course ……….… … 31 CHAPTER 5: RECOMMENDATIONS … ……………… ……………………… 32 5.1 Improving teachers’ professional knowledge ……………………………… … 32 5.2 Improving ESP teaching methodology .32 5.3 Improving teachers’ classroom techniques …………………………… ……… 33 5.4 Helping students to enrich their background knowledge …………….….…… 36 5.5 Developing teaching materials ………………………………………….….…… 37 5.5.1 Adapting the current course book……………………………………….….…….37 5.5.2 Providing appropriate supplementary materials ……………….………… …….38 PART C: CONCLUSION …………………………………………….………….….… 39 Conclusion of the study …………………………………….………… …….….….39 Limitations and suggestions for further study ……… …………………….….….40 REFERENCES ……………………………………………………………………… …41 APPENDICES…………………………………………………………………………….I Appendix 1: Questionnaire for the teachers ……………………………………………I Appendix Questionnaire for the students ……………………………………………V Appendix 3: Sample Unit 13: Liabilities ……………………………………………XIII LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ESP: English for specific purposes GE: General English EAP: English for Academic Purposes EOP: English for Occupational Purposes HCET: Hai Duong College of Economics and Technology No: Number Ts: Teachers Sts: Students LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS Table 1: Teachers‟ training in Economics and Accounting fields Table 2: Teachers‟ frequency of enriching specialized knowledge Table 3: The teachers‟ focuses in ESP lesson and students‟ responses Table 4: Forms of practice in ESP lesson and students‟ responses Table 5: The frequency of using pre-reading techniques and students‟ responses Table 6: The frequency of using while-reading techniques and students‟ responses Table 7: The frequency of using post-reading techniques and students‟ responses Table 8: Students‟ background knowledge of subject matter Table 9: Students‟ English competence Table 10: Teachers‟ and students‟ opinions about the current course book Table 11: Teachers‟ opinions of the further training courses on Economics and Accounting Table 12: Students‟ expectations in terms of teaching method Table 13: Teachers‟ and students‟ expectations in terms of material Table 14: The reasons for using supplementary materials Table 15: Teachers‟ and students‟ opinions about the time of ESP course Chart 1: Attitudes toward the importance of ESP course for the students‟ future job Chart 2: Teachers‟ and students‟ opinions about the current ESP course Chart 3: Students‟ competence in reading skill from the views of teachers and students Chart 4: Teachers‟ and students‟ opinions of using supplementary materials 10 PART A: INTRODUCTION Rationales The turn of the century has witnessed the dramatic growth in Vietnamese economics and the ensued reforms in its education sector, specifically, the reform of its language education In every school curriculum, English has become a compulsory subject and in higher education, “English majors” have been set up in many Vietnamese universities English education then has since been divided into two phases; one being devoted to the general education of English knowledge and the cultivation of English skills, the other being devoted to English education for specific purposes The coming into being and the development of English for specific purpose (ESP) education can be seen as a natural response toward the socioeconomic development of contemporary Vietnam and the globalization of the international community With the purpose of providing vocational English knowledge in specific disciplines, the ESP courses train the graduates to become the comprehensive language talents that are urgently needed in many sectors in today‟s Vietnamese society Being aware of the importance of ESP, Hai Duong College of Economics and Technology (HCET) has introduced the ESP course into the college curriculum since 2002 Since then, the teaching ESP at HCET has been improved, however, some problems in teaching ESP have emerged and need to be solved This current situation has aroused the author‟s interest For the reasons above, the author has decided to carry out the study of “Teaching ESP to students of accounting major at Hai Duong College of Economics and Technology: problems and solutions” Aims of the study The study aims at: - Investigating the teachers‟ and students‟ attitudes toward the ESP course - Examining the difficulties in teaching ESP to students of Accounting major at HCET - Offering some suggested solutions for the current ESP course It is hoped that the findings of this study will make some contributions to the improvement of teaching ESP at Hai Duong College of Economics and Technology in particular and teaching ESP in general 11 Method of the study In order to achieve the aims mentioned above, the author conducted the study in the form of a survey research The major method used in this thesis is quantitative one All the problems and suggestions given in this thesis are based on the analysis of data collected from the questionnaires responded by both teachers and students at Hai Duong College of Economics and Technology Scope of the study Teaching ESP is a broad issue Due to the limited time, the researcher just focuses on the problems in teaching ESP to the first - year students of Accounting major at Hai Duong College of Economics and Technology The problems explored are limited in terms of the students‟ and teachers‟ background knowledge, teaching methodology and teaching material In addition, the emphasis of the current ESP course is reading skill Therefore, when examining the problems concerning with teaching method, the researcher focuses on the method of teaching reading ESP Design of the study This study comprises six chapters as follows Part A: Introduction presents the rationales for the study and set up the aims, the method, the scope and the design of the study Part B: Development consists of chapters Chapter 1: deals with the theoretical background of the current study that is relevant to the research topic including the overview of ESP, roles of ESP teachers, the development and approaches to teach ESP and some difficulties in teaching ESP Chapter 2: describes the current situation of teaching and learning ESP at the Accounting Department in HCET Chapter 3: introduces the research methodology Chapter 4: focuses on analyzing the collected data and discussing the findings of the study Chapter 5: provides some suggested solutions for the current problems Part C: Conclusion summarizes the issues addressed and points out some limitations and makes some suggestions for further research 12 PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW Much time and energy has been devoted to the study of teaching ESP so far This chapter reviews some authors‟ viewpoints concerning with ESP and ESP teaching in order to build up the theoretical background for the study, which consists of four main parts: overview of ESP, roles of ESP teachers, development and approaches to teach ESP and difficulties in teaching ESP 1.1 Overview of ESP 1.1.1 Definition Despite the fact that it is an approach which has been widely used over the last three decades, there has been considerable recent debate about what ESP means Definitions of ESP in the literature are relatively late in time, if we assume that ESP began in the 1960s Hutchinson and Water (1987:19) emphasized that ESP should be seen as an approach, not a product It is an approach which is directed by specific and apparent reasons for learning Likewise, Strevens (1988: 1) stated that “ESP is a particular case of the general category of special – purpose language teaching ” He defined ESP by making a distinction between its absolute and variable characteristics Four absolute characteristics are: 1- designed to meet specified needs of the learner; 2- related in content (that is in its themes and topics) to particular disciplines, occupations and activities; 3- centered on language appropriate to those activities in syntax, lexis discourse, semantics and so on, and analysis of the discourse; 4- in contrast with „General English‟ Two variable characteristics are: 1- may be restricted as to the learning skills to be learned (for example reading only); 2- may not be taught according to any pre-ordained methodology The second absolute characteristic may confirm the impression held by many teachers that ESP is always and necessarily related to subject content Dudley-Evans and St John (1998) modified Strevens‟ definition by suggesting the following absolute characteristics and variable characteristics The absolute characteristics are : 1- ESP is designed to meet specific needs of the learner; 13 2- ESP makes use of the underlying methodology and activities of the disciplines it serves; 3- ESP is centered on the language (grammar, lexis, register), skills, discourse and genre appropriate to these activities The variable characteristics are: 1- ESP may be related to or designed for specific disciplines; 2- ESP may use, in specific teaching situations, a different methodology from that of general English; 3- ESP is likely to be designed for adult learners, either at a tertiary level institution or in a professional work situation It could, however, be used for learners at secondary school level; 4- ESP is generally designed for intermediate or advanced students Most ESP courses assume basic knowledge of the language system, but it can be used with beginners To sum up, all the above definitions show that ESP is a language skill course However, its domains not only relate to distinctive content, but also to discipline- specific lexis, genres and registers (Munby, 1978) Therefore, in terms of ESP teaching methodology, there could be some differences in comparison with that in the General Purpose English class 1.1.2 Classification of ESP Traditionally, ESP can be classified into two major groups according to when they take place: English for Academic Purposes (EAP) and English for Occupational Purposes (EOP) Robinson (1991) showed a distinction between these two areas in the following tree diagram Pre-experience EOP Simultaneous/ in- service Post-experience ESP Pre-study For study in a specific discipline EEP/EAP In-study Post-study Independent As a school subject Integrated Figure 1: ESP Classification by experience (Robinson, 1991, taken from Dudley-Evans and St John, 1998:6) ... decided to carry out the study of ? ?Teaching ESP to students of accounting major at Hai Duong College of Economics and Technology: problems and solutions” Aims of the study The study aims at: -... and the ESP materials used at HCET 2.1 ESP course and the objectives of teaching and learning ESP At Hai Duong college of Economics and Technology ESP, the compulsory subject in the college curriculum,... OF ACCOUNTING MAJOR AT HAI DUONG COLLEGE OF ECONOMICS AND TECHNOLOGY: PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS (Dạy tiếng Anh chuyên ngành cho sinh viên chuyên ngành Kế to? ?n trường Cao đẳng Kinh tế- Kỹ thuật Hải