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VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI COLLEGE OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES DEPARTMENT OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES PHAN THI HONG DUNG A STUDY ON ONE TECHNIQUE TO IMPROVE CONVERSATIONAL SKILL FOR OPERATIONAL STAFF AT SOMERSET GRAND HANOI NGHIÊN CỨU MỘT THỦ THUẬT NHẰM NÂNG CAO KỸ NĂNG NÓI CHO NHÂN VIÊN THUỘC BỘ PHẬN VẬN HÀNH TẠI SOMERSET GRAND HÀ NỘI M A MINOR THESIS FIELD: ENGLISH METHODOLOGY CODE: 601410 SUPERVISOR: TO THI THU HUONG, Ph.D HANOI - 2008 DECLARATION I certify that this essay is entirely my work I have provided fully documented references to the work of others The material in this essay has not been submitted for assessment in any other formal course of study Phan Thi Hong Dung ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my deepest thanks to my beloved supervisor Dr To Thi Thu Huong for the invaluable support, guidance, and timely encouragement she gave me while I was doing this research I am truly grateful to her for her advice and suggestions right from the beginning when this study was only in its formative stage I would also like to send my sincere thanks to my colleagues in Somerset Serviced Residences, Hanoi who have helped me in providing the teaching materials, answering the survey questionnaire and making constructive and insightful comments as well as suggestions for this paper My sincere thanks also go to all the teachers of the Department of Post graduate Studies at Hanoi College of Foreign Languages, Vietnam National University for their profound knowledge, useful materials which have inspired and facilitated me much throughout the course I also own an enormous debt of gratitude to Ms Ngo Thanh Thuy for her invaluable enthusiasm and encouragement during my course Last but not least, I owe mother and my husband for their continuous support, they covered all the housework and looked after my child for me to contribute totally my time on this research ABSTRACT Conversational English is crucial in office communication at Somerset Grand Hanoi and it’s still a big concern of Somerset Management Board On the way to find solutions for English training in the company, one technique has been approved to be very effective to improve conversational skill for operational staff in using “Practical Situations” This study focuses on how researcher uses “Practical Situations” effectively in English training And what are the most frequently happening practical situations at Somerset Grand Hanoi? The subjects involved in the study were 23 operational staff from three departments: Housekeeping, Engineering, Security, 12 heads of departments were invited to join survey, to answer the questionnaires, to participate in the interview, and to provide the source for observation LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS SGH: Somerset Grand Hanoi HOD: Head of department ESL: English second language ESP: English for specific purpose CBI: Content-based instruction OJT: On job training BCS: Basic conversational standard CLT: Communicative language teaching TABLE OF CONTENTS Declaration …………………………………………………………………… Acknowledgements ……………………………………………………………… Abstract …………………………………………………………………………… List of abbreviation ……………………………………………………………… Table of content …………………………………………………………………… PART I: INTRODUCTION ……………………………………………………… Rationale ………………………………………………………………… Aims of the study ………………………………………………………… Research questions ……………………………………………………… Methods of the study …………………………………………………… Scope of the study ……………………………………………………… Design of the study ……………………………………………………… PART II: DEVELOPMENT …………………………………………………… Chapter 1: Literature review …………………………………………………… Conversation theory ……………………………………………………… Communicative language teaching ……………………………………… 2.1 Content-based instruction (CBI) …………………………………… 2.2 Principles of teaching oral skill ……………………………………… 2.3 Techniques to teach oral skill ………………………………………… Adult learning theory ……………………………………………………… Current English training programs for operational staff at Somerset Grand Hanoi ……………………………………………………… 4.1 The training program …………………………………………………… 42 The required English standards ………………………………………… Chapter 2: Methodology …………………………………………………………… Rational for choosing action research ……………………………………… Steps of action ……………………………………………………………… Participants ……………………………………………………………… Instruments ………………………………………………………………… Procedure of data collection ……………………………………………… 5.1 Questionnaire survey ……… ………………………………………… 5.2 Interviews ………… …………………………………………………… 5.3 Observation …………………….……………………………………… Data analysis ………………………………………………………… …… Chapter 3: Findings and Discussion ………………………………………….…… How trainers use the practical situations in improving conversational skill for operational staff at SGH? …………………… Effectiveness of using Practical situations in improving Conversational skill for Operational staff …………………………… Discussions: How to use these practical situations effectively for training staff? …………………………………………………… PART III: CONCLUSION ………………………………………………………… Summary of main findings ……………………………………………… Limitation of the study …………………………………………… …… Suggestions for further research ………………………………………… REFERENCES …………………………………………………………………… APPENDIX ……………………………………………………………………… APPENDIX ……………………………………………………………………… APPENDIX ……………………………………………………………………… APPENDIX ……………………………………………………………………… PART I: INTRODUCTION Rationale No one can deny the universality of English Outside English-speaking countries, English has become a compulsory component of office communication in many countries This trend also applies in Vietnam At Somerset Grand Hanoi, English is a MUST for all staff as it is considered to be the most useful and effective tool to communicate with customers So, the company always invests time and money in improving conversational skills for its staff However large the investment is, in fact, the conversational skills of operational staff still not meet the job requirements It is a big problem for the company, because the staff conversational competence directly and seriously affects the service Many misunderstanding happens at work For example, once a guest ordered to change one queen bed into twin beds for their two children When the task was transferred to a housekeeping staff, she immediately brought the bed sheets to the room to change for the guest That guest was very angry because his order was misunderstood and thus, wasted his time Another example is, when a guest wanted to borrow an “adapter”, a receptionist quickly called “a doctor” for him These mistakes seem to be funny but they badly affect the professionalism of the company which is famous for leading international standard service in hospitality industry As a person in charge of staff training the researcher finds it a big problem How to improve conversational skills for operational staff? How to confirm that their English speaking skills meet the job requirement to satisfy guests’ expectations, needs and wants? These questions whirl in her mind all the time After years of conducting English training for the staff, she has used many textbooks which are available in the market such as: New Interchange, New Headway, Be My Guest (Francis O’Hara) but the final results still have not met her expectations as well as the job requirements Many pilot courses have been conducted with the help of many experts as well as data surveyed from staff and customers After all, one technique has been found to be more effective in improving conversational skills for her operational staff That is using practical situations from their daily work to help them develop the necessary English conversational skills for their very work Thus, this current study is conducted to shed light on the effectiveness of this technique in the training and development of English conversational skills for operational staff at Somerset Grand Hanoi (SGH) and other similar institutions in Vietnam or elsewhere Aims of the study The study explores the effectiveness of using practical situations to improve English conversational skills for operational staff at Somerset Grand Hanoi (SGH) The major aims of the study are to: - Conduct an analysis of the current situation of training English conversational skills for operational staff at SGH with particular reference to the technique of using practical situations - Pilot the use of practical situations (that are essential for communication in English by operational staff at SGH) for training conversational skills for these staff to find out how effective the technique is - Finalize a package of 10 most applicable practical situations with suggestions for effective use of these practical situations in training operational staff to improve their English conversational skills Research questions In order to achieve the above-mentioned aims, the following research questions were formulated for investigation: How trainers use the technique of practical situations for improving conversational skills of operational staff at SGH? What are the 10 most applicable practical situations? How effective is the use of these practical situations for improving conversational skills for SGH operational staff? Method of the study The method used in the study is action research According to Wallace (1998, quoted in Mackey & Gass 2005: 216) action research is “basically a way of reflecting upon your teaching by systematically collecting data on your everyday practice and analyzing it in order to come to some decisions about what your future practice should be” The goal of this is to improve teaching and learning In this study, the goal of the action is to improve conversational skills for SGH operational staff Five steps for the action were identified and implemented They are: Identify problems/concerns: for this study, it is how to improve English conversational skills for SGH operational staff; Conduct a preliminary investigation to gather information on how trainers use the technique of practical situations for improving conversational skills of operational staff at SGH and what practical situations can be used in training conversational skills for the target staff; Pilot the use of the technique and form assumptions about the effectiveness of the technique and identify 10 most applicable practical situations for dissemination; Evaluate the effects of the practice; i.e the effectiveness of the technique of using practical situations for improvement of conversational skills for SGH operational staff; ... investigation to gather information on how trainers use the technique of practical situations for improving conversational skills of operational staff at SGH and what practical situations can be... required conversational skills and typical communication situations for SGH operational staff at work (pre-training) as well as guests’ level of satisfaction with target staff? ??s conversational skills... practical situations - Pilot the use of practical situations (that are essential for communication in English by operational staff at SGH) for training conversational skills for these staff to find