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Strategies for teaching business report writing to language students at thang long university
1 PART ONE Introduction RATIONALE Writing business reports is one of the fundamental business writing skills Business reports here are understood as "documents that present information on a specific topic for a specific business purpose" (Boone, 1996: 308) Nearly all business activities involve writing business reports, from analyzing the status of projects, summarizing business trips, to investigating an arising problem or suggesting a change in an organization Writing reports sometimes becomes professional services which are provided for a fee The job of market research companies, for example, is to write reports on the results from their researches on consumers' demands for a particular product or service Writing effective reports is an essential skill for office workers and should be taken into consideration in language education in colleges, especially for language students who are likely to be office staff after graduation The teaching of business reports in English is a part of courses of English for business communication, a branch of English for Specific Purposes English-major students, however, have to face a number of problems when studying English as a means of business communication First, most of the students are not familiar with business knowledge Most of them have never taken part in any business activities so far Business courses, if any, provide just general theories of economics Second, the materials used for the courses are not usually tailored for language students to learn to write business reports in English intensively In Vietnam, some intensive courses of English for Business Communication have to use materials for low-intensive courses and/or those written for English native speakers to study business communication with English as the first language Those materials can neither provide a thorough understanding of the subject nor anticipate the lack of language competence of foreign language learners The knowledge of writing business reports in English is considered a need for English-major students who will soon graduate and might have to use the knowledge in working life However, as a newly established non-state university, Thang Long has a remarkable number of problems in dealing with the matter Firstly, the university staff, most of which are little informed teachers of English, has to begin designing the syllabus from nothing but references from several similar available ones As for the courses of English for Business Communication, it is hard to find a relevant syllabus so the staff has chosen to rely on a textbook written for improving business communication skill for native speakers Besides, as language-major students, students with English major find it really difficult to deal with business issues, let alone writing reports on the subject With those difficulties, the teaching of English for business communication in general and writing business reports in English in particular is really a challenge What the teacher can now is to develop effective teaching strategies that help students understand the subject knowledge presented in the textbook, design useful exercises for practicing both language aspects and writing skills and avoid making errors in writing business reports The study, therefore, is proposed to find out those necessary teaching strategies for the section of teaching how to write business reports in the course of English for Business Communication at Thang Long University PURPOSES OF THE STUDY The research questions are: What language students need in learning to write business reports in English? What are the difficulties for language students in learning to write business reports in English? What are common errors made by students in writing business reports in English? What are effective strategies for teaching writing business reports in English? From all of these, it is understood that the study aims at finding out effective and appropriate teaching strategies to achieve more satisfying results for the course The satisfying results can be understood as students' ability to convey factual information efficiently and cohesively Written texts must also lead to insightful and frequently profitable solutions It is required that business report writers address specific audience and pay attention to appropriate format and design issues so that a finished document can be closely read or efficiently skimmed Evaluation criteria should include attention to students' address of assignment, use of persuasive insights, consistent address of target audience, and ability to create effective summaries, headings, subheadings, lists and short paragraphs Lastly, reports must be expressed in accurate, appropriate and effective sentence structures, lexical items, orthography and styles It is surprising that although business reports in English are used frequently in most foreign offices in Vietnam, there have not been many studies on this aspect of business writing or business communication This study attempts not only to look into the existing methodologies but also to find out distinctive features of the teaching context at Thang Long University and language students to apply these methodologies appropriately SCOPE OF THE STUDY The study focuses on the teaching process of the section of writing business reports in the course English for Business Communication at Thang Long University It tries to suggest effective teaching strategies that can be used in the course A strategy can be understood as "a carefully devised plan of action to achieve a goal, or the art of developing or carrying out such a plan" (Encarta Reference Library 2004) Teaching strategies, therefore, can be understood as plans of action in order to achieve a goal in teaching In this language content-based course, the language teacher also plays the role of an instructor who teaches skills The strategies, therefore, are for teaching both language and skills The subjects of the study are language students who major in English, not students with business major The study does not deal with other kinds of reports apart from business reports used in business activities, i.e activities performed in organizations operating in order to provide goods or services English is used in these activities to facilitate communication involving people speaking English as the first, second or foreign language The study only tries to find out teaching strategies to help students learn how to write business reports with the aspects including language, research methods, visual aid design, writing process and organizational structure It does not try to suggest the needed changes of other aspects of the course and curriculum designs, such as time allotted for the course, facility settings, class size, and student assessment METHODOLOGY The paper will present a review from published materials in the related fields Also, a needs analysis will be conducted among the existing students of English major in order to find out whether language students at Thang Long University consider teaching report writing useful and find out the prepared teaching methods, their expectations from, their difficulties in and their recommendations for the course Lastly, an error analysis of students' writing samples is used to identify the common errors made by the students in writing business reports in English Books, articles and Internet resources on English for Business Purposes, teaching English writing and business reports are collected to examine the history of the fields and to provide available suggestions in the practice of teaching business report writing Next, the needs analysis is conducted through a questionnaire survey of students who are taking the course of English for Business Communication at Thang Long University The analysis of errors in writing samples is used in order to find out common errors students often make when writing business reports in English This can help the teacher anticipate problems in the existing course and look for proper ways to deal with these common errors and solve those problems The analysis also helps find out the strengths and drawbacks of the course, which may result in appropriate adjustments in the course contents as well as the teaching techniques of the teacher The primary data combine both qualitative and quantitative methods with both open and closed questions in the questionnaire designed for the needs analysis, and the error analysis in texts written by students CONTENTS OF THE STUDY The study includes four chapters, Chapter presents a review on literature, Chapter deals with the research description, Chapter shows the interpretation of data analyses, and implications for teaching how to write business reports in English for English-major students are recommended in Chapter In Chapter 1, the trends and approaches of English for Specific Purposes are examined and later narrowed down to English for Business Purposes Also, the chapter will trace down the approaches of teaching writing as well as analyze writing tasks and activities in a classroom Lastly, the chapter presents features of business reports as a genre with analysis on its classification, rhetorical patterns, linguistic features and the writing process Chapter describes the study of needs analysis and the error analysis of the students' writing samples In Chapter 3, the data of the two researches are analyzed to draw useful conclusions and implications Firstly, the needs analysis questionnaire responses are put together and evaluated The results will review the students' needs on the course content, methodologies, and their recommendations Secondly, the results of the error analysis are presented to see the weakness of students' writing skills Based on the review of literature and the data analysis in the Chapter and 3, Chapter will present key points of the studies: implications for teaching to write business reports The chapter will follow the teaching process from presenting the knowledge in the content-based course including analyzing sample reports, giving practice exercises, and managing errors in these writing exercises PART TWO The Study CHAPTER I Literature Review I.1 ENGLISH FOR BUSINESS PURPOSES (EBP) IN AN ENGLISH FOR SPECIFIC PURPOSES (ESP) CONTEXT I.1.1 DEFINITIONS OF ESP Despite appearing first in as far as the 1960s, ESP has not had an agreed-upon definition so far Hutchinson and Waters (1987: 19) emphasized, "ESP should probably be seen not as any particular language product but as an approach to language teaching which is directed by specific and apparent reasons for learning." English language teaching with ESP approach, therefore, becomes more targeted to the learner's needs and creates more motivation to the learner Dudley-Evans and St John (1998: 4-5) have modified a definition of ESP by Strevens' into one including absolute and variable characteristics as follows: Absolute characteristics: • ESP is defined to meet specific needs of the learner; • ESP makes use of the underlying methodology and activities of the discipline it serves; • ESP is centered on the language (grammar, lexis, register), skills, discourse and genres appropriate to these activities Variable Characteristics • ESP may be related to or designed for specific discipline; • ESP may use, in specific teaching situation, a different methodology from that of General English; • 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 for learners at secondary school level; • ESP is generally designed for intermediate or advanced students; • Most ESP courses assume some basic knowledge of the language system, but it can be used with beginners (Dudley-Evans and St John, 1998: 4-5) With these two views, it can be concluded that ESP is closely related with the needs of language learners in their use of English in their fields of professions or studies Also, ESP includes a number of variations that can be flexibly adjusted to fit the various needs of learners I.1.2 CLASSIFICATIONS OF ESP Hutchinson and Waters (1987: 17) and Dudley-Evans and St John (1998: 6) build similar trees for different divisions of ESP in which ESP is divided into such branches as English for Science and Technology (EST), English for Business and Economics (EBE), and English for Social Sciences (ESS), and further to English for Academic Purposes (EAP) and English for Occupational Purposes (EOP) or Business Purposes (EBP) from English for Management, Finance and Economics, and English for Business and Economics (EBE) Dudley-Evans and St John, on the other hand, suggested the use of a continuum with degrees of specificity, in which the higher the level is, the more specific the course becomes, accompanying with the levels of English Martin (1992: 40) also gave a thorough description of several degrees of specificity, from more specific courses to more general courses, and no restrictions on the language levels, as presented in Figure I-1 The use of degrees of speficity of ESP course helps clarify English courses Courses in type V will not be considered ESP courses due to the far too indirect link to the professional areas On the other hand, type I courses are the most specific courses and can be applied to learners with clear professional target Degrees of Targets Objectives Text-types specificity Type II very specifiable / narrow skills (content predictable / routine secondary) specifiable / predictable in Type I skill and some content term of types specific, routine can be identified as genres, routine and nonroutine Type III half specifiable, half content and skill balanced unpredictable a wide range of definable types primarily not predictable, Type IV content-focused skill- wide range of variable, but with some important subordinate unpredictable both skills and content wide range, unpredictable specifiable elements Type V very few specifiable or predictable Source: Adapted from Martin, 1992: 40 Figure I-1: The Five Degrees of Specificity of ESP courses In conclusion, the use the tree systems can be used in defining the branches of ESP and different disciplines that English can be used in, while the continuum can be seen as an effective tool in defining the courses of ESP in practice and in deciding the elements of those courses Both the tree system and the continuum are relevant in classifying EBP courses in the teaching context of the study I.1.3 TRENDS AND APPROACHES IN ESP Nelson (2000) worked out an overview of the different ideas on the different trends or approaches of ESP ESP has experienced a number of phases: register analysis, rhetorical and discourse analysis, needs analysis, skills and strategies, and learning-centered approach These phases will be presented in the chronological order However, because ESP develops at different paces in different countries in the world and what is old in one situation may still 10 be appropriate and useful in another context, all the above trends can be seen in practice (Hutchinson, 1987: 9) I.1.3.1 Register Analysis Register analysis is the special language that is considered suitable for a specific situation For example, the English used in computer science must be different from that in psychology Swales (1988, as cited by Dudley-Evans and St John 1988:21) assumes that while the basic grammar is not different in different circumstances, certain forms of grammatical and lexical forms occur more frequently than other forms in one circumstance and than the same forms in other circumstances The concept of register or a special language has been applied in language teaching in that some registers are emphasized in the materials and syllabuses of language courses The analysis of those registers has been considered to be of little value as it is not a reliable basis for ESP courses to just focus on simply teaching the linguistic elements that are special in the context However, with new computerized methods, for example, the development corpus analysis, register analysis is now coming back I.1.3.2 Rhetorical or Discourse Analysis The next stage of development in ESP accompanies the development of field discourse analysis Discourse analysis examines language in a higher level than the sentential level in register analysis, the text The key factor of discourse analysis is the rhetorical patterns and the linking devices in a text The ESP textbooks written based on discourse analysis concentrate on the rhetorical functions of different forms of language and the coherence and cohesion of the text 76 e) noise B INTERVIEW WITH MRS CLARKE I: Mrs Clarke, I’d like some information about the AX20 photocopier used here in this office For example, its efficiency suitability? C: The worst thing, as far as I’m concerned, is its position It’s placed very close to my desk and it also blocks the filing cabinets It’s very difficult for people I: I see How long does it take to a copy? C: I’m not sure exactly, but it’s extremely slow And there always seem to be a lot of people waiting to use it And more important, it’s always breaking down I: Can you be more specific on that last point? C: I know the machine is unreliable because I had to call the engineer five times last month I: Yes, that’s significant What other disadvantages are there? C: Well, I feel it’s an extremely noisy machine much noisier than the last one we had and the quality is not good either U: The quality? C: Yes, according to my records, there were over 8% spoilt copies in June and nearly as many as that the month before When deciding on the relevance of information, it is important to judge the value of opinions Answer the following questions: In Mrs Clarke’s opinion, what is the most disadvantageous thing about the photocopier? What evidence does Mrs Clarke give for poor quality? What evidence does Mrs Clarke have for slow copy time? 10 Which of the following pieces of information would it be useful to obtain from Mrs Clarke: a) personnel permitted to use the photocopier? b) type of documents photocopied? c) number of photocopies done per day? d) type of copy paper used? The next piece of evidence is much more factual C SUMMARY OF PREVIOUS REPORT MADE BY THE PURCHASING DEPARTMENT AT INTERBLOC HQ IN JULY 1978 The purpose of this report is to assess the relative costs of copy facilities based on different methods of payment The methods examined are: Rental Leasing Buying 1.1 The rate of rental depends on copy volume On an AX20 at the minimum rate of 3,000 copies per month, the price is 2.9p per copy, excluding paper At 10,000 copies a month, the rate is 1.75p A total of £175 1.2 On five-year lease, the monthly charge, depending on tax relief, is approximately £44.13 In addition, 1.1p per copy is required for maintenance and service On 3,000 copies, this amounts to £77.13 a month On 10,000, it is £154.13 1.3 The capital cost of buying, after tax, is £1125.60 Over five years, that is £18.76 a month Add running costs of 1.1p per copy and 77 this gives a monthly total of £51.76 for 3,000 copies and £128.76 for 10,000 11 When leasing, what does the machine charge depend on? 12 Which method gives the cheapest copy cost? 13 What is the copy cost at 3,000 copies per month when buying? 14 The forth piece of evidence has been provided by Mr Madson of the Accounts Department at Interbloc It is a written statement of his views While you are reading the statement, decide if Mr Madson is: a) putting forward an argument against renting? b) putting forward an argument against buying? c) putting forward an argument for leasing? d) putting forward an argument for renting? D MR MADSON ‘S STATEMENT The question of whether to lease, rent or buy is very complicated It very much depends on the tax and cash position of a company But one thing is clear; our present policy of buying is unwise Because this type of equipment is constantly improving, it is necessary to make frequent changes If you own a copier, you have to sell it The trouble is that there is a very poor market for used machines A secondary point is that Interbloc is a large company that does not need to build up its assets in this way or have a debt on the balance sheet At the same time, the advantages of leasing have been overstated Many companies have regarded leasing as a means of avoiding tax In fact, it only postpones it The company must face a tax bill in the end The only way to avoid making payment is for the company to go on leasing at an increasing rate 15 What is Mr Madson’s principal argument against buying? 16 What have many companies misunderstood about leasing? 17 What causes companies to go on leasing at a higher level? 18 Now look back at the terms of reference on page Which of the following would you like to know more about? a) costs of renting, buying and leasing equipment b) the range of photocopying equipment on the market (Comfort, Revell, and Stott, 1984: 6-9) Besides, as students have experienced campus life and understand certain aspects of how a university is managed as an organization, the teacher can take advantage of these understandings to compensate for the lack of understandings about business organization management Therefore, another option for practice exercises with business situation is to give students writing tasks that require them to write report on the management of the university The common features of the two kinds of organization allow the practice of writing reports for management of business organizations to be partly replaced by the practice of writing reports for management of educational organizations First, both kinds of 78 organization face problems in operation, these management problems can be in finance, personnel, quality control, etc Secondly, both of them use similar systems of communication through documents In English-speaking countries, where reports are more commonly used, reports for organizational managements have similar structures: statement of purpose, discussions of findings and recommendations and/or conclusions Although universities not have typical business context, the instructor can design exercise questions that make students try to use their experience and understanding to solve hypothetical problems on campus The students with little or no working experience in a business will not have to write reports based on the vague understanding of the operations of businesses while still practice solving problems and presenting information The following exercise is revised from a report writing exercise in Northey (1998) with some edition to make it familiar with the situation of Vietnamese universities For example, the original exercise refers to cars as a popular means of transport; in this modified exercise motorbikes are used instead This kind of exercise provokes students to use the provided content and students' available understanding of the university environment to analyze the problem and find out solutions to recommend Besides providing students with what to write, the exercise also guides them to follow a process approach and to organizing information by giving instructions to draw an outline that use topical organization The questionnaire survey suggests similar numbers of students appreciate practice exercises on campus situations and those on language exercises Therefore, the teachers can consider giving the similar proportion of exercises on the two kinds of subjects 79 Organizing Reports: Structuring Reports Assume that your university president has received many student complains about campus parking problems You are appointed the chair of a student committee organized to investigate the problems and recommend solutions The president gives you the file labeled “Parking: Complaints from Students,” and you jot down the essence of the complaints as you inspect the contents Your notes look like this: • Inadequate students spaces at critical hours • Bicycles taking up full spaces • Discourteous security officers • Spaces (usually empty) reserved for university officials • Relatively high parking fees • Vandalism to motorcycles • Inadequate total space Prepare an outline for a report to be submitted to committee members Use a topical organization that categorizes this information Source: Adapted from Northey, 1998 Figure IV-1: An Example of Report Assignment on Campus Topic IV.2.3 OTHER EXERCISES Other exercises include those on doing research, subject knowledge and businessrelated knowledge These are not the focus of the course but can be considered as component skills for writing business reports and need to be developed together with language and writing skills Because they not deal much with English, it is easy to apply available exercises from books for business communication for native speakers However, it is necessary to make some adaptations for the exercises fit into Vietnamese situations The example that follows is an exercise in a book by the U.S., which is based on the U.S economic environment: Finding Secondary Information Using online, database, or printed sources, find the following information Be sure to properly cite your source, including the author’s name, the title, the name of publisher, the location and date of publishing, using the formats (…) [guided in the book] a Contact information for the American Management Association b Median weekly earning of men and women by occupation c Current market share for Perrier water d Performance ratios for office supply retails e Annual stock performance for Hewlett-Packard 80 f Number of franchise outlets in the United States g Composition of the U.S workforce by profession (Bovee, 2001:333) Vietnamese students may be unfamiliar with items from a to f in the above exercise because they belong to the business environment of the United States Furthermore, the original book was written for training business management students with higher emphasis on business skills including doing research, not on English Therefore, the exercise is simplified and adjusted with the same questions but less items and some changes to suit the Vietnamese business environment One rationale for these adjustments is that the course is taking place in Vietnamese situation and students can use their background understandings on the situation Another reason is that most students will work in Vietnam and it is a responsibility of education to prepare for the most common needs with useful knowledge The items suggested are: a Composition of the Vietnamese workforce by economic activity b Contact information for Kinh Do Corporation – Vietnam c Main export markets of Vietnam National Tea Corporation (Vinatea) d Annual stock performance for Refrigeration Electrical Engineering Corporation (REE) IV.3 MANAGING ERRORS It can be narrowed down from the literature in the first chapter that for the report writing exercises, giving assessing comments on how well the learners the exercises should be combined with showing what is done rightly or wrongly This kind of exercise aims at improving the writing skills and this can be done through giving honest assessment, both positive and negative Again, this should be given with support and not with discouragement from the teacher Giving percentage or grades to students’ paper in this case will not help much in showing the students what should be done in order to improve their business report writing Therefore, assessment could be done through error correction Error 81 correction not only gives assessment but also provides evidences to what is wrong and what is right The findings of the study suggest that teachers should try to point out all the possible errors by students However, the purpose of error correction activities is to prevent students to repeat the error and it is not feasible to eliminate all the errors in one specific paper Ur (1996:255) suggests that both positive and negative assessments should be made to learners, "as honestly as possible." However, to avoid discouraging learning, when showing the errors, the teacher should tries to make positive attitude and explain that the errors are natural and useful for learning The important point is that those assessments must be given in a supportive and warm attitude, and the learners must feel that the teacher really want to promote learning not to put the learners down As Ur (1996) suggested, we should balance our role of being a language instructor and a learning supporter As an instructor, we are responsible to give correction for the errors; but over-correction will distract both learners and teachers, and discourage learning As a principle, we should ignore some errors if the correction of them will “hinder learning more than help it.” Choosing what errors to correct and what not to correct and how to correct those errors are as much important Because we should never expect language learners to create perfect language, it is not feasible that we can prohibit all kinds of errors The teacher should see the errors that learners make in a positive view not negatively as a sign of failure because they are a useful way to show what is lack in the learners' competence Also, many teachers experience the reoccurrence of the same errors, which means that there is a little improvement (Ur 1996: 255) Doff (1988: 194-195) notes that (1) the teacher could correct the most important errors only, (2) the teacher could reduce the amount of marking in the 82 learner's work to avoid making it look badly written, and (3) the teacher could simply indicate where the learner made important errors and ask the learners to correct the errors themselves IV.3.1 CORRECTING ERRORS IN CONTENT Content and meaning are important in communication, so it is necessary that students understand the message they want to convey However, as the analysis of students' errors suggested, the reason for most errors of meaning is the lack of business understanding These errors, therefore, can be avoided by providing clear, familiar and specific information in the question The explanation of some business terms and the whole content of the exercise should be given, too, and students should be made familiar with the business activities involved This can be done through giving group discussion tasks among students to clarify the task content There should also be guide on what is expected from the particular exercise or task and in business world in general Once the errors are already made, however, it is the matter of what should be done with them to prevent similar errors in future If the error in content is due to the lack of understanding on the hypothetical situation, a strategy is to make clear of the content Another kind is errors of meaning due to the wrong use of language items that fail to convey the correct meaning Explanations or exercises on language use should be given in these cases For example, a common mistakes of students writing business reports is using the word "Solutions" for the heading of recommendations, and they should understand that recommendations are proposed solutions to a problem which report writers sometimes suggest as good or useful things to IV.3.2 CORRECTING ERRORS IN ORGANIZATION 83 Some errors in organization can be dealt with by using the checklist, which will be discussed in another section For the errors that students fail to discover, the teacher has to point out and show students what is expected and why the students were wrong He or she can add notes in the students' exercise papers to explain the expected logical order, parts that should be separate, the place where a transition is needed and the parts of the report that are relevant to the report's purpose The task of writing report used for the error analysis of the writing samples can be taken as an example For paper 24 that fails to obtain logical order of the parts (as described in the error analysis), it should be pointed out that the report should be organized in indirect organization rather than direct one because of the need to persuade the boss Firstly, it should begin by introducing the purposes of finding the reasons for high employee turnover and giving recommendations for the issue, and then a discussion of findings should present three types of reasons with an appropriate order of popularity Next, there should be recommendations on a more flexible work schedule and the providing of more part-time positions The report can be concluded with a remark on high turnover and training costs to add more persuasion for the boss with a reputation of being against changes There should be a clear separation among those parts and each part should begin with an introducing statement which is followed by the discussion For other errors in organization, the teacher should also show the problem and what is expected instead of what is done In general, understandings on discourse analysis are required to reinforce the students' skill of organizing the reports 84 IV.3.3 CORRECTING ERRORS IN PRESENTATION The errors due to misunderstanding between letter and memo forms can be avoided by the instructor's reminding of the situation As discussed in the error analysis, a common error of presentation is the report having no or insufficient headings, and non-highlighted headings This is because some students are not aware of the importance of headings in reports The teacher's task is to raise this awareness by guiding them on where to put the headings and what headings should tell and how should headings be highlighted to stand out of the normal text The example exercise on using report headings presented in IV.2.2 can be helpful in preventing this kind of error IV.3.4 CORRECTING LANGUAGE ERRORS Language errors include errors in grammar, vocabulary, orthography, sentence and style As English writing teachers of other kinds often do, the teacher of writing business reports can use a system of symbols to show what kinds of language mistakes have been made, for example, Sp for spelling, Gr for grammar, ^ for the lack of a necessary word or phrase Sometimes, a note is needed if the teacher thinks the students made a mistake because they are not aware of the rules Finally, if the errors cannot be easily explained, the teacher can give suggestions for improvement directly These errors can also be dealt with by students themselves The following part discuss self-correction and peer-correction, which can be considered useful tools of giving feedback for students while reducing the work load for teachers 85 IV.3.5 SELF-CORRECTION AND PEER-CORRECTION Self-correction and peer-correction have been proved to reduce the load of work that the teacher of writing skills has to deal with In process approach, the pre-writing, writing, and the post-writing can be completed by the students before handing in to the teacher Students may feel discontented when they have to check their own paper or to have another students check it The reason is they are not familiar with that their papers are not checked by the teacher but by their peers who they believe are of the similar language qualifications However, self-correction and peer-correction serve several purposes at a time: to manage the paper load for the teacher as mentioned above, to provide students with a chance to improve their language in developing their ability to analyze and to create coordinative working among students so that stronger students can help weak ones Peer-correction and selfcorrection can be applied with errors causing by carelessness of accuracy and orthography This way allows students in the class to have enough practice with a lot of exercises being assigned and given feedback while the teacher does not have to read and respond all the exercises Self-correction and peer-correction should be guided by a checklist that aims at checking overall correctness of the report writing exercises One strong point of using checklist is the ability to find out a variety of errors at a time, so it not only save time for revising but also give students a view on the requirements of a well-written report The checklist should include items that are easy to be judged, not abstract nor qualitative One thing should be notice is that students may write their exam by hand, or type and print it from computer The following checklist is recommended for both handwritten and printed students’ reports The teachers can provide each student with a checklist for each report 86 writing exercise so that students can use the checklist for checking the report written by themselves or by their partner in the pair Checklist for Business Reports Presentation • • • • Is the report written in the right layout (memo or letter)? Do the main parts of the report have headings? Are headings, numbers, and bullets used appropriately? Does the report use tables and graphs as appropriate? Content Issues • • • • • Is the purpose of the document introduced appropriately? Is all information correct (as expected)? Is the analysis covered sufficiently to allow the reader to follow your logic? Are facts and opinions clearly distinguished? Does the report contain sufficient components including a statement of purpose, a discussion of findings, and key points (conclusions and/or recommendations)? Organization • • • • • Is the document ordered in a logical way? Are the parts of the document logically separated from each other? Do the subparts logically fit under this major part? Does the report have coherence? Does each paragraph and section show unity of purpose? Language • • • • • • Is the writing grammatically correct? Are the sentences verified and concise? Are the words precise in meaning? Is the document free of typographical errors or misspellings? Does the reports use correct punctuation and capitalization? Is the style appropriate? (formal, objective, factual, and impersonal) Figure IV-2: An Example of Checklist for Errors on Business Reports in English 87 PART THREE Conclusions SUMMARY OF THE STUDY The study aims at finding more effective methods and strategies to overcome the difficulties in teaching students of English at Thang Long University to write business reports in English First, it provides a review of previous documents in the field Then, the study uses a questionnaire survey to find out the learners’ educational background and attitude to English language, their expectations of the course, and their evaluation on the teaching methodology Finally, it analyzes learners’ sample assignments to find out common errors of meaning, organizational structure, presentation and language Several important conclusions have been made Firstly, it is viewed by the learners that to prepare the skills of writing business reports in English is necessary It is also feasible because students are prepared with both English language and business knowledge However, most students have never been involved in business activities Therefore, the knowledge in business seems not enough, and students find a lot of difficulties with learning to find things about situations that they are not familiar with The suggestions for teaching strategies include those that encourage effective presenting knowledge, practicing through exercises, and managing errors These suggestions aim at facilitating students’ learning following a teaching process The study focuses on finding practical strategies that can be applied in classroom activities and other activities when teaching to write business reports in English Important implications for teaching can be in various fields, from combining different styles in presenting knowledge which encourage students reasoning activities, providing and analyzing sample reports, giving 88 exercises on familiar topics to providing checklists to aid peer-correction and self-correction In conclusion, the study tries to deal with a real demand on teaching ESP in the teaching context of Thang Long University RECOMMENDATIONS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH The analysis on the needs of English students in the field can provide a broader view on the course if combined with a course evaluation In fact, course evaluation, as suggested by Dudley-Evans (1998), should be implemented continuously both during and at the end of the course so that some findings of evaluations will result in changes immediately in the course be in process Other findings may bring in changes in longer terms The study only deals with the problem from education perspective and may not be of sufficient view That is why it is necessary to researches from another angle of the labor market Studies are needed to examine what kinds and how business reports in English are used in among Vietnamese workforce This will help to design more focused courses on writing business reports in English in which requirements of successful business report are indicated to help students write better reports This study suggests that a need for the writing skill of business report in English may also exists in students majoring in business because the labor market always need candidate with communication skills and reports are a popular tool of management Therefore, there should be also analysis on the needs of communication in English as a foreign language among workforce with business degrees The results of this research may suggest on whether and how to provide teaching to write business reports in English courses belonging to business degree programs Also, the results of the study may be useful when combined with 89 researches on local teaching contexts of other Vietnamese institutes and universities where similar English for Specific Purpose courses are provided ... difficulties for language students in learning to write business reports in English? What are common errors made by students in writing business reports in English? What are effective strategies for teaching. .. the teaching process of the section of writing business reports in the course English for Business Communication at Thang Long University It tries to suggest effective teaching strategies that... English for Business Communication Before that, students have undergone English for Business Communication and English for 31 Business Communication English for Business Communication is a foundation