ESP

Ha noi University Department of Post graduate

Assignment

Topic: Needs analysis towards Designing an ESP

listening syllabus for second year-students of non- English major of Ha noi university of Business and management

Tutor’s name: Le Thanh Dung Student’s name: Nguyen Thi Thiet Class: PG2

Hanoi March 30th 2010

I-Introduction 1

In Viet Nam,the ESP movement has shown a slow but definite growth over the past few years.When the country’s economic reform began in the late 1980s,the importance of English for scientific and technological developement,for trade and commerce,and international co-operation is well understood .The need is not only General English ( GE ) but also ESP.Many universities,institutions and resoures centres teach ESP for students from their second year of study.The aims of the English courses at these universities is to provide students with knowledge of English used in the field they are learning so that they can use it later in their future career.It is a fact that English has become a necessary tool in order to obtain a job,get promoted and perform effectively in the working world.This has led to a rapid growth in English courses aimed at specific disciplines such as English for Tourism,English for Marketing,English for Technical... In order to meet the demand for an ESP listening syllabus for the 2nd year students and in the light of current ESP teaching methods, The researcher decided to choose needs analysis towards designing an ESP listening syllabus based on students’ needs.The subject were 30 second-year students of non-English major at Hanoi University of Business and Management.Their age ranged from 19 to 22 years old.Most of them had only attended English classes as part of the official school curriculum.The students had fulfilled English

2

File 1,2 and 3.In semester 2 of the second year they started studying Business English.This study attempts to investigate the students’ needs in an effort to make a suitable syllabus for them and help them to find a good future job. II-content

* Overview of needs analysis. Considered the fundamental step in planning a language course,especially in ESP course,Needs analysis contribute much to the success of a course design. In the first section we will review the definition of Needs, types of Needs, the role of Needs Analysis, and approaches to Needs Analysis. 1. Definition of Needs. There are several different definitons of Needs. Robinson (1991 ) discussses needs in ESP course design as follows. • Needs can refer to students’ study or job requirments,that is ,what they have to do at the and of the course.This is a goal-oriented definiion of needs.Needs in this sense are perhaps more appropriately described as’objectives’. • Needs can mean ‘what the user-instution or society at large regards as necessary or deriable to be learnt from a programme or language instruction’. • Needs can be considered as ‘what the learner needs to do to actually acquire the language.This is a process-

3

oriented definition of needs and relates to transitional behavior,the means of learning’ • Needs can be’what the students themselves would like to gain from the language course.This implies that students may have personal aims in addition to ( or even opposition to ) the requirements of the studies or jobs.Such personal needs may be viewed as wants or desires. • We may interpret needs as lacks,that is,what the students do not know or can not do in English. Robinson ( 1991 ) also discuss that some views of needs have been paired such as : sujectives and objectives needs( or perceived and felt needs ),goal-oriented and process-oriented ( or target and learning needs ). Tom Hutchinson ( 1986 ) gives the answer to the question “ What do we mean by Needs “ ?: In the language centre approach, the answer to this question would be “ Ability to comprehend and /or produce the linguistic feature of the Target situation”. Brown ( 1995 ),meanwhile,shows that : Once identified needs can be started in terms of goals and objectives Which in turn,can serve as the bais for developing tests,materials,

4

Teaching activities,an evaluation stratery,as well as for evaluating The precision and accuracy of the original needs assessment”. 2. Types of needs. From the different definitions above, Tom Hutchinson & Alan Water ( 1986 ) divided Needs into two major categeries:Target Needs and Learning Needs. a.Target needs. Target Needs is what the learners need to do in the target situations. It is more useful to look at the situation in terms of necessities,lacks and wants. • Necessities : Necessities are considered the type of needs determined by the demand of the target situation, that is, what the learner has to know in order to function effectively in the target situation. • Lacks : The gap between the existing proficiency and the target proficiency can be referred to as the learners’ lacks. In other words, it is the gap betwwen what the learners know already and what they achieve by the end of the course. • Wants : In addition to the perception of course designers, sponsors and teachers of the target situation, learners may well have a clear idea of the necessities of the target situation and their lacks. This may conflict with perception of other parties.

5

b.Learning needs. We have considered Needs in terms of target situation, that is, what learners need to do in the target situation. However, we have taken into account how we help students acquire the knowledge and abilities in order to perform in the target situation and how students learnt to do it. Hutchinson (1986 ) says it is naive to base a course design simply on the target objectives.The Needs,potential and constraints of learninf situation must also be taken into account, if we are going to have any useful analysis of learners’s needs. This indicates another kind of needs : learning needs. 3.The role of Needs Analysis. Tom Hutchinson ( 1986 ) says: What distinguishes ESP from General Enhlish is not the existence of a Need such as but rather than an awareness of the needs. If learners, Sponsors, and teachers know why the learners need English, that Awareness will have an influence on what will be acceptable as Reasonable content in the language course and, on the positive side, What potential can be exploited.

6

Kathleen Graves ( 2000 ) says when Needs Assessment ( Needs Analysis ) is used as an ongoing part of teaching, it helps the learners to reflect on their learning, to identify their needs and to gain a sense of ownership and control their learning. 4.Target situation and learning situation framework.

Target situation -Why is the language

Learning situation -Why are the learners taking

needed?

the course?

-How will the language be

-How do the learners learn ?

used?

-What resourses are

-What will the content areas

available?

be ?

-Who are the learners?

-Who will the learners use the -Where will the ESP course language with?

take place?

-Where will the language be

-When will the ESP take

used?

place?

5.Means of data collection According to Tom Hutchinson and Alan Water ( 1986 ), there are several ways to gather information about target needs and learning needs such as questionnaires, interviews, observations, data collection and informal consultations.In this study, questionnaire is chosen as means of data 7

collection because it can help gather infornation from a large number of people without researcher’s presence. Besides, the result of the questionnaire is accurate and reliable as the respondents have time to think over their answers without undergoing pressure. 6.Approaches to Needs Analysis. There are two approaches of Needs Analysis. They are : Target situation Analysis and Present situation Analysis. • Target Situation Analysis ( TSA) According to Chambers ( 1980 ), TSA is a “ communication in the target situation “. Robinson ( 1991 ),in the meantime,says TSA focuses on students’ needs at the end of a language course. • Present Situation Analysis ( PSA ) PSA may be posited as a complement to target situation analysis ( Jordan,1997 ) .It attempts to identify what they are like at the beginning of the course.According to Robinson ( 1991 ), a PSA seeks to establish what the students are like at the start of the course, investigating their strength and weaknesses.The PSA seeks information about their respective levels of ability,their view on language teaching and learning, the surrouding society and culture; the attitude held towards English and towards the learning and use of a foreign language. In this study,the researcher uses both needs analysis approaches ( target situation analysis and present situation

8

analysis ) in the hope to get an overview of students’ needs : what is to be learnt and how it is accquired best by students.In other words, the reseacher agrees with Brown’s idea of needs analysis. He said that : Students have needs and concerns other than linguistic ones. Thus the Learners’ human needs must also be acknowleged alongside their Purely language-related ones...Needs analysis will be defined as the Systematic collection and analysis of relevant information necessary To satisfy the language learning requirements of the students within The context of the particular institutions involved in the learning Situation.

III.Conclusion

9

Nowadays,the ESP area proves to be in great demand for a global community of people speaking different language, where efficient command of English can help to contribute to professtional as well as personal developement of each individual.Therefore, teaching and learning ESP is necessary.A practical and useful ESP syllabus plays the most important role in teaching and learning process. This study focused on needs analysis towards designing an ESP listening syllabus for second-year students of nonEnglish major of Ha Noi University of Business and Management.What the researcher emphasizes is that from a suggested syllabus to implementing it in classroom is a long way and the process demands a lot of creation and efforts from material writers and teachers as well as learners who are main factors having great influence on the sucess of a syllabus.

10

Questionnaire 1 To: Learners who are intending ESP course at Ha Noi University of Business and Management . In order to design an appropriate listening course for students of non-English major of Ha Noi University of Business and Management, we would like you, as ESP learner, tell us your opinion regarding your English study and what you expect to achieve by the end of the course. Please respond to all the folowing questions and statements. General information: Name:.................................. Sex:...................................... Date of birth:........................ Academic information

1.What English level have you completed? a.elementary

d.pre-

intermediate b.intermediate

e.upper-

intermediate c.advanced. 2.How often do you listen to English for learning?

11

a.often

b.sometimes

c.rarely

d.never 3.What kind of listening do you often do ? a.listening carefully to get the main information. b.Listening for giving direction. c.Regconizing individual words what is being said. d.Other listening............................... 4.What difficulty do you have while listening? a.There are too many difficult words. b.There are different accents. c.They speak at a high speed. d.It is difficult to get the overall information. 5.What do you wish to achieve by the end of the course? a.Widen my professional knowleged. b.Be able to use English for communication. c.Be able to listen to native speakers accurately. d.Others........

12

qestionnaire 2 To :The teachers who are in charge of teaching listening at Ha Noi university of Business and Management. In order to design an effective listening ESP course for your students ,we would like you,as the teachers,let us know your expectation from the course.Please respond to all the following questions and statements. 1.How long would you like the course is? a.36 hours b.48 hours c.72 hours d.others... 2.What do you expect the teachers do during the course ? a.To provide learners with more listening task. b.To provide learners with more professional knolems wledge.

13

c.To help learners solve problems relating to listening. d.To provide learners with extra materials. 3.How often do you want the class to take place ? a.Once a week b.Twice a week. c.Three times a week. d.Others: 4.What do you wish the learners to be able to do by the end of the course? a.They can listen to specific information accurately. b.They can listen to English speakers with different accents. c.They can listen to radios , news and summarize the mains points. d.They can listen to real life situations. references.

Emmert,P. ( 1994 ).A definition of listening.The listening Post. Hutchinson,T.& Water.(1987).English for Specific Purposes.Cambrigde University Press. Rixon,S (1986).Developing listening skills.Macmillan Publishers Ltd Underwood,M (1989).Teaching listening,Longman Willis,J (1981).Teaching English through English.Longman.

14

Richards,J.C,Platts,J.& Platts,H (1992).Dictionary of language teaching & Applied Linguistic.Longman. Robinson ,P.C (1991),ESP Today: A practitioner’sguide. Griva,E .(2002).Needs analysis projects for the E.A.P,students of the Florida Pedagogical School. Nunan,D.(1987).The teacher as cirriculum developer. Harmer,J.(1991) The practice of English language Teaching.Longman. Chamber ( 1980 ).A re-evaluation of Needs Analysis.

15