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Construction engineering students' evaluation of the esp programme at vinh university
1 PART I: INTRODUCTION 1 RATIONALE The status of English has turned a significant percentage of the world’s population In addition to General English, English for Specific Purposes (ESP) has been gaining an increasing importance and it has grown to become one of the most prominent areas of the Teaching of English as Foreign or Second Language (TEFL/TESL) Ewer (1976: 247) believes that “the teaching of English for scientific, technological and technical purposes is of comparatively recent growth as specialized activity, but it is now emerging as one of the most rapidly expanding and important branches of TEFL/TESL today” To meet the demand of the learners, many ESP programmes have been designed Together with the worldwide trend to learn ESP, the teaching staff of Foreign Languages Department at Vinh University collected documents and designed some ESP programmes for some specific fields, including the ESP programme for Construction which was first taught for K.46 Construction Engineering students at Vinh University Besides an effort to offer the learners with the ESP programme according to their specific needs, it is necessary to implement an evaluation Furthermore, the fact is that the ESP programme for Construction designed by the teaching staff of Foreign Languages at Vinh University was first taught for K.46 Construction Engineering students at Vinh University and it received some learners’ evaluative comments while it was in the progress Therefore, it is necessary to have an evaluation on the ESP programme for Construction at Vinh University carried out by the learners themselves as Wallace (1991: 163)‘s thought “One source of evaluation will obviously be the trainees themselves” 2 AIMS AND SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY The study is aimed at researching Construction Engineering students’ evaluation on the ESP programme at Vinh University in terms of audience, aims, time allocation, contents and methodology in order to determine whether the ESP programme for Construction is suitable to the learners’ abilities and needs Significantly, the process of this ESP programme evaluation can be seen as a way of developing our understanding of the ways in which it works and, in doing so, of contributing to both acquisition theory and pedagogic practices Hence, the teachers would 2 find ways to do interesting things in their teaching ESP in order to realize all the potentials embedded in the programme It is hoped that the findings of this study and some suggestions would contribute in improving the ESP programme for Construction at Vinh University to make it more suitable for the learners’ needs and abilities in the coming years 3 RESEARCH QUESTIONS The study aims to find out the answers to the following questions: 1) What are the learners’ evaluative comments on the ESP programme for Construction at Vinh University? 2) What are the learners’ needs for learning ESP at Vinh University? 3) How should the ESP programme for Construction at Vinh University be improved to make it more suitable to the learners’ abilities and needs? 4 METHOD OF THE STUDY This minor thesis uses a number of books concerning ESP and evaluation The research method used is the survey The data collection instrument is questionnaire The practical data from K46 Construction Engineering students at Vinh University forms basis for this study 5 SCOPE OF THE STUDY Within its scope, this research mainly focuses on the learners’ evaluation of the ESP programme at Vinh University such as: the time allocation, the topics of the ESP reading texts, the length of the ESP reading texts, the amount of technical vocabulary contained in each ESP reading text, the level of difficulty in grammar, the usefulness of exercises, the most difficult type of exercises, the satisfaction towards practice through exercises, the achievements after finishing the programme, and the satisfaction towards needs after finishing the programme Basing on the findings and the learners’ needs, it provides some suggestions to improve the ESP programme for Construction at Vinh University Its major object is K46 Construction Engineering students of Technology Department at Vinh University 3 6 DESIGN OF THE STUDY The minor thesis is composed of three main parts: introduction, development and conclusion The introduction presents the rationale, aims and significance, research questions, method of the study, scope of the study, as well as design of the study The development consists of three chapters: - Chapter I, “Literature Review”, provides the relevant theories: an overview of ESP (definition of ESP, classification of ESP and the development of ESP), evaluation (terminology definition, types of programme evaluation, purposes for evaluation, criteria for evaluation and central questions in programme evaluation design) and learner- centeredness in ESP - Chapter II, “An overview of English for Construction at Vinh University”, presents background information about English for Construction at Vinh University, including in the teaching and learning situation, a description of current ESP programme for Construction and the learners at Vinh University - Chapter III, “The study”, describes the methodology employed to collect data for this thesis at first (participants, data collection instrument and procedure) Then it reports on the learners’ evaluation of the ESP programme for Construction at Vinh University and their needs, and shows the major findings Finally, it provides some suggestions to improve the ESP programme for Construction at Vinh University The conclusion presents what have been found out from the study and the limitations and suggestions for further study 4 PART II: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW This chapter aims to provide a theoretical base to develop an operational framework for programme evaluation The first part presents an overview of ESP with regards to definition, the classification and the development of the ESP The second part discusses about evaluation, concerning in terminology definition, types of programme evaluation, purposes for evaluation, criteria for evaluation and central questions in programme evaluation design The third part relates to the learner-centeredness in ESP 1.1 AN OVERVIEW OF ESP 1.1.1 Definition of ESP ESP has been defined by different researchers as well as scholars’ different views According to Hutchinson and Waters (1987: 19), ESP must be seen as an approach, not as a product In their opinion, ESP is not a particular kind of language or methodology, nor does it consist of a particular type of teaching material However, Strevens (1988) defines ESP by making a distinction between four absolute characteristics and two variable characteristics: - The absolute characteristics are that ESP consists of ELT (English Language Teaching) which is: • designed to meet specified needs of the learners; • related in content (that is in its themes and topics) to particular disciplines, occupations and activities; • centred on language appropriate to those activities in syntax, lexis, discourse, semantics and so on, and analysis of the discourse; • in contrast with ‘General English’ - The variable characteristics are that ESP • may be restricted as to the learning skills to be learned (for example reading only); • may not be taught according to any pre-ordained methodology 5 (Source: Strevens, 1988; cited in Dudley-Evans and St John, 1998: 3) Robinson (1991) ‘s definition (cited in Dudley-Evans and St John, 1998: 3) is based on two key defining criteria (i.e ‘normally goal-directed’ and need analysis) and a number of characteristics (i.e limited time period, adults in homogeneous classes) that are generally found to be true of ESP Dudley-Evans and St John (1998: 4-5) comment that above definitions have validity but also weaknesses, either in the definition or in the features described They believe that a definition of ESP should reflect the fact that much ESP teaching, especially where it is specifically linked to a particular profession or discipline, makes use of a methodology that differs from that used in General Purpose English teaching They also believe that language should be included as a defining feature of ESP In summary, all the above definitions show that ESP belongs to English Language Teaching (ELT) The ESP courses are performed successfully in occupational roles by an individual or a group whose need is considered to be a distinguished feature from General English 1.1.2 Classification of ESP ESP has traditionally been divided into two main areas: English for Academic Purposes (EAP) and English for Occupational Purposes (EOP) According to Robinson (1991), the classification of ESP is generally presented in a tree diagram as follows: EOP Pre-experience Pre-study ESP Simultaneous / In-service In study Post-experience Post-study EEP/EAP Independent For study in a specific discipline Integrated As a school subject Figure 1: ESP classification by experience (Robinson, 1991: 3-4) 6 The diagram shows a useful division of courses Those distinctions are very important and they will affect the degree of specificity that is appropriate to the course Dudley-Evans and St John (1998) also present the classification of ESP through a tree diagram but it divides EAP and EOP according to discipline or professional area as in the figure 2 English for Specific Purposes English for Academic Purposes English for Occupational Purposes English for English for English for English for English for English for (Academic) (Academic) (Academic) Management, Professional Vocational Science and Medical Legal Finance and Purposes Purposes Technology Purposes Purposes Economics English for English for Pre- Vocational Medical Business Vocational English Purposes Purposes English Figure 2: ESP classification by professional area (Dudley-Evans and St John 1998: 6) The tree diagram for ESP by Dudley-Evans and St John (1998) describes that EAP consists of English for Science and Technology (EST), English for Medical Purposes (EMP) English for Legal Purposes (ELP) and English for Management, Finance and Economics And EOP includes English for Professional Purposes with sub-sections as English for Medical Purposes (EMP) and English for Business Purposes (EBP) and English for Vocational Purposes with sub-sections as Pre-Vocational English and Vocational English In short, studying various ways of classifying ESP provides a teacher an overall picture of the groups of learners with whom he or she is going to work 1.1.3 The development of ESP Hutchinson and Waters (1987: 9-14) refer to five stages of the development of ESP from the early beginnings in the 1960s They point out that ESP is not a monolithic universal phenomenon and develops at different speeds in different countries 7 The first stage, which took place mainly in the 1960s and early 1970s, is characterized by the register analysis or the concept of ESP as a special language The basic principle of this concept is that the English of Electrical Engineering constitutes a specific register different from that of Biology or General English and the aim of the analysis is to identify the grammatical and lexical features of these registers Teaching materials then take these linguistic features as their syllabus English for different purposes has different registers, and the aim of the analysis is to identify the grammatical and lexical features of these registers A good example of a syllabus is “A Course in Basic Scientific English” by Ewer and Latorre (1969) and their aim is to produce a syllabus which gives high priority to the language forms students meet in their Science studies and low priority to forms students do not meet Whereas in the first stage of its development, ESP focuses on language at the sentence level, the second stage of development shifts attention to the level above the sentence with the emerging field of discourse or rhetorical analysis Attention shifts to understanding how sentences are combined in discourse to produce meaning Therefore, the concern of research is to identify the organizational patterns in texts and to specify the linguistic means by which these patterns are signaled These patterns will then form the syllabus of the ESP course The third stage is characterized by the target situation analysis The most thorough explanation of the target situation analysis is the system set out by John Munby in “Communicative Syllabus Design” (1978) The Munby model produces a detailed profile of the learners’ needs in term of communication purposes, communicative setting, the means of communication, language skills, functions, structures, etc And the target situation analysis stage marks a certain ‘coming of age’ for ESP What it aims to do is to take the existing knowledge and set it on a more scientific basis, by establishing procedures for relating language analysis more closely to learners’ reasons for learning This stage also marks a significant change is that the purpose of an ESP course is to enable learners to function adequately in a target situation in which the learners will use the language they are learning Unlike the above three stages of the development of ESP, mainly looking the analysis of the learners’ need at the surface linguistic features of the target situation, the fourth stage of ESP attempts to look below the surface and to consider not the language 8 itself but the thinking processes that underlie language use This stage is characterized by skills and strategies Hutchinson and Waters (1987: 13) point out a great influence of researchers’ works (Françoise Grellet (1981)’s, Christine Nuttall (1982)’s and Charles Alderson and Sandy Urquhart (1984)’s) on developing strategies for reading skills for the teaching of ESP The principal idea behind the skills-centred approach is that underlying all language use there are common reasoning and interpreting processes, which, regardless of the surface forms, enable us to extract meaning from discourse There is, therefore, no need to focus closely on the surface forms of the language The focus should rather be on the underlying interpretive strategies, which enable the learner to cope with the surface form, for example guessing the meaning of words from context, using visual layout to determine the type of the text, exploiting cognates (i.e words which are similar in the mother tongue and the target language) etc The fifth stage of ESP development is characterized by the learning-centred approach which is concerned with “language learning” The learning-centred approach is based on the assumption that describes and exemplifies what people do with language will enable someone to learn it This is an importance of ESP like Hutchinson and Waters (1987: 14) say: “A truly valid approach to ESP must be based on an understanding of the processes of language learning” In summary, ESP undergoes five stages of the development with various characteristics for each stage The examples of all approaches which were described above can be found operating somewhere in the world at the present time 1.2 EVALUATION 1.2.1 Terminology definition There are many definitions of evaluation Fundamentally, evaluation is asking questions and acting on the responses Rea-Dickins and Germaine (1992: 3- 4) believe that evaluation is an intrinsic part of teaching and learning It is important for the teacher because it can provide a wealth of information to use for the future direction of classroom practice, for the planning of courses, and for the management of learning tasks and students Evaluation is also considered as a ‘natural activity’; something that is very much part of our daily existence 9 and it can be very formal or informal It is also something that may not always be made explicit but may actually be undertaken unconsciously Dudley-Evans and St John (1998: 128) define that “Evaluation is a whole process which begins with determining what information to gather and ends with bringing about change in current activities or influencing future ones” They believe that evaluation must be more than collecting and analyzing data They describe evaluation as formative or summative Evaluation which takes place during the lifetime of an activity /a course and the findings help to shape the course during its life-time is called formative evaluation Summative evaluation takes place at (or after) the end of an activity and so does not influence that version of the activity Its purpose is to assess impact and to provide information that can be fed into repeat versions or related activities Therefore, summative evaluation is valuable for durable courses Hedge (2000: 351) refers to the term “evaluation” as “the assessment of students at the end of a course, but in recent years its meaning has widened to include all aspects of a programme” Evaluation can relate to courses and learners in a number of ways: (1) It can try to judge the course as it is planned; (2) It can try to observe, describe, and assess what actually happening in classroom as a course progresses; (3) It can test what learners have learned from a course In summary, evaluation relates to courses and learners It has been widened to include the aspects of a programme and it should be carried out at the end of the courses The aspect of the programme which is chosen to evaluate depends on the purpose of the evaluation 1.2.2 Types of programme evaluation According to Stufflebeam (1971), there are four types of programme evaluation which are identified as: context evaluation, input evaluation, process evaluation and product evaluation The table below is the CIPP model for programme evaluation by Stufflebeam (1971) 10 Table 1: The CIPP model for programme evaluation Context evaluation Input evaluation Process evaluation Product evaluation Objective To define the institutional context, to To identify and assess system To identified and predict, in To collect descriptions and capabilities, alternative process, defects in the procedural judgements of outcomes, and identify the target population and assess programme strategies, design or its implementation; to to relate them to objectives procedural design for provide information for and context, input, and their needs, to identify opportunities for implementing the strategies, preprogrammed decision, and to process information to budges and schedules record and judge procedural interpret their worth and addressing the needs, to diagnose events and activities merit By inventorying and analyzing problems and to judge if proposed available human and material By monitoring the activity’s By defining operationally and resources, solution strategies potential procedural barriers and measuring outcome criteria, objectives are sufficiently responsive to and procedural designs for remaining alert to unanticipated by collecting judgements of ones, by obtaining specific assessed needs outcomes from stakeholders, Method By using such methods as system analysis, survey, document review, hearing, interviews, diagnostic tests and the Delphib technique ... Materials Teacher Learners evaluation evaluation evaluation evaluation Micro- timetable task evaluation of evaluation of evaluation evaluation, evaluation, sequencing levels of ... in programme evaluation as follows: • What is the purpose of the evaluation? • Who is the audience for the evaluation? • What principles of procedure should guide the evaluation? • What... SCOPE OF THE STUDY Within its scope, this research mainly focuses on the learners’ evaluation of the ESP programme at Vinh University such as: the time allocation, the topics of the ESP reading