ESP Pham Quynh Anh.doc

8/14/2019 ESP Pham Quynh Anh.doc

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1. The target group needs

The target learners of this course are fairly small and hetero-generous in

level, including twenty senior students of hotel receptionists major at HanoiTourism College who are going to work in the tourism and hotel service industry.

They have been learning English for at least years at high schools! however,

most of them are from rural areas where teaching and learning conditions are still

limited and where speaking and listening skills are hardly paid attention to.

Therefore, it is inevitable that the learners have inade"uate skills to well e"uip

themselves for their future profession. #s can be clearly seen, the profession of

hotel receptionists re"uires a capability of good communication in which abundant

source of vocabulary and pronunciation plays a crucial role. $evertheless, in

reality, rural schools focus much on English grammar rather than the other aspects

of language learning since the students need to be well prepared for the entrance

e%am to universities and colleges. &ome students are aware of the meaning of the

words but don't know how to enunciate them, which leads to their limited

speaking ability. That e%plains why they can do grammar e%ercises, yet they are

rarely able to communicate in English.

(ollowing the university curriculum, all the students took )eneral English

*)E+ course for two semesters. The main course book of $ew Headway Elementary

was utilied and the course met three periods a week. Thereafter, it is compulsory

for them to take the course of English for Hotel &taff, their major, during their

senior year. They all passed the end-term )E test in which four skills were tested,

even though there is a considerable disparity in their results. nly five of them got

, the highest mark, compared to ten students who got /. 0t is interpreted that the

students' level is not high. (urthermore, one of the initial problems is the lack of

practical e%perience in tourism that is regarded as a drawback in learning this

subject.

#s a result, an e%tra E&1 course is launched by the individual teacher in the

duration of twelve weeks in order to better the learners' English competence and to

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help them meet the demand of successful communication in their future career. The

first thing to be done is conducting a pre-course needs analysis using means of

"uestionnaires and interviews. The "uestionnaires filled in by the students are

instrumental in seeking information about students' interests such as preferred

learning styles, preferred classroom activities, the attitude towards this course,

beliefs and their communication difficulties. The interviews have been implemented

on the teachers who taught the students in the )E course, which helps the course

designers to grasp detailed information about the course, each student's level and

ability, their specific strengths and weaknesses in language learning. Then,

participants' background, target needs and learning needs can be identified and an

appropriate course design will be conducted.

2. Literature review of ESP course design approaches

# course design is a process in which the raw data about a learning need is

interpreted to produce an integrated series of teaching and learning e%periences.

0ts aim is to direct the students to a particular state of knowledge. 0t re"uires the

use of theoretical and empirical information available to produce a syllabus, to

e%ploit a methodology for teaching those materials and to establish evaluation

procedures so as to measure learners' progress towards specific goals. #ccording

to 3athleen )raves *4555+ 62, p.78, course design is a system in which changes to

one component will have an influence on all the others. 9hat learners want may

conflict with what they need. There are also various elements that need to be taken

into account such as: e%ternal constraints *classroom facilities and time+ and

educators' theoretical views and e%periences of the classroom. #s stated by Tom

Hutchinson and #lan 9aters *2;


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which the appropriate syllabus, thence materials in use in the classroom and

mastery evaluation of the syllabus items is produced. This approach seems logical!

however, Hutchinson and 9aters *2;


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discover the potential knowledge and abilities that the learners bring to the E&1

classroom.

4.Learning-centered approach

The learning-centered approach aims to e%plore not the development of skills

and proficiency in a subject matter but also concentrate upon the steps and

methods taken to achieve the competence. 0t is seen as a process in which the

learner use what knowledge or skills they possess to make sense of the flow of

new information. 0t is an internal process , which is crucially dependent upon the

knowledge the learner already have and their ability an motivation to use it. 0t is a

process of negotiation between individuals and the society. &ociety sets the target

and the individuals must do their best to get as close to that target as possible. 0t is

based on the principle that learning is totally determined by the learner even

though teachers can influence what is taught The learner is one factor to consider

in the learning process, but not the only one . 0n this approach, the methodology

cannot be just decided on to the end of an e%isting selection of syllabus items and

te%ts. 0n other words, it must be considered right from the start. That is why the

term >learning-centered?, not >learner-centered? has been chosen.

0n this approach, in order to well develop a curriculum, every aspect of

learning needs are identified and assessed. @esides, student feedback and freedom

to negotiate and various other aspects of the program also contribute to better the

learning structure. (urthermore, from the earliest stages of the course design,

evaluation that brings about constructive feedback is utilied, ensuring that a

learning-centered approach is about to suit the students' learning needs and

re"uirements.

3. An approach to the course of English for Hotel Staff

There is no one way or >best way? to design a course *3athleen )raves,

4555+ 62, p.24;8 , and the point is just trying to find what is the most suitable for a

particular situation *Aobinson,22+ 67, p.758. (rom the comprehensive analysis

of the three approaches, some of their advantages and disadvantages are revealed.

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#s cited by Hutchinson #nd 9alter *2;


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ESP Pham Quynh Anh.doc