Luận văn Thiết kế giáo trình tiếng anh chuyên ngành cho sinh viên năm thứ hai ngành thư viện trường cao đẳng sư phạm trung ương

nguage has to be ordered in such a way as to facilitate teaching and learning. The ESP syllabus for the second year students at NTTC will be combined following these above criteria. CHAPTER 2: INVESTIGATION INTO TEXTBOOKS RELATED TO LIBRARY STUDY The aim of this chapter is to have a thorough look at some language characteristics used in the field of library. There will be an investigation into some texts extracted from two textbooks related to library fields namely ‘Library and Information Science : English Reading Materials’ (B1) by Duong Thi Thu Ha and ‘Basic Library Skills’ (B2) ( Third edition) by Carolyn Wolf and Richard Wolf. The texts under investigation are selected randomly as they can objectively represent those textbooks. In fact, these textbooks are based on some certain assessed criteria by the authors and in general, the language contents are updated with new knowledge in library field. However, these syllabuses cannot be applicable to the SLS at NTTC for some certain reasons. The first syllabus is designed to provide a minimum of 75 hours of classroom teaching and for SLS at University of Cultures with a wide range of topic areas, whereas the time allocation for the subject at NTTC is 60 teaching periods with reading skill focus. Furthermore, students at University of Cultures are of higher level of English proficiency than that of the students at NTTC. And the target students at NTTC are lower in comparison with that at universities on the grounds of needs, interest and motivation. Second syllabus is intended for ‘a self-contained short course in the use of library not an exhaustive treatment of the subject’. All above reasons call for the need to design an appropriate ESP syllabus for students of library study at NTTC. In order to have an overall understanding of text features in the above mentioned textbooks, this investigation is worked out on some texts/ paragraphs which are randomly selected. The focus is going to deal with topics, terminology, acronyms, grammatical structures and text structures which exist in the textbooks. 3.1. Topics These two textbooks cover a wide range of topics. The first one contains 15 topics, the second one provides 16 topics. Generally, each topic starts by examining some general area of library before focusing on a specific aspect. It is worth noting that these textbooks provide various topics related to the field of library. However, it is impossible to include all these topics because of the limited time of the course. 3.2. Terminology and acronyms To illustrate these issues, two texts from two selected textbooks are taken into consideration. Result is presented in Table 1 (See appendix 4; table 1). As can be seen from table 1, both single terms and compound terms appear in the two selected texts. Firstly, single terms are provided in density of 4.6% in text 1; 6.2 % in text 2. Secondly, compound terms are given in higher rate , they respectively account for 5 %; and 7.2% in those two texts. Besides, acronyms take the percentage of 2% in each text. In sum, terms and acronyms are key element of ESP, their frequency of occurrence turns out to be a convincing factor in the selected texts, this means that these texts carry the common features of ESP in general and of ELS in particular. 3.3. Cohesion Halliday (1997: 4) states that ‘the concept of cohesion is a semantic one, it refers to relations of meaning that exist within the text and that define it as a text’. It is clear that cohesion is expressed partly through the grammar and vocabulary, therefore, there exist grammatical cohesion and lexical cohesion. The first paragraph of Unit 6 from “Library and Information Science : English Reading Materials” is going to examined to see the cohesive devices used. The results of comprehensive analysis of all the cohesive ties in the selected paragraph are demonstrated in figure 3: Figure 3 : Cohesive devices Obviously, most of cohesive devices are applied to this paragraph but with a clear distinction between certain devices. According to the results shown in the graph, the lowest occurrence frequency belongs to “substitutions” accounting for 5 %. “Conjunctions” and lexical cohesion expressed through “synonyms” both account 13 %. This may due to the features of ESP texts which is required to be exact and clearly stated. In contrast, ‘repetitions’ and ‘references’ are major grammatical cohesive devices. They get the percentage of 51 % and 18 % respectively. It is highlighted that reference and repetitive devices are used frequently to help readers remind the content of the paragraph in particular texts. The use substitution cohesive takes a small part in the overall picture of cohesive links. What is worth to mention here is by having a close look at the sample paragraph, we can see the close links of language through different cohesive devices. that should be taken into consideration when designing the ESP syllabus for the second year students of library study. The syllabus should provide students enough knowledge of cohesion in order to help them comprehend the ESP texts. 3.4. Grammatical structures Words, sentences, active and passive structures are to be investigated at this point. 3.4.1. Words This section investigates how words are created in texts for library study. We are going to work on three random texts extracted from the two textbooks to find out the proportion of prefixes and suffixes appeared in those texts. The results are presented in Table 2 ( see appendix 4; table 2). As shown in the table, prefixes and suffixes appear at a considerable proportion in all of the selected texts. And it is clearly that the later occur more frequently than the former. Outstandingly, in text 1, suffixes account for 20.5% . It’s worth noting that in ESP texts , word formation has little deference from texts in General English. 3.4.2. Sentences The reading text of unit 14 extracted from the textbook ‘Library and Information Science : English Reading Materials’ was taken as sample text to investigate the sentences in the texts for library study in terms of simple and complex sentences and active vs. passive sentences . 3.4.2.1. Simple and complex sentences Table 3 (see appendix 4; table 3) summarizes some statistics of simple and complex sentences (complex sentences are examined in terms of types of clause used in the sentences). As can be seen from table 3, the text has 22 sentences among which 14 are complex sentences accounting for 63.6 % .Simple sentences appear at lower percentage of 36.4%. Obviously, the density of complex sentences overtakes that of simple ones. 3.4.2.2. Active vs. passive sentences The results of the investigation in terms of active and passive sentences used in the sample text are shown in Table 4 (see appendix 4; table 4). The results in table 4 indicate that passive sentences are at lower occurrence frequency than active sentences (31.8% in comparison with 68.8%). However, passive sentences appear at a frequency of 31.8 % which is high enough to become a distinctive characteristic of ESP reading texts for library study and that should be taken into consideration when designing the syllabus. 3.4.3. Text 3.4.3.1. Organization of information Main idea By investigating some texts in the two selected books it should be seen that the information is usually organized as shown in the following figure: A card catalog entries are printed on card that libraries arrange alphabetically in drawers. A card catalog usually contains of three types of cards for each item in the library’s collection a The first type the third The second Major details has the subject of the item on the top line has the title of the book or other item on the top line has the author’s name or other persons or institutions…. Minor details Figure 4 : Organization of information Sample paragraph: A card catalog entries are printed on card that libraries arrange alphabetically in drawers. A card catalog usually contains of three types of cards for each item in the library’s collection. The first type has the author’s name or other persons or institutions that contributed to the work on the top line. The second has the title of the book or other item on the top line , and the third has the subject of the item on the top line. Usually the subject heading is printed in all capital letters or in red for further emphasis. (Unit 10- B1) 3.4.3.2. Making a definition or explanation Definitions and explanations can be seen frequently in the texts. Common words and expressions used in definition or explanations are: Is/ are, mean, be referred to as, is taken to be, in other words, is/ can be defined as, refer to... For example: A library( institution) is a collection of books and other informational materials made available to the people for reading, study, or reference. Other markers are means of defining relative clause by using: which, that, where, when. For example: In addition to maintaining collections within library buildings……. that provide users with access to information at remote sites. ……(unit1; B1) Another way of explaining or defining is to use a noun, a noun phrase or a clause separated from the rest of the sentences by commas, or dashes. For instance: ‘School librarians – sometimes called media specialists- select library materials and offer instruction to promote access, delivery, and interpretation of information.’ ( Unit 7- B1) 3.4.3.1. Some other characteristics It is worth noting that listing markers indicating the relation in which sentences and groups of sentences combine to present information that is linked by means of a connective word or marker are frequently used in the reading texts in the two books. The time relaters are also used to express the sequence of events, so in order to make the sequence clear. Another feature is expressions indicating comparisons (equivalence, non-equivalence, the highest degree of something, and parallel increase) can be found in some of the texts in the two selected texts. It is also noted here that like texts in GE when the main aim of a text is to inform the reader about a subject, examples are often used to explain a point or to illustrate an idea or argument using markers. The makers used to add information such as furthermore, moreover, in addition, as well as, again, besides, further, similarly, in the same way, not only…but also,... can be found in the reading texts of the two books. Both two kind of classification makers especially general - to specific classification markers such as is, may be divided into, is of, has, may include, including, contain, comprises, ... are found in texts in the two books. Contrastive indicators used in investigated texts are: However, on the contrary, on the one hand, on the other hand, by contrast, in contrast to, opposite, in comparison, by way of contrast. Moreover, cause and effect relationship is often expressed in texts in the two selected books. The commonly used means are verbs linking cause and effect (contribute to, ensure, produce, allow, enable, cause, result in, result from, bring about0, connectives introducing cause (with such, due to, as the/ a result, since, because, as), and connectives introducing result (and so, so that, thus, therefore, consequently...), and if-clause for cause. In short, after having a critical look at some texts, the conclusion should be drawn here is that these texts cover a wide range of language features. These features work closely together to make the texts cohesive and comprehensive. Summary This chapter has investigated into some basic language features of some reading texts/ paragraphs extracted from two textbooks relating to library study. Some characteristics of ESP texts has been referred to like: terms, acronyms... in a high frequency of occurrence. Additionally, various cohesive devices are found in the text structures. Chapter 3: RESULTS AND ANALYSIS OF DATA COLLECTION This chapter is devoted to the discussion of the results collected from English teachers, subject teachers and undergraduate students concerning expectations of the ESP reading course, topics, degree of topics, grammatical structures, tasks and reading exercises needed for the course. 3.1 METHODOLOGY 3.1.1. Situational factors 3.1.1.1. Institutional factor NTTC used to be the college for early childhood teachers. Since 2004 It has been the NTTC that trains students of various fields including fine art teachers , early childhood teachers, political teacher, music teachers, teachers of special educations, students of library study(SLS). According to the curriculum provided by the Ministry of Education and Training the students have many general educational subjects and different specializations and English is one of the vital and compulsory subjects. At the NTTC students take the General English (GE) course with 150 periods. After finishing their GE course SLS will take the ESP course of 60 periods. 3.1.1.2. Teacher factor ( Teachers of English at NTTC) There are only 10 teachers at NTTC who take responsibility for teaching both GE and ESP. Among these, six have just finished MA course and 4 are taking MA course. The age of the teacher ranges from 32 to 42. Although most teachers have at least 6 years of experience in teaching GE but none of them has experiences in teaching ESP and nobody has taken any ESP teaching course. ESP has been taught at NTTC for only 2 years since there were some new training fields at the college. That’s why teachers who are responsible for ESP have to cope with a lot of difficulties and one of these is the lack of an appropriate syllabus for ESP course. In fact, the teachers have to ask for help from their colleagues who teach ESP at neighboring institutions such as the University of Cultures, the National University and from the subject teachers at NTTC. 3.1.1.3. Students factor (Students of library study) Background - The age of the students is from 18 to 23 and most of them are females. They come from different parts of the country. Some are from big cities and towns and some are from rural and mountainous areas. Generally, the target students are not on the same ground of English proficiency. Those who are from cities have at least 3 years or even 6 years of learning English whereas those who come from rural and remote areas have had very little or even no chance to learn English or any other foreign languages. The number of students in each class is from 40 to 50 and with such big class size both teachers and students have difficulties in teaching- learning process. Learning style and interests Most of the students are influenced by the translational method and teacher-centered approach. Although most of the students come into the class room with great interest in learning English they are usually passive in learning. Motivation Since English is a compulsory subject in the training program, all the students are fully aware of the fact that they have to learn English firstly to pass the exams. Secondly, due to the process of global integration most of them think that English will to some extent be useful to them in their future career. Therefore, in terms of student’ motivation it can be concluded that students at NTTC are instrumentally motivated. 3.1.1.4. The teaching and learning English at NTTC The college used to be The College for Early Childhood Teachers so before 2002, students just learned GE with 210 periods of 45 minutes. English is delivered to students at NTTC as a compulsory subject and it is given to the students in formal class just like others subjects. Since 2002 ESP has been taught at NTTC. However, due to the limited time students can only have 60 periods of learning ESP. Textbooks for GE are now ‘New Headway Elementary and Pre-intermediate’ by John & Liz Soars (2000). The second-year students of library study (SLS) aged from 19 to 24 and most of them are females. After they have finished 150 periods of GE they reach pre-intermediate level when they start learning ESP. However, the students’ levels of English proficiency are still low as the requirement of the syllabus. That is due to the fact that SLS come from different parts of the country some who are from the rural and mountainous areas have learned little English or even haven’t learned English before whereas those who come from the cities have learned English for at least three years or more. After they have finished the GE most of them know basic structures and common vocabulary. However, students still have difficulties with vocabulary, grammar structures and especially in reading skills. And most of them don’t have good learning strategies. Most of them, while taking the ESP course, prefer the types of exercises that are familiar with ones they have learned at GE course. According to the training curriculum, the ESP is delivered in the third semester after two semesters of learning GE. The texts used for ESP course are selected by the teachers of the English section from different sources and they use them as syllabus to plan the lesson. The teachers often choose the parts, which they personally think, are important and appropriate for their learners without investigating students’ needs and target situation. Sometimes extra exercises for further practice are added as supplementary activity for the course. 3.1.2. Subjects of the study This study is carried out with the participants of (1) 10 English teachers (who are in charge of teaching GE and ESP including ELS, three of whom have been teaching English for more than ten years and one is the head of the foreign language section); (2) ten subject teachers who are responsible for teaching the subject in Vietnamese; (3) eighty SLS under investigation who are in the first term of their second year, and have finished an GE course; 3.1.3. Instruments for collecting data According to Hutchinson and Waters (1987:59) various ways can be used for collecting information such as questionnaires, interviews, observation etc. This study uses questionnaires as the main tool. 3.1.3.1. Questionnaires Three questionnaires are conducted to get information concerning library fields (see appendixes 1, 2 and 3). On the basis of theories for conducting a questionnaire and some personal knowledge gained through teaching experiences, the questionnaires are designed as follow: The first questionnaire administered to 10 ESP teachers consisting 4 sections: Section I aims at finding out expectations, ideas, opinions on designing a syllabus Section II concerns with topics needed for the syllabus (Table 6) and the difficulty of the needed topics . Section III deals with grammar and structure. Section IV looks for tasks and reading skills that should be included. The second questionnaire for ten subject teachers is in Vietnamese to make it easy for the informants to understand properly all the questions and give the correct answers. This questionnaire aims at finding out the needed topics perceived by the subject teachers. The third questionnaire for 80 students is also in Vietnamese. These informants have already mastered GE course. This questionnaire consists of three main sections. Section I is to find out students’ attitude towards ECS reading course and the aims of the course perceived by SLS. Section II deals with needed topics perceived by SLS. Section III is designed to identify the reading skills and exercises. 100 copies of the two questionnaires were sent to the participants in May 2007 and were returned with 100 useful answers in June, 2007. The data is manually analyzed. For accurate and effective interpretation of data, we use frequencies to find out the percentage that indicate the emphasis given to the items to find out the populations’ ideas of the target situation needs. 3.2. RESULTS AND ANALYSIS OF DATA COLLECTION 3.2.1. Needs perceived by the English teachers 3.2.1.1. Section 1: The teachers’ attitude towards ESP reading course for the second year students of library study and the objectives perceived by them The first question aims to find out the teachers’ attitude towards the reading course. All of the English teachers agree that an ESP reading course is very necessary and useful for students of library study. The second question looks for the expectations of the ESP reading course in terms of the objectives perceived by the teachers. The results are detailed in table 5(see table 5- appendix 4). The results in the table show that most of the English teachers (80 %) consider item 3- To read and understand written English materials and books relating to library - to be the most important objective. Item 1 -To build up English terms of library field used in books. documents, and newspapers with the percentage of 70% takes the second priority. The third priority is given to item 2 (55%) -To read and understand concepts of library study- Item 4- to consolidate basic grammatical structures used in specific texts for computer science gets the fourth priority. The fifth priority is referred to item 5- to translate books and newspapers (relating to library) from English to Vietnamese. These results indicate that, from the teachers’ point of view, the objectives of the syllabus is to enable the students to improve their reading skills in ESP field and at the same time to enrich their knowledge of their specification. It is expected that terminology relating library field is placed in the content of the syllabus. In short, item from 1 to item 4 should be taken into consideration when designing the ESP reading syllabus for the target students. The less important objective (item 5) which is ranked the fifth indicates that low priority is given to translation. Thus the item should not be focused on in the syllabus. 3.2.1.2. Section II: English teachers’ and subject teachers’ opinions on needed topics This part is designed to get information concerning the most necessary topics to be included in the ESP reading syllabus of library study from the teachers’ perspective. Fourteen topics relating to library study have been given for the teachers to rate from very relevant to not relevant. The number and the percentage of responses to each topics are shown in Table 6(see table 6- appendix 4).The data in table 6 shows that from the teachers’ point of view the most relevant items which get the highest percentage are items 2,4,6,7,10 12 and 14. The rest topics get the lower percentage of positive responses. This also indicates that the proposed syllabus should include these above high percentage topics of very relevant and relevant answers and the rest topics should be used as supplementary materials. 3.2.1.3. Section III: Grammar and structures needed to be included in the syllabus The section is to find out grammar and structures that should be included in the syllabus from the English teachers’ perspective. Sixteen items have been identified and the teachers were asked to choose the items according to their appropriateness ( from very appropriate to not appropriate) and the results are shown in table 7(see table 7- appendix 4).The results illustrated in the table show that most of the items are necessary for the course except for items 1, 2 and 14 that receive the percentage of 60% for not appropriate answer, it means that these three items should not be focused in the syllabus. Items 3,4,5,8.11 and 15 with high percentage of very appropriate option should be the focus of grammar and structures in the syllabus. The items that get the positive answer of appropriate should be taken into consideration in designing the syllabus. 3.2.1.4. Section IV: English teachers’ ranking of reading skills, language exercises and language tasks needed to be included in the syllabus Nine items were designed to get the information about the reading skills and types of the exercises needed to be in the syllabus. Teachers were asked to tick the items that they think should be included in the syllabus. The results is in table 8 (see table 8- appendix 4) It is clearly recognized from the results shown in the table that most teachers agree upon the various types of techniques and exercises needed to be covered in the syllabus especially those that have high percentage of positive responses; 1(a,b,d), 2 (a,b), 3 (a,b), 5 (a,b,c), 6 (b), 7 (b), 8 (b), and 9 (a,b,d,e,f). With the items that get lower than 50% of responses will not be the main concern when designing the syllabus. Seventeen tasks have been given for consideration to find out the necessary language tasks perceived by the English teachers. The teacher were asked to tick the tasks that are supposed to be provided in the syllabus. The result is presented in table 9 (see table 9- appendix 4). As illustrated in the table, the items that get the highest choice are 1, 2,3,11,12,16 and 17 with the perc