VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE NGUYỄN THỊ MINH TRANG DESIGNING AN ESP READING SYLLABUS FOR THE THIRD-
YEAR STUDENT OF PHYSICS AT THAI NGUYEN
UNIVERSITY OF EDUCATION.

(THIẾT KẾ CHƯƠNG TRÌNH ĐỌC HIỂU TIẾNG ANH
CHUYÊN NGÀNH CHO SINH VIÊN NĂM THỨ 3 KHOA
VẬT LÝ, TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC SƯ PHẠM THÁI NGUYÊN)
MA MINOR THESIS
Field: English Teaching Methodology
Code: 60.14.10


Field: English Teaching Methodology
Code: 60.14.10
Supervisor: Kim Văn Tất, MA

HA NOI, 2012

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Pages
Declaration…………………………………………………… i
Acknowledgement…………………………………………… ii
Abstract………………………………………………………… iii
Table of contents………………………………………………. iv
List of abbreviations…………………………………………… v

Part I: INTRODUCTION……………………………………… 1
1.1. Rationale of the study…………………………………… 1
1.2. Aims of the study…………………………………………. 2
1.3. The scope of the study…………………………………… 2
1.4. Research questions………………………………………… 2
1.5. Organization of the thesis…………………………………. 2

Part II: DEVELOPMENT……………………………………… 4

2.3.3. Instrument for collecting data………………………… 21
2.3.4. The findings……………………………………………. 21
2.3.4.1. Learning needs…………………………………… 21
2.3.4.2. Target needs……………………………………… 28
2.4. Summary…………………………………………………. 29

CHAPTER III: DESIGNING AN ESP READING SYLLABUS FOR THE THIRD-
YEAR STUDENTS OF PHYSICS AT TUE…………………… 30
3.1. The selection of the type of syllabus for the third-year
students of Physics at TUE……………………………… 30
3.2. Aims and objectives…………………………………………. 30
3.3. The selection of content of the ESP reading syllabus
for the third-year students of Physics at TUE……………… 31

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3.4. Time schedule of the syllabus……………………………… 34
3.5. The proposed ESP reading syllabus for the third-year
students of Physics at TUE………………………………………. 34
3.6. Summary……………………………………………………. 35
Part III: CONCLUSION…………………………………………. 36

REFERENCES…………………………………………………… 38
APPENDICES

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PART I: INTRODUCTION
1.1. Rationale for the study:
The Thai Nguyen University of Education, trains students of different fields of
science including physics. Here, English is a compulsory subject for all students.
Therefore, every student has to take and pass the English course before finishing
university. However, the students are mainly from mountainous provinces where
the students do not have many chances to improve their English, so their English
level is low. Even some of them have never studied English before. This is
considered the biggest problem for all English teachers at this university. In order
that the students are able to read materials on their major in English, they have to
study English well.
So as to accomplish this target, every student at Thai Nguyen University of
Education studies English for three terms,
- The first two terms (90 class hours) are for General English covering the
textbook New Cutting Edge Pre-intermediate by Sarah Cunningham. During

students obtain information about the subject they are studying so that it can give
students both authentic reading materials and authentic reading purposes.
1.4. Research questions:
The study is to find out the answers for the following research questions:
1. What are the target needs and learning needs of the third-year students at
TUE?
2. What is a suitable ESP reading syllabus for the third-year students of physics
at TUE?
1.5. Organization of the thesis
The research will be organized into three parts, a list of reference and appendices.
Part I, Introduction, presents the rationale, aims and objectives, the scope of the
study, the research questions as well as the organization of the study.
Part II, Development, consists of
 Chapter I, “Literature Review” reviews such the relevant theories for ESP
reading materials as an overview of ESP, syllabus design, and reading.

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 Chapter II, “The study” describes and comments on learning and teaching
situation at TUE, subjects of the study, the instruments for collecting data,
and the findings of the study resulting from a statistical analysis of the
collected data.
 Chapter III presents some recommendations for “designing an ESP reading
syllabus for students at TUE”.
Part III, Conclusion, offers a summary of the study, limitations and suggestions
for further research.
1.1.1. Definition of ESP
There have been many researchers and scholars trying to answer the question what
ESP is? They have different points of view.
Hutchinson and Waters (1987) regard ESP as an approach rather than a product, by
which they meant that ESP does not involve a particular kind of language, teaching
material or methodology. They suggest that “the foundation of ESP is a simple
question: Why does this learner need to learn a foreign language?” The answer to
this question relates to the learners, the language required and the learning context,
and thus establishes the primacy of need in English.
Robinson (1991) also accepts the primacy of needs analysis in defining ESP. Her
definition is based on two key defining criteria: (i) ESP is “normally goal-directed”,
(ii) ESP courses develop from a needs analysis to specify as closely as possible
what exactly the students have to do through the medium of English.
Streven defined ESP by identifying its absolute and variable characteristics, and
Streven’s definition (1988) makes a distinction between four absolute and two
variable characteristics:

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1. Absolute characteristics: ESP consists of English Language Teaching which is: (1)
designed to meet specified needs of the learner; (2) related to content (i.e. in its themes,
topics) to particular disciplines, occupations and activities; (3)centered on language
appropriate of those activities in syntax, lexis, discourse, semantics, etc, and analysis of the
discourse; (4)in contrast with General English.

2. Variable characteristics: ESP may be, but is not necessarily: (1) restricted as to the
language skills to learn (e.g. reading only); (2) not taught according to any pre-ordained
methodology.

In 1998, Dudley-Evans and St John modified Streven’s definition. The revised
definition they postulate is slightly different from Streven’s one. They have

between English for Occupational Purposes (EOP) involving work-related need and
training and English for Academic Purposes (EAP) with the involvement to
academic study needs. To make the difference from the occupational / educational
distinction that can be found in most taxonomy of ESP, Munby (1978) developed
the other kind of ESP classification; figure 1 presents two other categories: English
for Science and Technology (EST) and other distinction as follows: Figure 1: Types of ESP
ESP

EST
Other
Occupational
Educational
Post-experience
Teachers’ conversation
Pre-study

To define syllabus, some researchers advocate the narrow view, which draw a clear
distinction between syllabus design and methodology whereas others adopt a
broader view, which argue methodology as an integral part of the syllabus.
Hutchinson and Waters (1987) share the same idea with Nunan (1988) that

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“syllabus design is seen as being concerned with the selection of learning tasks and
activities”.
In contrast, Yalden (1984, p.14) point out that:

The syllabus replaces the concept of “method” and the syllabus is now seen as an
instrument by which the teacher, with the help of the syllabus designer, can achieve
a degree of “ fit” between the needs and the aims of the learners (as social being
and as individual), and the activities which will take place in the classroom.

It is clear that there have been various points of view on syllabus. The term syllabus
has been defined by two conflicting views: one sees method as an integral part of
the syllabus and the other sees as a separated issue. In this study, syllabus is seen
under the latter approach: syllabus has been considered as specification, documents
of grading of content for a particular institution, organized in subsections defining
the work of a finite group. A syllabus is designed with the aim of making teaching a
more effective process.
1.2.2. The importance of syllabus design:
It is obvious that a syllabus is an integral component in the process of course
design. Hutchinson and Waters (1987, p.83-84) explains why we should have a
syllabus by identifying the roles of a syllabus. The syllabus, in defining the
constituent parts of language knowledge, is a practical basis for the division of
assessment, textbooks and learning time. In addition to its practical benefits, a
syllabus also gives more support to the teacher and learners in that it makes the
language - teaching task appear manageable. A syllabus is an implicit statement of

into account than the language-centered model. In general, this approach sees the
learner as a user of language rather than as a learner of language. With this
distinction, skill-centered approach may be a reasonable solution.
- A learning-centered approach: Hutchinson and Waters (1987:72) “reject the term a
learner-centered approach in favor of a learning-centered approach to indicate that the
concern is to maximize learning”. They remark that learning should “be seen it the
context in which it takes places” and that “learning is not just a mental process, it is a
process of negotiation between individuals and society.”

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In general, the first approach pays attention to competence and performance of the
learners, while the skill-centered approach views learners as users rather than a
learner of language. The language-centered model makes the ESP course dependent
on the target situation. That is the reason why the writer will take this way into
consideration to apply this interactive approach to designing ESP reading syllabus
for the students of Physics at TUE.
1.2.4. Types of ESP syllabus:
There are different ways to classify types of syllabuses.
According to Dubin & Olshtain (1986), syllabus can be classified into four types
such as structural-grammatical syllabus, the semantico-notional syllabus, the
functional syllabus and the situational syllabus.

Krahnke (1987) divides syllabuses into six major types: structural syllabus,
notional/functional syllabus, skill-based syllabus, situational syllabus, task-based
syllabus and content-based syllabus. He also said that skill-based syllabus is the one
in which the current of the course is a set of specific abilities, such as linguistic
competence (pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar, reading, …), generalized types
of behavior or other language skills can be chosen as the main focus of the course.
In task-based syllabus, the teaching is organized around the series of complex and
purpose full tasks that the learners need or want to perform, using English. Content-

important need is proficiency in reading skills, at the first sight, this seems to be the
right solution. The syllabus should contain reading activities that are built on the
students’ specialist topics.
* Topic-based syllabus:
The topic-based syllabus is organized around topics. For ESP course, the topics
deploy the content of the students’ work, specialist study or specialist subject areas.
This type of syllabus is certainly important in ESP because one objective of the ESP
course may in fact to teach this specialist content.

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Richard (2001:157) defines this type of syllabus as the one that is organized around
the themes, topics, or other units of content. With topic-based syllabus, content
rather than grammar, functions or situations is the starting point in syllabus design.
The topic-bases syllabus is chosen for the study because of its advantages which are
cited by Richards (2001:158) that they facilitate comprehension; content make
linguistic form more meaningful and serves as the best basis for teaching the skill
areas; they address students’ needs and motivate learners.
In short, mixed syllabuses seem to be flexible and suitable for many teaching and
learning situations. The decision as to which syllabus types to employ will result
from consideration of the learners’ needs and the objectives of the course, together
with the institution bias of the teaching institution (Robinson, 1991:41)
1.2.5. Stages in syllabus design:
Nunan (1988) proposed four steps to design the syllabus such as: (1) Needs
analysis; (2) Goal setting; (3) Selecting and grading content; (4) Selecting and
grading tasks. In designing the syllabus for the target students at TUE will adapt a
logical sequence of three main stages, that is, i) needs analysis, ii) Goal setting, and
iii) Selecting and grading content.
These three stages’ details are discussed as follows:
2.2.5.1. Needs analysis
Needs are differently defined by many researchers. In general term, Brown

the target situation” in which the learner will use the language they are learning
(Hutchinson & Waters, 1987, p.54). It is more useful to refer to the target situation
in terms of Necessities, Lacks and Wants.
The framework for analyzing target needs is proposed by Hutchinson and Waters as
follows:
 Why is the language needed?
 How will the language be used?
 What will the content areas be?
 Who will the learner use the language with?

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 Where will the language be used?
 When will the language be used?
1.2.5.2. Goal Setting (Aims and Objectives setting)
Generally, aims tend to have a rather broader character than objectives, and they
refer to the underlying reasons for purposes of a course and are long-term goals. In
another way, the objectives present the description of exactly what a learner to be
able to do at the end of a period if instruction, they serve to determine the selection
of contents, teaching process and activities. Therefore, they should be clear, precise
and appropriate. Objectives are defined by Nunan (1988:61) as follows: “objectives
are specific before contents and activities because their principle role is to act as a
guide to the selection of the other elements in the curriculum”. Nunan, in this case,
does point out the usefulness of objectives that they not only guide the selection of
structures, tasks, notions, situations, and so on, but also to provide a shaper focus
for the teachers, and a clear idea of what learner can expect from a language
program, to help in developing means of assessment and evaluation, and so on. That
is the reason why objectives are nothing more than a particular way of formulating
or stating content and activities.
1.2.5.3. Selecting and grading content
Content is defined as “which is written or spoken about in a book, an article, a

designed with these two criteria, building and recycling.
1.3. Reading:
In this part, the definition of reading, reading process and reading skills will be
investigated.
1.3.1. Definition of reading:
There have been a lot of definitions of reading. As its simplest, reading is
understanding messages in written or printed materials. To get further
understanding, we discuss some writers’ opinions.
In Harmer’s words, reading is an exercise dominated by the eyes and the brain. The
eyes receive message and the brain has to work out the meaning that is to interpret
the meaning of what is being read. (Harmer, 1998)

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Goodman (1971:135) sees reading as a psycholinguistic process by which the
reader, a long user, reconstructs, as best as he can a message which has been
encoded by a writer as a graphic display. A similar view on reading expressed by
Williams (1984:3), especially on the act of reconstruction like Goodman shows that
the written texts often contain more than we need to understand them. The efficient
reader makes use of this to take what he needs, or no more to obtain meaning.
Generally, all definitions share the same idea that reading is a receptive process of
reading silently for the ultimate purpose of understanding a written form as
effectively as possible.
1.3.2. Reading process:
The notion of reading as an interactive process of bottom-up, top-down and
metacognitive skills is now well consolidated in both first language and second
language instructional frameworks. In this part, three models of reading, the
bottom-up, the top-down and the interactive model will be discussed.
First, the bottom-up models, as the name of the model suggests the reader does
begin with the written text. In the model, the data from the text must be received
before the high-level mental stages of understanding transform and re-code the data.

structure of a text, reading notices and instructions.
Dudley-Evans and St John (1998) also summarized a list of key skills of ESP
reading such as selecting what is relevant for the current purpose; using all the
features of the text such as headings, layout, typeface; skimming for content and
meaning; scanning for specifics; identifying organizational patterns; understanding
relations within a sentence and between sentences; using cohesive and discourse
markers; predicting, inferring and guessing; identifying main ideas, supporting ideas
and examples; processing and evaluating the information during reading; and
transferring or using the information while or after reading.
From these, the syllabus designer must choose the appropriate reading skills to
equip their learners methods of reading effectively.
1.3.4. Reading tasks:

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Richards (1985) said that task in language teaching is an activity or action which is
carried out as the result of processing or understanding language. Patrick Howarth
(2006) divides the reading process into three stages: pre-reading, while-reading and
post reading as well as some tasks in each stages. For example, tell your partner
what you know about the topic; do a quiz in pairs to find out what you know about
the topics; look at some pictures related to the topics; and skimming the first
paragraph for gist and then predicting, running and reading is to encourage the
students to read as quickly as possible in a race, slashed text, using websites, jigsaw
reading, creating a class text bank,…discussions about the text, summarizing texts,
using “follow-up” speaking task related to the topic…
Grellet (1990) focuses on tasks for improving skimming and skinning reading skills.
Besides, he also gives many kinds of tasks such as cloze text, recognizing word
formation and derivation, completing a table after reading a text, multiple choice,
comprehension questions,…
Briefly, basing on the objectives of the ESP course as well as the learners’ level, the
designers choose the necessary tasks in order to help learners to improve their

language skills, the vocabulary, as well as grammatical rules at the pre-intermediate
level. More important is the fact that most of these students’ needs are only to pass
the exams with good results, while the rest may think that English is useful for their
future. All in all, Physics students seem to be equipped with basic knowledge about
their fields by Physics teachers, which helps them to be capable of learning Physics
knowledge in English. However, their English knowledge is still poor, so the
English teachers need to provide them with necessary language knowledge by
selecting/designing an appropriate syllabus which helps them to overcome their
difficulties in learning English for Physics.
There are 5 teachers of English who teach English for Physics at TUE. All of them
have graduated from the Foreign Language Faculty. Four of them are M.A and one
is taking the MA Course. They have been teaching English for Physics for several
years, but they are not adequately trained for Physics. That is the reason why they
have some certain difficulties in teaching English for Physics.