1
VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST - GRADUATE STUDIES

PHẠM THỊ MINH PHƯƠNG INTEGRATING LANGUAGE AND WORK SKILLS
THROUGH PROJECT-BASED LEARNING
– A CASE OF ENGLISH FOR TOURISM

(KẾT HỢP DẠY NGÔN NGỮ VÀ PHÁT TRIỂN KỸ NĂNG NGHỀ NGHIỆP CHO SINH
VIÊN THÔNG QUA HÌNH THỨC HỌC TẬP SỬ DỤNG CÁC BÀI TẬP LỚN – ÁP DỤNG
TRONG GIẢNG DẠY TIẾNG ANH DU LỊCH)

M.A. Minor Programme Thesis
Field: English Methodology
Code: 601410


Supervisor: Nguyễn Thu Lệ Hằng, M.A.
HANOI, 2010 6

TABLE OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION i
KNOWLEDGEMENTS ii
ABSTRACT iii
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS vi
Part I. INTRODUCTION 1
1. Rationale for the study 1
2. Aims and objectives 2
3. Scope of the study 2
4. Significant of the study 3
5. Method of the study 3
6. Organization of the study 3
Part II. DEVELOPMENT 5
Chapter 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 5
1.1 An overview of ESP 5
1.1.1 Definition of ESP 5
1.1.2 Essential issues in teaching ESP 6
1.1.2.1 Needs analysis 6
1.1.2.2 Methodology for teaching ESP 7
1.2 The teaching and learning of English for Tourism as an ESP 8

3.1.2 Findings 26
3.2 Intervention 27
3.2.1 The design and aims of the travel guide project 27
3.2.2 Procedure of the project 28
3.3 Evaluation 29
3.3.1 Data presentation of the evaluation questionnaires 29
3.3.2 Findings 33
Chapter 4: DISCUSSION OF THE FINDINGS 35
4.1 Research question 1 35
4.2 Research question 2 36
4.3 Research question 3 38
4.4 Summary 40
Part III. CONCLUSION 41
1. Conclusion 41
2. Recommendations 41
3. Limitations of the study and suggestions for further study 42
REFERENCES 44
APPENDICES 8
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
ESP: English for Specific Purposes
GE: General English
EFL: English as a Foreign Language
CLT: Communicative Language Teaching
PBL: Project-based Learning

matter, and (iv) gains in understanding relating to specific skills and strategies introduced in the
project. Given these merits and the nature of ESP, PBL will be an ideal choice for ESP teaching
and learning.
In the recent years, the ESP movement in Vietnam has been rapidly developing due to the
existence of diverse needs of the learners. Currently, all university students must learn the ESP
that suits their learning branches. For example, students at economics universities have to learn
English for commerce, while students from the Information Technology universities have to
learn English for IT. However, a lot of questions have been raised over the quality of ESP
teaching and learning at university as many students studying ESP show quite poor performance
on four language skills and a lot of graduates can not use ESP in their work. This results in an
unsolved problems that ESP teachers are encountering: How to design appropriate syllabus and
authentic learning activities to enhance ESP learning?
English for Tourism is a new ESP for a relatively new course in Hanoi Teacher Training
College, thus it is not surprising that both the administrators and the teachers are experiencing
some teething pains. In search of an effective teaching method, the researcher of this study, also
as a teacher of this subject, has formed a hypothesis that: “Project-based learning would help
students not only learn the language but also develop their future work skills” and this is the
reason why this study is carried out.
2. Aims and objectives
As mentioned in the rationale, the study is aimed at exploring the benefit of project-based
learning in the teaching and learning of English for Tourism: whether or not this learning
activity would allow teachers to integrate language and students‟ work skills in their teaching.
The objective of the study is to work out the answers to the following research questions:
 What are the benefits of project work in learning EfT, as perceived by the teachers
and the students involved? 10
 How can work skills be integrated in the syllabus for EfT at the department of
Foreign Languages, Hanoi Teacher Training College, by means of PBL method?

This is a qualitative action research carried out in the researcher‟s own class at HTTC,
Hanoi. The data was collected from preliminary questionnaire and evaluation questionnaire for
students, semi-structured interview with another teacher from EfT team and the teacher’s notes
and diary. Data for the study was collected in the first term of the school year 2009 – 2010 and
then analysed by means of descriptive statistic devices and content analysis method. Hopefully,
with the combination of these instruments, the study would yield reliable findings.
6. Organisation of the thesis
The thesis consists of three main parts: Introduction which provides an overview of the
study, Development which is the main part and consists of 4 chapters, and Conclusion which
includes summary of the study, implication, limitations and suggestions for further study.
Four chapters in the main part are as follows:
1. Chapter 1: Literature review
In this chapter, various research on English for Specific Purposes in general and English for
Tourism in particular, as well as Project-based Learning approach is reviewed to provide the
theoretical background for the study.
2. Chapter 2: Research methodology
The methods and procedures of the study such as participant selection, data collection
methods, data analysis methods, etc, are presented in detail in this chapter.
3. Chapter 3: The practical study
Under this heading, the main stages of the study: Preliminary investigation, Intervention,
Evaluation are presented.
4. Chapter 4: Discussion of the findings
In this chapter, the findings from the evaluation questionnaires, the teacher‟s reflection and
teacher interview will be integrated and discussed so as to find out the answer to the research
questions. 12
PART II: DEVELOPMENT
Chapter 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

educational roles by an individual or a group.
2. It is based on an analysis of the students‟ needs and is tailor-made to meet these needs.
3. It may differ from another language course in its selection of skills, themes, topics,
situations, functions, language and methodology.
1.1.2 Essential issues in teaching ESP
1.1.2.1 Needs analysis
The five key stages in ESP teaching include needs analysis, course (and syllabus) design,
materials selection (and evaluation), teaching and learning, and evaluation. Among these, needs
analysis is the very first and perhaps the decisive factor in the success of any ESP courses.
According to Johns, while teaching ESP, “all language teaching must be designed for the
specific learning and language use purposes of identified groups of students.”(Johns, 1991,
p.67) Teaching ESP is therefore determined by different - professional/ occupational, social and
other - needs of the learners. In Nunan‟s view, needs analysis is the initial process for the
specification of behavioral objectives. It is from these objectives that detailed aspects of the
syllabus such as functions, topics, lexis and structures are derived. Dudley-Evans and St John
believe that it is the “corner stone of ESP and leads to a very focused course” (p.122). Likewise,
in a definition of ESP course, Hutchinson and Water (1987) state that ESP is an approach to
language teaching which aims to meet the needs of particular learners. Richards (1984) also
points out the significance of NA as follows:
“Needs analysis serves three main purposes: it provides a means of obtaining wider input into the
content, design and implementation of a language program; it can be used in developing goals,
objectives and content; and it can provide data for reviewing and evaluating an existing program.”
(p.5)
Dudley-Evans and St John in their “Development in ESP” (1998) suggest that needs analysis
can be done through a variety of means such as pre-course information questionnaires,
structured interviews, observation, analysis of authentic texts, discussion, and record-keeping.
These suggested methods have their own strengths and weaknesses but if utilized appropriately,
they can provide useful and reliable data for the process of needs analysis. Hopefully, with a
smooth beginning, the whole ESP course will run successfully.


designed under such approaches as content-based, task-based, situational, or the combination of
these approaches. 15
In practice, what classroom tasks or activities should be employed to promote ESP learning,
and content/subject learning in particular? Dudley-Evans and St John suggest two particular
examples of subject learning approaches that have been adopted in ESP situations: case study
and project work. These authors point out the main difference between case study and project
work: in the former, the resource materials which generate language and skills development are
often given to students while in the latter students have to do this by themselves. Thus, in a
project “the degree of involvement and ownership is much higher” (p. 195) and obviously,
“project work can be very rewarding” (p.195). The issue of project work and its use in language
teaching will be dealt with in details in later parts of the thesis.
1.2 The teaching and learning of English for Tourism as an ESP
1.2.1 English for Tourism as an ESP
ESP is often divided into EAP (English for Academic Purposes) and EOP (English for
Occupational Purposes). Further sub-divisions of EOP are sometimes made into business
English, professional English (e.g. English for doctors, lawyers) and vocational English (e.g.
English for tourism, nursing, aviation, etc). At the early development stage, ESP generally
referred to EAP. Recently, English has become really necessary to obtain a job, get promoted
and perform effectively in the world of work. Accordingly, this demand has generated the
incursion of a new linguistic branch within the field of ESP, namely, English for Occupational
Purposes or EOP (Dominguez & Rokowski, 2005). EOP can be defined as “the portion of the
curriculum which prepares students for gainful employment in occupations ranging from low-
skilled to sophisticated jobs in technical fields” (Anthony, 1997, p.56).
Among the many vocational and professional areas that go to make up the world of English
for Specific Purposes, or more specifically EOP, English for Tourism must surely be one of the
most attractive since all of us are tourists on countless occasions throughout our lives. In other
words, tourism is a popular and familiar field in people‟s daily life. Therefore, EfT is somewhat

out that the available material can only cater for the needs of training courses aimed at those
already employed in the sector. For those who teach English in one of the numerous tertiary
education establishments offering an initial qualification of a broader nature, the published
course books may soon prove to be of only limited value. The reason is that most of those are
too job-specific; thus, they reduce ESP to a specialised foreign language phrase book (Walker
R., p.19). Furthermore, with regard to linguistic features, most books are designed at elementary 17
level while students nowadays often enter university with quite a high level of English
proficiency. Therefore, the use of these books can be highly demotivating for the tertiary
students especially the more serious ones.
The last difficulty is inappropriate approach in course book design in most publications
on Tourism. This limitation, to some extents, is connected with the second one in the sense that
most published materials are of little value for tertiary students. Most are written under a single
functional approach, which seems to be mostly helpful to the vocational workers such as a
receptionist, a waiter, or a tour guide who need the minimum language needed to survive in a
first job or on industrial placement. In fact, students of tourism need more than just the common
expressions employed in the field; they need to widen their background knowledge about wider
issues of tourism; get to know about “the genres and discourse patterns used in the targeted
professional settings” (Cubo N.B, p. 287); and develop their learning as well as future work
skills. Just like any other ESP branches, EfT requires an integrated syllabus which can help
students to develop multiple skills.
1.2.3 Towards an appropriate syllabus for English for Tourism
In “Development of students‟ English for Special Purposes Competence in Tourism Studies
at Tertiary Level” by Luka I. (n.d), a thorough analysis of theoretical literature concerning
different syllabus types, their advantages and disadvantages was done in order to choose the
most appropriate syllabus for an ESP course for tourism students. A conclusion was drawn out
that the integrated syllabus should be designed. Topical syllabus was chosen as the leading
syllabus and situational, task-based and process syllabus was used as the supplementary ones.

(2001), project-based learning is an instructional method centered on the learners. Instead of
using a rigid lesson plan that directs a learner down a specific path of learning outcomes or
objectives, PBL allows in-depth investigation of a topic worth learning more about. Bransford &
Stein (1993) see PBL as a comprehensive instructional approach to engage students in sustained,
cooperative investigation. Donna, M. & Duzer, V. C. (1998) defined PBL as “an instructional
approach that contextualizes learning by presenting learners with problems to solve or products 19
to develop” (p.1). Accordingly, the essential feature of project-based approach is a tangible
result such as a product or a solution to a defined problem.
Rooted in constructivism, constructionism and cooperative/collaborative learning, project-
based learning has very strong theoretical support for successful achievement. However, it is
also very important to note that PBL is not a pure constructivist model but a combination of
multiple methods of instruction. Nowadays, PBL can be found under such names as project
method, project approach, project-based instruction, knowledge in action, learning by doing, or
experiential learning.
1.3.1.3 Merits and challenges of PBL
* Merits of PBL
The benefits of PBL are numerous and well-documented and the main ones can be listed as
follows:
 Increased motivation - As members of a group, learners feel less intimidated and become
personally involved in the project.
 Integrated skills - At certain steps in carrying out the project, some or even all four skills
are integrated and improved.
 Autonomous learning is promoted as learners become more responsible for their learning.
 There are learning outcomes - the ends of the projects are tangible and this can add more
motivation to students‟ learning.
 The tasks are authentic and therefore, students‟ learning is connected with real world
activities.

than anticipated and classroom management will become much more complicated. In addition,
the PBL method places emphasis on enhancing students‟ autonomy in making their own
decisions; therefore, it can also be high-risk in maintaining control of the class. Teachers must
be able to decide how much, when, and where they should control over students‟ learning.
Furthermore, given the complex nature of project work, designing methods of assessment isn‟t
an easy task.
In brief, designing a PBL course is such a highly demanding pedagogical task and
challenges are unavoidable for both teachers and students. However, as long as the teacher
makes careful planning and is flexible in his/her teaching, project work can bring learners
challenging but exciting and meaningful experience.
1.3.2 PBL approach and the ESP classroom
1.3.2.1 Rationale for implementing PBL approach in ESP classroom 21
Since the mid-seventies, as ELT has espoused principles of learner-centered teaching,
learner autonomy, the negotiated syllabus, collaborative learning, and task-based learning,
English language educators have explored and exploited the tradition of project work and it is
now part of the curriculum in many contexts. Numerous advantages of using project work in the
English language classroom are well-documented in literature. Fried-Booth (1997) feels that
project work within ELT has gained currency in recent years as a way of encouraging students
to use “real life” language in authentic situations. Zakari K. in his article “Incorporating project
work into the classroom” points out some advantages of using project work in an ELT
classroom as follows:
 Motivation is increased
 All four skills are integrated
 Autonomous learning is promoted
 Tasks and language input are authentic
 Interpersonal relations are developed
 Content and methodology are negotiated

enquiry; research and information gathering; compilation and analysis of information;
publication, presentation and evaluation of project. Hedge (1998) gives very clear guidance on
how to carry out a practical project which include six stages: orientation; preparation and
planning; implementation; collation; presentation; and reflection. Within the context of English
language teaching, I take Diana Curtis‟ view which divides the project into three phases:
orientation and planning; research and implementation; sharing results.
Phase 1: Orientation and planning
According to Curtis (2001), this phase involves initial discussion of a topic in certain groups.
All students are involved by brainstorming, sharing ideas related to the topic, making the final
decision. During this phase, new issues and topics that are appropriate for language learning
may arouse (Moss & Van Duzer, 1998) and it is these ideas that help them to study the language
better. Gallacher (n.d) proposes some guidelines that teachers can use to help their students work
out their plan:
 What they want to include in the project
 What form it will take
 Who will be responsible for what
 An idea of the time it will take to introduce each part of the project
 Any material or resources they might need 23
Phase 2: Research and implementation
After making the final decision on the project topic and working out a plan for the project,
students move on to the next phase. This phase involves mostly such activities as research,
fieldwork, sessions with experts and various aspects of gathering information, reading, writing,
drawing, and computing (Curtis, 2001). This is an important stage for language learning and
skill development as various skills will be needed for the completion of the project. Although
students work mostly on their own or in their group, the teacher must be aware of and perform
their role as an instructor, a consultant, a facilitator, and even a group member. He/She must
decide on when, where and how much he/she should support the students. This support, in Moss

25
Chapter 2: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
This chapter presents a detailed description of how the research was carried out including
the background of the study and the methods and procedures of the study.
2.1 Background of the study
2.1.1 The course
English for Business and Tourism is a newly-born course at Hanoi Teacher Training
College, a reputational teacher training institution in Hanoi as well as nation-wide. The course
came into being in the school-year 2007 – 2008 with the objective of equipping students with
the most basic knowledge of business matters and hospitality industry through the medium of
English. Students attending this course must specialize in two major subjects throughout the
whole course (6 semesters): English for Business and English for Tourism.
With regard to the course book, some books have been utilized such as “Be My Guests”,
“High Season”, “English for International Tourism”, among which the last one is used as the
main course book. “English for International Tourism”, published by Pearson Longman Press, is
a multi-level series of course book for students who need English for professional
communication within the hotel and tourism industry. In the previous year, a thorough analysis
of the course book was done by the teaching staff and it has been concluded that this book can
be adopted but adaptation must be made to some tasks/activities and supplementary materials
and learning activities should be added.
2.1.2 The students
There are two most remarkable characteristics of the students who are attending the English
for Business and Tourism course: their English ability and their learning conditions and
motivation. To begin with, those students‟ English level is, on average, not very high even
though English is their main subject when preparing for the entrance examination. Most of them
attend this course because they did not pass the entrance examination into university and this is
the reason why some students are not highly motivated. Some others may not concentrate on
their study since they are also preparing for the next year entrance examination. 27
 What are the benefits of project work in learning EfT, as perceived by the teachers
and the students involved?
 How can work skills be integrated in the syllabus for EfT at the department of
Foreign Languages, Hanoi Teacher Training College, by means of PBL method?
 What are the suggestions for effective project work in learning EfT as recommended
by the teacher and students involved?
2.3 Research approach:
The study is carried out under the approach of action research as this is more of an approach
to problem-solving, rather than a single method for collecting and analyzing data. This strategy
can be considered a mirror reflecting the teacher‟s experience in teaching which serves as a
basis for the continuous and on-going process of professional development.
The action research cycle, as suggested by Nunan (1992), consists of seven steps, namely
initiation, preliminary investigation, development of research questions, intervention,
evaluation, dissemination, and follow-up. The study strictly follows the general steps of an
action research and the main steps will be dealt with in chapter three.
2.4 Participants
The subjects of the study are 32 second-year students from Class 2B, Department of Foreign
Languages, HTTC. Most of them come from Hanoi; the rest from some provinces around this
city. Their level of proficiency in English can be roughly attributed to Pre-intermediate.
The study also involves another teacher in English for Tourism team. She has been teaching
this subject for 2 years. This teacher, along with the researcher, is making an attempt to find out
an effective teaching method to enhance students‟ learning as well as their motivation in
learning this subject.
2.5 Instruments
In order to get sufficient data for the study, a number of methods were employed:
* Questionnaires: This “vital tool in the collection of data” (Gajendra, 1999, p.117) seems to
be the easiest and most effective method for collecting data from students. Two sets of

After that, a semi-structured interview was conducted with the teacher and during the
semester, the researcher constantly had friendly chats with or emails to her colleague for further
information and recommendations. A careful record of students‟ changes in their attitude and
behaviors is also kept.