A study on congruence between ESP course objectives and students’ needs at business management department, vietnam forestry university

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background to the study
Vietnam Forestry University offers English for Environmental Science which is a
compulsory course for the third year students of Business Management Department. The
course book was compiled by teachers at Foreign Language Department and has been
published only for students of the university since the academic year 2005 – 2006. During
the academic year, around 200 students of the third year study this course. The researcher
had the opportunity to teach English for Environment Science to those students half of
academic year.
But do all ESP course designers try to gain insight into learners’ perceived needs,
wants, and lacks? “Teachers may rely more often on intuition when making course
planning than on informed assessment of learners’ needs” (Barkuizen 1998, Spratt 1999 as
cited in Davies 2006).
Since certain chapters of the books seem to have been designed without involving learners
in the course design process, it is quite likely that they may not reflect the needs and
interests of any particular learner groups. The readymade book is prescribed for all
students of any background of English; it is the responsibility of the ESP practitioner to
evaluate the congruence between the ESP course objectives and learners’ needs and to
make any adaptation suitable to better enable learners to learn effectively and meet the
learners’ needs.
1.2 Rationale
From the early 1960's, English for Specific Purposes (ESP) has grown to become
one of the most prominent areas of EFL teaching today. With the globalization of trade
and economy and the continuing increase of international communication in various fields,
the demand for English for Specific Purposes is expanding, especially in countries where
English is taught as a Foreign Language. In Vietnam, the ESP movement is a young and
developing branch of EFL. ESP has shown a slow but definite growth over the past few
years. Its development is reflected in the increasing number of universities offering BA and
MA in ESP (e.g. Hanoi University) and in the number of ESP courses offered to overseas
students in English speaking countries. In particular, increased interest has been spurred
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since Vietnam opened its doors and recently entered WTO with a lot of well-paid job
opportunities for English competent employees. This has led to a rapid growth in English
courses aimed at specific disciplines, e.g. English for Forestry, in place of the more
traditional 'General English' ones.
Even though ESP courses have become popular recently in Vietnam and many
institutions and universities offer ESP courses for senior students, for years ESP courses
are given with already made books or ESP materials compiled without students’ needs
analysis. Such approach fundamentally ignores the learners’ personal interests. This often
leads to low motivation in their English studies and, in turn, poor performance later when
they use English in their future profession.
In response to these problems, it is important that university English faculties
need to design or adapt ESP courses in the way that students’ needs are paid attention to.
This means that ESP course objectives should be congruent with learners’ needs and
therefore best prepare learners for future professional communication. However, to do
this, it requires a complete understanding what are students’ needs and ESP course
objectives. How can teachers develop a new course whose objectives congruent with
learners’ needs? Where should they start? What are the ways that best find out students
needs? What are the objectives that can best congruent with students’ needs? What should
be included in an ESP course? These are some of the questions that ESP course designers
or ESP instructors should answer and they help to improve the quality of the ESP courses.
This is the reason that inspired me to conduct this study in a hope that the study can help at
least improve the quality of ESP course at Business Management Department of Vietnam
Forestry University.
1.3 Aims of the study
The writer intends to centre this study on the following major aims:
 To find out learners’ needs (third term students who are studying ESP course at
Business Management Department of Vietnam Forestry Industry).
 To study ESP course objectives of English for Environmental Science book
designed by teachers at Foreign Language Department to be applied for third year
students at Business Management Department of Vietnam Forestry University;

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 To investigate the congruence between the ESP course objectives and learners’
needs in Vietnam Forestry University;
 To suggest any adaptation suitable to better enable learners to learn effectively and
meet the learners’ needs.
1.4 The scope and the significance of the study
This study cannot cover all the aspects of needs analysis and course objectives.
The study just investigates the stated ESP course objectives in the ESP materials, the book
English for Environmental Science, designed by teachers at Foreign Language Department
and tries to find out learners’ needs at Business Management Department of Vietnam
Forestry University.
The subjects of the study are the third-year students at Business Management
Department of Vietnam Forestry University. The current ESP reading textbook is “English
for Environmental Science”.
The findings of the study will hopefully serve as a back-up for the improvement
of the ESP syllabus. Practically, those findings are believed to be beneficial to teachers,
course designers as well as students at Business Management Department of Vietnam
Forestry University.
1.5. The overview of the study
The study comprises four chapters: Introduction, Literature Review,
Methodology, Data analysis and Findings, and Recommendations and Conclusion.
Chapter 1; Introduction, provides information on the background to the study, the
rationale, the aims as well as the scope and significance of the study and the outline of the
study.
Chapter 2, Literature Review, reviews the literature related to three main areas.
First, it is a brief overview of different writers’ opinions on ESP. Second, It looks at the
theory of course objectives. And finally, theory of needs analysis and related issues are
discussed.
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Chapter 3, Methodology, Data analysis and Findings, includes the research

questions, the description of the subjects, and the description of data collection
instruments, and the findings of the study.
Chapter 4, Suggested adaptations and Conclusion, presents the writer’s
suggestions for adaptation suitable to better enable learners to learn effectively and meet
the learners’ needs. After that, there will be the conclusion of the thesis.
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CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW
This chapter, literature review, will look at the three main issues that are relevant
to the study: the conception of ESP, need analysis and course objectives. In the first
section, the author would like to present briefly an overview of ESP which tackles several
prominent definitions of the term as well as some differences between ESP and general
English. The second section will discuss the issues of needs analysis. And finally, the
theory of course objectives will be reviewed in the last section of this chapter.
2.1 An overview of ESP
2.1.1 What is ESP?
According to Hutchinson and Waters (1997) ESP is one important branch of EFL/ESL
(English as a Foreign/Second Language) system that functions as the main branch of
English language teaching ELT. Therefore, ESP is not a particular kind of language or
methodology, but rather an approach to language learning whereby the contents and
methods are based on the learner’s particular needs to learn the language.
Since its emergence, much effort has been made to give an exact definition of
ESP. There are almost as many definitions of ESP as the number of scholars who have
attempted to define it. Many others have tried to define ESP in terms of what it is not
rather than in terms of what it really is. But for the purpose of exploring what ESP really
means these definitions will not be looked at.
Mackay and Mountford (1978) defined ESP as the teaching of English for clearly
utilitarian purposes (p. 2). The purposes they refer to are defined by the needs of the
learners, which could be academic, occupational, or scientific. These needs in turn
determine the contents of ESP curriculum to be taught and learned. Mackay and Mountford
also defined ESP as a special language that is taught in specific settings by certain

participants. They stated that those participants are usually adults. They focused on adults
because adults are usually highly conscious of the reasons to attain English proficiency in a
determined field of specialization, and because adults make real use of special language in
the special settings in which they work.
Strevens (1977, p. 90) said: “ESP courses are those in which the aims and the
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contents are determined, principally or wholly, not by criteria of general education…but by
functional and practical English language requirements of the learners”.
Robinson (1980) defined ESP courses as the ones in which participants have
specific goals and purposes (again, academic, occupational, and scientific). She cited
Strevens (1977) to emphasize that the purposes language learners have for using language
are of paramount importance. She stated that those purposes must be understood as the
driving force of the curriculum in a way that would help teachers and learners to not let
irrelevant materials be introduced into the course. She also placed the learners in the role of
curriculum designers in order to make the curriculum more learner-centered. Strevens also
argued that ESP courses are those that are almost strictly based on the analysis of the
participants’ needs - a key and crucial element - in order to tailor the curriculum to meet its
true purposes.
Dudley-Evans (Dudley-Evans and St John, M.T. 1998, p.56) took a general
approach in defining what ESP really is in terms of ‘absolute’ and ‘variable’ characteristics
as follows:
ESP Absolute Characteristics
1. ESP is defined to meet specific needs of the learners
2. ESP makes use of underlying methodology and activities of the discipline it serves
3. ESP is centered on the language appropriate to these activities in terms of grammar,
lexis, register, study skills, discourse and genre.
Variable Characteristics
1. ESP may be related to or designed for specific disciplines
2. ESP may use, in specific teaching situations, a different methodology from that of
General English

3. ESP is likely to be designed for adult learners, either at a tertiary level institution or in
a professional work situation. It could, however, be for learners at secondary school level
4. ESP is generally designed for intermediate or advanced students.
5. Most ESP courses assume some basic knowledge of the language systems
The definition Dudley-Evans was clearly influenced by that of Strevens (1988),
although he has improved it substantially by removing the absolute characteristic that ESP
is “in contrast with ‘General English’” and has included more variable characteristics. The
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division of ESP into absolute and variable characteristics, in particular, is very helpful in
resolving arguments about what is and is not ESP.
According to Widdowson (1983) ESP is viewed as parasitic in nature because it
largely depends on the demands and requirements of the other disciplines and areas of
expertise and activities. While Hutchinson and Water (1987) considered ESP as an
approach, not product in which all decisions as to content and method are based on the
learner’s reason for learning. This means ESP does not involve any particular kind of
language, teaching material or methodology, but it is an approach to language learning,
which is based on learners’ needs. They claim that “ESP is not a matter of etching
“specialized varieties of English” and “ESP is not different in kind from any other form of
language teaching” (Hutchinson, T. and Water, A., 1987).
From the definition, we can see that ESP can but is not necessarily concerned with
a specific discipline (subject), nor does it have to be aimed at a certain age group or ability
range or in other words ESP can be applied to any subject and any learner. ESP should be
seen simple as an ‘approach’ to teaching, or what Dudley-Evans describes as an ‘attitude
of mind’. This is a similar conclusion to that made by Hutchinson et al. (1987:19) who
states, “ESP is an approach to language teaching in which all decisions as to contents and
method are based on the learner’s reason for learning”.
The last definition of ESP is the definition that this study will definitely employ in
the process of examining the congruence between the course objectives stated in the
current teaching material and the studying needs of the learners at Business Management
Department of Vietnam Forestry University.

2.1.2 Is ESP different from GE?
The above definitions have shown how broad ESP really is. In fact, one may ask ‘What is
the difference between the ESP and GE approach?’ Hutchinson et al. (1987:53) answer this
quite simply, “in theory nothing, in practice a great deal”.
When their book was written, the Hutchinson’s answer was quite true. At the
time, teachers of General English courses, while acknowledging that students had a
specific purpose for studying English, would rarely conduct a needs analysis to find out
what was necessary to actually achieve it. Teachers nowadays, however, are much more
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aware of the importance of needs analysis, and certainly materials writers think very
carefully about the goals of learners at all stages of materials production. Perhaps this
demonstrates the influence that the ESP approach has had on English teaching in general.
Clearly the line between where General English courses stop and ESP courses start has
become very vague indeed.
Rather ironically, while many General English teachers can be described as using
an ESP approach, basing their syllabi on a learner needs analysis and their own specialist
knowledge of using English for real communication, it is the majority of so-called ESP
teachers that are using an approach furthest from that described above. Instead of
conducting interviews with specialists in the field, analyzing the language that is required
in the profession, or even conducting students’ needs analysis, many ESP teachers have
become slaves of the published textbooks available, unable to evaluate their suitability
based on personal experience, and unwilling to do the necessary analysis of difficult
specialist texts to verify their contents.
In conclusion, English for Specific/Special Purposes (ESP) and General English
(GE) are the two branches of English Language Teaching (ELT). General English and
English for Specific Purposes share the same principles of language teaching, having
effective and efficient learning as a main objective. The main difference between ESP and
GE lies in the awareness of a need. ESP learners are current or future specialists who need
English for their specific area and who are aware of their need; they know what exactly
they need English for, they know what the ESP course should offer them. (Hutchinson and

Waters (1987).
2.1.3 Characteristics of ESP courses
The characteristics of ESP courses identified by Carter (1983) are discussed here.
He states that there are three features common to ESP courses: a) authentic material, b)
purpose-related orientation, and c) self-direction.
Dudley-Evans’ (1998) claim that ESP should be offered at an intermediate or
advanced level, use of authentic learning materials is entirely feasible. Closer examination
of ESP materials will follow; suffice it to say at this juncture that use of authentic content
materials, modified or unmodified in form, are indeed a feature of ESP, particularly in self-
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directed study and research tasks. For Language Preparation for Employment in the Health
Sciences, a large component of the student evaluation was based on an independent study
assignment in which the learners were required to investigate and present an area of
interest. The students were encouraged to conduct research using a variety of different
resources, including the Internet.
Purpose-related orientation refers to the simulation of communicative tasks
required of the target setting. Carter (1983) cites student simulation of a conference,
involving the preparation of papers, reading, note taking, and writing. At Algonquin
College, English for business courses have involved students in the design and presentation
of a unique business venture, including market research, pamphlets and logo creation. The
students have presented all final products to invited ESL classes during a poster
presentation session. For our health science program, students attended a seminar on
improving your listening skills. They practiced listening skills, such as listening with
empathy, and then employed their newly acquired skills during a fieldtrip to a local
community centre where they were partnered up with English-speaking residents.
Finally, self-direction is characteristic of ESP courses in that the “ point of
including self-direction is that ESP is concerned with turning learners into users”
(Carter, 1983, p. 134). In order for self-direction to occur, the learners must have a certain
degree of freedom to decide when, what, and how they will study. Carter (1983) also adds
that there must be a systematic attempt by teachers to teach the learners how to learn by

teaching them about learning strategies. Is it necessary, though, to teach high-ability
learners such as those enrolled in the health science program about learning strategies? I
argue that it is not. Rather, what is essential for these learners is learning how to access
information in a new culture.
2.2 Learner Need- Need analysis
2.2.1 Learner Needs
Learner needs is an important aspect in determining the success of an ESP course.
therefore, it has drawn attention from numerous scholars who want to explore what the
term is all about. Among them Berwick Brindley, Mountford, and Widdowson have
discussed different meanings of needs. First, according to Widdowson (1983, p.2) needs
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refers to students’ study or job requirements, that is, what they have to be able to do at the
end of their language course. This is a goal-oriented definition of needs Needs in this sense
“are perhaps more appropriately described as “objective” (Berwick 1989, p.57). Second,
needs can mean “what the user-institution or society at large regards as necessary or
desirable to be learnt from a program of language instruction” (Mountford (1981, p.27).
Third, needs is defined as “what the learner needs to do to actually acquire the language”.
This is a process-oriented definition which bears the meaning of learning (Widdowson
(1983, p.2). Fourth, needs is also viewed as what the students themselves would like to
gain from the language course. This view of needs implies that students may have personal
aims in addition to (or even in opposition to) the requirement of their studies or jobs.
Berwick (1989, p.5) notes that such personal needs may be (and often are) devalued by
being viewed as “wants or desires”. Finally, Berwick concluded needs is interpreted as
lacks, that is, what the students do not know or cannot do in English.
Some of these views of needs have been paired, and the members of each pair
seen as polar opposites, although the distinctions are not as clear cut as might be supposed.
This parings indicated the differences between what is believed to be the needs and what is
the really needs. The pairings of contrasted views of needs include perceived versus felt
needs (perhaps covering the same ground as objective and subjective needs), the terms
products and process have a range of uses as well as equating product with a target view of

needs and process with a learning view, we can try to identify the target-level products and
processes which students will need to control at the end of an ESP course. In this study the
writer will discus the pair target needs and learning needs (covering the same ground as
goal-oriented and process-oriented needs) in 2.2.1 and 2.2.2 because it is more relevant to
the teaching and learning of ESP course in the study setting.
2.2.2 Needs analysis
“Needs analysis is generally regarded as criteria to ESP, although ESP is by no
means the only educational enterprise which makes use of it” Robinson, P.C (1991). Needs
analysis is the process of identifying the students' reasons for studying a language. It refers
to the procedure for identifying general and specific language needs of students so that
appropriate goals, objectives, and contents in courses can be developed (Hutchinson &
Waters, 1987). In these researchers’ points of view it is imperative to carry out a needs
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analysis to determine the specific reasons for learning the language, or to specify exactly,
what students need to achieve through the medium of English in an ESP course.
In the same line Nunan (1988; p.13) said “techniques and procedures for
collecting information to be used in syllabus design are referred to as a needs analysis”. In
more formal terms a needs analysis is “the process of determining the needs for which a
learner or group of learners requires a language and arranging the needs according to
priorities” (Richards, and Platt, 1992; p.242).
The current concept of needs analysis in ESP, according to Dudley-Evans and St
John (1998; p.125), includes consideration of the following aspects:
A. Professional information about the learners: the tasks and activities learners are/will be
using English for- target situation analysis and objective needs.
B. Personal information about the learners: factors which may affect the way they learn
such as previous learning experiences, cultural information, reasons for attending the
course and expectations of it, attitude to English- wants, means, subjective needs.
C. English language information about the learners: what their current skills and language
use are- present situation analysis- which allows us to assess (D).
D. The learners’ lacks: the gap between (C) and (A)- lacks.

E. Language learning information: effective ways of learning the skills and language in
(D)- learning needs.
F. Professional communication information about (A): knowledge of how language and
skills are used in the target situation- linguistic analysis, discourse analysis, genre
analysis.
G. What is wanted from the course?
H. Information about the environment in which the course will be run – means analysis.
There are a number of books and articles that describe procedures for gathering
information about needs; the writer of this study chooses Hutchinson and Water (1987)
framework about the kind of information that the course designers need to gather from an
analysis of needs which are paired into target needs and learning needs.
2.2.2.1 The target needs
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A need analysis which focuses on students’ needs at the end of a language course
can be called a target situation analysis (TSA) (Chambers, 1984). Probably the most
thorough and widely known work on needs analysis is John Munby’s Communicative
syllabus design (1978). Munby sets up a highly detailed set of procedures for discovering
target situation needs. He presents a communication needs processor, comprising a set of
parameters within which information on the student’ target situation can be plotted. A
helpful insight which Munby codifies related to target –level performance; for certain jobs
students may require only a low level of accuracy or of native –speaker –like ability, ect.
The TSA may thus pinpoint the stage at which “good enough” competence for the job is
reached.
Hutchinson and Waters (1987, p 59) recommended that “Target needs is
something of an umbrella term, which in practice hides a number of important distinctions.
It is more useful to look at the target situation in terms of necessities, lacks and wants” .
Necessities is the type of need determined by the demands of the target situation,
that is, what the learners have to know in order to function effectively in the target
situation. For example, a businessman might need to understand business letters, to
communicate effectively at sales conference, to get necessary information from sales

catalogues and so on.
However, identifying necessities alone is not enough, since the concern in ESP is
with the needs of particular learners. We also need to know what the learner knows
already, so that you can then decide which of the necessities the learner lacks. One target
situation necessity might be to read texts in a particular subject area, Whether or not the
learners need instruction in doing this will depend on how well they can do it already. The
target proficiency in other words, needs to be matched against the existing proficiency of
the learners. The gap between the two can be referred to as the learner’s lacks (Hutchinson
T. & Waters 1987).
It is quite possible that the learners’ views will conflict with the perception of
other interested parties; course designers, sponsors, teachers. And bearing in mind the
important of learner motivation in the learning process, learner perceived wants cannot be
ignored. What wants mean is well illustrated by Richard Mead’s account of his research
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into the motivation of students following ESP courses in the faculties of Medicine,
Agriculture and Veterinary Science at a university in the Middle –East (1980).
Objectives
( course designers)
Subjective
( learners)
Necessities The English needed for success in
Agricultural or Veterinary Studies
To reluctantly cope with a
“second-best” situation
Lacks (Presumably) areas of English needed for
Agricultural or Veterinary Studies
Means of doing Medical
Studies
Wants To success in Agricultural or Veterinary
Studies

To undertake Medical
Studies
Hutchinson T. & Waters (1987) suggested the following questions as a starting
point to uncover relevant information: Why is the language needed? How will the
language be used? What will the content areas be? Who will the learners use the language
with? When/Where will the language be used?
We have considered so far needs in terms of target situation considering, and the
above questions help answer where is the starting point (lacks) and the destination
(necessities) although we have also seen that there might be some dispute as to what that
destination should be (wants). However, these answers do not show the route to reach
destination from the starting point. The question lies on another kind of need - the learning
needs.
2.2.2.2 The learning needs
In looking at the target situation, the ESP course designer is asking the question:
“What does the expert communicator need to know in order to function effectively in this
situation?”. This information may be recorded in terms of language items, skills, strategies,
subject knowledge, ect. What the analysis cannot do, however, is show how the expert
communicator learnt the language items, skills, and strategies that he or she uses (Smith,
1984). Analyzing what people do tells you a little, if anything, about how they learnt to do
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it. Yet, the whole ESP process is concerned not with knowing or doing, but with learning.
It is naïve to base a course design simply on the target objectives, just as it is naïve to think
that a journey can be planned solely in terms of the starting point and the destination. The
needs, potential and constraints of the route (i.e. The learning situation) must also be taken
into account, if we are going to have any useful analysis of learner needs. ( Hutchinson &
Water, 1987).
If the target needs gives us the starting point and the destination, the learning
needs helps us to choose our route according to the vehicles and guides. To understand the
learning needs Hutchinson, and Waters (1987 p. 62-63) suggested the following questions:
Why are the learners taking the course? How do the learners learn? What resources are

available? Who are the learners? When/Where will the course take place?
In conclusion, we have so far looked at the most common features of an ESP
needs analysis. We also have stressed that both target situation needs and learning needs
must be taken into account. Analysis of target situation needs is concerned with language
use. But language use is only part of the story. We also need to know about language
learning. Analysis of the target situation can tell us what people do with language. We also
need to know how people learn to do what they do with language.
Needs analysis has then become a vital part of the designing and setting of any
curriculum, especially in the ESP areas. The importance of conducting a needs analysis
exercise lies in the fact that through it, curricula-designers can learn first hand two
important things: (1) what general and specific language proficiency learners have, and (2)
what general and specific language proficiency learners need to acquire. Once curricula-
designers discover these two important student-related facts, then they can write the course
objectives, make decisions on what to include in the syllabus or for example, what
functions, topics, vocabulary, and other language procedures should be given emphasis
over others that students already master. Once the syllabus is in place, then decisions about
how to teach it and when to teach it should be made. This in turn will lead curricula-
designers to design and create or adapt teaching materials that would cater to the learners’
linguistics needs, which in turn will shape testing of language learning. This is precisely
the reason why it is often said that needs analysis drives the making of curriculum.
Therefore, needs analysis must be given especial attention and always be carefully
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conducted. It should be conducted in a way that would enable curricula-designers obtain a
high-quality product that would not only allow the mandating institution fulfill its
educational mission, but in the end empower learners through the acquisition of language
that would help them reach their linguistic, professional, and personal goals.
2.3 ESP Course Objectives
In this section, the writer looked at the reasons why we should set objectives for
ESP course, the formulating of courser objectives, skill selection and, finally the problems
when writing course objectives.

2.3.1 Reasons for objectives
Hutchinson, and Waters (1987, p 75) said “developing statements of perceived
needs into program goals and these in turn into clear objectives is an effective way to
clarify what should be going on in the language classroom”. Objectives describe what
learners will be able to do or perform to be considered competent at the end of instruction,
and they provide clear reasons for teaching. Clearly defined learning objectives are useful
for instructors, instructional designers and students. By clearly stating the results we want
the learners to accomplish, instructors can focus each class on what the students need,
identify whether students have gained the appropriate skills and knowledge. Clearly
defined objectives also allow designers and instructors a method to find how successful
their material has been. And the students in turn, can study more effectively because they
know what is expected of them and can direct their attention more clearly. Because
objectives should be stated before learners begin their instructional materials, they provide
students the means to organize their efforts toward accomplishing the desired behaviors. In
short, objectives provide the building blocks from which curriculum can be created,
modeled and revised.
According to Young (1980), well stated objectives are very valuable:
a. they help the teacher to determine precisely the correspondence between the objectives
of the course and the communication skills required in professional life.
b. they help the teacher to select appropriate materials and methods for teaching the
students.
c. they help the teacher to evaluate the effectiveness of his or her instruction.
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d. they help the teacher to develop examinations which are relevant, fair and useful.
e. they help the student to evaluate his/her performance and allocate his/her time more
appropriately.
f. finally, and just as important as any of the others, the process of trying to formulate
performance objectives stimulates thought about the entire educational enterprise and
often results in unexpected and valuable in-sights.
2.3.2 Formulating Course Objectives.

Before setting objectives it is important to establish first the dominant role of
language leaning in a particular course. Two features should be taken into account: 1) the
context in which students will be learning and in which they will eventually be using the
language, and 2) the specific purposes in operational terms for which the language is
expected to be required. (Vaughan,1978). These factors and others were taken into account
in formulating course objectives.
The defining of objectives (i.e. determining desired learner capabilities and
abilities) is not an easy endeavor. It should be performed in a step by step fashion and with
extreme care. Much has been written on how to define objectives, Bloom (1975), Gagné
and Briggs (1979) are among those who postulate that in order for objectives to be useful
in planning of the learning process, they must be defined with precise terms. One reason
for this is that one word may have different meanings to different people. The choice of
word, especially of verb, should therefore be one that transmits information as to the
behavior required of the learner (i.e. it should be a “technical” word.) The process of
stating objective begins with the identification of the purpose of the course. This, in turn,
should reflect what is expected of the learner at the end of the course. The actual stating of
the specific objectives involves what is expected of the learner during the course and
should be defined “operationally” that is, the objectives should state what the learner has to
do in order to confirm the completion and achievement of the objective. These specific
objectives consequently define the planned results of the learning process and serve as
starting point for the evaluation (Gagné and Briggs, 1979, pp. 91-95).
Gronlund (19780) concurs that specifying clearly the outcome of learning will
probably make classroom instruction more effective. It is also vital that the statements be
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“general enough to provide guidelines for teaching without overly limiting the instructional
process, yet specific enough to clearly define the behavior that the students are to exhibit
when they have achieved the objectives. This approach provides for the inclusion of
learning outcomes of all types and at all levels ranging form the simplest to the most
complex. Specifically, these recommendations were:
I. Stating General Instructional Objectives:

a. Begin each general instructional objective with a verb (knows, understands,
appreciates, etc. Omit such unnecessary refinements as ‘the students can…” or “the
student has the ability to…”
b. State each objective in terms of student performance rather than teacher performance.
c. State each objective as a learning product rather than in terms of the learning process
d. State each objective so that it indicates the terminal behavior rather than the subject
matter to be covered during instruction.
e. State each objective so that is includes only one general learning outcome rather
than a combination of several outcomes
f. State each objective at a level of generality that clearly indicates the expected
learning outcome and that is readily definable by specific types of students’ behavior.
Stating from 8 to 12 general instructional objectives will usually suffice.
(Gronlund, 1978, p.11)
II. Procedure for Defining Instructional Objective in Behavioral Terms:
a. State the general instructional objectives a expected learning outcomes.
b. Place under each general instructional objective a list of specific learning
outcomes that describe the terminal behavior students are to demonstrate when
they have achieved the objectives
1. Begin each specific learning outcome with a verb that specifies
definite, observable behavior.
2. List a sufficient number of specific learning outcomes under each
objective to describe adequately behavior of students who have
achieved the objective.
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3. Keep the specific learning outcomes free of course content so that
the list can be used with different units of study.
4. Be certain that each specific learning outcome is relevant to the
objective it describes.
c. When defining the general instructional objectives in terms of specific learning
outcomes , revise and refine the original list of objectives as needed.

d. Be careful not to omit complex objectives( e.g. critical thinking, appreciation)
simply because they are difficult to define in terms of specific learning
outcomes
e. Consult reference materials for help in identifying the specific types of behavior
that are most appropriate for defining the complex objectives
(Gronlund., p. 18)
The two most profound denominators related to objective were the Gronlund’s
book mentioned above and Munby’s Communicative Syllabus Design. The Gronlund was a
valuable tool for stating objective clearly and meaningfully meanwhile Munby’s provided
a selection of skills which applied to many of specific needs and requirements.
2.3.3 Skills Selection
The book English for Environmental Science applied for students of Business
Management Department of Vietnam Forestry University focused only on reading skill,
thus, the general core objectives stated for all ESP course at of Business Management
Department of Vietnam Forestry University deal with reading comprehension.
Reading materials selected reflect the semantic and syntactic structures of English
found in the learners’ specialty course materials. The learners, therefore, need to be taught
a strategy of reading which allows them to understand authentic texts without the aid of the
teacher or constant use of the dictionary. Basically, it is important for our students to be
able to scan any of their text materials to get a general idea of its contents, as well as to be
able to understand important information in a specific part of a whole text in detail.
When making objective for each specific career course, it is important to
remember that although each particular field has its own specific vocabulary items, it is
still part of the English language in general. So, we have the “same language employed for
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similar and different uses employing similar and different usages”. The different usages
and uses refers to “items and patterns that are identified as specific to particular subject
specializations or vocational/ occupational roles” ( Mackay and Mountford, 1978, p 25).
Allen and Widdowson describe two aspects of language learning that we have
taken into consideration:

a. The recognition of sentence use in acts of communication, that is
understanding “rhetorical coherence of discourse”.
b. The recognition and manipulation of devices used to join sentences and
form passages. They are referred to as ‘grammatical cohesion of a text”.
(Allen and Widdowson, 1978, p 58)
Other constraints that in some cases had to be taken into account when designing
course objectives were the followings:
The objectives:
a. Would be aimed at students with different levels of language
competence, from low intermediate to almost native speaker abilities.
b. Should take into consideration that in some cases students would have a
limited amount of time to deal with their ESP course due to the many
other university course requirements.
c. Should be flexible enough to be used by a different professor at a
different time with a different set of students. It is precisely for this
reason that the specific objectives developed for each field of study are
broad enough to allow for varieties in different teacher methodologies
and yet precise and clear enough to establish the language objective
required.
2.3.4 Problems in Writing Objectives
Some of the most problems that are common in writing objectives and solutions to these
are discussed by Donn C. Ritchie in her article at
which are
presented in the following table:
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Problems Error types Solutions
1. Vastness Complexity
or Earnestness
The objective is too broad in
scope or includes more

than one objective
Reduce and simplify the
objective
2. False Criteria The criteria doesn't let the user
know explicitly how well
they need to do the
behavior
Make criteria: reasonable,
specific, useful
3. False Givens
Describes instruction, not
conditions
Detail what can be used to
complete the test
4. False Performance Often simply restating the goal;
no true performance stated
Be specific as to what you
want the learner to do
To summarize, instructional objectives must be viewed as flexible, temporary and
revisable so that they can be tailored to different contexts and respond to changes over time
in the needs of the students or in the physical and human resource of the program.
Objectives can provide a useful tool that allows teachers to work out, often for the first
time, what they want their students to be able to do when they finish the course. Objectives
are central part of any systematic curriculum development, but they can and should range
in level of generality according to what is being taught and who is teaching it. Without
goals and objectives, a program may have no clear purpose and direction. With goals and
objectives, at least a tentative definition exists of what the program has to offer the students
and what it is that a group of professional language teachers are trying to achieve.
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CHAPTER 3: THE METHODOLOGY, DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION

This chapter consists of five parts. First, the research questions will be presented.
Second, there will be the description of the subjects who are the students and lecturers
taking part in the need analysis as informants. Third, the description of the data collection
instruments will follow. In this part, the readers will be provided information about the
questions in the questionnaires (for students and for teachers). Fourth, the data collected will
be presented and explained. And the last part will be the evaluation of congruence between
the ESP course objectives and learners’ need.
3.1 The research questions
What do students at Business Management Department of Vietnam Forestry
University need in taking ESP course?
What are the objectives stated in designing the book English for Environmental
Science used as ESP course book applied for students at Business Management
Department of Vietnam Forestry University?
Is the ESP course objectives applied at Vietnam Forestry University congruent
with learners’ needs?
3.2 Description of the subjects
There are 187 students and three teachers of Business Management Department of
Vietnam Forestry Industry who got involved in the need analysis. There are four classes
this term two classes study in the morning, and other two classes meet in the afternoon.
The classes are scheduled to learn two sessions a week.
There are 187 students in the list. They have different backgrounds of how long
and how they have been studying English before taking this ESP course. However, they
did take 200 hours of general English together during the first and second years at the
Vietnam Forestry University. But this doesn’t mean that their level of English is the same.
They are also different in terms of chances to practice English out of classroom. They are
of the same ages around 19 to 22. They have diversity of reasons to learn English in this
course.
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There are three teachers teaching the course including two masters of linguistics
and one master-to-be in English studies. The writer of this study is also a present teacher of

the course. The teachers have been teaching in Foreign Language Department of Vietnam
Forestry University for over 7 years. They agreed and were willing to collaborate with the
researcher to get involved in the study. Therefore, it is reasonable to believe that need
analysis is conducted thoroughly enough.
3.3 Description of the data collection instruments
Two data collection instruments used in the study are questionnaire, and materials
analysis. The first questionnaire is used to investigate learners’ needs from learners
participating in the ESP course at Business Management Department of Vietnam Forestry
University. The second questionnaire is to collect information about the ESP teaching
practice from teachers of ESP course. And the third instrument is document analysis used
to find out ESP course objectives.
3.3.1. Questionnaires
The writer of this study chose questionnaires as a data collection instrument
because it provides information from a large number of participants and it allows getting
information about variety of aspects. The writer designed close-ended questionnaire on the
ground of literature review. According to Nunan (1992, p 147), 'one of the great advances of
close-ended questions is that they yield responses which can readily be quantified and
analyzed, particularly if one has access to computer packages.
The first questionnaire was used to collect data from students of the ESP course
on three main aspects: students’ previous learning experience, target needs and learning
needs. In order to obtain valid information, 22 close-ended questions related to each aspect
were designed (See Appendix A for version of the questionnaire). The questionnaire was
designed on the basis of a review of relevant literature relating to principles and contents
needed to successfully discover students’ learning needs which were discussed in the
chapter 2. The purpose of the questionnaire was to obtain as much information as possible
about the participants’ linguistic needs, and professional and English-learning related goals.
The second questionnaire is for teachers of the ESP course. They were intended to
answer the questionnaire about their teaching of the reading materials in the ESP course.
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Their answers are important to evaluating the achievement of ESP course objectives which

in turn serves to measure the congruence between learners’ needs and course objectives.
Explanation:
Questionnaire for students
I. Previous learning experience
In the first section of the questionnaire, Question 1 to 6, participants were asked to
provide information about their previous learning experiences.
Question 1 was used to find out how long they have studied English. This is
important because it means that students were first exposed to English from secondary
school or just at university. In Vietnamese education system, English lessons are first
provided from primary school, or secondary school, or high school or university without
any compulsory rules.
Question 2 was used to check where students learnt English. Different institution
or languages center may use different approaches to teach English for learners.
Question 3 was used to investigate learners’ reasons to learn English. This is good
to find out their motivation in learning English.
Question 4 was used to evaluate students’ level of English before they start ESP
course through their self-evaluation of their proficiency level in English. With this
information, ESP course designer will be able to direct the curriculum in directions that
would meet the participants’ linguistic needs in terms of listening, speaking, reading,
writing, and grammar and vocabulary. This is very important because the ESP classes in
the setting s are big and students are of mixed abilities.
Question 5 was used to reveal students’ knowledge of the subject. Knowing the
subject can help students better understand or guest the meaning of the ESP texts and can
motivate them to learn more.
Finally, question 6 asked about students’ experience in learning style which might
help them feel more confident if ESP can provide the same one.
II. Target needs
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There are 6 questions in this part. They are designed to investigate students’
targets in their ESP course.

Question 1 was used to discover the reasons students’ taking part in ESP. This
can reveal the motivation of students and help curriculum designers to set clear objectives
for ESP courses.
Question 2 aimed to find out how students will use English later after the course.
This also helps to setting up the objectives of the course.
Question 3 focused on the audience of students’ English, knowing this can help
ESP course designers set more realistic objectives of the course.
Question 4 was used to poll the context where English will be used.
Question 5 was used to check how often students will use English after the ESP
course.
And finally, Question 6 helped to reveal students motivation in taking the ESP
course.
III. Learning needs
The learning needs questioned are designed to investigate the learners’ language
difficulties, their learning objectives, their styles of learning .
Question 1 helped to identify students’ weaknesses in certain skills in language learning.
Question 2 focused on skills that students think they should improve
Question 3 used to discover the learning methodology that students think will work for
them.
Question 4 asked about students’ preference about learning activities in the class.
Question 5 checked students’ habits of learning.
Question 6 helped to find out the resources available in ESP course.
Question 7 found out the opportunities that students have outside classroom.
Question 8 aimed to discover how much time students spend on studying English.
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Question 9 asked if students want to do home work, and if so, how much time they are
willing to spend on this activity.
Question 10 was used to investigate students’ expectation in achievement at the end of the
English course.
Questionnaire for the teachers.

There are 10 questions in the questionnaire for the teacher. They are aimed to answer the
question how teachers exploit the textbook to reach teaching objectives.
Question 1 focuses on the unit organization
Question 2 looks at activities teachers apply in each unit
Question 3 asks about lesson plan
Question 4,5 &6 look at pre-reading activities
Question 7,8,&9 look at the reading activities
Question 10 aims to discover about post-reading activities.
3.3.2 Material analysis
The writer of this study investigated the ESP course book “English for
Environmental Science’ complied by Foreign Language Department, Vietnam Forestry
University” for third year students of Business Management Department of Vietnam
Forestry University and other related documents (course book design project) to find out
the ESP objectives specified by the authors. This instrument is necessary because the
writer of this study believes that the objectives of the ESP course are not only stated in the
text book but also mentioned somewhere in their report of course book design project.
3.4 Data analysis and discussion
Four sections will be presented in this part: data collected from questionnaires for
students, data collected from questionnaires for teachers, and data collected from document
analysis. Finally, the major findings are presented as result of these data collections.
3.4.1 Data collected from questionnaires for students
The questionnaire was given to 158 students out of 187 students in the list (some were
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