Thái độ của sinh viên về việc áp dụng phương pháp đánh giá thường xuyên trong khóa học tiếng anh kinh tế của sinh viên chuyên ngành biên phiên dịch hà nội

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHER EDUCATION

GRADUATION PAPER

STUDENTS’ ATTITUDES TOWARDS THE
APPLICATION OF FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT
IN ENGLISH FOR ECOMONICS TO STUDENTS
IN ENGLISH INTERPRETATION AND
TRANSLATION MAJOR, FELTE, ULIS - VNU

Supervisor : Ms. Nguyễn Thụy Phƣơng Lan, M.A.
Student

: Khƣơng Quỳnh Nga

Course

: QH2015.F1.E3

HÀ NỘI - 2019


ĐẠI HỌC QUỐC GIA HÀ NỘI
TRƢỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ
KHOA SƢ PHẠM TIẾNG ANH

KHÓA LUẬN TỐT NGHIỆP

THÁI ĐỘ CỦA SINH VIÊN VỀ VIỆC ÁP DỤNG

PHƢƠNG PHÁP ĐÁNH GIÁ THƢỜNG XUYÊN
TRONG KHÓA HỌC TIẾNG ANH KINH TẾ CỦA
SINH VIÊN CHUYÊN NGÀNH BIÊN PHIÊN
DỊCH, KHOA SƢ PHẠM TIẾNG ANH, ĐẠI HỌC
NGOẠI NGỮ, ĐẠI HỌC QUỐC GIA HÀ NỘI

Giáo viên hƣớng dẫn : Cơ Nguyễn Thụy Phƣơng Lan, M.A
Sinh viên

: Khƣơng Quỳnh Nga

Khóa

: QH2015.F1.E3

HÀ NỘI - 2019


ACCEPTANCE

I hereby state that I: Khuong Quynh Nga, QH2015E3, being a candidate for
the degree of Bachelor of Arts (TEFL) accept the requirements of the College
relating to the retention and use of Bachelor’s Graduation Paper deposited in
the library.

In terms of these conditions, I agree that the origin of my paper deposited in
the library should be accessible for the purposes of study and research, in
accordance with the normal conditions established by the librarian for the
care, loan or reproduction of the paper.

Signature

Date
06/06/2019

i


ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

First and foremost, I wish to express my heartfelt gratitude to my supervisor
Mrs. Nguyen Thuy Phuong Lan for her invaluable assistance and involvement
throughout the conduct of my thesis. Without her encouragement, reassurance,
comments and guidance, this paper would have never been accomplished.
Beside my supervisor, I sincerely thank my family, who have been incredibly
supportive throughout my life as well as during time I carry out this thesis.
I would also like to express my appreciation to the constant support, care and
assistance from my dear friends, especially Nguyen Khanh Linh, Vu Thuy
Hang, Nguyen Hong Quy, Chu Hua Minh Hien and Nguyen Luong Tai Anh.
Without you, I would not have the motivation and strength to complete this
research
Finally, many thanks to the students of English for Economics class of school
year 2018-2019 at FELTE, ULIS, VNU for their cooperation and support for
this thesis.

ii


ABSTRACT

In the dynamic modern world, the importance of English for Economics has
become ever more profound. In acknowledgement of the situation, the course
of English for Economics has been designed and integrated in the learning
program for students of translation and interpretation division in FELTE, ULIS,
VNU, in concern to students‟ future employments. Adopting the learnercentered approach with a range of formative assessment activities, the course
expects to provide students with fundamental knowledge about the real-world
economics while also help students to enhance their essential skills. However,
due to the new changes of the program, there has only been a limited body of
research dedicated to exploring the effectiveness of the new formative
assessment method and the attitude of students towards it. Thus, this paper
aims to: (1) report students‟ identification of formative assessment activities in
the subject English for Economics, (2) explore the students‟ attitudes towards
the formative assessment activities of the course, and (3) offer suggestions for
modification in course design. For the achievement of these objectives, the
researcher utilizes a combination of questionnaire and semi-structured
interviews as main data collection instrument. Through data analysis, it is
revealed that the majority of students responded positively to formative
assessment in consideration of the benefits it confers in terms of knowledge,
skills, self-awareness and overall score. However, there exists certain problems
including excessive stress that need to be addressed. Thus, suggestions to
students, teachers and course designers are put forward based on the findings.

iii


TABLE OF CONTENT

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS .............................................................................. v
LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES ................................................................... vi
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ........................................................................ 1

1.1. Statement of the problem and rationale for the study ...................... 1
1.2. Research aims ..................................................................................... 2
1.3. Research questions ............................................................................. 3
1.4. Scope of the study .............................................................................. 3
1.5. Organization of the study ................................................................... 3
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW ............................................................. 5
2.1. Overview of ESP and ESP courses .................................................... 5
2.2. Assessment and principles of assessment .......................................... 7
2.4. Formative Assessment ...................................................................... 13
2.5. Overview of English for Economics course in FELTE, ULIS ......... 20
CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY ...................................................................... 26
3.1. Sampling ........................................................................................... 26
3.2. Data collection instrument ............................................................... 26
3.3. Data collection procedures ............................................................... 28
3.4. Data analysis methods and procedure .............................................. 30
CHAPTER 4: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION .................................. 32
Research question 1: Student‟s identification of Formative Assessment
activities................................................................................................... 32
Research question 2: Students‟ attitudes towards Formative Assessment
activities................................................................................................... 39
Research question 3: Suggestions for improvement ............................... 49
CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION ........................................................................... 53
REFERENCE ..................................................................................................... 57
APPENDIX 1 ..................................................................................................... 64

iv


LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

ULIS

: University of Languages and International Studies

VNU

: Vietnam National University, Hanoi

FELTE

: Faculty of English Language Teacher Education

ESP

: English for Specific Purpose

EE

: English for Economics

ELT

: English Language Teaching

EITM

: English Interpretation and Translation Major

v

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES

Table 1 - IN-CLASS CONTINUOS ASESSMENT ......................................... 24
Figure 1 - Frequency of individual/ pair/ group work perceived by students ... 32
Figure 2 - Frequency of teacher/partner/peer feedback received by students ... 33
Figure 3 - S.3.1 – S.3.5: Awareness of course objectives and assessment
criteria, as perceived by students ....................................................................... 35
Figure 4 - S.3.6 – S.3.8: The application of formative assessment ................... 37
Figure 5 - S.4.1 – S.4.6 Formative assessment effects on students .................. 39
Figure 6 - Formative assessment activities necessity as perceived by students 42
Figure 7 - Students liking towards formative assessment activities.................. 45
Figure 8 - Formative assessment activities sufficiency as perceived by students
........................................................................................................................... 47
Figure 9 - Skills acquired through formative assessment activities .................. 48

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CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
The first chapter presents the problem and the rationale of the study, as
well as the objectives and the scope of the research. It is also in this chapter
that the research questions are identified to work as guidelines for the paper.
1.1. Statement of the problem and rationale for the study
In the course of globalization, a great number of multinational
corporations are expected to expand their presence across countries and create
more opportunities for employment. As a result, we can foresee the growing
demand for international communication in various domains, especially
economics. Known as the lingua franca of global communications in all fields
(Lehtonen 2004, Louhiala-Salminen et al. 2005), English has become crucial

in major related abilities. The aforementioned situation has led to a critical
need for English for Special Purposes (ESP), defined as “an approach to
language learning, which is based on learner need” (Hutchinson and Waters,
1987; Ibrahim, 2010). Such great demand is reflected in the increasing number
of ESP courses all over the world, including Vietnam.
Regarded as a vital part of the educational programs in general and in
ESP courses in specific, assessment is a helpful tool from which the
information derived can be used to adapt and modify the applied teaching and
learning techniques (Black & Wiliam, 1998). In modern education, as the
positive effects of continuous assessment have been validated, teachers and
course designers are incorporating a variety of formative assessment tasks in
teaching and learning besides conventional summative testing. According to
Reiser and Dempsey (2007), the fundamental objective of this method is to
identify the strengths and weaknesses of learning and teaching so as to
reinforce available forte, and to turn shortcomings into strengths. In addition,
formative assessment puts an emphasis on enabling students to reflect on what
they are learning and helping both teacher and students make changes and
improve performance along the way. It also allows students to focus on their
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development of skills rather than grades. Acknowledging the ample
advantages and the conformability of formative assessment to ESP principles,
a great number of English courses have adopted this assessing method.
University of Languages and International Studies, notable for
organizing various ESP teaching programs has also employed formative
assessment in many of their courses including English for Economics.
However, due to the new changes of the program, there has only been a
limited body of research dedicated to exploring the effectiveness of the new
course as well as that in terms of assessment application and the attitude of

students towards formative assessment method. Such limitation may result in
challenges in the process of improving the courses as only when the course
designers and teacher have profound understanding of the effect it has on the
students, can they accordingly modify the assessing strategies, the content of
the course and make the best of the available resources.
The abovementioned reason has urged the researcher to conduct a study
titled: “Students attitudes towards the application of Formative Assessment
in English for Economics to students in English Interpretation and
Translation Major, FELTE, ULIS - VNU”.
1.2. Research aims
Focuses solely on formative assessment, the study attempts to explore
the students‟ attitude towards the application of this assessment method in the
English for Economics course for students in English Interpretation and
Translation major in Faculty of English Language Teacher Education,
University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam University. In
addition, through the discovery of challenges that students endure during the
course, the paper aims at proposing changes for the betterment of the
assessment tasks of the course. If these principal aims are achieved, the
findings of the study would expectantly facilitate the modification of the

2


current as well as future ESP courses in designing assessment tasks while also
assist other researchers in the study of formative assessment.
1.3. Research questions
In brief, the study attempts to address the following questions:
1. What are the activities of Formative Assessment employed in the
English for Economics course as identified by students?
2. What are the students‟ attitudes towards the implementation of

formative assessment in English for Economics course?
3. What suggestions can be proposed to improve the implementation of
formative assessment in the course?
1.4. Scope of the study
The paper focuses solely on the students‟ attitude towards the activities
of formative assessment in one specific course: English for Economics to
students in English Interpretation and Translation Major, FELTE, ULIS –
VNU in the school year 2018 – 2019. With an endeavour to gain an extended
perspective, the study is carried out with students of English Interpretation and
Translation Major, QH.2016 at FELTE, ULIS – VNU who attended the course
of English for Economics in the school year 2018 – 2019.
1.5. Organization of the study
The remaining five chapters of the paper are as follows:
Chapter 2 - Literature review - provides the background information, setting
theoretical basis for the research
Chapter 3 - Methodology - provides description of the participants, data
collection instruments, as well as the procedure employed to obtain and
analyse data.
Chapter 4 - Data analysis and discussion - presents, analyses and interpret the
data collected according to the research questions.
3


Chapter 5 - Conclusion - summarizes the significant findings, discusses the
limitations of the research and puts forward suggestions for further studies.
Following the 5 chapters are the References and Appendices.

4

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW
The second chapter of the research reviews on the relevant literature of
the study, specifically the related concepts of ESP, assessments, types of
formative assessments as well as background information about the English
for Economics course for students of Translation and Interpretation major in
the school year 2018-2019 in FELTE, ULIS.
2.1. Overview of ESP and ESP courses
English for Specific Purposes (ESP) has been around for a while and is
one of the most prominent areas of language teaching since the 1960s
(Hutchinson & Waters, 1987; Ibrahim, 2010). The name suggests that ESP
does not put a focal point on learning and teaching general English but rather
tailored for groups of people with specific professional purposes. Robinson
(1980), in his study of ESP, has defined the term as the teaching of English to
the learners with specific goals and purposes that might be professional,
academic or scientific etc. Meanwhile, it is referred by Mackay and Mountford
(1978, p. 2) as the teaching of English for “clearly utilitarian purposes”. In a
more detailed description by Dudley-Evans & St John (1998), ESP is
characterized as a distinctive methodological approach that place the central
point on specific learner needs and certain teaching practices that “recognize
the learner‟s subject-matter expertise”. Hutchinson and Waters (1987) share
quite the same view as they identify ESP as more of an approach rather than a
product. In this sense, ESP is neither a language, a method or a type of
teaching material. Instead, it is considered as an approach to the learning of
the English language that focus on the learners‟ need. In the most general
sense, ESP is the teaching of language in which all components including
content, materials and methodology are directed by the specific/ apparent
reasons for learning of the learners.
Although there are ways to view and define ESP, most researchers
identify ESP‟s niche within foreign language teaching as well as accentuate
that “in ESP, the purpose for learning is paramount and related directly to

5


what the learner needs to do in their vocation or job” (Harding, 2007, p. 6).
Dudley-Evans and St. John (1998) have proposed a list of absolute and
variable characteristics that outline the specific features of ESP courses.
The absolute features of ESP:
1. ESP is defined to meet specific needs of the learner;
2. ESP makes use of the underlying methodology and activities of the
disciplines it serves;
3. ESP is centered on the language (grammar, lexis), skills, and
discourse appropriate to these activities.
The variable characteristics of ESP:
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
system, but it can be used with beginners.
(Dudley-Evans, 1997)
In conformation of the general definition as well as the characteristics of
ESP , successful ESP courses are to address the growing demand of market
forces, be “goal-directed” (Hadley, 2006 cf. Robinson, 1991), be “learnerdirected” and be “centered on the language (grammar, lexis, register etc.),
skills, discourse and genres appropriate to the activities of the discipline it

6

serves” (Hadley, 2006 cf. Dudley-Evans and St. John, 1998, p. 5), or in other
words, be “situation-directed” .
2.2. Assessment and principles of assessment
Defined by Allen (2004), educational assessment is “the systematic
process of documenting and using empirical data on the knowledge, skill,
attitudes, and beliefs to refine programs and improve student learning.”.
Bachman & Palmer, (1996) stated that assessment serves various functions in
language programs as it provides assistance for administrators and teachers in
making educational decisions. In addition to identifying students‟ weaknesses
and strengths, assessment helps in evaluating the efficiency of approaches to
educational decisions. In other words, educators can employ assessment as
means to make appropriate adoptions of teaching methodologies and
materials. In acknowledgement of these functions, policy makers utilize
various forms of assessment to operate the educational systems and to design
the programs, the teaching methods and materials (Cheng & Watanabe, 2004).
Thus, assessment is stressed as one essential, integral component of good
teaching (Dhindsa, Omar, & Waldrip, 2007, p.1261).
Being one vital constituent of effective education, classroom assessment
involves complex procedures that require the educator‟ professional
judgement (Earl, 2006). It is the teachers that make decision about the form,
the content, and the time of assessment. Based on the required data,
interpretations of students‟ learning are established, and educational decisions
made. For such decisions to be appropriate, it is a must that the inferences
about students‟ learning that teachers make be fair, free from bias, and well
connected to their intended purposes.
According to Earl, “assessment is fundamentally a measurement process,
subject to the principles of measurement” (2006, p.9) which, in this situation,
is to be defined as “determining the degree of something.”. This means that in
order to make the right decisions about learners, it is essential that teachers

7


adhere to the four basic measurement principles, namely: reliability, reference
points, validity, and record-keeping.
 Reliability
Reliability essentially refers to the consistency and comparability of the
evidence that arises from particular assessments (Brown, Douglas;
Abeywickrama, Priyanvada, 2010). In the classroom, teachers are to make
inferences about students‟ learning based on data obtained through
assessment. An assessment process is considered reliable if the inference made
by various teachers about the learners‟ ability are generally similar. On the
other hand, in the situation where teachers‟ interpretation varies significantly,
there might be questions about the assessment reliability. Hughes (1989)
propose several ways through which assessment reliability can be promoted as
follows.
a. Utilizing various assessment tasks, and adding extra, more detailed
questions to obtain a wide range of information. The more data
gathered, the clearer is the picture of a student‟s learning profile.
b. Balancing the difficulty of questions so they do not “discriminate
between weaker and stronger students.
c. Focusing and restricting questions that may allow for too much
elaboration.
d. Avoiding ambiguous questions and items.
e. Being clear with instructions for tasks, presenting tests clearly to avoid
confusion, practicing the test format with students.
f. Using items that utilize objective scoring.
g. Restricting the freedom afforded to candidates in terms of the
comparisons made between them.
h. Providing clear and detailed score keys.

8


i. Helping testers and scorers by training them at an early stage and
conferring with test designers and testers about how responses are to be
scored before scoring commences.
j. Having students represented by numbers rather than personal details to
restrict any possible bias occurring, and using, if possible, independent
scorers to evaluate objectively eliminate discrepancies.
(Hughes, 1989, p. 44-50)
 Reference points
Earl, L. M. (2006) believes that “the interpretation of any kind of
measurement depends on reference points” which, in the classroom, comes in
three points:
a. How is the student performing in relation to some pre-determined
criteria, learning outcome, or expectation (criteria- or outcomesreferenced)?
b. How is the student performing in relation to the performance of other
students in the defined group (norm-referenced)?
c. How is the student performing in relation to his or her performance at
a prior time (self-referenced)?
(Earl, 2006, p.10)
The three reference points provide different kinds of interpretation about
students‟ learning. It is only by clearly distinguishing the reference points that
teachers can provide students, parents, and the general public with meaningful
information about important features and the stages involve in the journey
from emergent to proficient.


Validity

Validity assessment refers to the accuracy of the interpretation and the use
of assessment information. This proves to be one of the most important
9


principles of effective assessment as Cohen et al. (2000) state that effective
research is impossible or even “worthless” without the presence of validity
(2000, p.105).
Described by Hughes (1989) and Bachman (1990), assessment validity
consists of four main categories being construct validity, content validity
(included within this are internal and external validity), criterion-based
validity, and face validity.
a. Construct validity
Construct validity is concerned with the level of accuracy a
construct within a test is believed to measure (Brown, 1994, p.256;
Bachman & Palmer, 1996). In other words, it is "the degree to which a
test measures what it claims, or purports, to be measuring." (Brown, J.
D., 1996). Construct validity is essential to the perceived overall
validity of the test
b. Content validity
Content validity is to do with the degree to which the components
of a test relate to the real-life situation they are attempting to replicate
(Hughes, 1989, p.22; Bachman, 1990, p.306) and is relevant to the
degree to which it proportionately represents. Within the domain of
content validity are internal validity and external validity. These refer
to relationships between independent and dependent variables when
experiments are conducted. External validity occurs when our findings
can be related to the general populous, whereas internal validity is
related to the elimination of difficult variables within studies.

c. Criterion-related validity
Criterion-related validity “relates the results of one particular
instrument to another external criterion” (Cohen et al., 2000, p.111). It
contains two primary forms, these being predictive and concurrent
10


validity. Concerning predictive validity, if results from two separate but
related experiments or tests produce similar results the original
examination is said to have strong predictive validity. Concurrent
validity is similar, but it is not necessary to have been measured over a
span of time and can be “demonstrated simultaneously with another
instrument” (2000, p.112).
d. Face validity
This term relates to what degree a test is perceived to be doing
what it is supposed to. In general, face validity in testing describes the
look of the test as opposed to whether the test is proved to work or not.


Record-keeping

High-quality record-keeping is critical for ensuring quality in classroom
assessment. The records that teachers and students keep are the evidence that
support the decisions that are made about students‟ learning. The records
should include detailed and descriptive information about the nature of the
expected learning as well as evidence of students‟ learning, and should be
collected from a range of assessments
To sum up, assessment is considered as the systematic process of
documenting and using empirical data on aspects of learning including the
knowledge, skill, attitudes, and beliefs to make appropriate education decision.

Thus, it is one integral components of teaching and learning. In assessing
students‟ learning, it is of importance that teachers adhere to the four basic
measurement principles, namely: reliability, reference points, validity, and
record-keeping. Further reviews on assessment in ESP and formative
assessment, which are directly related to the research, are presented as
following.
2.3. Assessment in ESP

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Dudley Evans and St. John (1998) has considered testing in ESP to be a
distinctive part of a general movement of ELT. Further explanation is that it
targets measuring the uses of English language of different groups of people
with special purposes such as businessmen, doctors, engineers and so on. The
researchers also make a point that assessment in ESP plays a vital role as it
interacts with needs analysis and course design. This denotes the important
place of assessment in ESP seeing it enhances teaching and learning,
motivates and reinforces learners‟ sense of accomplishment. Different from
English for general uses, language assessment in ESP courses requires
particular approach that depends in the targeted outcome for the learners.
Thus, choosing the appropriate assessment incredibly format is important in
teaching ESP.
Commonly, the assessment is split in to summative and formative
assessment. While both terms are equally acknowledged, the format is
designed and applied mostly in regard to the learner‟ needs and the educators‟
consideration and the course content. Consequently, assessments in ESP is in
no way diagnostic or placement assessments but rather “achievement”
(Hughes, 2003). In this sense, ESP assessments can be regarded as
performance assessments which measure the essential skills to perform the

language adequately. As each learner performs in different way base on their
context and background, their performance may depend on the interaction
between content knowledge and linguistic knowledge. In designing
assessments in ESP, teachers should pay attention to this feature.
According to Tratnik (2008) ESP assessments need to:
1. Be as authentic as possible,
2. Provide accurate and reliable measures of language ability,
3. Have beneficial effects,
4. Be practical and economical in terms of administration, time, money
and personnel
12