Designing the syllabus- báo cáo nghiên cứu khoa học giáo viên

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CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
There is no doubt that communication is a great need to us, human beings. In
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, communication is placed after physical requirements, such
as the need for food, water, sleep, warmth and safety. This hierarchy is displaced as a
pyramid whose lowest levels are made up of the most basic needs and whose top are for
more complex needs. As people progress up the pyramid, needs become increasingly
psychological and scholar. Further up the pyramid, the need for personal esteem and
feelings of accomplishment take priority. In this way, Maslow emphasizes the essence of
communication as a way to achieve individual potential

[1]

. Similarly, there is a

Vietnamese saying, “ Sự ăn cho ta cái lực, sự ở cho ta cái trí và sự bang giao cho ta cái
nghiệp”[2]. Obviously either we work in an office, or function at school, or interact with
people in any situation, communication is needed. Every day, in many ways, we
communicate with other people. Sometimes, it is verbally; other times, it is through the
written word; and even we do it non-verbally through what we call body language. If we
expect to get our point, our message, our meaning across, it is imperative that we have
good communication skills. Obviously, when dealing with issues in our personal life, good
communication is vital. If we are in a relationship with someone, communication will be
what keeps that relationship alive. In the workplace, without effective communication
skills, a person may find it impossible to climb up the corporate ladder as promotion just
comes to those who can communicate effectively at all level, from senior management
level to the lowest employee. Thus, whether at work or in our dealings with life, the
importance of communication skills cannot be underestimated. It is the high awareness of
the value of communication skills as an important soft skill to students of the English
Language Faculty that pushed the researchers to carry out this study.

1.1

Statement of the problem


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The World Bank calls the period we are living in now the century of “Skills-Based
Economy”, in which one’s working ability is assessed by three criteria: knowledge, skills,
and attitudes. And according to many world’ leading scientists, on our success in life, soft
skills (emotional intelligence) has up to 85% of influence and hard skills (logical
intelligence), only 15%. Among the soft skills, communication skills are those most
required by employers and recruiters. It is because in the workplace, communication is
considered an affair bringing about the success to an individual or even an organization.
However, the reality shows that not many employees can meet the demand for good
communicating ability. In a survey that Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social
Welfare, in association with Manpower Group, conducted on 1000 businesses of 9 fields in
6 areas across the country, a quarter of the surveyed businesses stated that communication
skills are what most employees lack [3]. Also, as revealed in a recent assessment on the
quality of Vietnamese young laborers carried out on 13 th October, 2011 by the World
Bank, most recruiters are not satisfied with English skills, particularly speaking skill, and
communication skills of Vietnamese new graduates[4]. Adding more to it, Mr. Nguyen Huu
Thiet, Human Resource Manager of Friestland Food Dutch Lady Vietnam, said that most
of domestically-qualified students, as in his long-time observation, were weak in their
communication skills (i.e. presentation skills, verbal skills, interpersonal skills, team
working skills, e.t.c), their ability to apply knowledge to practical situations and their
professionalism. This, according to him, might be resulted from the pusillanimity and
passivity they had formed at schools (cited in Luong (2010)) [5] . The lack of
communication skills does not only obstruct the promotion of an individual, but it also
negatively affects the development of an organization since communication is done both

internally and externally. In consideration of the lack of communication skills as well as
other soft skills of Vietnamese new graduates, there are two main reasons. First, it is
because a majority of young Vietnamese leads a misconception that only what are shown
in their profile , such as certificates or diplomas, professional skills, working
experience,e.t.c, counts, so they tend to impress the recruiters with their hard skills, leading
to the fact that students tend to pay more attention to professional knowledge than to
communication skills. As a result, they become less active in daily communicational
situations and even worse, they do not know how to behave properly in a job interview and
thus lose the chance of being given the applied job. Second, the training of soft skills in


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general and communication skills in particular has not ever been concerned satisfactorily in
university education. Our university curricula usually play the most emphasis on providing
students with strong professional skills, so there has been no place for soft skills in the
educational program until today when their importance has been magnified by businesses
or recruiters. In reality, more and more schools include certain soft skills into their
curricula, but a large portion of the learners’ need has been met by extra-curriculum
courses, which; however, are sometimes inconvenient or even impossible for learners to
take due to their busy schedules. Therefore, in a survey of 234 recruiters and 3.364
graduates from 20 universities published in the research “Solutions for Enhancing Higher
Education Quality” by Ho Chi Minh University of Pedagody, both graduates and recruiters
shared a common view that students need to be retrained in all-around skills which can
support students’ specialized skills so that they can work productively in the workplace [5].
Up to now, there have been hundreds of English-majored students at Lac Hong
University leaving schools to enter the working life yearly. This brings to the
administrative board of the English Language Faculty (ELF) a great concern about how to
enable the new graduates of the faculty to first get a job easily and then to work effectively.
In order to deal with this concern, many positive changes of the teaching program have

been done. In addition to the improvement on the contents for specialized knowledge, the
training of soft skills, particularly communication skills, is proposed to the curriculum. In
respect to the existence of communication skills in the program, it is necessary for the
faculty to design an effective syllabus which ensures the included contents can meet the
common requirements of recruiters or businesses.
1.2

Purposes of the study
This study was carried out with the purpose of helping English-majors of the English

Language Faculty, Lac Hong University be better prepared for their future career, which
was expected to be achieved primarily by training them to be good communicators.
Concerning this, it was assumed that with both professional skills and communication
skills, English majors would be able to get down to working immediately and effectively as
mentioned in the school’s slogan, “new graduates of Lac Hong University can start
working without any further training.”
1.3

Significance of the study


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Taking the mentioned purpose into account, it is clear that the success of this study
can bring a lot of long-termed benefits, not only to the school but also to students. First of
all, once the proposed syllabus of communication skills is successfully implemented in the
curriculum of the English Language Faculty, English majors would be better prepared for
their future career. After graduation, together with good English skills, they will be
equipped with effective communication skills, so they would be more confident in their
lives and work. Moreover, students will no longer have to take the extra courses as they

used to do, which is of course a big convenience for them, in terms of time and money. The
other benefit is related to the success of the school. In fact, the fight for learners’
enrollment among universities/ colleges is getting bitter year by year, and in this struggle,
only those whose students can meet the demand of the labor market can stand. Referring to
this, there is a strong belief that with better occupational preparation, it would be easier for
English majors in particular and students of Lac Hong University in general to seek for a
good job as well as to get promotion in their career, and hence more learners would prefer
to register at the English Language Faculty and at Lac Hong University.
1.4

Research questions

In consideration of the above rationales, this research tried to answer these two questions:
1. Why is a course of communication skills necessary for English majors at Lac Hong
University?
2. What should be included in a syllabus of communication skills?
1.5

Research hypothesis
It was hypothesized that communication skill is one of the soft skills English-

majored graduates are expected to acquire in order to get success in the workplace.
Another hypothesis was that a syllabus for communication skills would be much beneficial
to learners if it trains them how to exchange information effectively, to maintain good
relationships with people around, and to overcome any obstacles that might hinder their
communicating process.


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CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 Soft skills
2.1.1 Soft skills versus hard skills
There are two basic types of skills in the world of work: hard skills and soft skills.
Hard skills are “technical or actual knowledge”. They are part of a person’s IQ
(Intelligence Quotient), are specific to a professional job and can be determined by
qualifications or standardized tests. IQ plays an important role in many desirable life
outcomes (e.g. job performance, income, etc.) [6]. Soft skills are “common sense
knowledge”. It is a sociological term for a person’s EQ (Emotional Intelligence Quotient).
Soft skills are very difficult to judge by standardized tests and can only be roughly
estimated by personal contact. Most of the time, a person’s soft skills are most visible in
real-life social situation [7]. Soft skills are often described by using terms associated with
personality traits, such as:


optimism,



common sense,



responsibility,



a sense of humor,



integrity

, and abilities that can be practiced such as:


empathy,



teamwork,



leadership,



communication,



conflict resolution and negotiation,



creative problem solving,



strategic thinking,



influencing skills,


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

selling skills, to name a few [8]

It has been suggested that in a number of professions, soft skills may be more
important over the long term than hard skills. The legal profession is one example where
the ability to deal with people effectively and politely, more than their mere occupational
skills, can determine the professional success of a lawyer [9]. Another example is IT
careers. Increasingly, over the last two decades, it has been recognized that when IT
Professionals acquire soft skills, better relationships are built between IT and other
business unit within the enterprise, fostering alignment. The key element to build these
relationships is their ability to communicate [10]. In respect to the fact that a person’s EQ is
sometimes more important than his/ her IQ, in the book, “Working with Emotional
Intelligence”, Daniel Goleman, a psychologist and CEO of Emotional Intelligence
Services, contends that among the pool of people smart enough to handle the most
cognitively demanding fields, IQ has the least power in predicting success[11]. Supporting
this view, William Bennis, an internationally renowned author and leadership expert, says
“Emotional intelligence is much more powerful than IQ in determining who emerges as a
leader. IQ is a threshold competence. It might get you into a certain field, but it doesn’t
make you a star. Emotional intelligence can.” [12].
2.1.2 Preferred soft skills in the global job market

At the 2006 Conference Board, an in-depth survey of 461 business leaders released
by the Corporate Voices for Working Families, Partnership for 21 st Century Skills, and
Society for Human Resource Management revealed that while reading, writing, and
arithmetic are still fundamental to every employees’ ability to do the job, employers view
soft skills as even more important to work readiness. Also, this survey has indicated some
soft skills that young workers are expected to acquire. They are as belows:


Professionalism or work ethic



Oral and written communication



Teamwork and collaboration skills



Critical thinking or problem-solving skills

Adding to this list, the Circle of Champions, a distinguished group of U.S business pointed
out the following competencies as key to the success of young workers in the 21 st century’s
workplace: networking, enthusiasm, professionalism, communication skills, teamwork,
problem solving and critical thinking [13]. It can be seen clearly that companies are not just


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assessing their current staff and future recruits on their professional skills. They are now
evaluating the staff on a whole host of soft skill competencies around how these people
relate and communicate with other people, how they adapt themselves to the changing
needs of the company, how they can deal with differences, etc. All of these skills are soft
and essential in the workplace.
2.1.3 Reasons for soft skills
“In today’s working environment, where customers and employees are demanding
more, in stilling the use of soft skills in your team members is something you simply
cannot survive without.” (Nicolaides, 2002:1) [14]. In fact, more and more corporations
around the world recognize that in order to gain competitive advantage, they need to make
sure their people know how to handle themselves at work and how to relate with their
customers and peers. Besides customers, in order to contribute for better results for a
company, a person needs to work with other important people in the company. This
requires the employee both competences in their specialization as well as being able to
work with others and being aware of others’ roles, challenges and strengths. Also, critical
projects in a company carry risks as well as some amount of stress, and being able to
handle the emotion is essential to deliver on these projects, which cannot be performed
well with technical skills only. In this way, showing empathy as well as optimism, and
being self-aware of what is going on around are what one needs to do for the integral part
of a progressive organization. Concerning the role of soft skills in some one’s career, Jide
(2011) gives three great reasons to develop soft skills, clarified by typical example of IT
career. First, “certification is not an end in itself.” We need soft skills to create opportunity
for ourselves because technical knowledge will become useless if nobody is unknown to
the others. So the essence is opportunity and the opportunity can be grabbed only by soft
skills. Second, “soft skills help advance your career.” To explain this idea, he gave an
example of how IT professionals advance their careers. In his example, to bring value to
organization and clients, IT staff is getting more involved in many non-tech activities to
carry out their IT tasks, particularly communicating with colleagues or people in non-IT
areas or motivating other team members. Finally, “soft skills empower you and create
opportunities.” In this way, good soft skills will help when our technical competencies are

similar to those of other candidates who are in the struggle of getting the position we are
seeking. [15] The effects of good soft skills on someone’s life go far beyond his career. In


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respect to this, Jide (2011) also mentioned them as an important reason for developing soft
skills. In his point of view, soft skills are necessary to our personal growth and also they
help us grow beyond money motivation [10]. Supporting it, Todd (2011) pointed out some
things that could be considered as the positive effects of soft skills on our lives.
Specifically, the development of soft skills deepen our relationship with spouses, children,
and friends; they help us become attractive to attract like-minded people in our lives; they
bring us people’ respect and admiration and; they change us into a good example of
successful people; and especially they give you the feeling that you have more control of
your life. Therefore, with good soft skills, not only could our lives be enhanced, but also
the world would be made a better place to live [16].
In short, soft skills are not only personal attributes that enhance an individual’s
interactions, job performance and career prospects, but also behavioral competencies.
Thus, soft skills are interpersonal and broadly applicable, so they can complement hard
skills and many other activities. Soft skills, as opposed to hard skills, greatly impact the
personality development of employees, which, as many organizations today realize, can
play an important part in not only maintaining relationships with their customers but also
in developing a successful business. Therefore, soft skills have been considered by
employers to be an indicator of job performance which is as good as traditional job
qualifications or hard skills like Ian Morrison puts “Hard skills will get an applicant an
interview, but soft skills will get that person a job.”(cited in Nguyen, p.1) [17] .
2.2 Communication skills
2.2.1 Fundamentals of communication
As discussed above, among the soft skills needed for an employee, communication
is, in Baker’s view, “the act of transmitting and receiving information”( 2011:1) [18]. In

other words, “communication is the simultaneous sharing and creating of meaning through
human symbolic interaction”(p.3) [19]. Thus, a definition of communication will include
these attributes:


It is a process that is continuous in time



It is interactive between people



Its purpose is to transmit facts, thoughts, ideas, interpretations, desires and
emotions [20]


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In relation to the way people interact with each other, there are two main types of
communication: verbal and nonverbal. These two types are equally important in
communication. Verbal communication is the way we use words to express our thoughts,
feelings and attitudes. Nonverbal communication includes eye contact, posture, facial
expressions, hand gestures and signing. These two types are necessary for us in that
together they help us conduct our communications efficiently [20].
2.2.2 Communication skills
There are different definitions of “communication skill”. For example,
-

Communication skill is the ability to use language (receptive) and express

(expressive) information.

-

Communication skill is the set of skills that enables a person to convey information
so that it is received and understood. Communication skills refer to the repertoire of
behaviors that serve to convey information for the individual.

-

Communication skill is the ability an individual displays in consistently
demonstrates the ability to effectively communicate with clients, colleagues,
subordinates, and supervisors in professional manner and in the personal
department.

-

Communication skill is generally understood to be the art or technique of
persuasion through the use of oral language and written language. This means that
every platform for communicating is a communication event. This includes formal
meeting, seminars, workshops, trade fairs, etc.
(p.1) [21]
In accordance to the number of people involved the purpose of the communication

and the degree of formality in which it occurs, there are various skills necessary for
communication. They are:
-

Intra-personal communication skills: This implies individual reflection,
contemplation and meditation. One example of this is transcendental meditation.

According to the experts this type of communication encompasses communicating
with the divine and with spirits in the form of prayers and rites and rituals.

-

Interpersonal communication skills: This is direct, face-to-face communication that
occurs between two persons. It is essentially a dialogue or a conversation between


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two or more people. It is personal, direct, as well as intimate and permits maximum
interaction through words and gestures.
-

Focused Interactions: This primarily results from an actual encounter between two
persons. This implies that the two persons involved are completely aware of the
communication happening between them.

-

Unfocused Interactions: This occurs when one simply observes or listens to persons
with whom one is not conversing. This usually occurs at stations and bus stops, as
well as on the street, at restaurants, etc.

-

Non- verbal communication skills: This includes aspects such as body language,
gestures, facial expressions, eye contact, etc., which also become a part of the
communicating process; as well as the written and typed modes of

communications.

-

Mass communication: This is generally identified with tools of modern mass media
including social media marketing, which includes: books, the press, cinema,
television, radio, etc. It is a means of conveying messages to an entire population.

(p.1) [22]
As communication skills are the tools to help us deal with the obstacles we might
encounter when communicating with others, they do not simply refer to the way in which
we communicate, but encompass many other things. Thus, to be a successful
communicator, a person needs to acquire an integrated set of skills. These skills comprise
writing skills, speech skills, listening skills, non-verbal skills, conversational skills,
interviewing skills, interpersonal skills, persuading skills, networking skills, etc [23].
However, in the sets of skills, the following are acknowledged to be essential, so most
required for communication not only in daily routines but also in the workplace. First of
all, it is listening skill. “It shows up on every list of what effective communicators do:
They listen.”(p.100) [19] In fact, effective communicators spend more time listening to
others. According to an American survey, Americans spend up to 45% of a typical day
listening to others; speaking, 30%; reading, 6%; and writing, 9% [19]. In fact, many average
entry-level candidate struggles to know how to listen efficiently. They may not
immediately process essential instructions or be able to understand how their tasks relate to
the overall goals of the organization [13]. Together with listening, speaking or responding
skill is also considered essential in communication. Communication is two-way.


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Communication involves responding to others as well as simply articulating messages.

Therefore, we need to respond in order to let other people know we understand the
message they have transferred to us; otherwise, they would think that we didn’t understand
them. Responding can be done verbally or nonverbally, so the ability to understand and use
good non-verbal language (e.g. voice, body language, appearance, and gestures) properly is
another essential thing to be concerned for communication skills. When we communicate,
our nonverbal and verbal cues usually supplement and support each other. For examples,
direct eye contact and head nods let our partner know that we’re tuned in; in contrast, an
unmoving, glassy-eyed, frozen stupor may tell our communication partner that we are
physically present, yet mentally a thousand miles away. Finally, it is writing skill. Written
communication needs to be very accurate to make sure that message is understood
correctly, especially when the communication takes place in business situations. Regarding
it, completeness, briefness, proper selection of words, and clarity of thoughts are
considered to make the message comprehensible [20]. In short, listening,
responding/speaking, writing and the use of non-verbal language are the basic skills that
one needs to acquire so as to become a good communicator.
In summary, every individual needs to be well equipped with the tools to
communicate effectively, whether it is on the personal front, or at work. Thus,
communication skills are the tools we use to remove the barriers to effective
communication. However, the importance of those skills is not the same in consideration
of the requirements of communicating purposes and the need of communicators, so some
of them would be more necessary than the others, of which more information would be
presented in the following section.
2.2.3 Role of Communication Skills in All Areas of Life
Communication is a vital part of our daily routines. Specifically, at school, we listen
to our teachers, discuss with our classmates; in the workplace, we read and write memos,
or converse with our co-workers, or listen to the superior; at home, we read books and
magazines, watch television, and communicate over the Internet. Thus, communication
skills are really necessary to us. In fact, communication skills play an important role in all
aspects of our life, in terms of the workplace and the relationship.
Within the workplace

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The importance of communication skills in an organization is high and should be
made a priority if it is not already. The importance of communication skills in the
workplace lies in the fact that we will be working with other people. Whether we are a
paper-pusher, industrial worker, executive, etc, communication is a part of our job as we
cannot work along in a vacuum. We can measure the importance of communication skills
in the business sector when we take a look a job advertisement. There is much likelihood
that we come across an advertisement in which the job applicants are required good
communication skills. It is true that when employers are looking for new employees, good
communication skills is often one of the most important things they look for. Perhaps, this
is the only criteria which create about good effects when a person goes for a job interview.
In this way, only those candidates with good communication skills are likely to win
because technical qualifications are likely to be more or less the same for every candidate
(Formby, 2007)[23]. Moreover, having good communication skills is vital for success in the
workplace, whether it is dealing with customers or vendors outside of the company, or
supervisors and coworkers within the company. In offices, people often receive
memorandums, letters and other types of interoffice communication. These are used to
coordinate the efforts of the people within the company. Whether one is a boss or an
employee, he/she needs to communicate inside the organization. As a boss, he/she has to
let his/her subordinates know what needs to be accomplished; as an employee, he/she
would want to understand what his/her boss orders him/her to do. Moreover, a company
also needs other businesses to help them out. No company can survive on its own. Thus,
any member of a company is expected to communicate not only in his/her organization but
also with others [24]. Thus, in any form of business, communication is an internal as well as
an external affair, upon which the success of the business rests.
There are many advantages of having good communication skills. The first big
impact that communication skills can have on a company is on the employees. If the

employees feel that they can easily communicate with the top level executives, the
communication inspires them to become more loyal and hard working. As a result, the
company can work more productively. Another benefit is that with good communication
skills, there would be drastic reduction of mistakes and misunderstandings. When there is
greater and more effective interaction between employees, there would be lesser number of
mistakes and misunderstandings. This is beneficial for a company as it would save a great


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deal of time, effort, and money for the company. Finally, communication skills also take a
great role in selling. People thus realize how and which client they should deal with and
this, in turn, increases the business for the company [25].
Within relationship
The importance of communication skills is not just limited to the business world only
since effective communication skills are now required in every aspect of our life. Apart
from business, communication skills are also important for people to make healthy
relationships with their office counter parts. As for communication within relationships,
maintaining good relationships with our near and dear ones. They can be those who are
living with us in the same roof, and those who are in the same school or in the same
organization. Conflict in a relationship is virtually inevitable. In itself, conflict is not a
problem; how it is handled, however, can bring people together or tear them apart. Good
communication skills can ensure that arguments and disagreements are kept to minimum;
on the other hand, poor communication skills can be a source of anger and distance.
Briefly, being able to communicate wisely and effectively can help us a lot with our
interpersonal relationships in daily life [22], [26], [27].
All in all, effective communication skills enable a person to understand the mindset
of others and grasp the situation easily. Also, they help an individual to get desired results
even in an unfamiliar situation. All of these are due to the fact that a good communicator is
a highly-motivated person who always gives importance to his/her goals and achieve them

in the most efficient manner and that he/her always understands his/her role and knows
how to convert efforts integrated with skills into results. Thus, for those who wish to be
successful in their career, communication skills work as the stepping stones. Evidently,
without effective communicating ability, it would be more difficult for them to climb up
the corporate ladder since promotion comes to those who can communicate effectively at
all levels, from senior management level to the lowest employees. Those are the reasons
why good communication skills are required not only in the workplace but also in
relationships.
2.3 Review of syllabuses of communication skills
Communication takes place in every aspect of our life, so good communication skills
are required no matter what we are doing or where we are in, leading to the fact that the
demand for courses of communication skills is getting bigger and bigger. It is true that in


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nearly any specific field of life, there are numerous syllabuses for communication skills.
To illustrate, in the limited content of this study, the researcher would like to give an
overall view of some designed syllabuses of communication skills in the realm of religion,
medical, arts, education and business.
Religion:
The course is designed to equip church starters, pastors, and leaders with Bible
knowledge, Christian character, servant leadership, and teaching experience with the goal
of life-change. It focuses on how to effectively communicate the World of God. Students
attending the course are trained to be able to
-

describe, apply, and critique the sermon preparation process, the sermon delivery
process in a postmodern world, as well as the use of technology in
speaking/preaching/teaching,

-

get knowledge of the keys to communication, the power of emotion and the keys to
motivation,

-

be good at listening and caring skills needed by servant-leader to enhance ministry
and reduce conflict,

-

contribute to a group discussion on listening skills,

-

presenting sermons and/or messages, and

-

create a typed action plan for communicating God’s Word. [28]

Medical
This course is designed to train the attendants who are new doctors and nurses many
different things. First, after finishing the course, the attendants can know how to exhibit
the sensitivity to individual patient/ relative during consultation through by treating the
patients with respect and courtesy, demonstrating clear, honest and empathetic
communication, responding appropriately to verbal and non-vernal cues given by the
patient, listening to patients account. Second, they can exhibit a professional approach to a

situation by dealing with a variety of emotional responses of patients and relatives, with
time constraints,…Fourth, they can know how to communicate accurate information in an
appropriate manner to patients and relatives in typical clinical situations such as obtaining
informed consent, breaking bad news, explaining risks/ benefits and possible impact of
investigations in the context of clinical situation, explaining diagnosis and options


15

available, checking for understanding and summarizing at appropriate intervals,…Fifth,
they can know how to convey appropriate information to colleagues and other healthcare
professionals in an appropriate manner verbally and non-verbally through request forms,
clinical letters or telephones. Finally, they can use background information and that
gathered during a consultation to formulate an appropriate response. [29]
Engineering
Representing the syllabuses for this group is that of HCM City University of
Technology. The course of this university aims to train those who are going to work as
engineers of all fields. Taking the course, in addition to the fundamentals of
communicating at the workplace, students are also provided skills concerning the role of an
engineer and self-development, teamwork, note-taking, conversing, making presentation,
conducting a meeting, and leadership. [30]
Arts
The syllabus mentioned in this study is that of Trinity College London, a prestigious
organization that provides respected international qualifications across a range of
disciplines in the performing and creative arts, and in English language learning and
teaching. This syllabus of communication skills is designed to allow the learners to
develop and to refine expertise in different registers of communication through spoken
English. During the course, the learners are required to respond to a range of imagined
scenarios and employ verbal and nonverbal skills and responses appropriate to them. The
learners’ success depends on their ability to recognize and use different communication

skills properly for each given tasks. In relation to those requirements, the course focuses on
the following skills: presentation, acting, problem and conflict-solving, summarizing and
evaluating, debating. [31]
Education
In relation to education, two different syllabuses are chosen as examples. The first
syllabus focuses on the communication skills that are done in English. In this course,
students are taught about the importance of English. In addition, they are trained the four
basic skills: listening, reading, writing, and speaking. Particularly, regarding listening and
reading skills, they can know the role of these skills in communication and also they are
taught how to listen and read effectively, with the use of different strategies and skills. For


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writing skill, they can know how to write academic texts- sentences, paragraphs, and
essays- but also business letters or documents, such as resume, cover letter, memo,
report,...Concerning speaking skill, they are exposed to the barriers in communication and
different types of communication [32]. The second syllabus belongs to Certificate Teacher
Education, a 2-year course which has been designed to prepare professional teachers who
will teach in primary schools. Thus, the communication skill syllabus aims at 1 enhancing
student teachers’ ability to use and learn effectively through English language at college
and in the field after completing their studies, 2 promoting their skills in seeking, delivering
and managing information for academic and social purposes and at last 3 developing their
skills for self-study and independent learning. For those objectives, the course covers these
contents: communication theory, information searching skills, taking and making note
skills, oral presentation, reading skills, writing skills, test and examination skills

[33]

.

Business
It seems that the need for communication skills is biggest in the area of business,
which is proven by scores of syllabuses intended for them. In spite of some common
things, each syllabus still has certain differences which might be due to the specific
purposes of the course. To clarify it, these five syllabuses are taken for example. The first
one is that of Western Nebraska Community College Business and Individual Training.
The course outlines different paradigms for communication, explores interpersonal
communication and its application in the workplace, discusses the impact of conflict in
communication and how to resolve it, provides strategies for persuasion and negotiation in
communication, and provides key guidelines for giving and receiving feedback. Thus, it
involves many different aspects, such as communications paradigms, the five principles of
effective communication, conflict resolution, persuasion and negotiation, giving and
receiving feedback, and goal setting [34]. The second is “Business Communications”,
introduced by Arkansas Department of Workforce Education. It is a one-semester course
designed to provide students with skills in business careers. The course includes both
written and oral communications relating to business activities and is directed toward
understanding the language of non-verbal communication and improved listening skills,
reading, voice usage and writing skills. Emphasis is given to the developing of students’
competencies in the language use and to helping students get used to technological


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advancements related to information, communication and telecommunications [35]. The
third is of Clinton Community College. The course is designed to give students a
comprehensive view of communication, its scope and importance in business, and the role
of communication in establishing a favorable outside the firm environment as well as
effective internal communication program. For those purposes, the syllabus includes the
contents below:

-

Today’s communication challenges

-

Writing for business audiences

-

Writing business documents: reports, proposals, e-mails, memos, persuasive and
negative messages

-

Writing resumes, cover letter, job application

-

Interviewing and writing the Follow-ups

-

Making a presentation [36]

The fourth is designed by Sandra Lynn Mardenfeld, adjunct professor at C.W. Post
University, Brookville, NY. The course provides learners with the theory of
communication with practical application to a sequence of projects progressing from
resume writing, memos, and letter to more advanced problems of persuasion, interviewing
research and report writing. Therefore, after the course, learners are expected to be able to

1

write a business letter, memo, resume, and a cover letter, long documents, manuals,

proposals, and persuasive documents, 2use the telephone effectively, 3 do a researching
using traditional methods (books, print materials) and the Internet, 4know how to interview
and to handle an interview, and 4understand the technology needed to operate in a business
setting [37]. Finally, it is the Business Communication Master Syllabus of the University of
Texas at Austin. The course focuses on a core set of communication skills and requires
assignments that support students in their learning of these skills. These communication
skills and the types of assignments that teach those skills are described as below:
-

Written Communication: Students prepare E-mails, letters, memos, proposals,
formal and informal reports, work plans, and progress reports.

-

Oral Communication: Oral presentations from 2-30 minutes long address
impromptu and extemporaneous methods of delivery. Some oral presentations
require the use of visual aids such as handouts, overhead transparencies, and
presentation software such as PowerPoint.


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-

Time Management: Assignments are varied, integrated, and overlapping, and
students must focus on multiple issues, projects, and demands. Students must,

therefore, take responsibility for planning and pacing their own work as well as
developing time management skills.

-

Project Development: Groups of approximately four to six students develop
projects, complete research, schedule meetings, write papers and reports, and
deliver a 20-30 minute oral presentation using visual aids. These projects build on
and use the skills developed in other class assignments.

-

Group Management: Students work on group projects to practice interpersonal
skills by communicating with group members, other groups, and peers outside the
group.

-

Meeting Management: As part of the projects, groups meet on a regular basis,
develop meeting goals, make agendas, facilitate meetings, provide feedback, and
submit meeting summaries. [38]
It can be clearly noted from the above descriptions that those syllabuses are different

and similar in some ways. The difference of those syllabuses is shown in the specific skills
each syllabus comprises. These skills are not the same due to the fact that the mentioned
syllabuses have been designed for courses in different fields. For examples, in the syllabus
for preacher, learners are trained the skills of critique and of preaching; in that for doctors
and nurses, the skills of comforting the patients and their relatives, breaking bad news,
explaining, summarizing, and dealing with emotional responses,…are included; in that for
engineers, there are teamwork and leadership; in that for future teachers of English,

editing, evaluating, and testing are mentioned; and in that for will-be businessman, using
telephone, interviewing, interpersonal communication, note taking and making, meeting
conducting are involved. Regarding similarities, the described syllabuses share two things
in common. First, it is the amount of theoretical knowledge included in the course.
Obviously, of all the total time for the whole course, a certain portion is saved for the
fundamentals of communication. The fundamentals of communication is the basic theories
or concepts that one needs to know if he wants to communicate effectively, such as
communication paradigms, keys to communication, barriers in communication and
different types of communication, communication’s challenges, etc. Second, it is related to
the skills. Despite the fact that the mentioned syllabuses are for courses in different fields,


19

some skills appear in nearly all the courses. These skills are listening, writing, speaking,
making a presentation, responding, non-verbal communication, and interpersonal skills.
2.4. Summary and the scope of the study
There are scores of researches studying the role of communication and
communication skills in our daily life and all of them have come to similar conclusions.
Specifically, communication is a part and parcel of everyone’s life as all individuals need
to communicate to share their knowledge and information with others. However, the
degree of its effectiveness depends on one’s personal communication skills. The better his
communication skills are, the more efficiently he can communicate with the others and
thus the more success he can get in his life. For this rationale, communication skill is now
considered one of the most important factors that recruiters are seeking from their
candidates and hence has been included into the curricula of many schools. In fact,
communication skills relate to many different things that can support communication,
resulting in the various contents of the syllabuses of communication skills. From the 10
syllabuses the researcher discussed in the previous section, it can be seen that theories of
communication and the basic skills of communication (verbal and non-verbal

communication, and interpersonal communication) are what all the syllabuses have in
common. Besides, in accordance to the specific purpose of the course, many other different
skills are added to the syllabus.
Since the syllabus this study aims to build up is also to serve the purpose of
providing learners with good ability to communicate in the real life, it is to a certain extent
similar to the already-designed ones, reflected in that the syllabus includes both
background knowledge of communication and communicating skills. However, the
intended syllabus still has its own features, mainly in consideration of the skills to be
included in it. Since this syllabus is a part of English-majored curriculum, skills related to
English use like reading, listening, writing, speaking, making a presentation, and notetaking are not included in it, and the anticipated skills are those that together with the
language skills help English majors work productively in the workplace. In consideration
of the mentioned features, this study focuses on investigating the opinions about the need
for communication skills at the work place as well as the reality of employers’
communicating ability from only English majored graduates and those employers who


20

might hire English-majored graduates. The gained opinions would be based on so as to
identify the contents of the prospective syllabus.