HANOI UNIVERSITY

Km 9 Nguyen Trai Road, Thanh Xuan, Hanoi, Vietnam

Telephone:(84-4)3854 4338; Fax:(84-4)3854 4550
E-mail: hanu@hanu.edu.vn; Website: www.hanu.edu.vn

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

GRADUATE DIPLOMA ASSIGNMENT COVER SHEET

Family Name: TRAN First Name: MY LINH

Unit Title: ENGLISH FOR SPECIFIC PURPOSES

Assignment Title:
FINAL ASSIGNMENT - TOPIC 1

Name of Lecturer: Class:

Prof. Le Thanh Dzung PG43

Date Submitted: Student Contact Telephone No./Student Email Address:

Sat, 04 April, 2020 0936771119 / darlenelinhtran@gmail.com



STUDENT DECLARATION

I DECLARE THAT THIS ASSIGNMENT IS ORIGINAL AND HAS NOT BEEN SUBMITTED FOR ASSESSMENT ELSEWHERE.

I DECLARE THAT THIS ASSIGNMENT IS MY OWN WORK AND DOES NOT INVOLVE PLAGIARISM OR COLLUSION.

I GIVE MY CONSENT FOR THE ELECTRONIC VERSION TO BE EXAMINED BY RELEVANT PLAGIARISM SOFTWARE PROGRAMS.

I HAVE MADE A PHOTOCOPY OR ELECTRONIC COPY OF MY ASSIGNMENT, WHICH I CAN PRODUCE IF THE ORIGINAL IS LOST

FOR ANY REASON.

SIGNED: DATED:

ESP - PG43 - TRAN MY LINH 1

 MARKS

COMMENTS: .......................................................................................................
...........................................................................................................................
...........................................................................................................................
...........................................................................................................................
...........................................................................................................................
...........................................................................................................................
...........................................................................................................................
...........................................................................................................................
...........................................................................................................................
...........................................................................................................................
...........................................................................................................................
...........................................................................................................................
...........................................................................................................................
...........................................................................................................................
...........................................................................................................................

Lecturer’s Signature: ..……………………………………… Date: ………………....

ESP - PG43 - TRAN MY LINH 2

English for Specific Purposes
Topic One
PG43 - TRAN MY LINH

ESP - PG43 - TRAN MY LINH 3

Table of content
Introduction 5

Literature Review 6
“Needs” and “Needs Analysis” 6

The roles of Needs Analysis in ESP 6

Approaches to Needs Analysis 7

Rationale for choosing the approaches for the target group 9

Sample of the data collection instrument 10

Conclusion 11

References 12

ESP - PG43 - TRAN MY LINH 4

Introduction
ESP is a more specific branch than General English because it emphasizes the awareness
of the need to learn English. If the learner chooses to study General English to improve the
overall level of listening, speaking, reading, and writing, as well as not clearly define what
they can do after completing this course, for ESP learners, the goals of the course are
always clearly defined in the first place. For instance, after finishing an ESP course, the
learner will be able to communicate in English in a given situation, know what to say or
how to respond in a particular job.
To design the appropriate ESP curriculum and meet the goals of the learners, teachers and
course designers need to understand and master everything about the learners: the goals,
the skills needed and their proficiency level. To do this, it is impossible to skip the Needs
Analysis step. Analyzing the needs of a group of people who want to learn English is the
first step that should be carried out solidly and exactly, as a prerequisite for developing a
high-quality ESP course.
This paper will dive deeper into the process of analyzing learners' needs in the overall
process of developing an ESP course. The target group here is those who have the goal of
working in the aviation industry (which may include flight attendants or ground
services). The age group of learners is very young, ranging from 18 to 24 years old. The
target of the learners is so specific: start by taking the TOEIC English test, then the
interview round in English and then learning professional English to be able to
communicate with customers on board. Most of these learners have basic English
proficiency and limited communication ability.
The researcher will have to figure out the goals of the learners' workgroup to identify the
situations of the jobs that the learners need to handle. From there, the researcher will
identify the skills needed to be taught. Next, the researcher will check the learner's level to
see what skills are missing to adjust the difficulty and parts of the curriculum. And finally,
the researcher will have to consider the wishes of the learner, in addition to the objective
(taking a certification exam or interview), it is necessary to consider the personal goals,
such as the desire to communicate more fluently with better pronunciation or more
confident manners, etc.
To do that, the researcher will collect information about the group of learners and from
there, analyze the needs of this group of learners.


ESP - PG43 - TRAN MY LINH 5

Literature Review
“Needs” and “Needs Analysis”

According to Munby (1978), ESP is a field in which the study path and materials are
designed primarily based on the analysis of the needs of the learners, other than not
revolving around the learners but only treating English as general as the General English
course. For example, a non-native person studying English to study medicine in his own
country aims to read medical texts in English. Therefore, ESP is born so that those
students can do the work they are responsible for in the international environment.
Munby stated that ESP includes two areas: (1) learners need English to work in their fields
and (2) learners need English to improve their academic and professional levels. When
choosing the ESP course, the needs of the learners were clearly defined. ESP is different
from General English in that "the awareness of needs". Hutchinson and Waters (1986)
suggested that, with a language-centered approach, needs are the ability to understand
and create languages in certain target situations.
According to Hyland (2013), needs is a term that includes a lot of abstract concepts, from
learners' goals to their background, their language ability, the reasons why they go to
school, and their hobbies for learning, also the environment they need to communicate
within. Needs can also include what learners already know, don't know or want to know,
and these can be collected and analyzed in several ways.

The roles of Needs Analysis in ESP

Needs analysis plays a key role in designing an ESP course. To build a course, three
factors are needed: syllabus, methodology and target/learning situation. Here when
talking about the target/learning situation, the researcher needs to identify four factors:
Who? Why? Where? and When? Needs Analysis is the method of collecting and
evaluating relevant and useful information for curriculum development. It is a means of
developing a curriculum, beginning with How and What, which is a continuous process.
For teachers, there is always a requirement to make adjustments throughout the teaching
and learning process, so that they can then reevaluate and see the effectiveness of the
course.
As mentioned above, Hutchinson and Waters (1986) suggested that the role of Needs
Analysis in ESP is to demonstrate awareness of needs, and is an integral step in the
process of designing an ESP course. It is the awareness in the target situation, the ESP
learners need to determine how to communicate in English in situations, which are
different from General English learners.
According to Dudley Evan and St. John (1998), Needs analysis is one of the key stages of
ESP, which is the foundation for determining the curriculum design selectively, building
materials, teaching, learning and evaluating.

ESP - PG43 - TRAN MY LINH 6

Addressing needs, Hutchinson and Waters (1986) categorized into two characters: (1)
target needs (what learners need to do in certain situations) and (2) learning needs (what
learners need to do to can learn).
In terms of target needs, it can be broken down into 3 categories: necessities, lacks and
wants.
Necessities show what is needed for the learner. The learner is required to know these
things to be able to do his or her job effectively in target situations. For example, a
Vietnamese waiter working in a restaurant with many English-speaking foreigners needs
to know how to greet a customer, from the menu to the reception, how to take an order
and recommend customers on suitable dishes.
Lacks is the gap between the learner's current level and the communication goals that are
set. Determining the level of the learner is extremely important, from which the course
designer can decide what the learner needs to learn (Hutchinson, Waters and Breen, 1979).
Wants are the demands and desires of the students. As mentioned above, the role of needs
awareness is very important in ESP, so students' requirements and expectations are also
highly emphasized. Students may have their views when it comes to necessities and lacks,
which can conflict with the teacher or curriculum designer. For example, when applying
to those who want to work in the aviation environment, course designers need to ensure
learners are fluent in vocabulary and grammar to be able to take the TOEIC test to achieve
the goal, or when interviewing in English, they can answer the questions given by
employers. However, learners have higher demand: they want to be able to communicate
fluently in English with colleagues, customers, or have good pronunciation, good
listening, etc.

Approaches to Needs Analysis

According to Robinsons (1991), there are two main approaches: TSA (Target Situation
Analysis) and PSA (Present Situation Analysis).
Based on the theories about target needs that Hutchinson and Water made, it can be
understood that Target Situation Analysis is collecting and analyzing information based
on learners' target needs. This approach focuses on the students' goals at the end of the
course (what can they do after completing this course).
Present Situation Analysis focuses on the current state of the student at the start of the
course. The course designer will have to study the learners' strengths and weaknesses.
PSA includes "fundamental variables" that need to be considered before or at the same
time as TSA.
Therefore, Needs Analysis can be considered as a combination of TSA and PSA. The
intersection of these two approaches is also known as LNA (Learning Needs Analysis).

PSA LNA TSA

at the beginning along the course at the end

ESP - PG43 - TRAN MY LINH 7

According to Dudley-Evans and St.John (1998), quoted by Hyland (2006, p. 74), “Target
situation analysis concerns the learners’ future roles and the linguistic skills and
knowledge they need to perform competently in their disciplines.” Target situation
analysis refers to the learner's target needs, which is to identify the language
characteristics that learners need to grasp after finishing the course. Researchers need to
collect information about learners' target needs in different ways: questionnaires,
interviews, observation, data collection (from relevant sources of documents or research
on ESP in that field) or informal consultations with sponsors or learners. Based on the
purposes, the TSA framework is given in order to define the target needs. Researchers
need to find out:
Why is English needed?
How will English be used?
What will the content areas be?
Who will the learner use English with?
Where will English be used?
When will English be used?
(Hutchinson & Waters, 1986)
After considering the target situation, the researcher needs to consider the difficulty of the
learners, what skills and knowledge the learners need to be able to follow the course and
need to use English fluently. Thus, the researcher needs to consider the lacks and
necessities to achieve the final goal of wants. These are things that need to be followed by
the learning needs approach. Researching on learning needs, researchers need to answer
the following questions:
Why learners take the course?
How do learners learn? (learners need to be explain the ways they would study)
What resources are available?
Who are the learners?
Where will the course take place?
When will the course take place?
(Hutchinson & Waters, 1986)
The important thing when approaching learning needs is to drive students to stay
motivated and to remain receptive throughout the course. Therefore, the document is
always one of the most important points. ESP students need tailor-made materials that are
relevant to their industry and that will help them to visualize and increase the enjoyment
of the lesson.
Certainly, when designing an ESP course, the researcher needs to know that the target
situation analysis is to understand what learners want to do with the language.
Researchers also need to know how learners should learn to achieve their goals. So, the
approach from the learner is the best way when analyzing needs.
On the other hand, present situation analysis is also one of the factors that directly affect
the course design. Based on Grave’s framework of the course development process (2000),
present situation analysis is defining the context. Context includes factors such as people
(students, managers), the nature of the course and place of training (genre, mandatory or
open, syllabus provided in advance), resources for teaching tablets and time factor.

ESP - PG43 - TRAN MY LINH 8

Robinson (1991) also refers to variables including community variables, institutional
variables, teacher variables, and learner variables. From these factors, the course designer
will consider and adjust the content, from written language or spoken language, from
short-term to long-term aims, from sentences to text, structure to lexis, from teacher-
centered to learner-centered approach.

Rationale for choosing the approaches for the target

group
Needs analysis is a combination of target situations analysis, present situation analysis
and learning needs analysis to bring the most thorough analysis to be able to build an
appropriate and quality curriculum. Researchers need to go from the beginning to the end
of the journey with students on this ESP journey. Therefore, the combination of three
approaches, target situation analysis, present situation analysis and learning needs , is the
best solution.
First, when applying the Present situation analysis method, the researcher can grasp the
students' strengths and weaknesses. All students are not English majors and have never
taken an international English proficiency test, so program designers are required to
understand the students' proficiency, their ability to acquire and attitudes towards English
learning process.
Secondly, although learners identify their goals when studying, which are to take exams,
interviews and earn better career opportunities, but they are also quite vague about the
characteristics of these jobs. The task of the programmer at this time is to design a clear
learning path to help students achieve specific goals and capabilities in aviation-related
jobs.
Finally, after understanding the student's current status and the final goal after the course,
the program designer should coordinate with the teacher and survey students, constantly
assessing and adjusting during the course. At this time, Learning Needs Analysis can be
included to ensure the quality and encourage the learners' spirit.
The subjects selected in this study are a group of students aged 18 to 25, who aim to study
at the aviation academy to have the opportunity to work in the aviation industry. The
target of this group of students was very clear: after taking the TOEIC test (550 for
Vietnam Airlines or 600 for Bamboo Airways or VietJet Air), they will have to participate
in an English interview round with the employer. If they pass this round, they will be able
to attend an aviation training course in the aviation academy. One characteristic of this
audience is that they do not have to worry about time (they can attend full-time study for
a whole week, from 6 months up to 1 year) and the educational institution is private, so
the design of the English learning program, as well as documentation, is not influenced by
external factors. Upon enrollment, this group of students has only been tested in English
proficiency but has not taken a survey on specific learning needs. Additionally, the most
important thing the center needs to do is to provide English language skills for students to

ESP - PG43 - TRAN MY LINH 9

practice in their careers. Before surveying learners, the researcher first viewed this target
group as follows:

OBJECTIVE SUBJECTIVE
(perceived by course designers) (perceived by learners)

NECESSITIES The English needed for success in The ability to cope with job
achieving the score needed in the situations
TOEIC test
The ability to pass in interview with
employer in English
The ability to communicate with
customers in job situations

LACKS Communication skill is very limited Ways to learn English for the test
Limited vocabulary and grammar Ways to communicate in English

WANTS Pass the TOEIC test with a sufficient To enroll in the aviation program
score The ability to communicate in
The ability to communicate in English and manners
English fluently Good pronunciation for better
career opportunities (higher
position, international flights, etc.)

Sample of the data collection instrument

The researcher chooses the available and time-saving method, which is the questionnaire.
The questionnaire will be sent to students via the Google form for easy access, and also
saves synthesis time for researchers. Because the students' English level is very basic, the
questions are given in the most simple form for easy understanding.

For each item below, choose your level from 1 to 5. (1 = no, 5 = yes)

1 2 3 4 5

1. I learn English for my job.

2. I like learning English and want to improve my skills.

3. I can introduce myself in English (my name, age, job).

4. I can read and understand short text messages, emails or

announcements in English.

5. I can listen and understand announcements in English.

ESP - PG43 - TRAN MY LINH 10

 1 2 3 4 5

6. I can write short text messages and emails in English.

7. I find it easy to read aloud numbers and sentences in

English.

8. Most of my customers are foreigners.

9. I like learning English by watching videos and listening

to songs.

10. I like learning English by doing vocabulary and

grammar exercises.

11. I like to speak English in front of people, especially

role-play.

12. I can practice English at least 60 minutes per day.

Conclusion
In short, studying and gathering information about students' needs is an essential and
irreplaceable step in the first stage of building an ESP course. The foundation of providing
a good ESP course for students comes from a thorough investment from course designer
and teacher from the very first step of Needs Analysis. To do that, the course designer
must understand the concept of target needs and learning needs, then select and apply the
right approach to the target audience. The Needs analysis process will start from the
Present situation analysis point, throughout the process is flexible assessments and
adjustments suitable for both teachers and learners applying Learning needs analysis, all
to reach the goal of the Target situation analysis. These methods need to be combined
appropriately to achieve the goal followed by designing an ESP curriculum that suits the
student's goals and qualifications. The researcher hopes that these friendly surveys will
contribute to the orientation and outline a clear, specific learning path for students,
bringing valuable learning and spiritual benefits to students.


ESP - PG43 - TRAN MY LINH 11

References
Dudley-Evans, T., & St. John, M. J. (1998). Developments in English for Specific

Purposes: A multidisciplinary Approach. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Hutchinson, T. & Waters, A. (1986). English for Specific Purposes. Cambridge University Press.

Hutchinson, T., Waters, A. & M. Breen (1979). An English Language Curriculum for Technical Student.
Practical Papers in English Language Education, vol. 2, University of Lancaster.

Munby, J. (1978). Communicative Syllabus Design. Cambridge University Press.

Robinson, P. (1991). ESP Today: A Practitioner's Guide. U.S: Prentice Hall.

ESP - PG43 - TRAN MY LINH 12