Đề tài Review of literature

PART A : INTRODUCTION _______________________________________________________________________________ 1. Rationale Foreign languages have been introduced and taught in Vietnam for many years. Especially, English has become a very popular subject to be taught and paid further surveys and studies at all levels: from elementary to secondary schools and, furthermore, to tertiary education across the country. As the spread of English to almost all corners of the world, nowadays, people are getting more and more aware of the importance of the language. For many people in Vietnam, English is seen as a very necessary means to get a good job, especially a well-paid job in foreign invested companies. Thus, there is a growing demand to learn the language for business communication. Therefore, the teaching and learning of English have been placed in an important focus. However, the current situation of English teaching and learning in Haiphong University has both advantages and disadvantages which should be defined more clearly so that we can improve the teaching-learning environment and the proficiency of English competence of the students. As English teachers of ESP, we may find it hard to determine what points to focus on when asked to navigate students for their big steps into the real world after they leave university. We should always bear in mind that some of our students may someday have to work for a 100% foreign invested or International Joint Venture (IJV) firm. This requires not only instructing our students on how to improve their foreign business language skills, but also helping them come to terms with cultural differences and business styles which may often be more of useful resources than impediments. Feedbacks from many graduates of Haiphong University and now working for foreign firms show that they really need real-life English when they start their jobs in foreign invested companies such as how to prepare for a job process, office activities, administration procedures, etc. Besides, the teaching of business correspondence is one part of the English for Business Communication. That is why the English majors will really have to face with some fundamental drawbacks when taking part into this ESP course, namely lack of real-life experience, limited time allocated for the course, inappropriate material course book, inexperienced teachers, etc. With those difficulties, the teaching of English business correspondence is really a challenge. What we have to carry out at the moment is to find out the effective way to the teaching and learning this subject matter, so that when they leave university and start working for a business firm they will feel less difficult dealing with business correspondence. 2. Aims of the study The study is aimed at: 1. Reviewing current approaches to teaching EFL writing with focus on teaching and learning business correspondence writing; 2. Identifying some commonly made mistakes by English majors in Haiphong University while learning to write business correspondence; and 3. Giving suggestions for effectively teaching business correspondence writing in Haiphong University. I strongly hope that with all my great efforts focused on some pending matters in terms of both theory and practice, some of my study will partly contribute to the improvement of ESP learning-teaching in general, and business correspondence writing in particular. 3. Scope of study This research focuses on finding out suitable techniques for teaching students to write business correspondence correctly and efficiently (in which cover letters are of the most concentration). With the current ESP curriculum and materials in use in Haiphong University, the Business English is taught within only 30 forty-five minute periods. That is why the scope of our study is limited to the writing of cover letters in Job Seeking Process. 4. Methodology For the implementation of this study, a number of methods will be used such as contrastive, comparative, analysis, general review from published materials in the related fields. Different sources of materials will be chosen from related textbooks, articles, internets, Video Compact Discs (VCD), Compact Discs (CD). Also, the analysis of students’ writing task is done to recognize most common mistakes made by students when they perform their cover letter writing. This can surely help teachers anticipate problems in the existing course and seek the possible solutions to fix these problems. The analysis will assist to distinguish advantages and disadvantages in teaching techniques for teachers’ part. 5. Organization of the study The study includes three parts: PART A: INTRODUCTION presents Rationale, Aims of the study, Scope, Methodology and Organization of the study PART B: DEVELOPMENT constitutes the body of the study and consists of three chapters: Chapter One: Review of Literature In this chapter, the trends and approaches applied to teaching English writing such as Product, Process and Genre are reviewed and then narrowed down to the approaches for teaching ESP. At the end of this chapter a summary of the limitations and differences of these approaches is presented. Chapter Two: Methodology A brief description of the Business English course currently being taught in Haiphong University is given and all information related to the research questions, survey and data collection procedures is also provided with. Also the analysis of errors made by students is discussed. Chapter Three: Data Analysis and Discussion In this chapter, survey data collected are analyzed based on the questionnaire responses in order to find out some major findings about students’ difficulties in learning Business letter writing. Besides, students’ needs on the course content, methodologies and their recommendations will be discussed. Additionally, their weaknesses and strengths are concluded after the error analysis. Finally, a combined approach to teaching business letter writing is suggested. PART C: CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS presents review of the study, recommendations for improvements and some suggestions for further study. PART B: DEVELOPMENT _________________________________________________________________________ CHAPTER ONE: REVIEW OF LITERATURE 1.1. English for Specific Purposes (ESP) From the early 1960’s, English for Specific Purposes (ESP) has grown to become one of the most prominent areas of EFL teaching today. Its development is reflected in the increasing number of universities offering an MA in ESP and in the number of ESP courses offered for overseas students in English speaking countries. According to Hutchinson & Waters’ point of view, they clearly mention, after a careful analysis of ELT and based on a focus on the commonality of language and learning, that “ESP must be seen as an approach, not as a product. ESP is not a particular kind of language or a methodology, nor does it consist of particular type of teaching material.” (Hutchinson & Water 1987:19). Being recognized as an approach, learning English should be focused on the student needs and therefore learning motivation should be created and paid attention to. As for a broader definition of ESP, Hutchinson and Waters (1987:19) also mention, "ESP is an approach to language teaching in which all decisions as to content and method are based on the learner's reason for learning". With the above mentioned views on ESP, it can be shown that rather than simply focus on the method of language delivery, more attention should be given to the ways in which learners acquire language and the differences in the ways language is acquired. Learners are seen to employ different learning strategies, use different skills, enter with different learning schemata, and be motivated by different needs and interests. Therefore, focus on the learners' needs became as equal as the methods employed to disseminate linguistic knowledge. Also the teaching approaches should be learner-centered orientation. As for Hutchinson and Waters (1987:17) ESP is divided into three divisions: English for Science and Technology (EST), English for Business and Economics (EBE), and English for Social Science (ESS) and then when coming to the upper level, each of these three branches is further divided into sub-divisions according to learners’ needs: for study as English for Academic Purposes (EAP) and for work as English for Occupational Purposes (EOP). Besides, Dudley-Evans and St John (1998) suggested the use of continuum which clarifies the nature of ESP work. The continuum runs from very General English courses to specific ESP courses. In this process, the higher the level is, the more specific the ESP course reaches, ranging from English for beginners to individual needs of professional users. Today, English is one of the major languages in the world with the number of speakers of over four hundred millions. Geographically, English is the most widespread language on earth. It is the language of business, technology, sports and aviation. The world communication is mainly carried out in English. “Incredibly enough, 75% of the world’s mails and 60% of the world’s telephone calls are in English.”(John and Liz Soars (1986): 2) Further more, as Dudley-Evans and St John note that with the increasing numbers of international students taking Master courses in Business, Finance, Accounting and Banking, the area of Academic Business English is beginning to assume much greater importance in EPA. (Dudley-Evans and St. John 1997: 31) and ESP courses are designed by mixing up different elements to fit the learners’ particular situation. 1.2. Teaching English writing 1.2.1. Definition of writing Writing is one of communicative approaches. Through the mastery of writing, people come to be fully effective in intellectual organization, in the management of everyday affairs, in the expression of ideas and arguments. By writing people can have control of both information and of people as well. As mentioned by Byrne (1988) we can understand that “writing is an act of forming graphic symbols”. However, of all language learning skills, writing is valued as “a language skill which is difficult to acquire” (Tribble, 1996:3). In The World's Writing Systems, Peter T. Daniels defines writing as: “a system of more or less permanent marks used to represent an utterance in such a way that it can be recovered more or less exactly without the intervention of the utterer”. 1.2.2. Writing tasks and activities Doff (1988: 148-153) and Brown (1994: 327-330) divide writing activities according to the level of the teacher's control, which include: (1) imitative or writing down, (2) controlled or guided writing, and (3) free-writing or self-writing. Imitative writing involves classroom activities like copying, which are somewhat mechanical and do not require the students to understand the meaning. That is why these activities are uninteresting for students and should only be used for beginners. Another form is dictation, which is more challenging to students. This incentive activity helps develop both listening and spelling. However, it does not really develop writing skill in that students do not have to express ideas or find ways to constructing sentences. Also, this is not an authentic activity. Controlled writing activities provide more challenges for students but still limit their creation such as changing a text from present tense to past tense, completing a sentence by filling the blanks, writing sentences from clues, writing from pictures. Another form is dicto-comp, in which the teacher read the whole paragraph at normal speed, then puts key words from the paragraph on the board, and students are required to rewrite the paragraph from their recollection and the key words. Freer activities include writing based on a text or on oral presentation. In the former, students are provided with a paragraph as a model, then are required to based on the paragraph and write a similar paragraph giving their own information or information provided by the teacher. Oral presentation begins with class activities when students make suggestions and the teacher builds up an outline, or a list of key expressions, on the board. In free writing, or self-writing, students have a certain amount of choice on the ideas, there may be some few limitations like the length of the composition, or the topic chosen to write about. 1.2.3. Teaching writing in ESL classes Students need to be personally involved in writing in order to make the learning experience of lasting value. Encouraging student participation in the exercise, while at the same time refining and expanding writing skills, requires a certain pragmatic approach. The teacher should be clear on what skills students are trying to develop. Next, the teacher needs to decide on which means (or type of exercise) can facilitate learning of the target area. Once the target skill areas and means of implementation are defined, the teacher can then proceed to focus on what topic can be employed to ensure student participation. By pragmatically combing these objectives, the teacher can expect both enthusiasm and effective learning. As Ann Raimes (1983) mentions that “When we learn a second language, we learn to communicate with other people: to understand them, to talk to them, read what they have written and write to them. Visitors to another country will often have to leave a note for the mailman, fill out a customs declaration form, give written instructions, or write a thank you letter.” There is no better way for students to grasp the essential value of writing as a form of communication than for them to produce the kind of practical writing that many people do in their everyday life. Each piece of practical writing has both clear purpose and specific audience: Messages, application forms, invitations, letters and instructions and the like. 1.2.4. Approaches to teaching English writing There are several ways to approach writing in the classroom. It should be said at the beginning that there is not necessarily any 'right' or 'best' way to teach writing skills. The best practice in any situation will depend on the type of students, the text type being studied, the school system and many other factors as Raimes (1983) points out “There is no correct answer to question of how to teach writing in ESL classes. There are as many answers as there are teachers and teaching styles, or learners and learning styles.” Hereafter, several approaches are reviewed with a view to understanding the background theory of current writing approaches to teaching writing in ESL classes. 1.2.4.1. The Product Approach For a long time, Product Approach has dominated much of the teaching that happens in the English classrooms. In this approach, focus is greatly placed on the linguistic knowledge, with attention on the appropriate use of vocabulary, syntax, and cohesive devices. As far as the Product Approach is concerned, learning to write has four stages: familiarization, controlled writing, guided writing and free writing. The aim of this approach is to enable students to produce similar texts. Brown (1994:320) states that learning is evaluated through text analysis of students’ work according to some criteria such as the standard of rhetorical style, accurate grammar, and conventional organization. The Product Approach to writing usually involves the presentation of a model text, which is analyzed and the basis of a task that leads to the writing of an exactly similar or a parallel text. Robinson (1991) summarizes the method in the following way: MODEL TEXT →COMPREHENSION/ANALYSIS/MANIPULATION → NEW INPUT → PARALLEL TEXT The use of models for text analysis and as a basis for thinking about the purposes and readership of a text can, however, have an important role to play in teaching writing. This is especially true where the teaching of writing is integrated with the teaching of reading. The situation where the writer looks at a model, or previous example, of a text he wishes to write, and then adapts it for the specific purpose reflects what frequently happens in business or academic writing Therefore, this approach is totally teacher-centered and product or output-focused. The weaknesses of the Product Approach is that process skills are given a relatively small role, and that the knowledge and skills that students bring to the classroom are undervalued. In short, product-based approaches see writing as mainly concerned with knowledge about the structure of language, and writing development as mainly the result of the imitation of input, in the form of texts provided by the teacher. However, advantages of the Product Approach can not be denied, for this traditional approach recognizes the need for students to be given linguistic knowledge about texts, so students will have a clear idea about the organization of a particular text. And what’s more, the Product Approach understands that imitation is one way in which people learn. It has contributed greatly to the development of students’ vocabulary and structure and under some circumstances it is very useful for practical teaching. 1.2.4.2. The Process Approach Form the 1970s, in the light of the weakness of Product Approach, teachers are more concerned about the Process Approach. As its term suggests, in the Process Approach, the focus of attention has shifted from the finished product to the whole process of writing: experience and question, prewriting preparation, draft writing, editing and rewriting, publication or sharing, and response and feedback from the readers. The very typical four stages go as following: prewriting; composing/drafting; revising and editing. In Process Approach, the teacher primarily facilitates the students’ writing, and providing input or stimulus is considered to be less important. Writing development is seen as an unconscious process which happens when teachers facilitate the exercise of writing skills. The role of a teacher is as an education facilitator. The shift of focus and the change in the teacher’s role necessitate greater emphasis on activities such as collaborative group work and peer evaluation. Since its foundation, the Process Approach has been widely accepted because it lays emphasis on the writing process of writers. Compared to the Product Approach, the Process Approach has undoubtedly made great improvements on practical teaching and provided much thought for English teachers. However, the disadvantage of the Process Approach is that it often regards all writing as being produced by the same set of processes; that it gives insufficient importance to the kind of texts writers produce and why such texts are produced; and that it offers learners insufficient input, particularly in terms of linguistic knowledge. Ron White and Valerie Arndt are keen to stress that 'writing is re-writing; that revision seeing with new eyes - has a central role to play in the act of creating text' (White and Arndt 1991: 5). In their model, process writing is an interrelated set of recursive stages which include: - Drafting - Structuring (ordering information, experimenting with arrangements, etc.) - Reviewing (checking context, connections, assessing impact, editing) - Focusing (making sure you are getting the message across you want to get across) - Generating ideas and evaluation (assessing the draft and/or subsequent drafts) White and Arndt's model can be represented diagrammatically, as in Figure 1: Figure 1: Model of Process Approach The teacher plays a greater role in this approach in providing input and consequently, feedback during the revision and evaluation stages. The number of times this is done is not restricted as writing is a recursive activity. The teacher’s response serves to provide support for the students in the writing process as well as engage him/her in critical self-evaluation of the written product. The teacher may also act as a source of input for the students, though more advanced students can rely on their own sources of input from the library or the Internet. But in the final analysis, the student has to consider, to a fair degree, the context of the writing task. In summary, this approach informs us that writing essentially involves thinking skills and knowledge of the various stages in the process to transform information into coherently written texts. Up to now, a conclusion can be made by Raimes that in the Process Approach, students do not write on a given topic in a restricted time and hand in the composition for the teacher “to correct”-which is usually means to find the errors. Rather, they explore a topic through writing, showing the teachers and each other their drafts, and using what they write to read over, think about, and move them on to new ideas. Summarizing, it can be said that Process Approach sees writing primarily as the exercise of linguistic skills, and writing development as an unconscious process which happens when teachers facilitate the exercise of writing skills. 1.2.4.3. The Genre Approach Recent years have witnessed increased emphasis being placed on the notion of genre in the language learning classroom and some genre-based teaching approaches have come into being. However, there are strong similarities with product approaches and, in some ways, genre approaches can be regarded as an extension of product approach. Like Product Approach, Genre Approach regards writing as predominantly linguistic but, unlike Product Approach, they emphasize that writing varies with the social context in which it is produced. So, we have a range of kinds of writing- such as business letters, research articles, and reports-linked with different situations . In the ELT field, Dudley-Evans (1997:154) also identifies three stages in Genre approach to writing. First, a model of a particular genre is introduced and analyzed. Students then carry out exercises which manipulate relevant language forms and, finally, produce a short text. To write in a particular genre, whether a formal report or a historical romance, the formal patterns that shape a text must be aware of. Students need to be familiarized with the schemata associated with the particular genres they will require. Genre analysis can therefore provide the vocabulary and concepts to explicitly teach the text structures we would like our students to produce. It places language at the center of writing development by allowing shared understanding and explicit guidance. The Genre Approach offers students a relatively fixed discourse model that they can use for reference, thus students will gain confidence in producing a text that serves its intended purpose. On the other hand, as to the negative side, the Genre Approach is prescriptive rather than descriptive, which is likely to lead to lack of creativity and de-motivation in the learners. Students will feel this teaching approach boring and in their practical writing, their products will be found stereotyped. Sometimes, the Genre Approach may prove to be a text-centered approach, focused on the reproduction of the product, rather than a student-centered one. What is more, in practical teaching, teachers can not provide students with all sorts of genres in the classroom. Therefore, the Genre Approach also has its limitations in the teaching of writing. To sum up, with brief review of the thee approaches commonly applied in teaching writing as Product, Process and Genre approaches, both advantages and drawbacks are defined and looked into. Of course, there cannot be a single perfect approach to teaching students writing especially writing their business writing. The question here is laid down to ESP teachers is that he should pick up the most advantageous strengths of each approach and appropriately combine them into a synthetic approach so that the teaching and learning will be of maximum effect. A synthesis of approaches will be suggested in Part C of this study. 1.3. Error classification In order to give suggestion for an appropriate approach to teaching business correspondence writing for English majors in Haiphong University, error identification is made because it is one of the useful techniques in teaching-learning process. Correction and Assessment are really in-separate because they both help the learners to assess their learning and self-value their products. Error correction in writing is often made on students’ written work such as homework, exercises, assignment. In writing classes, students’ errors are often pointed out by teachers on different performance aspects of a written task and then students will be shown the appropriate ways to improve . Hereinafter we will look at different types of errors, including mistakes (Edge, 1989) as follows: Errors of meaning are language products that are correct in linguistic form but fail to mean what the producer means to say. In comparison with errors of form, errors of meaning are more difficult to be discovered and understood. Errors of meaning can also be pieces of language with correct linguistic form but are socially unacceptable because they affect understanding , they are more important than errors of form. Errors of organization are involved in the text that fails to follow the conventional organization which makes it easy to follow and pleasing to read. Errors of presentation The errors in presentation involve those do not follow the conventional format, lay-out of a cover letter as well as style, spacing, letter font or size. Errors of language form, according to Ur (1996), are mainly referred to when teacher give their feedback, which makes students believe that these are what matters. The first reason is that “errors in spelling and grammar catch the eye and seem to demand to be corrected.” Additionally, students themselves always want their language errors to be corrected. And one more possible reason is that language errors are much easier to be found out and corrected than errors of contents and organization. In short, all the above-mentioned errors should be paid much attention to because writing skills require a combination of elements. For the wrong pieces that can be recognized as mistakes, not errors, students should be encouraged to correct by themselves and hopefully the repetition of these mistakes may be avoided. As for mistakes that are almost impossible to be corrected in a short time as fossilized ones, there should be specially designed exercises to raise the students’ awareness on the knowledge . And for those that are caused by the lack of necessary knowledge, teachers need to provide students with the knowledge of right and expected items. Based on the analysis of errors made by students during their learning process an appropriate approach can be suggested and applied. CHAPTER TWO: METHODOLOGY 2.1. A description of the current business course to be taught for English majors in Haiphong University 2.1.1. The course syllabus The Foreign Language Department of Haiphong University consists of 3 major sub-divisions: The English, Russian and Chinese departments. Students who have passed the national entrance exams will be sorted into two types of groups: The teacher training groups and the remaining students will be in non-teaching groups. The ESP course is allocated for the non-teaching groups only. After graduation, students of these groups will look for a job in business or manufacturing enterprises and use their English for office work. That is why they are supposed to learn a variety of ESP subjects such as: English for Education, English for Finance and Banking, English for Economics, Business English, and so on, so that they can obtain technical terms and specialized knowledge for their targeted subjects. The time allocation for Business English course is as of the following: Semester Credits Periods Requirements IV (Business I) 3 3x15 Introduce and practice basic skills and techniques for business communications. V (Business II) 3 3x15 Develop and further practice the skills used in business situations and greatly focus on business language functions. VI (Business III) 2 2x15 Business correspondence writing Business English is taught when students have obtained basic language skills in General English like listening, speaking, reading and writing. Based on this syllabus, Business English for students is aimed to help students: To understand authentic Business texts To use relevant Business language functions to business contacts To master their basic skills and techniques for writing business correspondence and to produce simple but correct business letters, memos, faxes and reports. To participate in business contexts giving personal information, exchanging information and expressing opinions. 2.1.2. The business English course Time allocation: 30 x forty-five minute periods Course Objectives To obtain fundamental overview of Business English Correspondence To Focus on writing Business letters, memos, reports and job applications To practice some key office activities such as Job Seeking Process, dealing with office problems, sending fax, emails, photocopying, etc. Course Components Business Letter Writing Application Forms (Cover letters) Curriculum Vitae/ Resume Job interviews Thank-you letters Letters of complaints Letters of Invitation Letters of Reference Letters of Resignation Agreements & Contracts Class features The class size for Business English courses in Haiphong University is rather large, ranging from 40 to 50 students per group due to the lack of infrastructure facilities and ESP teachers. Contrary to other English language courses, the English courses for business communication are content-based because it combines the teaching of language knowledge with the subject matter of business conventions. Within 30 periods, both fundamental knowledge and practical skills on business affairs should be taught to students with a focus on writing business correspondence, especially job-seeking procedures such as cover letters, curriculum vitae, and job interviews. Another feature of this course is the fact that all students are of semester VI/ third year students of English majored department, which means that they have obtained basic linguistic skills like reading, speaking, listening and writing. That is why they share the same first language (Vietnamese) and the same level of foreign language (English). During the class, the language used in teaching and learning is English. However, Vietnamese language is sometimes used for the certainty of achievement of the content’s objectives and avoidance of ambiguity. The student assessment of the course is carried out in the form of a 60-minute written exam to be held at the end of the term. Students have to present what they have learned as business writing skills and do writing business correspondent test: writing a CV and a job cover letter. Based on the exam results obtained, we have found that various kinds of mistakes have been made and spotted students’ weaknesses when they encounter with business writing. Therefore, this can be interpreted that the teaching and learning of business correspondence writing have not been of success and therefore need much improvements. 2.1.3. Teaching business letter writing In business communication, letters play a very important role in establishing and maintaining business relationships, both within a company and with external contacts. To accomplish this, many specific genres and sub-genres have been developed, which have been the object of linguistic investigation and which are taught in specific courses, as great importance is attributed to them in business studies. Moreover, this genre has a long-standing tradition, and the study of its forms in differing historical contexts has pointed out its varying aspects and its dynamic nature. There are many modern communication methods available today, but the traditional business letter remains an important means of sending printed messages. The business letter acts as an ambassador for the company, and also it conveys an impression of the company or of the writer in many ways. Developments in technology have made it possible to have instant communication all over the world. Speed is now becoming the key to successful business communications. As a result fax messages, e-mail are taking the place of many business letters. However, in many aspects of life and work, nobody can deny the existence of written communications- one of which is the use of application form or cover letter when you start your own job hunting process. As defined by Martin (1993:36), genres can be identified by their overall shape or generic structure by the genre linguistic functions. Additionally, the communicative purpose can decide some of the grammatical and lexical structures and other characteristics that make the discourse type distinctive. A genre can be a general or large genre, that is when a genre consists of several different genres. The genre of business correspondence includes business letters like complaint letters, invitation letters, job application letters, resignation letters, and some other business letters. The very purpose of all these sub-genres is doing business Business letters belong to written business correspondence and must conform a number of linguistic features of the genre. Business letters must be of standard written language, which means correct use of grammar, spelling, vocabulary usage, and conventions of capitalization and punctuation. Business letters are the basic means of communication between companies. They are documents typically sent externally to those outside a company but is also sent internally to those within a company. Besides, the language used in business letters should be appropriate, or of appropriate style. Business letters should be formal, concise, impersonal and informal language must be minimized. As Ann Raimes (1983) mentions that business letter writing also gives us the chance to deal with a variety of forms and functions that are an essential part of language mastery. We write letters to invite, inquire, explain, apologize, commiserate, congratulate, complain, order, apply, acknowledge and thank, in other words for various social and business contacts. Once students have known the form of a business letter, they can be given communicative writing tasks that lead them to practice useful form. The writing of business letters in the classroom can be tied in a very neatly with lessons on the functions of language e.g. how to make a complaint, job cover letter, letter of invitation, letter of resignation and so on. As mentioned earlier due to the limitation of the scope of this study, the focus is on the steps for writing a job cover letter: Step 1: Defining the audience and purpose: Personalize the letter and try to find out as much as possible about the person/ the company you are writing the application form to. Step 2: Creating a work plan: gather information about the company, the job applied, work experience, education background. Step 3: Collecting and evaluating data Step 4: Working out an out line Step 5: Writing draft version Step 6: Revising the letter Step 7: Proofreading, finalizing and start writing 2.2. The survey 2.2.1. Target Population The survey was carried out with the cooperation of one class (42 English majors) namely K5B. They are third-year students of English department. They are in their early twenties ranging from 21 to 23 years of age. The Business English course for those students began at the beginning of December 2006 and completed in April 2007. The course is obligatory to all students of the class. These 42 students had to take part in the national entrance exam in which English accounts for one third of the exam score. This means that these students studied English when they were at high school for three to seven years. For the first five semesters, they were provided with General English in language skill practice such as listening, speaking, reading, listening, which is why they have obtained certain basic language skills especially writing skills when they started the Business English. 2.2.2. Objectives of the survey The survey was conducted with a view to: Finding out students’ background and motivation to learn business English Finding out students’ opinions about the current teaching approach of Business English course in Haiphong University Finding out difficulties students have encountered and then possibly analyzing mistakes made through their writing tasks 2.3. Data collection procedures 2.3.1. Need analysis questionnaire survey In order to achieve the objectives of the study, a survey questionnaire on the above said study will be made and given to students. The content is designed carefully so that when they are collected all data answered will be easily analyzed. Questionnaires were chosen as a data collection instrument in this study as it was the best way to gather objective responses. According to Gillham (2000) and Nachmias (1996), the respondents are not put under pressure of time i.e. they answer the questions in their own time and at their own pace, and in an anonymous style of responding, they undoubtedly feel free and comfortable to answer questions and give reliable responses, therefore, the information collected was objective and reliable. 2.3.2. Questionnaire The content of the questionnaire consists of : SECTION I: Background Information and Motivation of the students’ English and Business studying. This section includes four questions on students’ interest, purpose for future profession, and the number of students in the class SECTION II: Business English / Business correspondence course There are eight questions about the Business English course and related issues as learning difficulties, materials, time allocation, and students opinions about the course’s strengths or weaknesses. SECTION III: Writing Approaches The questions in this section are used to check or point out the most suitable approach for teaching and learning business letter writing. Also their opinions about teaching performance, classroom activities are required. SECTION V: Error Identification Questions regarding students’ reaction on error recognition, identification and correction. 2.3.3. Procedures The questionnaire was designed based on the objectives and purposes of the survey and then questionnaire papers were delivered to students and collected a week later. The respondents were informed of the purposes of the questionnaire and the way to answer the questions. The results of the questionnaire were summarized in tables and figures. 2.3.4. Limitation Though almost all of students have completed the questionnaires given, we can not be quite sure that they truly reflect their genuine attitudes and thoughts. Partly, this is due to the anonymous questionnaires or they feel quite free to complete it. However, with quite clearly mentioned purposes to students, we strongly hope to rely on the reliability of the survey 2.4. Error analysis of cover letters written by students Due to the limitation of time, in this study the researcher will only conduct the survey and analyze students’ outputs through their practical writing on the subject of cover letters. After the students have obtained lectures on writing cover letters (format, lay-out, checklist, writing tips), have been given with cover letter samples and also they have done some practice exercises (e.g. gap filling, letter rearrangement, drafting letters), they were asked to write cover letters in response to a real-life job advertisement and then all their products were collected and checked for error analyses. Students have to write their personal cover letters in response to the following Job Advertisement: Haiphong Daily Newspaper # 2436/ April 17, 2007 ****************** JOB OPPORTUNITY A 100% Japanese invested company requires a bilingual secretary for their manufacturing factory in Nomura-Haiphong Industrial Zone. The candidates must be bilingual in English and Japanese; one or more other Asian language would be welcome (e.g. Chinese preferable). Competitive salary, chances of promotion and overseas training, are offered to 18-22 year olds with excellent secretarial skills, the ability to communicate and an outgoing personality. Applications with recent passport photos as well as CVs addressed to the Administration Dept. (Mr. Kohno Takeuchi-Personnel Manager), are welcome. After all the cover letters written by the students have been collected, the analysis will be made in order to find out whether they will be the source for the answer to the questions the study was intended to answer. CHAPTER THREE: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION I will make use of the data analysis approach provided by Strauss and Corbin (1990), in which the researcher who is concerned with accurately describing what he has understood, reconstructing the data into recognizable reality for the people who have participated in the study. Therefore, I will combine my understanding of the process teaching writing in the university that I select and the view provided by the teachers to arrive at certain interpretations. Based on that, I will suggest some implications or suggestions for the implementation of teaching writing application forms. In the following, the study data will be presented and an analysis of these data will be made 3.1. Need analysis questionnaire survey 3.1.1. Students’ background and attitude towards the business course The total number of questionnaire respondents is 42, of which 6 are male and 36 are female with the average age of 22. Based on the result of the survey, it can be said that the English majors have high and positive attitude towards learning English as most respondents (38/42) accounting for 90% say that they study English for finding a good job in the future. The remaining accounting for 10% claim that they study English for other purposes such as traveling, overseas study or others. As far as motivation is concerned, 83% of the respondents find English very essential for their future job and career advancement. Meanwhile, only 14% of them have a very short term target as to pass the English examinations only. In short, we can find that approximately 85% of the respondents have positive views towards the learning and teaching of English language among English majors. Figure 2: Students’ motivation towards English language 3.1.2. General opinions of the course For this section the question was: “What do you think of the business course?” Out of the 42 respondents, there are 27 ticks (accounting for 64%) for the box “Interesting” and 10 ticks (accounting for 24%) in the box “Very Interesting”. The other 5 ticks are for “No Idea” or “Boring”. We can see that around 88% of the students surveyed showed their interest in learning English-especially business course. The answer is that they really need Business English for their future job after their graduation. The office work will deal with various kinds of both spoken and written language and that is why they need professional English for their job. Figure 3 below shows the students’ awareness of the usefulness of the Business English course. However, this may be different from the real needs in their future. Figure 3: Students’ general opinion of Business English course 3.1.3. The necessity of business English course We can reason their opinions on the course by analyzing the necessity of the course over their short term and long term objectives. The reason why they find the course important and interesting is that they all find that the course contents are very useful and practical for their future profession when they start to work in company offices. As questioned “How do you find the role of the course to your future career?” 37 out of 42 respondents claim that the course is important and very important to them, accounting for nearly 90%. Figure 4 will show the necessity of the Business course Figure 4: The necessity of business English course 3.1.4. Difficulties faced by the English majors in Haiphong University When we ask students to give their opinions about the level of difficulty of the course, 76% thinks that the course is of medium level and the remaining 24% finds the course difficult. Perhaps, the reason here is, apart from the common social and cultural topic their knowledge and experience on business matters remain limited. That is why when they come across with a new subject they find this quite a challenge. Additionally, the time allocation for the course is rather short: 30 forty-five minutes periods (50% say that it is quite a short time and 50% think it is medium) Figure 5: The Level of difficulty of business English course Students’ subjective difficulties are classified as the lack of language skills and abilities, the lack of practical and professional knowledge as well as the lack of practicing writing business correspondence. In fact, so far 50% of the students claims that they have never had any chances to experience and/ or obtain real-life professional activities because Business English course mainly provides them with some basic business-related knowledge but very little business practice. 72% mentions that they encounter some difficulties in the course due to their poor language ability such as vocabulary or structure when they start practicing writing business letters. 36% thinks due to their lack of confidence. Some others point out the reasons of native language interference or barrier, etc. Figure 6: Students’ difficulties 3.1. 5. Students’ feedback With the above background information surveyed in the questionnaire regarding students’ motivation, background knowledge, objectives and time allocation of the Business English course we can find out some key positive features on the course as well as the course difficulties. However, with very clear target for future career, their response to the course is quite positive and optimistic. 90% claim that the course is important and very important while 60% feels the current materials used for the course interesting and very interesting. After attending the Business English course, the English majors in Haiphong University have obtained some fundamental achievements in both general business knowledge and business letter writing skills. Through lectures given by teachers with the above mentioned contents as cover letters, Curriculum Vitae/ Resumes, job interviews, Thank-you letters, letters of complaints, letters of Invitation, letters of reference, letters of resignation, agreements & contracts, 83% of the surveyed students agree that their background knowledge of business has, to some extent, been improved little by little and also they have logical thinking towards the targeted course. When giving their remark of teaching performance, 66% shows their approval. As for the content of the course, the number of students thinks that it is interesting is 64%. And around 60% of the respondents is certain that their writing skills have been getting better and better, moreover they feel that they could possibly communicate with business people in writing. Only 8% of them feels unsure after taking the course. Figure 7 below shows the strengths of the Business English course. Figure 7: Students’ feedback of the Business English course 3.1.5.1. Process Approach writing activity Based on the theory on Process Approach applied to teaching writing, we set out several questions and we got back their replies. It can be said that the percentage for process approach is nearly the same ranging from 21% to 28% except for Individual creative work which reaches 48%. Probably, this approach is very suitable for their writing tasks as writing compositions, essays, description, etc which really needs their own creation and their own way of writing. Figure 8: Students’ opinions on Process Approach 3.1.5.2. Product Approach writing activity It can be seen from the questionnaire that surveyed students prefer the product approach to the process approach as it is more suitable for the teaching-learning writing business correspondence. More than 50% respondents show their interest in this approach while around 20% respondents select the Process Approach. It is understandable that business letters follow certain fixed format, which is quite different from writing kills in teaching General English. What the students have to do is to imitate the model with their creative work of their targeted purpose. Figure 9: Students’ opinions on Product Approach 3.1.6. Students’ recommendation for the course With a view to further improving the Business English teaching and learning, students are asked to disclose their suggestions and recommendations. Generally, they show their approval and satisfaction with the current teaching-learning of the Business English course such as the teaching contents, the teacher’s performance in class, the materials and home work assignment given, etc. However, respondents have given out their useful and valued ideas as follows: - 7 respondents accounting for 18% suggest that more samples and letter models should be given to students so that they can have various real-life knowledge and practice. Even, one idea requires that during the course, students would like to have chances to have lectures given by successful businessmen/women. - As far as the course materials are concerned, some students express their wish to have more interesting teaching materials, which can make the teaching-learning much more effective and practical. - 5 suggestions are given on the amount of practicing activity in class as for them “practice makes perfect” and they find that the present amount of practice in class is not enough for stimulating their awareness. - One idea is given to the teaching method of the teacher-in-charge. He thinks that more creative and interesting methods of teaching should be applied to this course as the nature of this course is rather uninteresting. Also, one idea specifies that the teacher should create more interesting learning environment by giving students more chances for discussion and practice. - While most of them show their approval of the course content, many of the respondents find that the time allocation for the course is rather short. In fact, they need longer time for obtaining the practical knowledge as well as writing skill practice. - As for the class’s size, 3 ideas mention that the current number of students in a language class in Haiphong University is too many. They do not think that a 42-45 student class is an ideal number for a language class. Based on the two above mentioned analyses, the findings are very important for adjusting the teaching strategies and some recommendations for the materials to be taught. 3.2. Error analysis of cover letters written by students Making mistakes is quite understandable and acceptable in the process of language learning because students are easily influenced by their first language. Additionally, their second language competence is not good enough to make their products free from errors. By analyzing their writing samples we can find out their weaknesses and strengths when they learn how to write business correspondence and we can point out what classroom activity has very little or no effect on their learning, at the same time we can further better our way of teaching so as to obtain a promising result. We do error analysis on the writing task of writing cover letters which are in response to the Job Opportunity as presented above. Their writing products were collected and analyzed. Students’ errors are divided into four categories as errors in content, organization, presentation, and language. a) Errors in content are those that reveal students’ lack of understanding the cover letter content or meaning. b) Errors in organization are those that violate the smooth flow of the cover letter. These include illogical arrangements of letter parts or failures in ensuring the letter’s coherence or unity. c) The errors in presentation involve those do not follow the conventional format, lay-out of a cover letter as well as style, spacing, letter font or size. d) Errors in language can be checked through spelling, grammatical, punctuation mistakes, lexical choice, or errors in style. All of students surveyed (100%) show their positive attitude towards error correction, among which 62% think that the teacher’s attitude is sympathetic, sensitive and helpful and 31% consider it is all right. Especially, 10% highly appreciate teacher’s careful performance on error correction. Table 1 below can show us the error classification Content Organization Presentation Language Number of errors 12 5 31 41 Percentage 29% 20% 74% 97% Problem areas Reference line (5) Statement of job applied (2) Lack of sufficient information (5) Coherence (1) Redundancy (1) Unity (3) Letter style (2) Format (12) Paragraph spacing (10) Others (7) Spelling (15) Grammar (10) Lexical choice (11) Others (5) Table 1: Errors in cover letters made by English majors 3.2.1. Errors in cover letter content The content of the writing task is clearly given in the job advertisement in such a way that students can easily read as “A 100% Japanese invested company requires a bilingual secretary for....” . However, in their writing products 04 papers have misstated this content in the reference line (papers No. 1, 8, 40) when they mentioned: Post of Administration Department. And one statement (paper No. 15) is too general : “Job Opportunity”. This error can be attributed to the careless of the students. Generally speaking, a large number of students are fully aware of the content because they have strictly followed writing procedures with samples and models as reference. The fact that around 10% of the students surveyed violates the norms is an acceptable figure. 3.2.2. Errors in organization It can not be denied that the students have basically mastered the logical organization of the cover letter. They have followed the fixed format. However, some of the papers show their lack of supporting information to describe the job is quite suitable for their abilities, (papers No. 25, 26) and some give too many unnecessary detailed which are not related to the job they are applying for (papers No. 34, 32, 38) when they quote that they work as “Marketing Manager”, “ QC Controllers” or they can speak “German” or “Italian”. Also students should avoid sentences like this: “I can type very quickly”(paper No. 2) or “Apart from English I can speak some other languages”, which has no evidence. 3.2.3. Errors in presentation In writing business letters, three letter styles were introduced namely Block style, Semi block style and Modified block style. Some students have confused in using letter styles from this one to another (papers No. 7 & 32). As for the closing, 05 students (papers No. 8, 23, 28, 32, 38) used “Your Sincerely,” for their job application letters instead of “Yours Sincerely,” which is a fixed expression. In comparison with salutation, the number of errors in letter font and size is fewer (papers No. 12, 25, 31) when they used too small letter size and their letter font is difficult to read and it may be not appropriate for business letters. As far as the paper layout is concerned, several errors were made in letter spacing, margins, indentation, etc. No paragraph spacing was made in more than 10 cover letters (papers No. 2, 4, 5, 8, 12, 18, 23, 30, 31, 35). In the meanwhile, some papers (papers No. 12, 21, 23, 30, 33) were too much or too little space, which can be interpreted that students know very little about the page layout and their computer skills are limited. 3.2.4. Errors in language In students’ writing products, spelling mistakes were greatly made and those errors are confined to words which are commonly confused such as personel (papers 6, 7, 10, 18, 21, 28, 29), convinient (papers 4, 22, 27, 30, 31), avaiable, inclosed, greatful (papers 24,28,33) The study shows that some errors have been made in the use of language grammar such as parts of speech (I confident), tenses (I have graduated from Haiphong University in 2004), numbers (a recent passport photos, I am 21 year old), gender. Additionally, vocabulary usage is one of the students’ weaknesses. Incorrect choice of lexical items have been found in both everyday language and professional terms such as “I am writing to look for the position (apply for)”, “I enclose herewith my recent photos and CV addressed to the Administration Dept., “Industry Zone (Industrial Zone)”. Also we can find some other trivial items that appeared in their cover letters such as many contractions (I’ve, I’m, they don’t,), redundant words (again, back), abbreviations and repetition. Figure 10: The result of errors made by students based on data of Table 1. It can be seen that most of errors made fall on language (accounting for 97%) and presentation (accounting for 74%), which means that their foreign language competence is not strong enough to perform their writing task. However, their recognition of the letter format or content is rather good despite very short time of learning (the number of students making errors of these types account for only around 20%). 3.3. Suggested approach to teaching business letter writing for English majors in Haiphong University Based on what has been reviewed and discussed on the current approaches to teaching English writing, the data collected through the survey questionnaire on the teaching and learning Business course in Haiphong University, and the error identification of the cover letters written by English majors, herein this part of the study some suggestions on an appropriate approach are suggested and served as a tool to hopefully enable the teaching of business letter writing to become more successful. Although in this study possible reviews and discussions regarding EFL writing approaches are taken into consideration no focus is given to most appropriate and effective approach (es) to teach writing business letters. The implications herein will certainly be of some suggestions and recommendations applicable in different ways in language teaching and learning, especially some useful techniques in teaching students to write appropriate business correspondence. 3.3.1. A summary of the limitations and differences Nunan (1992) clearly states how different the Process Approach is from the traditional Product Approach. Whereas the Product Approach focuses on writing tasks in which the learner imitates, copies and transforms teacher supplied models, the process approach focuses on the steps involved in creating a piece of work. The primary goal of product writing is an error-free coherent text. Process writing allows for the fact that no text can be perfect, but that a writer will get closer to perfection by producing, reflecting on, discussing and reworking successive drafts of a text. Process Approach shows some similarities with task-based learning, in that students are given considerable freedom within the task. They are not curbed by pre-emptive teaching of lexical or grammatical items. However, Process Approach does not repudiate all interest in the product, (i.e. the final draft). The aim is to achieve the best product possible. What differentiates a Process Approach from a Product one is that the outcome of the writing, the product, is not preconceived. Table 2 below shows the differences of the two approaches: Process writing Product writing text as a resource for comparison ideas as starting point more than one draft more global, focus on purpose, theme, text type, i.e., reader is emphasized collaborative emphasis on creative process imitate model text organization of ideas more important than ideas themselves one draft features highlighted including controlled practice of those features individual emphasis on end product Table 2: Differences of the two approaches 3.3.2. Suggestion: a combined Product-Process Approach By reviewing and comparing Product Approach, Process Approach and Genre Approach, weakness and strength of each approach are identified. As Raimes (1983:11) mentions that all of the approaches just mentioned do overlap and we will not seldom find a classroom where a teacher is so devoted to one approach as to exclude all others. Maybe an effective method for writing needs to incorporate the insights of Product, Process. However, the influence of first language on second language production is natural and unavoidable. Writing in a second language is also definitely affected by first language. That is why we should think of a way in which different languages and cultures can benefit from each other. The approach that can be employed in the lecture will depend on the teacher, and on the students, and the genre of the text. Certain genres lend themselves more favorably to one approach more than the other. Genres such as discursive essays and narrative may lend themselves to process-driven approaches, which focus on students' ideas. Discursive activities are suited to brainstorming and discussing ideas in groups, and the collaborative writing and exchanging of texts help the students to direct their writing to their reader, therefore making a more successful text. However, business letters such as cover letters, invitation letters, letter of resignation, for example, in which the features are very fixed, would be perhaps more suited to a product-driven approach, in which focus on the layout, style, organization and grammar could greatly help students in dealing with this type of writing task. Certainly in ESP work, the Process Approach, although extremely valuable in helping students organize and plan their writing, has failed to tackle the actual texts that students have to produce as part of their professional work. Indeed, most advocating process approach to the teaching of writing seem to regard the teaching of generalized strategies of planning, writing and revising as sufficient and the detailed analysis of the target texts as beyond the scope of the writing teacher (Raimes, 1983). Basing on that point of view, an idea of a feasible way that is much more acceptable than the old model-and-imitation approach used in early teaching of writing. It has also extended the focus on the reader to take the discourse community. There is a strong belief that it combines the strengths of both the product and the process approaches to the teaching of writing. The possible approach follows the stages below: - To develop students’ rhetorical awareness by showing them various model texts/ samples; - To practice specific genre features, especially moves and stance; - To carry out controlled writing tasks showing awareness of the discourse community and the purpose of the writing, - To evaluate the writing through error correction, peer review or reformulation. In the classroom, the teacher needs to highlight the situation as closely as possible and then provide students with sufficient supports to identify the purpose and other aspect of the social context. So students need to consider that their task writing is to get a job (purpose) and that their cover letters must appeal to a certain group of people namely personnel manager, interviewers, etc. (tenor), that the cover letters must include certain information (field) such as personal information, education background, work experience, and that there are ways in which the descriptions of personal information are presented. After that, language knowledge such as vocabulary, grammar, and organization should be provided to the students so that they can use them to formulate and use skills appropriate to the genre such as redrafting and proofreading, to produce a cover letter which is in response to the given Job Opportunity. PART C: CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS ______________________________________________________ 1. Recapitulation As stated previously in Part A of this study, the aim of this research is reviewing the current approaches to teaching EFL writing with focus on teaching and learning business correspondence writing; identifying some commonly made mistakes of English students in Haiphong University while learning to write business correspondence and finally giving suggestions for effectively teaching business correspondence writing in Haiphong University. Basically, in this study the above aims of the research have been studied through questionnaire and some major findings have been found. The current EFL writing approaches as Product Approach, Process Approach and Genre Approach were reviewed and their advantages and drawbacks were drawn out so that suitable writing techniques can be picked up and inappropriate ones can be avoided. Based on the above findings of the study, a combined product-process approach was suggested for a better way of teaching and learning business letter writing. Additionally, in this study students’ cover letters were analyzed and the following strengths and weaknesses were identified: 1. Strengths: they are fully aware of the content and organization of a cover letter. They know the readers and what they mean when they start to write. That is why the correct use of linguistic form shows what the producer means to say. At the same time they can follow the conventional organization of a cover letter. 2. Weaknesses: Most errors appear in those of language form such as spelling, grammar, punctuation, lexical choice, etc. Also, the analysis shows that students’ performance in letter presentation is rather poor focusing on paragraphing, spacing, margin setting, etc. As for error treatment, self-correction and peer correction are possible solutions although teacher correction is sometimes needed. Some kinds of exercises such as multiple choice, gap filling, matching will be given for students to do so that their errors in language could be reduced and improved. 2. Limitations and suggestion for further study Limitations are unavoidable in any research papers and this minor thesis is not exceptional. Despite great supports, assistance, suggestions and recommendations from my supervisor, colleagues, departments and university for the success and completion of my minor thesis, this study has some limitations in time and the researcher’s ability. The study can not analyze full ranges and factors of business letters as well as deep motivation of students for learning the Business English course. Furthermore, a combined approach was suggested but no teaching application has been carried out in the classroom to see whether it really works. On the other hand, up to now the materials adopted for teaching have not been officially approved. Thus, the researcher of this study suggests an experiment to apply the recommended combined approach to teaching business letters. Finally, though little it may seem to be, the study is expected to pay humble contribution to the effective learning Business letter writing of English majors in Haiphong University.