Introduction

1. Rationale of the study

Nowadays, foreign language especially English plays an important role in our lives. It is a

mean to communicate with every people in the world. It is also a tool to access to modern

technology. In fact, people are aware of the importance of English and they want to learn it for

different purposes like getting a job, business communication and so on. Therefore, the

teaching and learning of English have been placed in an important focus at all schools,

colleges and universities.

However, there have been great problems of qualification of teaching and learning English

that make universities and colleges pay attention to. As an English teacher, I may find that we

are limited in teaching methods, in selecting textbooks and materials and in designing

syllabuses.

A syllabus can be considered a useful instrument to help both teachers and learners in teaching

and learning processes. At present, many different kinds of English textbooks written by the

English- native authors are available in Vietnam. Their content and construction are good.

However, to some extent, they are not suitable for students’ specific conditions, or their

language competence, their aims or objectives, time allocation of the syllabuses and so on.

Teaching business letter is one part of teaching business communication. It is necessary for

students when they finish their study at their colleges and start working at foreign invested or

international Joint Venture firms. Textbooks for teaching writing business letters are available

in Vietnam but it is difficult to choose the most suitable one. Because they don’t meet the need

of time allocation, aims and objectives of the second year students of Tourism and Foreign

Language Faculty at Sao Do Industrial College (SIC).

From these reasons above, I have chosen my MA thesis “Designing an English Business letter

writing syllabus for the second year students of Tourism and Foreign Language Faculty at Sao

Do Industrial College”

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2. Aims of the study

The study aims at:

- Designing English Business letter writing syllabus to meet the demands of teaching

and learning writing business letters in a semester of 45 periods for the second year

students of Tourism and Foreign Language Faculty at Sao Do Industrial College.

- Giving some useful suggestions for effectively teaching business letter writing at SIC.

3. Scope of the study

The study is based on designing a writing business letter syllabus for the second year students

of Tourism and Foreign Language Faculty at Sao Do Industrial College. Other students at

other levels will not be suitable.

4. Research questions

This study is carried out to answer the following questions:

1. How to design a writing business letter syllabus for the second year students of Tourism and

Foreign Language Faculty at Sao Do Industrial College?

2. What are the main contents in business letter syllabus for the second year students of

Tourism and Foreign Language Faculty at Sao Do Industrial College?

5. Methods of collecting data

In order to carry out this study, data were collected by means of survey questionnaires and

then analyzed quantitatively; material analysis is also used in the process of selection of

materials for the intended syllabus.

Questionnaire 1 is used for the teachers of Tourism and Foreign Language Faculty at Sao Do

Industrial College to get information about their expectations of their students at the end of the

course, their ideas about topics, activities and correction techniques that should be included.

Questionnaire 2 is designed for students in order to get information about the students’ needs

and expectations of the writing business course, to identify useful and practical topics and

language exercises and activities for their course. They are 50 second - year students of

Tourism and Foreign Language Faculty at Sao Do Industrial College

6. Structure of the study

Apart from Introduction and Conclusion, this thesis includes 3 chapters:

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The Introduction provides basic information such as background, aims, research questions,

scope, methods and structure of the study.

The first chapter reviews the related literature on syllabus design, writing tasks and activities.

The second chapter analyzes the teaching and learning situations at Tourism and Foreign

Language Faculty of SIC and result of the survey.

The third chapter presents the content of the Business letter writing syllabus. A syllabus

focuses aims and objectives, content specification, suggested teaching methods and forms of

testing.

The Conclusion draws out the subject matter and suggestions for further research.

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Chapter I: Literature review

Language syllabus design is an area of applied linguistics which has been the focus of a

variety of efforts to apply to language teaching basing on the requirements of studying

language structure, language use and language acquisition. This chapter consists of three parts.

The first part provides a general review of the English for Specific Purposes (ESP). The

second part aims at providing the definitions of syllabus, an introduction to different

approaches to syllabus design, types of syllabus. And the third part of the chapter focuses on

revising theoretical backgrounds to writing and teaching writing activities.

1.1. An overview of ESP

ESP is a developing branch of EFL in Vietnam. So the design of an ESP syllabus that serves a

particular group’s interests and needs has becomes a matter of urgent concern among

Vietnamese ESP practitioners.

According to Hutchinson & Waters’ point of view, they clearly 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.” (Hutchinson & Water, 1987:19). The learners’ needs are considered the

most important factor in ESP. Brimful (1977:7) states that “ESP course is concerned with the

purposes for which learners need English, purposes for which are usually expressed in

functional terms”. In the same view, Munby (1978:2) maintains that ‘analysis of the

communicative needs of the learners’ should precede the syllabus design and materials

development’.

With the above mentioned views on ESP, it can be shown that we should pay more attention to

the ways in which learners acquire language rather than focus on the method of language

delivery.

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Also in Hutchinson & Waters’ opinion, ESP is divided into three divisions: English for

Science and Technology, English for Business and Economics, and English for Social Science

and then when coming to upper level, each branch 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).

Munby (1978:55) also shares the same view that ESP could be divided into two broad areas:

EOP ‘where the participant needs English to perform all or part of his occupational duties’ and

EAP ‘where the participant needs English to pursue part of his studies’.

At the SIC, EOP is taught for the students who need to use English as part of their work.

Writing Business Letters also is a subject related a lot to the career of students of Tourism and

Foreign Language Faculty. In short, we realize that ways of classifying ESP will help teachers

to make successfully a need analysis and design appropriate syllabus for their students.

1.2. An overview of syllabus design

1.2.1. Syllabus in language teaching

A language teaching syllabus involves the integration of subject matter (what to talk about)

and linguistic matter (how to talk about); that is, the actual matter that makes up teaching. The

choice of a syllabus is a major decision in language teaching and it should be made as

consciously and with as much information as possible.

To begin with, it seems of great importance to define the term syllabus in order to have a

better understanding of what it actually means and to which aspects and dimensions of ELT it

is related. Of course, it should be noted that there are many challenges to proper defining and

elaborating on the concept syllabus.  For example, in recent years, the focus of syllabuses has

shifted away from structure to situations, functions and notions to topics and tasks. That is

why, as Nunan (1988:52) highlights; with the development of the latter obviously "the

traditional distinction between syllabus design and methodology has become blurred".

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Accordingly, though it is a little difficult on initial appearance to describe syllabus, it seems

possible to make an attempt to define syllabus at least in an understandable way. In Wilkins'

(1981) words, syllabuses are "specifications of the content of language teaching which have

been submitted to some degree of structuring or ordering with the aim of making teaching and

learning a more effective process." A syllabus can also be seen as "a plan of what is to be

achieved through our teaching and our students' learning" (Breen, 1984) while its function is

"to specify what is to be taught and in what order" (Prabhu, 1984). Hutchinson and Waters

(1987:80) define syllabus as at its simplest level “as a statement of what is to be learnt”. They

further add that it reflects of language and linguistic performance. Yalden (1987: 87) also

refers to syllabus as a "summary of the content to which learners will be exposed". Candlin

(1984) suggests a different perspective implying that syllabuses are "social constructions,

produced interdependently in classrooms by teachers and learners…They are concerned with

the specification and planning of what is to be learned, frequently set down in some written

form as prescriptions for action by teachers and learners."

Finally, in simple words, a language teaching syllabus involves the combination of subject

matter (what to teach) and linguistic matter (how to teach). It actually performs as a guide for

both teacher and learner by providing some goals to be accomplished. Syllabus, in fact, deals

with linguistic theory and theories of language learning and how they are utilized in the

classroom.

After having understood what the term language “syllabus” refers to, the next step would be to

come to terms with what language “syllabus design” encompasses. According to Munby

(1984), syllabus design is seen as “a matter of specifying the content that needs to be taught

and then organizing it into a teaching syllabus of appropriate learning units.”

So it is clear that a syllabus is an important document in learning and teaching process.

Therefore, in order to use it appropriately, a syllabus designer needs to be aware of the

approaches in designing process.

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1.2.2. Approaches in designing syllabus

There are many different trends in syllabus but in my thesis I will focus on these two major

trends:

* Synthetic approach

According to Wilkin (1976:2), a synthetic language teaching strategy “is one in which

different parts of language are taught separately and by step so that acquisition is a process of

gradual accumulation of parts until the whole structure of language has been built up”. In his

opinion, the synthetic strategy tends to produce a structural syllabus that means when

designing syllabuses basing on this approach, the language is divided into discrete units.

Learners are presented at any one time only one item of language. And the teachers pay much

attention to knowledge of the language system rather than its use.

* Analytic approach

To contrast analytic approach with synthetic approach, Wilkin (1976:3) assumes analytic

syllabuses are those “organized in terms of the purposes for which people are learning

language and the kinds of language performance that are necessary to meet those purposes”.

So in analytic approach, the communicative purposes for which language is used are the major

points for syllabus design. Chunks of language that may include structures of varying degrees

of difficulties are expected to be presented with by learners of language. In other words,

learners are exposed to language that has not been linguistically graded.

In short, the starting point for syllabus design is not the grammatical system of the language,

but the communicative purposes for which language is used. Therefore, in this thesis I choose

analytic approach to design a writing business letter syllabus for second-year students of

Tourism and Foreign Language Faculty.

1.2.3. Types of syllabus

1.2.3.1. A structural or formal syllabus

This is recognized as the traditional syllabus which is often organized along grammatical lines

giving primacy to language form. The focus is on the outcomes or the product. It is, in fact, a

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grammatical syllabus in which the selection and grading of the content is on the basis of the

complexity and simplicity of grammatical items.  In other words, it specifies structural

patterns as the basic units of learning and organizes these according to such criteria as

structural complexity, difficulty, regularity, utility and frequency. The learner is expected to

master each structural step and add it to his/her grammar collection. It makes ample use of

highly controlled, tightly structured and sequenced pattern practice drills.

1.2.3.2. A situational syllabus

With this type of syllabus, the essential component of organization is a non-linguistic

category, i.e. the situation. The underlying premise is that language is related to the situational

contexts in which it occurs. The designer of a situational syllabus tries to predict those

situations in which the learner will find him/herself, and applies these situations, for instance;

seeing the dentist, going to the cinema and meeting a new student, as a basis for selecting and

presenting language content. The content of language teaching is a collection of real or

imaginary situations in which language occurs or is used. A situation usually includes several

participants who are involved in some activity in a particular setting. The language used in the

situation comprises a number of functions combined into a plausible part of available

discourse. The main principle of a situational language teaching syllabus is to teach the

language that occurs in the situations.

In this syllabus, situational needs are important rather than grammatical units. The major

organizing feature is a list of situations which reflects the way language and behavior are used

everyday outside the classroom. Thus, by connecting structural theory to situations the learner

is able to induce the meaning from a relevant context. One advantage of the situational

approach is that motivation will be heightened since it is "learner- rather than subject-

centered" (Wilkins.1976: 16).

1.2.3.3. A notional/functional syllabus

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The chief emphasis of this syllabus is upon the communicative purpose and conceptual

meaning of language i.e. notions and functions. In other words, the content of the language

teaching is a number of the functions that are performed on using the language, or of the

notions that language is utilized to express. Functions can be exemplified by instances such as

inviting, requesting, agreeing, apologizing; and notions embrace age, color, size, comparison,

time, etc. Besides, grammatical items and situational elements are considered at subsidiary

level of importance. As proposed to the hypothesis of structural and situational syllabuses

which lies in the fact that it is most often in search of ‘how’ or ‘when’ and ‘where’ of

language (Brumfit and Johnson, 1979:84), the functional/notional syllabus seeks for ‘what is a

learner communicates through language’.

An important point regarding notional-functional syllabus is that the needs of the students

have to be explored and analyzed by different types of interaction and communication a

learner may be involved in. Accordingly, needs analysis is central to the design of notional-

functional syllabuses. Needs analysis should be taken into account so as to establish the

necessary objectives. Apart from needs analysis that has an implicit focus on the learner, this

type of syllabus proposes a new list consisting of notions and functions that become the main

focus in a syllabus. White (1988:77) argues that "language functions do not usually occur in

isolation" and there are also difficulties of selecting and grading function and form.

1.2.3.4. A skill-based syllabus

Skills are abilities that people must be able to do to be competent enough in a language, rather

independently of the situation or context in which the language use can occur. In this syllabus,

the content of the language teaching involves a collection of particular skills that may play a

role in using language. Although situational syllabuses combine functions together into

specific settings of language use, skill-based syllabi merge linguistic competencies

(pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar, and discourse) together into generalized types of

behavior, such as listening to spoken language for the main idea, writing well-formed

paragraphs, delivering effective lectures, and so forth. The chief rationale behind skill-based

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instruction is to learn the specific language skill. Another less important objective might be to

develop more general competence in the language, learning only incidentally any information

that may be available while utilizing the language skills.

In conclusion, all syllabus types discussed here are being used in today’s language teaching.

However, the list is not meant the final or definitive set of categories. Each type of syllabus

has its own strong points and weak points as well. The choice depends on the aims and

objectives of the course. Therefore, in designing a syllabus it is better to combine the

advantages of each type in order to bring about positive results as it is believed that no type is

the best. The syllabus to be designed should be incorporated to match the contents which are

selected and organized logically and appropriately with the learners’ needs and the educational

settings in which the syllabus is used.

1.2.4. Steps in designing the syllabus

According to Nunan (1985: 7), in designing a syllabus, the most important step is analyzing

the learner’s needs. And Yalden (1983) also share the same idea. He also suggested 5

following steps in designing syllabus:

1. Needs analysis

2. Objectives and aims

3. Sequencing

4. Teaching method

5. Testing and evaluation

Discussing how to develop a syllabus, Taba (1962:422) points out that it is necessary to found

basic elements. In his point of view, any syllabus designers should follow 7 steps in designing

a syllabus. They are:

1. Need analysis

2. Formulation of objectives

3. Selection of content

4. Organization of content

5. Selection of learning activities

6. Organization of learning activities

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7. Decisions about what needs evaluating and how to evaluate

(Taba 1962, cited in Brimful, 1984)

From these above views, with its importance, analyzing the learner’s needs should be the point

of departure in the process of designing a syllabus. Thus, designing a syllabus often consists of

the following steps:

1. Needs analysis

2. Goals and objectives

3. Content selecting and grading

4. Suggested teaching methods

5. Evaluation and testing form

1.2.4.1. Needs analysis

* The importance of needs analysis

According to Nunan (1985), needs analysis is considered as the initial process for the

specification of behavioral objectives. Richards (1984:5) also points out the significance of

needs analysis as follows:

Needs analysis serves three main purposes: it provides a means of obtaining wider input into

the content, design and implementation of a language program; it can be used in developing

goals, objectives and content; and it can provide data for receiving and evaluating an existing

program.

Hutchinson and Water (1987:2) clearly state that in order to meet the various needs particular

learners, it is very important for designers to analyze their learners’ needs so as to design

appropriate course for them, to motivate them and to help them learn English faster and more

effectively.

*. Target needs

In Hutchinson’s point of view target need is defined as “what the learner needs to do in the

target situation”. In order to clarify target needs, he suggested that it is useful to consider the

target situation in the following items:

+ Necessities

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According to Hutchinson and Water (1987:55), necessities can be called the type of need

determined by the demands of the target situation, that is, what the learner has to know in

order to function effectively in the target situation. For example, a businessman might need to

understand business letters, to communicate effectively at sale conferences, to get the

necessary information from sales catalogues and so on. He will also need to know the

linguistic features such as discourse, functional, structural, and lexical which are commonly

used in the situations identified. This is the matter of observing what situations the learner will

need to function in and then analyzing the constituent parts of them.

+ Lacks

Beside to identify necessities we also need to know what the learner knows already, so we can

decide “which of the necessities the learner lacks”. One target situation necessity might be to

read texts in a particular subject area. Whether or not learners need instruction in doing this

will depend on how well they can do it already. The target proficiency in other words, needs to

be matched against the existing proficiency of the learners. The gap between the two can be

referred to as the learners’ lacks. (Hutchinson & Water, 1987: 56).

+ Wants

Hutchinson & Water (1987:56), stated that wants are what learners feel they need in order to

operate in a target situation and are also called “subjective needs”. Richterich (1984:29) shares

the same view: “… a need does not exist independent of a person. It is people who build their

images of their needs on the basic of data relating themselves and their environment.

However, learners’ views conflict with the perceptions of other interested parties: course

designers, sponsors and teachers. Therefore, the designer or teacher should be aware of the

different situation and takes account of them in materials and methodology.

*. Leaning needs

Learning needs is what the learners need to do in order to learn. To clarify what is meant by

“learning needs”, it is useful to look at the target situation. The target situation can determine

the destination; it can also act as a compass on the journey to give general direction, but we

must choose our route according to the vehicles and existing roads within the learners’ mind

(i.e. their knowledge, skills and strategies) and the learners’ motivation for traveling.

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For this reason, while designing syllabus we may wish to restrict the syllabus depending upon

our students’ needs.

1.2.5. Goals and objectives

According to Graves (1996), goals are general statements or the final destination, the level

students will need to achieve. Objectives express certain ways of achieving the goals.

As Brown (1995:71) explains, goals are general statement concerning desirable and attainable

program purposes and aims based on perceived language and situation needs. And he defines

objectives as specific statements that describe the particular knowledge, behavior, and skills

that the learner will be expected to know at the end of a course.

In short, clear understanding of goals and objectives will help teachers to be sure what

material to teach, and when and how it should be taught.

1.2.6. Content selecting and grading

Shaw (1976) states the steps in selecting content must be considered these questions:

- how much can we teach and how much can be learnt by the learners in question; and

- which items should be included.

After choosing an appropriate content for the syllabus, it is certain that we must present and

organize it properly. Therefore, the content matter should be organized in such a way so as to

facilitate teaching and learning.

1.2.7. Suggested teaching methods

In addition to the content, teaching method is also of crucial importance. The aim of the course

is to develop linguistic skills relating to particular procedures and activities. The syllabus for

writing business letter is aimed at developing writing business letter. This means that teacher

doesn’t have to teach students how to write a business letter but also provide general

knowledge about the form and ways of writing all kind of letters in business communications.

1.2.8. Evaluation and testing form

This is the last but not the least stage. Teachers should evaluate their courses to improve their

effectiveness. Evaluation can be done in two ways: implicitly and explicitly. Implicit

evaluation takes place during the semester, when the learners, by the grades, participation, and

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motivation, give clues to the teacher on how their learning is going on. Explicit evaluation

may take place at the end of the course.

1.3. Teaching writing business letters

2.4.1. Definitions of writing

Writing is one way of communication. Through the mastery of writing, people can work

effective in intellectual organization, in the management of everyday affairs, in the expression

of ideas and argument. By writing people can have control of both information and of people

as well.

From The World's Writing Systems, Peter T. Daniels defines writing as: “a set of visible or

tactile signs used to represent units of language in a systematic way, with the purpose of

recording messages which can be retrieved by everyone who knows the language in question

and the rules by virtue of which its units are encoded in the writing system.”

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).

2.4.2. Writing tasks and activities

Writing is an essential skill in our everyday lives and that makes it a really important aspect of

our teaching too. Students need to know how to take notes as well as how to write essays and

letters, which makes this basic skill as important as speaking or listening.

Writing skills are important because they are a good way to reinforce what a student has

learned as they will benefit from seeing new vocabulary in written form.

Speaking and listening are natural, though, and as such they do not strictly need to be learned.

For example, if an English person moves to France, they will eventually learn to speak French

just from being around native French speakers. They will, however, struggle to write in

French. Consequently, writing can be frustrating and disliked. When we speak, we do not

really think about the grammatical correctness or the mechanics of what we are saying.

Everything flows as speech happens rather quickly; we do not repeat our speech to check for

mistakes or the appropriateness of what we are saying. Writing, on the other hand, does not

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flow smoothly. We write a few lines, re-read them, edit what we’ve written if necessary, and

then carry on the process – we are constantly checking for correctness.

For these reasons we need to make writing an enjoyable activity that our students will not

want to avoid. We need to encourage students, initially at least, to write without worrying

about the correctness of everything they put to paper – get them to generate ideas and then edit

their written English afterwards. It is also important to be involved every step of the way as

leaving your students to produce a written piece of work with little help can be a rather

daunting prospect for them. Furthermore, to help our students become self-sufficient writers,

rather than marking a student’s work in red pen and handing it back to them it is much better

to meet every individual student to discuss the strong and weak points of their work.

According to Doff (1995, p.150-152), writing activities include controlled writing activities

and free writing activities.

Controlled writing activities based on some activities such as gap-filling, re-ordering

words, substitution, correcting the facts and dictation. Free writing activities include paragraph

writing, letter writing and essay-writing. However, there are some problems in free writing:

When facing a free writing such as writing a paragraph to describe their own town or village,

many students would probably find it quite difficult and make many mistakes. If so they

would find the task frustrating and probably not learn very much from it. Students would

probably approach the task in different way and produce a wide variety of different

paragraphs.

2.4.3. Teaching business letters

Business Letters in English are formal paper communications between, to or from businesses

and usually sent through the Post Office or sometimes by courier. Business letters are

sometimes called "snail-mail" (in contrast to email which is faster). It includes: letter, memo,

fax or email. Most people who have an occupation have to write business letters. There are

many reasons why you may need to write business letters or other correspondence: to persuade

to inform, to request, to express thanks, to remind, to recommend, to apologize, to

congratulate, to reject a proposal or offer, to introduce a person or policy, to invite or

welcome, to follow up or to formalize decisions.

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There are many modern communication ways 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.

Development in technology has made it possible to have instant communication all over the

world. Speed is now becoming the key to successful business communications. As a result of

fax messages, e-mails 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.

The genre of business correspondence includes business letters like complaint letters,

invitation letters, job application letters, enquiry and reply letters and some other business

letters. All of them have one purpose- i.e. to doing business. As defined by Martin (1993:36),

genres can be identified by their overall shape and genesis 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.

Business letters must confirm a number of linguistic features of the genre. They must be of

standard written language, which means correct use of grammar, spelling, vocabulary usage,

and conventions of capitalization and punctuation. Business letters are common means of

communication between companies. They are documents typically sent externally to those

outside a company but it is also sent internally to those within a company.

Besides, in the business letters, the language must be appropriately used with formal, concise

language and impersonal and informal language must be minimized.

Raimes (1993) 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. 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 letter,

write a letter of invitation, letter of enquiry or reply and so on.

2.5. Summary

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In this chapter, I have reviewed different approaches to syllabus design with an attempt to

identify the most suitable for this study such as skilled-based syllabus. In the next chapter, the

teaching and learning at Tourism and Foreign Language Faculty will be analyzed and then a

writing business letter syllabus will be proposed.

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Chapter 2: The study

According to Nunan (1988) and Yalden (1983), needs analysis is the starting point in syllabus

design. This chapter presents the result of the need analysis as the foundation for designing

business letter writing syllabus for the second year students of Tourism and Foreign Faculty at

SIC.

Theoretically, in designing syllabus process, the course designers need to consider a number

of factors such as the needs, the learners’ background, the teachers, resources and

administrative constraints. In order to identify learners’ needs, two questionnaires were

designed for the second year students and teachers of Tourism and Foreign Faculty at SIC.

Before the findings of the study are presented, some brief information of teaching and learning

English process of Tourism and Foreign Faculty at SIC is provided.

2.1. Situational analysis

2.1.1. Teachers in Tourism and Foreign Language Faculty at SIC

Tourism and Foreign Language Faculty of SIC now has got 15 English teachers aged from 25

to 45. Six of them are working toward an M.A degree and the rest hold a B.A degree in

English language teaching. Five of them have been completed the short-term English for

Tourism course. So they also have some experiences in choosing appropriate subjects for the

course of Tourism. However, The Tourism and Foreign Language Faculty has newly founded

for 3 years. Most of teachers in the faculty have to face with many difficulties in choosing

materials in teaching English process especially the subjects related to their branch.

2.1.2. The second year students of Tourism and Foreign Language Faculty at SIC

These students are young, aged from 19 to 22; most of them are female so they usually work

hard. Their level of English is rather good. They have been trained from the elementary to the

upper intermediate in English in the first three terms. From the second term of the course they

have already learned English for tourism so they also have the basic knowledge of English and

tourism. Moreover, in the two first terms, students have been trained and practiced with four

skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing. But in the second year, they haven’t got any

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practical writing subjects so they meet many difficulties in writing and teachers can not cover

all the mistakes in their learning processes.

2.2. The subjects

The subjects of the study were 5 teachers of the Tourism and Foreign Language Faculty who

are in charge of teaching English for Tourism and 50 second- year students of Tourism and

Foreign Language Faculty who have finished the first three terms from the elementary English

to the upper intermediate English and now are developing with tourism branch.

2.3. Instrument for collecting data

In my thesis, I use questionnaires as a main tool for collecting information about learners’

needs. This method gives me the high frequency and overlapping responses from a large

number of people. My questionnaires are conducted to both the teachers and the students of

Tourism and Foreign Language Faculty.

Questionnaire 1 includes 7 questions used for teachers with three main points:

- It helps us know the objectives to be achieved at the end of the course

- It is about the necessary topics and activities and the techniques as well in the syllabus.

Questionnaire 2 was designed for the students and it has the same points with questionnaire 1

2.4. The findings

2.4.1. Analysis from the teacher survey

Section 1: Teachers’ ideas on the role of writing business letter for students and

expectations at the end of the course at SIC.

The aim of this section is to find out the role of teaching writing business letters for students

and the teachers’ expectation at the end of the course. There are 2 questions in this section.

The first is for the role of teaching writing and the second for expectations from teachers. So

when asked about the role of teaching writing business letter for students, most of teachers

(100%) answer that teaching writing business letters plays a very important role for students

after they graduate from their college.

The number of responses for expectations of teachers is presented in the table 1. (p.21). Table

1. (p.21) shows that the highest percentage of 60% of the teachers consider item 3 and 6 are

very necessary. The results indicate that the teachers would like to emphasize on helping the

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students to understand how to write particular business letters and consolidate structures and

lexical items commonly used in business letters. The rest items occupy 40%. It means that

items 1, 2, 4, 5 are also necessary for the course.

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Table 1. Expectations of teachers at the end of the course

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Section 2: Topics relating business letter as perceived by the teachers

This section aims at finding the relevant topics for writing business letters which should be

included in the syllabus. Thirteen topics have been identified and the teachers were asked to

rank the topics in terms of their relevance. The number and percentage of people responding to

each item is shown in Table 2(p. 23). The data from the Table 2 shows that the teachers’

opinions of relevant items which have the highest percentage are item 2,3,4,7,8,9,10,12, and

13. This proves that these topics are relevant to be included in the syllabus. The rest items (1,

5, 6 and 11) which receive the low percentage indicate that these items are not necessary in the

course.

Section 3: Classroom activities and correction techniques should be included in the syllabus

as perceived by the teachers

This section is intended to find out teachers’ ranking of classroom activities and correction

techniques. The teachers were asked to rank from the activities according to their effectiveness

in the course. The number and percentage of people responding to each item is shown in Table

3(p.24).

The Table 3(p.24) shows that 80% of teachers agree that items 1,2, 3, 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 and 9 are

very effective activities in the course but the item 4 and 10 are not effective so it should not be

concentrated in this syllabus. And most of teacher state that correction techniques in the class

such as self-correction with teacher’s assistance (60%), peer-correction (80%) and teacher

correction (80%) are effective activities in the course.

Section 4: Time allocation for the course as perceived by the teachers

The purpose of this section is to find out the suitable time for the course. 100% of teachers

were asked to choose the appropriate time for the course agree that 45 periods are suitable for

the whole course. This meant that there will be 2 lessons per week and each lesson will last 45

minutes. This time is appropriate for students to practice and prepare for the next lesson.

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Table 2. Teachers’ opinion of topics relating English business letters

23

Table 3. Teachers’ ranking of classroom activities and correction techniques

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2.4.2. Analysis from the students survey

Section 1: Expectations of students at the end of the course at SIC.

This section is intended to find out the expectations of students needed to be achieved at the

end of the course. The number and percentage of people respond is shown in the Table

4(p.26). In this table, the highest percentage 94% (sum of very necessary and necessary) of

students’ expectation needed at the end of the course is to consolidate structures and lexical

items commonly used in business letter and 92% agree that it is important to understand how

to write particular business letters. Then the item 1 and 4 with 90% of students consider that to

get general format of business letters and have outlines and detailed contents of particular

business letters is very necessary for the course. The item 6 is also paid attention to with 88%

of students’ expectation. The item 2 which has lower percentage (54%) meant that to build up

terms using in English business correspondence should not be centred in the syllabus.

Section 2: Topics relating business letter as perceived by the students

This section aims at finding the relevant topics for writing business letters which should be

included in the syllabus. There are l3 topics which were given for students to rank their

relevance. The number and percentage of people responding to each item is shown in Table

5(p.27). The data from the Table 4.2 shows that the most relevant items which have the

highest percentage are item 2,3,4,7,8,9,10,12, and 13. This proves that these topics are relevant

to be included in the syllabus. The rest items (1, 5, 6 and 11) which receive the low percentage

indicate that these items are in appropriate for the course.

Section 3: Classroom activities and correction techniques should be included in the syllabus

as perceived by the students

The purpose of this section is to find out students’ ranking of classroom activities and

correction techniques. 10 classroom activities and 3 correction techniques have been pointed

out to ask students to rank their effectiveness in the course. The Table 6 (p.28) shows that

most of students agree that items 1,2, 3, 5 , 6 , 7 , and 8 are very effective activities in the

course but the item 4, 9, and 10 are not effective so it should not be concentrated in this

syllabus. And all correction techniques 11,12,13 which have high percentage in the table also

indicated that these are effective activities.

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Table 4. Expectations of students needed to be achieved at the end of the course

26

Table 5. Students’ opinion of topics relating English business letters

27

Table 6. Students’ ranking of classroom activities and correction techniques

28

In short, the author has analyzed the results of the survey of target needs perceived by both

teachers and second-year students of Tourism and Foreign Language Faculty. It appears that in

general all of them share the same expectations of the writing business letter course. They all

agree that after finishing this course, students can understand how to write particular business

letters and get general format of each business letter. In terms of the topics needed for the

syllabus, they share the same positive views on a number of items such as 2,3,4,7,8,9,10,12

and 13. Because both teachers and students realize that with 45 periods, they can have basic

knowledge of business letters in the syllabus. But there is a confliction between teachers and

students about classroom activities. Teachers would like their students to practice writing and

do homework and assignment but their students do not like that.

2.5. Summary

This chapter has discussed needs analysis perceived by teachers and the second-year students

of Tourism and Foreign Language Faculty at SIC. The information about learners’ needs has

been gathered through a survey questionnaires administered to both teachers and students. The

results of the survey have been analyzed and conclusion about learners’ needs have been

drawn out from each section. The need analysis provides the basic for designing an

appropriate syllabus for the second-year students of Tourism and Foreign Language Faculty at

SIC in Chapter 3.

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Chapter 3: Syllabus design for business letters writing

In this chapter, basing on the result of analyzing data from the survey, a proposed writing

business syllabus for the second year students of the Tourism and Foreign Language Faculty at

SIC is introduced. This chapter focuses on the aims and objectives of the syllabus, main topics

and activities included in the syllabus and some suggestions for the teaching methods.

3.1. Aims and objectives of the syllabus

It is the fact that students of Tourism and Foreign Language Faculty at SIC have not practiced

much in writing so this syllabus aimed to drill writing skills especially in business letters

writing. Moreover, basing on the fact and the requirement of students after they finish their

training programs, the syllabus focuses on these points:

- to provide students with the basic forms of business correspondence

- to help students read and write other forms of letters

- to drill writing skills especially writing business letters

Objectives of the syllabus also illustrated through the aims of the syllabus. Basing on the

analysis of the requirements and results, at the end of this course, students will be able to:

- To read and understand written English materials relating to general correspondence

- To write all kinds of letters in business situations

- To consolidate their writing skill

In addition, since the appropriate objectives should be included in each unit to help the teacher

to find suitable teaching methods and remind them of the goals they have reached at the end of

each unit.

3.2. Content of the syllabus

3.2.1. Topics in syllabus

As a result of analyzing the learners’ need, I would like to suggest these topics in the syllabus:

- Letter of apology

- Letter of appreciation

- Letter of complaints

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- Letter of invitation

- Letter of enquiry

- Letter of reply

- Letter of acceptance

- Letter of refusal

- Goodwill letters

- Letter for travel and hotel

- Employment related letters

3.2.2. Writing tasks and activities in the syllabus

Basing on the specified objectives of the course and the results of the survey, the following

writing tasks and activities should be included in the syllabus:

- imitating models or samples

- doing controlled practice

- individual work

- peer review

- feedback from teacher

- self-correction with teacher’s assistance

- peer-correction

- teacher correction

3.2.3. Time allocation of syllabus

The syllabus is meant for one semester and for the second-year students of Tourism and

Foreign Faculty at the SIC. The semester contains 15 weeks. The students have one English

lessons per week and each lesson lasts for 45 minutes.

3.2.4. The organization of syllabus

The syllabus is presented in themes, each theme consists of:

- a sample letter

- writing techniques for the letter

- useful words and structures using in the letter

- activities for practice

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Each unit begins with some example letters; students read and find out the form for the letter

from the examples. Then the unit provides writing techniques and some useful words for

writing that letter. After that, students must do some exercises to practice their writing skill

such as: gap-filling, completing a letter with the given words, writing a letter in specific

situations, etc.

3.2.5. Proposed writing business letters syllabus for the second year students of

Tourism and Foreign Language Faculty at SIC.

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Table 7. The proposed writing business letter syllabus for the second year students of

Tourism and Foreign Language Faculty at SIC

33

Table 7. The proposed writing business letter syllabus for the second year students of

Tourism and Foreign Language Faculty at SIC

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3.2.5. Designing a sample of a unit

Unit 5:

Letter of complaints

* Objective of the unit:

- to provide words or expressions in writing letter of complaints

- to help students to write a letter of complaints

* Content of the unit:

I. Introduction

1. Examples of complaints letter

2. Exercises: Find out the form of the complaint letters and words or expressions used in

complaint letter.

II. Writing techniques for complaints letter

1. Guidelines for writing complaints letter

2. Useful words and expressions

III. Practice

1. Write a complaint letter for the situations

2. Fill in the gaps in this letter

3. Complete the complaint letter with the given words

3.3. Teaching suggestions

In this study, in order to achieve the course objectives of the designed writing business letter

syllabus, some useful techniques for teaching writing will be presented as follows:

- Teachers must access how much time that they will give the students for a writing task by

examine what writers actually do when they write

- Teacher must know how to deal with the errors made by their students for example teachers

can discuss with their students’ errors and give the time and opportunity for them to correct

their mistakes.

3.4. Assessment

Assessment s a process of measuring, and the one formal method is to test. So it is a crucial

process that the teacher needs to conduct at the end of the course. Without assessing the

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teacher and the syllabus designer cannot estimate how much the objectives of the syllabus

have been achieved successfully. So it is necessary to access learner’s performance by testing.

3.4.1. Forms of testing

Because this is the writing course so the test must be taken in the form of writing. The teacher

should use these types of exercise to test their students:

- write a letter following the situations

- complete a letter by filling in the gap or using the given words

3.4.2. A sample test

I. Complete a letter using the given words:

(from Private secretary to Managing director)

Dear Mrs Jenkinson

I / interested / see / your advertisement / Today’s Daily Telegraph / would like / be /

considered / this post.

In my present post / private secretary / manufacturing company / I / have / responsibilities /

these / include / attend / take / minutes / meetings / and / interview / deal with callers /

correspondence / my / employer’s absence / supervise junior staff / as well as / usual /

secretarial duties.

II. Fill in the gap in the letter below using the given words:

sent arrange discuss

price list terms

Dear Mrs. King

Thank you for your enquiry for samples and a pattern – card of our floors coverings.

We have today ………….. to you by rail a range of samples, specially selected for their hard-

wearing qualities, but regret we have no pattern-card we can send you.

For the purpose you mention, we recommend quality numbers 5, which is specially suitable

for rough and uneven surfaces.

We encourage you to test the samples provided. Once you have done this, if you feel it would

help to …………… the matter, we will ……………for our technical representative to call you

for an appointment.

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In the meantime, our ………….. is enclosed which also shows details of our conditions and

…………….. of trading. We hope these will be of use when you wish to place an order.

Yours sincerely

III. Choose one of topics and write a letter:

1. You have just heard of the death of your dear friend’s father. Write a condolence letter to

him/her.

2. You have just graduated from foreign and tourism department of a college. Write an

application letter to a tourist company for the post of a tourist guide.

3. You want to take part in an English club. Write a letter requiring all information needed to

be a participant of that club.

4.5. Summary

I have introduced the proposed writing business letter syllabus. It includes parts: situations

analysis, aims and objectives of the course, the content selected, teaching methods and ways

of assessment. In the first part, teaching and learning English of the second-year students of

Tourism and Foreign Faculty at SIC is analyzed in details. Basing on these analyses, the aims

and objectives of the course is formed in order to set the content of the syllabus. The sample of

the unit is introduced and there are some suggested methods in teaching and assessing.

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Conclusion

The purpose of this minor thesis is to propose a relevant writing business letter syllabus for the

second-year students of Tourism and Foreign Language Faculty at Sao Do Industrial College

basing on the result of the analysis of their needs.

First of all, I would like to summarize all the previous chapters and offer some remarks. In the

introduction, I have presented the reason for carrying out this thesis. It is to design an

appropriate writing business letter syllabus for the second-year students of Tourism and

Foreign Language Faculty at SIC

In the first chapter, the literature reviews on ESP and current approaches of language syllabus

design. Different types of syllabuses are discussed and skill- based approach is the main one to

develop the writing syllabus. Moreover, the literature reviews on teaching writing activities

especially in teaching business letters.

My thesis continued with the chapter two. In this chapter, I analyzed the real situations at SIC

with the testing results from teachers and students. After collecting information and analyzed

the results, a proposed writing business letter syllabus is presented in the chapter three with the

aims and objectives, its content, allocation time, organization…And in this chapter, there are

some suggested teaching methods and ways of assessment with a sample test for the writing

business letter course.

Like the other research thesis, this study can not avoid limitations. First, there was a limitation

regarding the data collection of the study because among this population, some are very

enthusiastic and interest in the questionnaires but some are reluctant to do the survey they

affect to the final result. Secondly, due to the limitation of time, this syllabus only focuses on

developing writing business letter skill not other writing activities. This calls for further

research on designing a syllabus of developing writing essays.

Finally, I hope that my thesis will pay a contribution to the syllabus design process at SIC.

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