Strategies for teaching business report writing to language students at thang long university

part one Introduction Rationale Writing business reports is one of the fundamental business writing skills. Business reports here are understood as "documents that present information on a specific topic for a specific business purpose" (Boone, 1996: 308). Nearly all business activities involve writing business reports, from analyzing the status of projects, summarizing business trips, to investigating an arising problem or suggesting a change in an organization. Writing reports sometimes becomes professional services which are provided for a fee. The job of market research companies, for example, is to write reports on the results from their researches on consumers' demands for a particular product or service. Writing effective reports is an essential skill for office workers and should be taken into consideration in language education in colleges, especially for language students who are likely to be office staff after graduation. The teaching of business reports in English is a part of courses of English for business communication, a branch of English for Specific Purposes. English-major students, however, have to face a number of problems when studying English as a means of business communication. First, most of the students are not familiar with business knowledge. Most of them have never taken part in any business activities so far. Business courses, if any, provide just general theories of economics. Second, the materials used for the courses are not usually tailored for language students to learn to write business reports in English intensively. In Vietnam, some intensive courses of English for Business Communication have to use materials for low-intensive courses and/or those written for English native speakers to study business communication with English as the first language. Those materials can neither provide a thorough understanding of the subject nor anticipate the lack of language competence of foreign language learners. The knowledge of writing business reports in English is considered a need for English-major students who will soon graduate and might have to use the knowledge in working life. However, as a newly established non-state university, Thang Long has a remarkable number of problems in dealing with the matter. Firstly, the university staff, most of which are little informed teachers of English, has to begin designing the syllabus from nothing but references from several similar available ones. As for the courses of English for Business Communication, it is hard to find a relevant syllabus so the staff has chosen to rely on a textbook written for improving business communication skill for native speakers. Besides, as language-major students, students with English major find it really difficult to deal with business issues, let alone writing reports on the subject. With those difficulties, the teaching of English for business communication in general and writing business reports in English in particular is really a challenge. What the teacher can do now is to develop effective teaching strategies that help students understand the subject knowledge presented in the textbook, design useful exercises for practicing both language aspects and writing skills and avoid making errors in writing business reports. The study, therefore, is proposed to find out those necessary teaching strategies for the section of teaching how to write business reports in the course of English for Business Communication 3 at Thang Long University. Purposes of the study The research questions are: What do language students need in learning to write business reports in English? What are the difficulties for language students in learning to write business reports in English? What are common errors made by students in writing business reports in English? What are effective strategies for teaching writing business reports in English? From all of these, it is understood that the study aims at finding out effective and appropriate teaching strategies to achieve more satisfying results for the course. The satisfying results can be understood as students' ability to convey factual information efficiently and cohesively. Written texts must also lead to insightful and frequently profitable solutions. It is required that business report writers address specific audience and pay attention to appropriate format and design issues so that a finished document can be closely read or efficiently skimmed. Evaluation criteria should include attention to students' address of assignment, use of persuasive insights, consistent address of target audience, and ability to create effective summaries, headings, subheadings, lists and short paragraphs. Lastly, reports must be expressed in accurate, appropriate and effective sentence structures, lexical items, orthography and styles. It is surprising that although business reports in English are used frequently in most foreign offices in Vietnam, there have not been many studies on this aspect of business writing or business communication. This study attempts not only to look into the existing methodologies but also to find out distinctive features of the teaching context at Thang Long University and language students to apply these methodologies appropriately. Scope of the study The study focuses on the teaching process of the section of writing business reports in the course English for Business Communication 3 at Thang Long University. It tries to suggest effective teaching strategies that can be used in the course. A strategy can be understood as "a carefully devised plan of action to achieve a goal, or the art of developing or carrying out such a plan" (Encarta Reference Library 2004). Teaching strategies, therefore, can be understood as plans of action in order to achieve a goal in teaching. In this language content-based course, the language teacher also plays the role of an instructor who teaches skills. The strategies, therefore, are for teaching both language and skills. The subjects of the study are language students who major in English, not students with business major. The study does not deal with other kinds of reports apart from business reports used in business activities, i.e. activities performed in organizations operating in order to provide goods or services. English is used in these activities to facilitate communication involving people speaking English as the first, second or foreign language. The study only tries to find out teaching strategies to help students learn how to write business reports with the aspects including language, research methods, visual aid design, writing process and organizational structure. It does not try to suggest the needed changes of other aspects of the course and curriculum designs, such as time allotted for the course, facility settings, class size, and student assessment. Methodology The paper will present a review from published materials in the related fields. Also, a needs analysis will be conducted among the existing students of English major in order to find out whether language students at Thang Long University consider teaching report writing useful and find out the prepared teaching methods, their expectations from, their difficulties in and their recommendations for the course. Lastly, an error analysis of students' writing samples is used to identify the common errors made by the students in writing business reports in English. Books, articles and Internet resources on English for Business Purposes, teaching English writing and business reports are collected to examine the history of the fields and to provide available suggestions in the practice of teaching business report writing. Next, the needs analysis is conducted through a questionnaire survey of students who are taking the course of English for Business Communication 3 at Thang Long University. The analysis of errors in writing samples is used in order to find out common errors students often make when writing business reports in English. This can help the teacher anticipate problems in the existing course and look for proper ways to deal with these common errors and solve those problems. The analysis also helps find out the strengths and drawbacks of the course, which may result in appropriate adjustments in the course contents as well as the teaching techniques of the teacher. The primary data combine both qualitative and quantitative methods with both open and closed questions in the questionnaire designed for the needs analysis, and the error analysis in texts written by students. Contents of the study The study includes four chapters, Chapter 1 presents a review on literature, Chapter 2 deals with the research description, Chapter 3 shows the interpretation of data analyses, and implications for teaching how to write business reports in English for English-major students are recommended in Chapter 4. In Chapter 1, the trends and approaches of English for Specific Purposes are examined and later narrowed down to English for Business Purposes. Also, the chapter will trace down the approaches of teaching writing as well as analyze writing tasks and activities in a classroom. Lastly, the chapter presents features of business reports as a genre with analysis on its classification, rhetorical patterns, linguistic features and the writing process. Chapter 2 describes the study of needs analysis and the error analysis of the students' writing samples. In Chapter 3, the data of the two researches are analyzed to draw useful conclusions and implications. Firstly, the needs analysis questionnaire responses are put together and evaluated. The results will review the students' needs on the course content, methodologies, and their recommendations. Secondly, the results of the error analysis are presented to see the weakness of students' writing skills. Based on the review of literature and the data analysis in the Chapter 1 and 3, Chapter 4 will present key points of the studies: implications for teaching to write business reports. The chapter will follow the teaching process from presenting the knowledge in the content-based course including analyzing sample reports, giving practice exercises, and managing errors in these writing exercises. Part two The Study CHAPTER I Literature Review I.1. ENGLISH FOR BUSINESS PURPOSES (EBP) IN AN ENGLISH FOR SPECIFIC PURPOSES (ESP) CONTEXT I.1.1. DEFINITIONS OF ESP Despite appearing first in as far as the 1960s, ESP has not had an agreed-upon definition so far. Hutchinson and Waters (1987: 19) emphasized, "ESP should probably be seen not as any particular language product but as an approach to language teaching which is directed by specific and apparent reasons for learning." English language teaching with ESP approach, therefore, becomes more targeted to the learner's needs and creates more motivation to the learner. Dudley-Evans and St John (1998: 4-5) have modified a definition of ESP by Strevens' into one including absolute and variable characteristics as follows: Absolute characteristics: ESP is defined to meet specific needs of the learner; ESP makes use of the underlying methodology and activities of the discipline it serves; ESP is centered on the language (grammar, lexis, register), skills, discourse and genres appropriate to these activities. Variable Characteristics ESP may be related to or designed for specific discipline; ESP may use, in specific teaching situation, a different methodology from that of General English; ESP is likely to be designed for adult learners, either at a tertiary level institution or in a professional work situation. It could, however, be for learners at secondary school level; ESP is generally designed for intermediate or advanced students; Most ESP courses assume some basic knowledge of the language system, but it can be used with beginners. (Dudley-Evans and St John, 1998: 4-5) With these two views, it can be concluded that ESP is closely related with the needs of language learners in their use of English in their fields of professions or studies. Also, ESP includes a number of variations that can be flexibly adjusted to fit the various needs of learners. I.1.2. CLASSIFICATIONS OF ESP Hutchinson and Waters (1987: 17) and Dudley-Evans and St John (1998: 6) build similar trees for different divisions of ESP in which ESP is divided into such branches as English for Science and Technology (EST), English for Business and Economics (EBE), and English for Social Sciences (ESS), and further to English for Academic Purposes (EAP) and English for Occupational Purposes (EOP) or Business Purposes (EBP) from English for Management, Finance and Economics, and English for Business and Economics (EBE). Dudley-Evans and St John, on the other hand, suggested the use of a continuum with degrees of specificity, in which the higher the level is, the more specific the course becomes, accompanying with the levels of English. Martin (1992: 40) also gave a thorough description of several degrees of specificity, from more specific courses to more general courses, and no restrictions on the language levels, as presented in Figure I-1. The use of degrees of speficity of ESP course helps clarify English courses. Courses in type V will not be considered ESP courses due to the far too indirect link to the professional areas. On the other hand, type I courses are the most specific courses and can be applied to learners with clear professional target. Degrees of specificity Targets Objectives Text-types Type I very specifiable / predictable / routine narrow skills (content secondary) specific, routine Type II specifiable / predictable in term of types skill and some content can be identified as genres, routine and non-routine Type III half specifiable, half unpredictable content and skill balanced a wide range of definable types Type IV primarily not predictable, but with some important specifiable elements content-focused skill-subordinate wide range of variable, unpredictable Type V very few specifiable or predictable both skills and content wide range, unpredictable Source: Adapted from Martin, 1992: 40. Figure I-1: The Five Degrees of Specificity of ESP courses In conclusion, the use the tree systems can be used in defining the branches of ESP and different disciplines that English can be used in, while the continuum can be seen as an effective tool in defining the courses of ESP in practice and in deciding the elements of those courses. Both the tree system and the continuum are relevant in classifying EBP courses in the teaching context of the study. I.1.3. TRENDS AND APPROACHES IN ESP Nelson (2000) worked out an overview of the different ideas on the different trends or approaches of ESP. ESP has experienced a number of phases: register analysis, rhetorical and discourse analysis, needs analysis, skills and strategies, and learning-centered approach. These phases will be presented in the chronological order. However, because ESP develops at different paces in different countries in the world and what is old in one situation may still be appropriate and useful in another context, all the above trends can be seen in practice (Hutchinson, 1987: 9). I.1.3.1. Register Analysis Register analysis is the special language that is considered suitable for a specific situation. For example, the English used in computer science must be different from that in psychology. Swales (1988, as cited by Dudley-Evans and St John 1988:21) assumes that while the basic grammar is not different in different circumstances, certain forms of grammatical and lexical forms occur more frequently than other forms in one circumstance and than the same forms in other circumstances. The concept of register or a special language has been applied in language teaching in that some registers are emphasized in the materials and syllabuses of language courses. The analysis of those registers has been considered to be of little value as it is not a reliable basis for ESP courses to just focus on simply teaching the linguistic elements that are special in the context. However, with new computerized methods, for example, the development corpus analysis, register analysis is now coming back. I.1.3.2. Rhetorical or Discourse Analysis The next stage of development in ESP accompanies the development of field discourse analysis. Discourse analysis examines language in a higher level than the sentential level in register analysis, the text. The key factor of discourse analysis is the rhetorical patterns and the linking devices in a text. The ESP textbooks written based on discourse analysis concentrate on the rhetorical functions of different forms of language and the coherence and cohesion of the text. The later phase of discourse analysis is genre analysis. According to Swales (1990: 58) as cited by Nelson (2000), "genre comprises a class of communicative events, the members of which share some set of communicative purposes." In fact, genre analysis adds cultural and social settings into discourse analysis. I.1.3.3. Needs Analysis Needs analysis is neither special to language teaching nor, within language teaching, to LSP. Needs analysis include analyses of the target situation - the situation in which learners will use the language they are learning, the language/genre/discourse, the subjective needs, the learning needs, and the present situation of the learner's current skill and language use (Dudley-Evans and St John, 1998). The needs analysis will provide useful and thorough information so that the teaching implemented can meet these needs. I.1.3.4. Analysis of Study Skills and Strategies In the linguistic field, of discourse analysis, no special attention was given to the necessary language skills. Then came the communicative language teaching movement which puts a priority on the four skills, beginning with reading and writing, and then listening and speaking. In English courses during that time, the language knowledge was developed together with the ability to communicate using the knowledge. However, not only individual skills are mentioned, the underlying competence is also an important factor. This refers to the ability to reason and interpret the meaning. The focus of reading skill, for example, is not only on the comprehension of the text but also on the ability to guess the meaning regardless of unknown language items. Learners are required to learn the strategies as well as the skills. I.1.3.5. A Learning-Centered Approach Hutchinson and Waters (1987) successfully moved from the above language-centered approaches to a learning-centered approach. Hutchinson and Waters considered other approaches to have "flaw" on focusing on language, not on learning, and the learning-centered approach is underlied by the theory related to the language learning process. I.1.3.6. Content-Based Language Instruction Content-based instruction is considered as the new paradigm in language education, which helps improving learners' language while studying a subject matter (Dueñas, 2003). According to Brinton, Snow and Wesche (1989, p. 2) as cited by Halvorsen (1995) content-based teaching is "the concurrent teaching of academic subject matter and second language skills." The two purposes are inter-woven; the target language is the medium for communicating information about the content subject while the content offers the context for learning language skills. According to Dueñas (2003), content-based language instruction has a number of advantages. Firstly, content-based language courses provide a considerable amount of language input. Secondly, the content-based instruction “support contextualized learning”; the context is the subject matter presented in the target language, resulting in meaningful communication, “rather than isolated language fragment.” Another benefit is t