EVALUATING ENGLISH FOR BUSINESS PURPOSES COURSES USING NEEDS ANALYSIS - A CASE STUDY AT FELTE, ULIS
4. FINDINGS AND RESULTS
The survey questionnaire included 62 items divided into four sections:
• The necessity level of various business English listening, reading, speaking, writing skills and soft skills perceived by double major first-year students;
• Their level of confidence in performing various business English listening, reading, speaking, writing skills and soft skills;
• Their level of interest in learning these business English listening, reading, speaking, writing skills and soft skills;
• Their level of preferences for different learning methods and activities.
The results for each of these four categories will be presented below.
4.1. Necessity level of Business English skills
In this section of the questionnaire, 18 items representing 18 business English listening, reading, speaking and writing skills soft skills are listed. The respondents were asked to rate how necessary they thought each skill would be for their future jobs using the following continuum:
Unnecessary Somewhat unnecessary Somewhat necessary Necessary Very necessary
1 2 3 4 5
The results for each item are summarized in Table 2 below.
Table 2: Necessity level of Business English skills
N Min Max M SD
A. Listening
Listen to business lectures, seminars 237 2 5 4.41 .716
Listen to speeches, talks, presentations at business conferences 237 2 5 4.16 .818 Listen to business meetings, group discussions 237 2 5 4.27 .816
Listen to business interviews 237 2 5 4.25 .777
B. Reading
Read business articles 237 2 5 4.32 .740
Read business documents, letters, emails 237 2 5 4.40 .721
34
KỶ YẾU HỘI THẢO KHOA HỌC QUỐC TẾ DẠY VÀ HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ GẮN VỚI CHUYÊN NGÀNH TRONG BỐI CẢNH HỘI NHẬP QUỐC TẾ: LÍ LUẬN VÀ THỰC TIỄN
C. Speaking
Make business phone calls with clients, business partners,
colleagues 237 2 5 4.54 .686
Chair, take part in business meetings, group discussions 237 2 5 4.27 .811
Conduct business negotiations 237 2 5 4.41 .757
Give business presentations (introducing company, products,
business plan, etc.) 237 2 5 4.49 .687
Socialize, network, entertain clients, partners in business contexts 237 1 5 4.47 .704
Have good English pronunciation 237 3 5 4.62 .610
D. Writing
Write CVs/ résumés 237 2 5 4.67 .606
Write order forms and respond to order forms 237 1 5 4.26 .842
Write business letters/ emails 237 2 5 4.46 .709
Write business meeting minutes, action minutes 237 1 5 3.93 .954
Write business reports 237 2 5 4.12 .845
Write business plans 237 1 5 4.07 .911
Regarding listening skills, the overall results revealed that students perceived listening skills to be “necessary” for their future jobs (average M = 4.27), with “listening to business lectures and seminars” as the most necessary skill (M = 4.41).
Reading skills are also considered “necessary”, with the average Mean score of 4.36, slightly higher than that of listening skills, with “reading business articles” as the most necessary skill.
Speaking skills received the highest average Mean score among the four language skills (average M = 4.47). The top 3 most necessary micro skills perceived in this category are “having good pronunciation” (M = 4.62), “making business phone calls with clients, business partners, colleagues” (M = 4.54) and “giving business presentations” (M = 4.49).
The necessity levels of various writing skills ranged from “somewhat necessary”
to “necessary”. The highest Mean score belongs to “writing CVs/ résumés” (M = 4.67), and the two lowest Mean scores were given to “writing business meeting minutes, action minutes” (M = 3.93) and “writing business plans” (M = 4.07).
4.2. Confidence level in performing Business English skills
This category covers the same 18 items listed in the previous section. However, the respondents were asked to rank their current level of confidence in performing these skills using a different continuum:
Unconfident Somewhat unconfident Somewhat confident Confident Very confident 1 2 3 4 5
The results are displayed in Table 3 below.
Table 3: Confidence level in performing Business English skills
N Min Max M SD
A. Listening
Listen to business lectures, seminars 237 1 5 3.07 .890
Listen to speeches, talks, presentations at business conferences 237 1 5 2.95 .919 Listen to business meetings, group discussions 237 1 5 3.06 .857
Listen to business interviews 237 1 5 3.05 .869
B. Reading
Read business articles 237 1 5 3.23 .859
Read business documents, letters, emails 237 1 5 3.32 .907
C. Speaking
Make business phone calls with clients, business partners, colleagues 237 1 5 2.80 .965 Chair, take part in business meetings, group discussions 237 1 5 2.68 1.033
Conduct business negotiations 237 1 5 2.45 .984
Give business presentations (introducing company, products,
business plan, etc.) 237 1 5 3.15 .970
Socialize, network, entertain clients, partners in business contexts 237 1 5 2.75 .984
Have good English pronunciation 237 1 5 3.30 .955
D. Writing
Write CVs/ résumés 237 1 5 3.35 .948
Write order forms and respond to order forms 237 1 5 3.31 .875
Write business letters/ emails 237 1 5 3.24 .942
Write business meeting minutes, action minutes 237 1 5 2.82 1.005
Write business reports 237 1 5 2.74 .981
Write business plans 237 1 5 2.91 .900
The figures above suggested the overall impression that the students perceived themselves as having rather low competence in all four language skills, as they believed that they were “somewhat unconfident” or “somewhat confident” in performing these skills (Mean scores fluctuating between 2.45 and 3.35). Among the four language skills, Speaking was assessed as the weakest area with the average Mean score of 2.86, followed by Listening (average M = 3.03), Writing (average M = 3.06) and Reading (average M = 3.28).
36
KỶ YẾU HỘI THẢO KHOA HỌC QUỐC TẾ DẠY VÀ HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ GẮN VỚI CHUYÊN NGÀNH TRONG BỐI CẢNH HỘI NHẬP QUỐC TẾ: LÍ LUẬN VÀ THỰC TIỄN
4.3. Interest level in learning Business English skills
Similar to the two previous sections, the third section of the questionnaire used the same set of 18 items. The participants were required to rate their level of interest in learning a number of listening, reading, speaking, writing skills on the following 1-5 scale:
Not at all interested Not very interested Neutral Interested Very interested 1 2 3 4 5 Table 4 below exhibits the results of this section.
Table 4: Interest level in learning Business English skills
N Min Max M SD
A. Listening
Listen to business lectures, seminars 237 1 5 3.64 .880
Listen to speeches, talks, presentations at business conferences 237 1 5 3.57 .952 Listen to business meetings, group discussions 237 1 5 3.51 .919
Listen to business interviews 237 1 5 3.66 .933
B. Reading
Read business articles 237 1 5 3.51 .876
Read business documents, letters, emails 237 1 5 3.47 .885
C. Speaking
Make business phone calls with clients, business partners,
colleagues 237 1 5 3.63 .932
Chair, take part in business meetings, group discussions 237 1 5 3.43 .944
Conduct business negotiations 237 1 5 3.52 1.023
Give business presentations (introducing company, products,
business plan, etc.) 237 1 5 3.69 .895
Socialize, network, entertain clients, partners in business
contexts 237 1 5 3.86 .912
Have good English pronunciation 237 2 5 4.40 .728
D. Writing
Write CVs/ résumés 237 1 5 4.11 .898
Write order forms and respond to order forms 237 1 5 3.73 .964
Write business letters/ emails 237 1 5 3.76 .928
Write business meeting minutes, action minutes 237 1 5 3.27 1.124
Write business reports 237 1 5 3.32 1.107
Write business plans 237 1 5 3.52 1.052
On the whole, the students’ level of interest in studying four language skills was somewhere in between “neutral” and “interested”. More specifically, the students’ level of interest in learning four language skills is inversely proportional to their level of confidence in performing these skills. Speaking, perceived as the language skill with the
lowest level of confidence, was the area that students were most interested in learning (average M = 3.76), while Reading, receiving the highest level of confidence, was the least keen on language skill (average M = 3.49).
4.4. Preferences level for learning methods and activities
The last section of the questionnaire survey sought to find out students’ level of preferences for different learning methods and activities using another 1-5 Likert scale:
Strongly dislike Dislike Neutral Like Strongly like 1 2 3 4 5 Data results are summed up in Table 5.
Table 5: Preferences level for learning methods and activities
N Min Max M SD
Learn business English through business-themed movies 237 1 5 4.26 .896 Learn business English through classroom games 237 1 5 4.19 .971 Learn pronunciation through tutorial videos with native speakers 237 2 5 4.05 .910 Learn business English through authentic materials (authentic
listening texts, authentic articles in business newspapers,
magazines, etc.) 237 2 5 3.93 .843
Learn business vocabulary with flashcards online (e.g.: through
website www.quizlet.com) 237 1 5 3.76 1.080
Learn business English through lectures, talks, seminars given
by business experts 237 1 5 3.71 1.039
Learn speaking through role-playing activities 237 1 5 3.64 1.043 Learn business English through business case studies 237 1 5 3.61 1.026
The data indicate that students most preferred learning methods and activities that have entertainment value such as learning business English through business-themed movies or classroom games. The use of ICTs such as learning business vocabulary with flashcards online and learning pronunciation through tutorial videos with native speakers was also highly appreciated by students. They tended to have a neutral attitude towards more traditional teaching and learning methods.