During the last seven years or so, China has adopted an open-door policy, which has brought about an increase in diplomatic intercourse, and cultural and technical exchanges between China and other countries. And, above all, the number of tourists coming to visit China has been growing rapidly year by year. Together with this increase comes the demand for tour guides, especially Englishspeaking tour guides. Since most Chinese tour guides who are presently working in the travel service have not been able to receive professional training, they encounter difficulties of various kinds in their work. Such a situation demonstrates an urgent need for designing a special curriculum for training Chinese tour guides. Problems with the current situation are analysed in detail in Chapter 2. The analysis reveals that there are problems with the existing arrangement for recruiting tour guides and also tour guides' weakness in oral communication with tourists which is a result of inadequate training. In order to have an objective picture of Chinese tour guides' oral English � both strengths and weaknesses � a questionnaire was designed, and interviews were conducted as part of the field study. The whole of Chapter 3 is devoted to the analyses of the questionnaire and interviews, which includes the designing and distribution of the questionnaire and the data analysis. Chapter 4 focuses on the discussion of the importance of aims and objectives in the curriculum. It offers guidelines for the other elements of the curriculum which are stated in relation to students' future needs. Students are expected to achieve the goals set for them in the course through studying the course materials. Therefore, teaching materials have to be selected in order to be able to serve the basic aims and objectives of the course. Considerations need to be given to both language and content. Details of how to choose course content are dealt with in Chapter 5. The final chapter gives suggestions for teaching and evaluation. This field study report is not intended to present a proper curriculum. Instead, it is hoped to suggest some aspects worthy of consideration when the training in oral English for tour guides is being planned.

Journalism education in China began early this century. However, the drastic changes in the Chinese society since the First World War have greatly hindered the development of journalism education. With the fall of the "gang of four" in 1976, China entered a new period in its history which is marked by a strong desire of the CPC and the people to modernize their country in the shortest possible time. This situation has produced an ever-increasing need for better journalists, especially international journalists who are able to use foreign language to promote mutual understanding and exchange between China and other countries. To meet this demand, the speciality of international journalism, a combination of journalism training and foreign language learning, has come into existence in many institutions. However, to teach Chinese students English journalism, particularly the skill of news writing in English, is not easy. Students constantly encounter difficulties in writing English news articles. They have problems in both language use and organisations. Their writing is very often unnatural and sometimes hard to comprehend for English-speaking readers. The reasons are mainly as follows. First, news writing, unlike any other form of writing, involves particular requirements which need to be carefully studied and analysed, such as the criteria for news value, the special structure of the article and the special choice of words. Secondly, as China's policy towards journalism is very different from that of the west, its approach towards news is also different. Therefore, what is included in a Chinese news article is not always of news value to western readers. Thirdly, Chinese and English are two very different languages. Many dissimilarities exist in all aspects of the two languages, linguistic and rhetorical. Chinese students often find it difficult to free themselves of mother tongue interference. To solve these problems, a comparative study of the news writing styles in both languages should be made by the teachers and students so that they can realise the similarities and dissimilarities between the two languages and their relative strengths and weaknesses in news writing. In addition, practice is also essential in the training of journalists. Extensive exposure to good English news writing styles and practices in producing them will surely benefit the students in their study of journalism.

Increasing contact between China and English-speaking countries in recent years calls for competent language workers to fulfil various communication tasks. To meet this need, it is of great importance and urgency for the Chinese EFL teaching profession to be conscious of the existing problem of communicative incompetence of Chinese EFL learners and to strive for ways and means of reducing it. This study was undertaken as an exploratory study of this problem. As recognised by many now, linguistic competence alone is not sufficient for a successful foreign language learner, one needs to acquire communicative competence as well. In this study, a historical overview of the theory of communicative competence is provided. Following it is a detailed description of a survey which aimed to measure several areas of communicative competence of Chinese learners of English and to find out existing problems. Possible causal factors of those problems are also discussed and are categorised into two groups: communicative interference and weaknesses in the present curriculum, teaching methodology and teaching materials. Finally, implications of this study are examined and tentative suggestions are made in the hope that more and more Chinese EFL teachers will respond to the problem and search for ways to bring about effective learning.

Linguistic competence is a person's knowledge of the forms of a language. This knowledge is not sufficient for communication because communication involves a knowledge of appropriate ways to use the language, that is, when to say what to whom. A part of this total capacity which may be termed 'social competence' is the knowledge and ability to create and maintain a harmonious atmosphere in social interaction. � Social competence is acquired as a person grows up in a given society, learning to play different roles. In social interaction, social competence enables a person to live up to the expectations of these roles, and to act in such a way as to satisfy the interests of others in exchange for satisfaction of his own. One of the individual's interests in interaction is 'face': a desire for freedom from imposition and for appreciation. The preservation of a harmonious atmosphere in social interaction largely depends on how well the interactants preserve their own and each other's face. Certain speech acts are intrinsically face threatening, so mitigating strategies must be used to redress these acts. Owing to the differences in social values and personal relations in different societies, Chinese speakers of English may not perceive the threat to face involved in doing certain acts in the same way that English native speakers would perceive it. As a result, they may unwittingly threaten native speakers' face. Moreover, Chinese speakers may not be able to use mitigating strategies appropriately and may therefore be unable to maintain the desired harmonious atmosphere in interaction with native speakers of English. Therefore, in addition to learning the forms of English language, Chinese speakers should be encouraged to develop social competence, by learning the target language culture and by practising the appropriate polite strategies in social interaction.

English for Specific Purposes (ESP) teaching has become a popular trend in English language teaching in the world. It is distinguished by its clearly defined purposes in teaching and its student-centred short intensive courses. It tends to be more effective than other types of English language teaching. Therefore it has attracted more and more attention of linguists and language teachers, and is warmly welcomed by learners. ESP teaching also enjoys much popularity in China. In recent years a great number of ESP programmes, as well as programmes of other foreign languages for specific purposes, have emerged. These programmes have successfully prepared thousands of specialists for the language required by their future work or overseas studies. Nevertheless, there still remain a number of problems in Chinese ESP teaching. This study is intended to analyse ESP teaching in China. It examines the development, thec haracteristics, the achievements, existing problems and attempts to highlight implications for teachers and educational administrations.

This field study proposes a basis for the establishment of a professional development program for Vietnamese high school teachers. The social background and the problems of teaching and learning English in Vietnamese high schools are discussed, including the students' goals in learning English in high schools; the teachers' qualifications and the methods of teaching commonly used; the coursebooks and how they are used; learning facilities, and the attitudes and policy decisions of education authorities. To develop effective solutions to these problems, it is necessary also to know the background to teaching and learning English in Hanoi Foreign Languages Teachers' College. In-service training is of vital importance in the education of all nations. A review of what other people have done in this field is included with particular reference to the problems which are relevant to the situation in Vietnam. Given the constraints of funding and work procedures, a short full-time in-service course would be the most practicable for the Vietnamese situation. A survey of the needs of high school teachers in their professional development has been carried out and is discussed in relation to the priorities to be given to various components of an in-service syllabus. The priorities were found to be: to improve the language, teaching techniques and awareness of a communicative approach to teaching and learning language of high school teachers in Vietnam. These priorities having been identified, the study considers: iv 1 - the syllabus model. 2 - the development of specific goals. 3 - the development of content. 4 - possible modifications of the syllabus in the future. The solution to the problem of professional development must take into account not only the work of internationally known authorities, but also the needs of Vietnamese teachers. The proposed course suggests ways of finding out and meeting the needs of participants and points to possible future development.

The increasing number of economic and cultural aid programmes for Vietnam to reconstruct its war-torn economy in recent years from the United Nations Development Programme and other international and governmental organizations has created a great demand for English language teaching and learning in Vietnam. The language problems that face Vietnamese scientists and technicians working in these aid programmes have been a major concern of many educational institutions in Vietnam and a reason for the author of this Study Report to take up this study. Chapter one of this study covers major stages of development of the teaching of English for Specific Purposes (ESP) and various factors that influence the teaching of ESP. Chapter two discusses some current issues in the teaching of ESP in Vietnam with special reference to course organization, syllabus and material design at the Hanoi Foreign Language College. It also points out some misunderstanding and misconception in the teaching of English to Vietnamese scientists and technicians. Chapter three looks at major language problems that Vietnamese students meet when they go to study at different colleges or universities in English speaking countries. A close investigation will be carried out over a number of Vietnamese veterinary doctors studying at the university of Queensland in Australia. Chapter four is concerned with the selection of suitable syllabus models for ESP/EAP courses at HFLC and also attempts to work out appropriate syllabuses for EAP courses for Vietnamese students going to study overseas. The final chapter suggests some further considerations for organizing ESP/EAP courses at HFLC especially for material production, ESP teacher training and ESP testing. It is hoped that this Study Report will give language teachers in the ESP Department at the Hanoi Foreign Languages College a clearer picture of what ESP is all about and provide some guidelines for successful organization of teaching ESP and EAP to Vietnamese students.

Increasing development of the relationship between Vietnam and other countries has resulted in a great demand for English language teaching (ELT) throughout the country. The need is ever greater for a considerable number of people who can use English effectively in their work. However, at present ELT in Vietnam is still far from satisfactory. There exists a common problem of communicative incompetence in Vietnamese learners. ELT in the Hanoi Foreign Languages Teachers' College (HFLTC) is taken to illustrate the fact that even after five years of training, students frequently remain deficient in the ability to actually use the language, to understand its use in normal communication, and to carry out their teaching adequately afterwards. That existing situation demands a critical look at ELT in all institutions to work out suitable materials and methods to be used in the Vietnamese setting. This work has been undertaken as an exploratory study of this problem. To provide a context for the study, the background to ELT in Vietnam is reviewed. Following it is a detailed description of different approaches used in ELT with reference to the teaching and learning situations in Vietnam. Special emphasis is placed on the differences between conventional approaches and the currently influential one - the Communicative Approach. A detailed comparison is made between two lessons taken from structuralbased and functional/notional-based textbooks representing two distinct approaches. This comparison will be examined from the methodological point of view, investigating, for example, how language is treated in the two approaches, how different types of activities are used, and the role of teacher and learner in the two approaches in order to highlight a possible fresh approach for Vietnamese coursebook designers, teachers and learners in ELT. A sample lesson based on the Communicative Approach is finally provided to assist any attempts to teach and learn English communicatively. It is hoped that this survey will contribute to reducing the existing problem of inadequate communicative competence in Vietnamese learners.

With the increase in international communication and the growing demand for foreign language professionals in the last decade, the teaching of foreign languages, especially English, has gained considerable prominence in Chinese education. Despite the long history of English teaching in China, there are still significant deficiencies in this area. If these deficiencies are to be addressed, then methodology is a crucial variable worthy of examination. Many of the TEFL (Teaching English as Foreign Language) methods developed in the last twenty years are unknown to the Chinese teachers, although they may be introduced to China in the future. Since these methods are products of Western experience, a scrutiny of their relevance to the Chinese teaching situation is necessary. In particular, it is important to focus on the psychological appropriateness of these methods to the Chinese setting. A number of the most crucial psychological issues, such as learner's motivation, aptitude, personality and learning style, are discussed in CHAPTER 2, together with those social and cultural influences which may affect the learner's psychological attributes. CHAPTER 3 provides a detailed, yet not exhaustive, description of a range of TEFL methodologies, which may provide potential solutions to the deficiencies that have been identified. Here the emphasis is on psychological theories that underlie these methods and on their psychological impact on the learner. CHAPTER 4 moves to a specific investigation of the psychological attributes of Chinese students. To this end, data have been obtained from a study specifically designed for this paper, and used as a basis for evaluating the motivation, personality, affect and learning style of English majors at ERWAI (Peking Second Foreign Language Institute). This evaluation is further supplemented by the views of foreign visitors to China and by the results of some published studies of Chinese nationals in America. Based on the discussion in the previous chapters, the fifth and final chapter concludes with an overview of the appropriateness of TEFL methodologies to the Chinese situation.

This study examines the listening comprehension difficulties of Chinese learners of English as a foreign language at the tertiary level by means of two listening comprehension tests that were specifically designed for this paper and administered to 50 students in the English Department of ERWAI (the Peking Foreign Language Institute No. 2). The students' listening comprehension ability is evaluated on the basis of the results of multiple-choice test items, and the students' oral performance in answering questions, all of which have been recorded and transcribed in full. Proceeding from the date and from the theory and practice of language teaching and learning, suggestions relating to this area are discussed. Chapter 1 introduces the background to the problem, in which some basic facts concerning the teaching of English as a foreign language at the primary, secondary and tertiary levels in China are provided. This serves as a general review of tertiary students' entry behaviour in learning English as a foreign language. In addition, the aims and objectives of foreign language teaching based on ERWAI students' future professional needs are discussed. Chapter 2 moves to a discussion of the format and procedures of the two listening comprehension tests, followed by the description and interpretation of the test results. Chapter 3 discusses the nature of the listening process and surveys the listening strategies needed for successful communication. In Chapter 4, proposals for improving the teaching of listening comprehension at ERWAI are recommended.