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.

University departments that offer graduate programs require feedback to assess the quality of the education they offer. Feedback on the quality of education is provided in the form of program evaluation. In the general approach to program evaluation, outsiders, i.e., people who are not parts of a program, do the evaluation. This descriptive study starts out with the belief that the best feedback in program evaluation can only come from insiders, i.e., faculty, students, and alumni, who are parts of a particular program. In order to capture the perspectives of insiders on the quality related characteristics of a program, this study evaluated a master&rsquo / s degree program in TESOL (Teaching of English to Speakers of Other Languages) at an American university in a practical and cost-effective way, using a minimum number of evaluators. All faculty, students, and alumni of the program form the participants in this study. Regular program evaluation studies are conducted to do one type of evaluation only and they do not seek insiders&rsquo / opinions. Unlike such studies, this evaluative research study aims to go beyond that familiar narrow focus and provide a richer description of the program it evaluates. Its research design and the data collection methods employed in it are chosen to achieve that goal. These enable the present study to have a broader scope than those of the regular program evaluation studies as the collected data can be used for more than one type of analysis. The results of data collection show that all parties express positive opinion on the aspects of the program that are directly related to the teaching that takes place in classes. Areas of the program that need improvement are also introduced, and recommendations to overcome them are presented.

Most teachers prefer not to write and publish on teaching. As a result, teaching tends to be written by researchers and others who are not core participants in the practices and contexts they are writing about. Furthermore, the narratives these writers provide are frequently told and explained in language that teachers find inauthentic. Since composing in writing is a key component of learning, teachers who do not write miss out on valuable opportunities for self-growth; and those who do not publish their reflections in any written form forgo a source of collaborative learning. This Doctor of Philosophy study examines the possibilities of published reflective writing in teacher learning for TESOL practitioners.

The aim of this study was to investigate teachers’ perspectives on how they want to be supervised with a view to critiquing existing practices in light of teacher experience, viewpoint and professional aspirations. Documents used in the supervisory cycle in the setting of the study were analyzed to develop a broader understanding regarding the issues that comprise the supervisory activities and the supervisory criteria as documented by the educational organization that was the setting of this study. In addition, a total of eleven preparatory year EFL teachers in a university in Saudi Arabia were interviewed. The study used qualitative methods, with the data subjected to rigorous analysis that employed an analytical approach informed by the principles of grounded theory. The ideas gathered from the qualitative analysis of the interview data - complemented by the insights developed from document analysis - led to the emergence of two themes under which teachers’ expectations and ideas were grouped: 1) the professional aspect and 2) the social aspect. Under the professional aspect, teachers discussed their ideas regarding activities and concepts directly related to teaching practice and professional activities of teachers. The second theme, the social aspect, covers concepts which are related to the way the organization deals with teachers. Analysis of teachers’ interview data showed that there was some level of commonality between the ideas and expectations of teachers regarding some of the general points related to how they want to be supervised. However, there was considerable disparity in their priorities and their expectations regarding the overall approach of the supervisory system, to the extent that at times the expectations and priorities of some teachers were incompatible with and mutually exclusive of the expectations of the other teachers. This led to the conclusion that a multi-streamed supervisory system would provide for the needs of teachers with different expectations, priorities and needs. Such a system would have different streams with different activities for beginning and veteran teachers, with one or two more streams in between for teachers who do not fit in either stream. A multi-streamed system could allow the teachers the opportunity to articulate their needs and expectations and it does not impose a ‘one-size-fits-all’ system on all the teachers. Furthermore, it was recommended that supervisors should draw on the literature on professional life cycles and consider variables related to the workplace (regulations, management style, social expectations etc.) and to teachers’ personal lives (family, cumulative life experiences, individual disposition etc.) so that they can make informed decisions when assigning teachers to different streams within a multi-streamed supervisory system.

The aim of this project was to explore the jigsaw-method as a teaching tool in English as a Second Language-classrooms, and to design and evaluate a jigsaw-style lesson that aims to promote student activation and communication. To achieve this goal, we conducted a case study in which we designed and tried out a jigsaw-style lesson in two classes. We then evaluated the lessons through a survey which was analysed using thematic content analysis. The results of the survey showed that the negative aspects voiced by the participants belonged to the two main themes Perceived difficulty and Perceived lack of time. Additionally, the participants made several suggestions for improvements which were identified as belonging to the following three themes: Predetermined groups (Based on skill), More time for each step of the lesson, and Pre-activity & Prior Knowledge. The results from the survey, in combination with a review of literature on second language teaching and prior research, was used to propose several changes to the lesson format as it was used in the case study. For example, we proposed the addition of a pre-reading exercise aimed at giving prior knowledge and activating schemas, as well as the addition of graphic organisers to help provide a clear focus to the different stages of the lesson. The proposed changes were aimed at alleviating the difficulties voiced by the participants in the case study. The changes were then applied to the case study lesson as an example.

The United States is home to hundreds of thousands of refugees and immigrants who desire to learn English. In contrast to academically-focused English language learners (ELLs), or international students, refugee and immigrant ELLs are often dealing with the stresses of poverty and/or a precarious immigration status, giving them a diverse and complex set of needs that are often not adequately met by ESL programs. Building off a foundation of Activity Theory, Sociocultural Theory, and Language Ecology, which emphasizes an approach to language learning and teaching that does not separate language from the authentic contexts from which it arises (Van Lier, 2002; Leather & Van Dam, 2003; Pennycook, 2010; Swain & Watanabe, 2012; among others), I seek to uncover and address these needs in-context through an ethnography of six Spanish-speaking immigrant ELLs in the western United States. I detail the results of an in-depth analysis of 116 hours of participant observation with these women, paying special attention to their daily routines and how, where, and why they employ English or Spanish. I show how the women's daily routines and participation in Latinx communities curtail much of their need for daily English, how they employ various strategies to get by when they do need English, and how their expressed motivations to learn English are often thwarted by their current life circumstances. I end by summarizing key observations about the ELLs in the study and making general recommendations to ESL programs for how to apply these observations.

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