tailieunhanh - Preliminary study of the english curriculum for non English major students at Hanoi national university of education

This report presents the results of the author’s recent study of the English language curriculum for non-English majors at HNUE, which is intended to achieve a dual objective: To make some contribution to the development of language curriculum evaluation in the country in general, and to provide a scientific background for the improvement of the current English curriculum at HNUE. | JOURNAL OF SCIENCE OF HNUE 2011 Vol. 56 N . 1 pp. 123-129 PRELIMINARY STUDY OF THE ENGLISH CURRICULUM FOR NON-ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT HANOI NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF EDUCATION Ha Hong Nga Hanoi National University of Education E-mail Abstract. This report presents the results of the author s recent study of the English language curriculum for non-English majors at HNUE which is intended to achieve a dual objective to make some contribution to the de- velopment of language curriculum evaluation in the country in general and to provide a scientific background for the improvement of the current English curriculum at HNUE. A survey was conducted collecting data by document analysis questionnaires follow-up interviews and classroom observations for subsequent quantitative and qualitative analysis. Four key aspects of the curriculum including its objectives materials testing and teaching were evaluated. The results helped identify the strengths and weaknesses of the current curriculum. Based on these findings the author provided some rec- ommendations for the improvement of the curriculum. Keywords curriculum evaluation indispensable component non-English majors curriculum guidelines needs analysis periodical evaluation 1. Introduction The English curriculum for non-English majors at HNUE plays a very im- portant role because it trains English for thousands of students in 22 faculties. Non-English majors constitute the largest proportion of tertiary-level students pur- suing undergraduate degrees in a variety of subjects such as mathematics physics chemistry literature history geography etc. The current English curriculum has been used at HNUE since 1993 greatly contributing to the success of the univer- sity s programme however it is time to put it under evaluation due to the following reasons - Theoretically evaluation is an indispensable component of programme de- velopment. When a curriculum has been designed all components such as needs analysis