The English-focused training program for Advanced Program students in the first year is different from the traditional program which is taught in Vietnamese. Therefore, it is necessary to carefully consider the characteristics of foreign language training such as lesson duration, curriculum, health, extra activities, clubs, and olympic competitions ... to attract students, as well as create effective English learning movement. There is also a need to review English output requirements for the a
Nguyen Hong Nam
[SIE] The English-focused training program for Advanced Program students in the first year is different from the traditional program which is taught in Vietnamese. Therefore, it is necessary to carefully consider the characteristics of foreign language training such as lesson duration, curriculum, health, extra activities, clubs, and olympic competitions ... to attract students, as well as create effective English learning movement. There is also a need to review English output requirements for the advanced program students by academic years.
I) BACKGROUND
Currently the number of Advanced Program (AP) students of all courses (from course 52 to 56) is 427. 50 students of water resources engineering from classes 50Nk and 51NK graduated. Statistics of the number of students in the Advanced program from course 50 to 56 shows a double increase in the two last years (namely, 2013 and 2014) (SIE, 2014). The number of students is relatively equally distributed between the two majors: water resources engineering (WRE) and civil engineering (CE).
English is taught to students in the first year (In 1st and 2nd semester) and second year (3rd semester ) or 3rd year (6th semester). In the first year, students are taught 4 skills including: listening (4 credits), speaking (4 credits), reading (4 credits), writing (4 credits) and ESP (3 credits). The total number of English credits in the first year is 19. In the second year, students in civil engineering learn one more subject – Composition (3 credits). In the third year, students in water resources engineering learn advanced writing skills (3 credits).
The minimum English output for students upon graduation is 500 TOEFL according to Decision No. 1132 / QĐ-ĐHTL dated 12 August 2014. In particular, requirements of English output for students after the first year of school must be at least 450 (TOEFL) or equivalent scores (other English language proficiency tests), and after the second year they must score a minimum TOEFL score of 500 or equivalent. This English requirement is used to determine eligibility for further courses. At the end of each academic year, students who meet those requirements are permitted to continue attending the Advanced Program.
It is of great concern to consider the first year student's transcripts, in which English results of some students who have entrance exam results beyond the passing grade but fail to meet the first year English output requirements(450 TOEFL). Before that, the score was only 420 TOEFL.
The aims of the paper is to address two issues: 1) to assess the correlation between the results of English language training and the those of specialized subjects training 2) To propose solutions to improve the quality of English training.
II)Subjects AND METHODOLOGY
The study was conducted on 340 students from 11 classes, batches 50 to 55. Batch 56 includes 119 students who did not yet have English learning outcomes and therefore they were not evaluated in this study. The database is taken from the academic grade management software developed by the Department of academic affair of ThuyLoi University under the management of international training and management staff. The author analyzes data by statistically, using Origin software developed by Microcal Company, USA.
III) RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Figure 1 shows the relationship between the university entrance examination grade (priority score excluded) and the highest TOEFL score in the student’s entire study period at ThuyLoi university. Each student can participate in many TOEFL tests held by the School of International Education until they meet the university's English language output standards.
Figure 1. Relationship between the college entrance examination grade and students’ highest TOEFL score (SIE, 2014)
8 classes from batches 50 to 54 were investigated, of which Class 50NK and class 51NK graduated. The data analysis (data from class 50NK) shows the correlation between students’college entrance exam grade and their highest TOEFL score which is illustrated in the following formula: Y = 483.98212 + 1.76715X (X is the entrance exam grade, Y is the highest TOEFL score).
Thus, it can be seen that if the benchmark of the advanced program is 15, the average highest TOEFL score of the 50NK class is 511. This result is higher than the current English output requirement (500) for the advanced program students. The same analysis for the other grades shows that with a benchmark of 15, the highest TOEFL score is 506, which is higher than the current English output requirement. In general, 500 TOEFL is appropriate for the employed research subjects.
The analysis also shows that WRE students have higher highest average TOEFL scores than CE ones. Of all courses, class 52NKN has the highest average TOEFL score (516). This finding breaks the former assumption that class 50NK has the highest English test scores (SIE, 2014).
Regarding batch 55, except for an exceptionally good case (647 TOEFL), TOEFL scores of this course are generally lower than those of the previous courses because the course duration is short. After two semesters, 55NK students have more opportunities to take the TOEFL test. TOEFL tests results of some classes have improved after a number of test takings (SIE, 2014).
Figure 2: Relationship between GPA and students’ highest TOEFL score (SIE, 2014)
The analysis results of the correlation between the highest TOEFL score and GPA of students from batches 50 to 55 are shown in Figure 2. The semester average grade is the weighted average of the modules which students enrolled in that semester whose weights are the number of credits of each module. Specific results for each course from 50 to 55 have been analyzed in detail (SIE, 2014). In overall, results of English outcomes do not accurately reflect students’ learning capability in their majors. However, those who have excellent English proficiency often have high GPA.
IV) CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
The increasing number of advanced program students demonstrates the attractiveness of this type of training. Two advanced programs from Colorado State University (Water Resources Engineering) and the University of Arkansas (Civil Engineering) have a number of competitive advantages to meet practical requirements.
Overall, the current English output requirement (500 TOEFL) is appropriate for the research subjects. Generally, results of English outcomes do not accurately reflect students’ learning capability in their majors.
The English-focused training program for Advanced Program students in the first year is different from the traditional program which is taught in Vietnamese. Hence, it is necessary to carefully consider the characteristics of foreign language training such as lesson duration, curriculum, health, extra curricula activities, clubs, and Olympic competitions ... to attract students, as well as to create effective English learning movement.
There is a need to review English output requirements for the advanced programstudents by academic years. Improving the quality of English language training for students is the key to success.
REFERENCE
SIE (2014). Report on Advanced English training (1st draft), 20 pages (for internal use).