從職場需求檢驗台灣大學商用英語課程

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(1)Doctoral Dissertation Department of English National Taiwan Normal University. A Needs Analysis of English for Business Purposes at Universities in Taiwan: From Teachers and Professionals Perspectives. Advisor: Dr. Chiou-Lan Chern. Cheng-Yi Eric Lin. June, 2013.

(2) Hutchinson. Waters. 1987 Bachman. Palmer. 2010 170. 27. 143. 10. Bachman. Palmer 2010. ANOVA. 10. i.

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(4) ABSTRACT. The purpose of this study is to examine if the tertiary EBP curricula in Taiwan meets the English language needs of the fields in international trade, manufacturing, and finance. Twenty-seven business professionals and 10 tertiary EBP instructors were interviewed, and 143 additional business professionals were invited to complete needsof needs served as a major framework to analyze the English needs in the workplace. (2010) categories of language functions were used to ascertain the communicative functions of English tasks commonly performed in the business workplace. The results showed that the content of the EBP curricula did not match the English needs of business professionals, as it was found that English reading and writing tasks were performed much more frequently than listening and speaking tasks in the business workplace in Taiwan. The communicative functions of the common English tasks are manipulative, ideational, and heuristic (Bachman and Palmer, 2010). The participants lacked the ability to socialize and maintain small talk in English with international business partners, and thus desired to learn English oral communication skills, cross-cultural communicative skills, and pragmatic skills for interaction. The ANOVA tests revealed that company type and company location had no effect on English needs; nevertheless, the English needs among the three professional fields and the perceived difficulty of English tasks among the respondents with different work experiences were found to have statistically significant differences. Based on the above findings, three suggestions were made to EBP instructors and curriculum designers: First, needs analysis should be conducted before EBP iii.

(5) instructors design their syllabi as students without work experience require a necessity-based syllabus to prepare them for future required tasks in the workplace, while working students require a syllabus based on language skills that they are lacking. Second, instructors need to place more attention on English writing training and design more interactive should be introduced. It is hoped that the findings of this study can help university plan curriculum that better prepare students for the internationally-oriented workplace.. Keywords: Needs analysis, English for Business Purposes, English needs in the workplace, Curriculum evaluation, Communicative functions. iv.

(6) ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS. During the long journey as a graduate student at National Taiwan Normal University, I have been helped by many professors and friends. Without their support and encouragement, I could not have accomplished all the work up to this point. I would like to thank, first and foremost, my advisor, Dr. Chiou-Lan Chern, who has invested a tremendous amount of time and energy in my academic growth. When I approached her to explain my initial research idea and asked her if she could coach me, she agreed to be my advisor immediately. During her guidance, she always read the drafts of my dissertation very carefully and challenged me with insightful questions to help me think through the design of my research and the presentation of ideas. From her I learned the seriousness of attitude required for academic research, especially the sophistication needed in diction. Without her guidance and support, this dissertation could not have completed. I also owe a great debt of gratitude to my committee members, Dr. Vincent Wu-Chang Chang, Dr. Chih-Cheng Lin, Dr. Brian Hsi-Nan Yeh, and Dr. Hsueh-Ying Yu, for their careful reading of the dissertation and their insightful questions, comments, and suggestions, from which I have profited a lot and gained a better understanding of the merits and demerits of the ways I approached some of the issues. I would also like to extend my sincere gratitude to other professors in the Department of English at NTNU, Dr. Miao-Hsia Chang, Dr. Howard Hao-Jan Chen, Dr. Yuh-Show Cheng, Dr. His-Chin Chu, Dr. Peace He-Ping Feng, Dr. Wen-Ta Tseng, and Dr. Angela Mei-Chen Wu for their devoted instruction and sincere love throughout the years of my study in the department. My special thanks also go to many other teachers and friends for their generous v.

(7) assistance during the course of this dissertation: Dr. Su-Chin Shih, for her valuable support and warm encouragement, and who treated me like one of her own students; Prof. Jean Curran, for her warm encouragement, and who cared if my oral defense and revision went well; Mr. Yung-Ching Wu, for his invaluable statistical assistance; Mr. Barry Cho, for his help in designing a beautiful online needs-analysis questionnaire; and Mr. John-Michael Nix, for his unfailing friendship-- he is a friend I can discuss any research idea with. I am also obliged to Dr. Pi-Lan Yang and Dr. Darrel Doty for their practical feedback to this dissertation. My sincere appreciation also goes to the Fulbright Program sponsored by the Institute of International Education in the US and the Ministry of Education in Taiwan for funding my academic exchange at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) during the 2010-2011 academic year. My deepest gratitude also goes to Dr. Lyle Bachman in the department of Applied Linguistics at UCLA for his academic guidance when I was in LA. Because of his generosity, I had the chance to make my dream come true to study abroad. And he was always willing to spare his time to discuss my research with me. Dr. Bachman helped me narrow down the scope of this dissertation and offered many useful insights during the initial stages of this dissertation. Most importantly, I would like to thank all my students, for they inspired me to explore and conduct this study. I am also grateful to the participants in this study. They are an encouragement to my work. To all of you, my unlimited gratitude!. vi.

(8) TABLE OF CONTENTS CHINESE ABSTRACT ENGLISH ABSTRACT ACKNOWLEDGES LIST OF TABLES LIST OF FIGURES. ... ... . ... ... i iii v ix x. CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION Background Rationale of the Study Significance of the Study Research Questions. .. .. .. . ... 1 1 6 10 11. CHAPTER TWO: REVIEW OF LITERATURE English for Business Purposes ESP vs. EBP Research Issues The Tertiary English Curriculum in Taiwan The English Proficiency of Undergraduate Students in Taiwan Needs Analysis Definitions of Needs Methodologies of Needs Analysis for English for Business Purposes English Needs in the Workplace Outside Taiwan English Needs in the Workplace in Taiwan. . .. 12 12 13 15 17 20 24 25. CHAPTER THREE: METHODOLOGY Participants Business Professionals from the Three Sectors EBP Instructors from Eight Universities Instruments Semi-Structured Interviews The Needs-Analysis Questionnaire (NAQ) Construction of the Preliminary NAQ Review and Modification of the Preliminary NAQ Data Collection Procedures Data Analysis Procedures vii. . .. .. ... ... 31 35 43. . ... ... .. ... .. . . . .. .. 56 56 57 60 61 62 66 66 68 71 72.

(9) Analysis of the Interview Analysis of the Questionnaire The Comparison of Interview Data Summary of Research Methodology. . .. ........................................... 72 73 75 75. CHAPTER FOUR: RESULTS . English Needs of Business Professionals ................. Interviews of International Trade Professionals ... Interviews of Manufacturing Professionals . Interviews of Financial Professionals .. Results of 143 Needs-Analysis Questionnaires ... Demographic Information of the Respondents Necessity of English and Lack of English Ability in the Workplace ..................................... 78 78 78 93 104 123 123. The ANOVA comparisons of differences in English needs Workplace English Needs Perceived by the Tertiary EBP Instructors Comparison of the Tasks in the Workplace and in the EBP Classes CHAPTER FIVE: DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION Overview of the Study Discussion RQ1 RQ2 RQ3 Conclusion Implications for Future Research Pedagogical Implications Limitations of the Study REFERENCES. 127. . 139 . 142 157. . .. .. .. .. .. .... 160 160 161 161 166 168 170 171 172 175. . 177. Appendix I: Interview Questions for Business Professionals Appendix II: Interview Questions for EBP Instructors Appendix III: English Needs-Analysis Questionnaire in the Business Workplace (Chinese Version) Appendix IV: English Needs-Analysis Questionnaire in the Business Workplace viii. ... 188 189. .... 190 198.

(10) LIST OF TABLES Table 1 Table 2 Table 3 Table 4 Table 5 Table 6 Table 7 Table 8 Table 9 Table 10 Table 11 Table 12 Table 13 Table 14 Table 15 Table 16 Table 17 Table 18 Table 19 Table 20 Table 21. The 27 participating business professionals profiles ... The 10 .. The procedures of data collection and analysis for the study English needs of the 27 participating business professionals Demographic information of the143 respondents . Job specification of the 143 respondents ... The 143 respondents self-assessed English proficiency ... The importance of English abilities in the business workplace in Taiwan ....... Frequencies of English writing tasks encountered in the business workplace .. Difficulties of English writing tasks encountered in the business. 59 61 77 119 124 125 126. workplace .. Frequencies of communicative functions for English email writing ................................................................................................ Frequencies of types of English report writing . Frequencies of English reading tasks encountered in the business workplace .. Difficulties of English reading tasks encountered in the business workplace .. Frequencies of English listening and speaking tasks encountered in the business workplace . Difficulties of English listening and speaking tasks encountered in the business workplace .. Frequencies of communicative functions for English telephoning ... Frequencies of communicative functions for English meetings The list of the p-values of the ANOVA comparisons of English needs EBP instructors perceived English necessities . The comparison of the tasks identified by business professionals and adopted by instructors ....... 129. ix. 127 128. 130 131 132 133 135 136 137 138 139 143 159.

(11) LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1. Dudley-Evans & St John s concept map of needs analysis. x. .. 30.

(12) CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION Needs analysis on English for Business Purposes (EBP) has received increased attention in the past decade. Needs analysis is a fundamental component of research on EBP and a pillar of curriculum design. Extant EBP research on needs analysis (Chang, 2011; Shih et al, 1998) has identified crucial English skills and frequent English tasks in the workplace in Taiwan. However, empirical EBP research has neither been extended to investigate communicative functions of the frequent English tasks performed in the workplace, nor been extended to examine the match between the tertiary EBP curricula in Taiwan and the English needs of business professionals. The present study has aimed to ascertain English needs of business professionals of international trade, manufacturing, and finance, including critical English tasks and their accompanying communicative functions, inadequate English skills, and desired English skills that business professionals want to improve. The study has also aimed to explore the content of the tertiary EBP curricula in Taiwan. Ultimately, this study has examined the degree to which the tertiary EBP curricula prepare Taiwanese college students to meet English demands in the workplace.. Background English is the current lingual franca spoken by people from different countries and in various fields from politics, foreign affairs, cultures, and commerce to technology. In 2005 it was reported by the British Council that more than 350 million people could speak English, equivalent to the population of the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom combined (Power, 2005). By 2010, English was used, in some form, by approximately four billion people on earth--- perhaps two thirds of the 1.

(13) planet--- including 400 million native English speakers (McCrum, 2010, p. 33). David Crystal (2003) out that only one out of every four users of English in the world is a native speaker of English, meaning that English is the only language which the non-native speakers outnumber the native speakers. between people who share neither a common native language nor a common culture, and for whom English is the chosen foreign language of communicat 1996). For example, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), comprised of 10 countries which are home to more than 1000 languages, declared English as the official working language of all member states in order to foster efficient communication (Kirkpatrick, 2010). Because of its wide use, being proficient in English is becoming increasingly important to the global community in. In Taiwan,. English proficiency can be a crucial factor in career advancement. A study conducted by The Language Training and Testing Center (LTTC, 2005), which examined the correlation between Taiwanese. sh proficiency and their. job duties and job positions, revealed that English proficiency plays an important role for promotion within the banking industry. According to a poll done by the 104 Job Bank in 2008, published as a report in Business Today, one of the leading business periodicals in Taiwan, among the 240 thousand job opportunities 47% of them in their databank set English proficiency as an entrance requirement and as a requirement for upward mobility in the corporate structure (Chen, 2009). In other words, if one has poor English proficiency, he or she has 50% fewer job opportunities than his/her counterparts. Moreover, the same poll showed that if one would like to apply for jobs in fields like quality control, marketing, and purchasing, the high-intermediate level of. 2.

(14) the General English Proficiency Test (GEPT) was a minimum requirement. Similarly, according to a survey conducted by Career in 2010, another leading business monthly magazine in Taiwan, 40.4% of corporations required job applicants to submit their English proficiency certificates (Zang, 2010). In order to maintain the international competitiveness of college graduates in Taiwan, the Council for Economic Planning and Development, Executive Yuan, Taiwan (2002) proposed two programs that treat English as the most important element for improvement in the quality of human resources, E-. of . As a result, the Ministry of Education (MOE) urged. every university to stipulate English benchmark policies for graduation, which requires college graduates in Taiwan to pass a certain level of English language tests, such as the intermediate level of the GEPT before they graduate (Chang, 2007; Huang et al., 2006; Yu, 2004). Moreover, the MOE also encouraged every university to teach some content courses, such as Economics, Calculus, and Chemical Engineering Thermodynamics, in English (Chang, 2007). These English educational policies have greatly influenced the design of the tertiary English language curriculum in the past decade. Although the importance of mastering English is recognized by educators and the general population, the outcomes of the government initiatives seem unsatisfactory. Some reports and research showed that the English proficiency of many college graduates has failed to meet workplace demands or needs for advanced study. For example, the Educational Testing Service (ETS) Taiwan branch (2009 a) reported that the average score of Taiwanese college test-takers for the TOEIC tests in 2008 was 577 out of 990. However, according to a survey on employee test-takers. 3.

(15) done by ETS Taiwan branch (2009 b), more than 70% of the employees surveyed reported that they could not fulfill the workplace demands until they had scored 700 points or above on TOEIC tests. In the same survey, 18% of the employees even claimed that they could not find a decent job unless they scored more than 905 points on TOEIC tests. The results of these two studies indicate that a huge gap exists between the demand for English proficiency in the workplace and the English capabilities of college students in Taiwan. In addition, Dr. Wei-Chou Chen, the president of National Taiwan University (NTU) from 1993 to 2005, maintained that the English proficiency of college students in Taiwan was notably inadequate (Chen, 2001). A survey done by the MOE (Peng, 2007) ma. Among all the college graduates in 2006,. 10,188 participants reported that they passed the GEPT. However, 52.6% of them only passed the elementary level, which represents the English proficiency expected of a junior high graduate in Taiwan; 34.8% of them passed the intermediate level, which represents the English proficiency that a senior high graduate in Taiwan should have; and only 17.3% of them passed the high-intermediate level, which represents the English proficiency that a non-English-major college graduate should have. Furthermore, many employers also complain that college graduates in Taiwan do not have adequate English needed in the workplace. For instance, according to a study jointly conducted by National Chengchi University and National Pingtung University of Science and Technology (Hsu, 2005) on 720 sophomores and seniors from three public and private universities, the participants who majored in applied English only scored 492.39 on TOEIC and the non-applied English majors scored 397.01 on average. In this same study, the researchers also conducted a poll to ascertain the threshold level of English proficiency for workplace requirements. The interviewed. 4.

(16) foreign-investment firms in Taiwan set 558 points on the TOEIC test as an average threshold for recruitment, and the local counterparts set 492 points as a threshold. Thus, the above findings showed that the communicative abilities of participants of applied English majors still did not satisfy the demands of even the local companies. It is not surprising that non-applied-English-major participants would have greater problems if they need to demonstrate their English abilities in the workplace. Furthermore, the inadequacy of English proficiency of college graduates in Taiwan may not only seriously hinder their competitiveness in the job market but also jeopardize the economic growth of Taiwan in the long run because there would be few people who are capable of dealing with international business. Although college students are blamed for the inadequacy of their English proficiency, which does not meet the demands in the workplace, Wang (2003) noted that 85.7% of the college students in her study revealed strong motivation toward English learning, and they were aware of the importance of English in their future career. Therefore, there seem to be some other factors affecting the learning and making the results unsatisfactory. Many studies have investigated the reasons for the poor results of English learning in Taiwan even though learners devote themselves so much. Wang (2004) and Chu (2009) both negative washback effect to students because it merely made students drill their English to pass the threshold rather than to enhance their communicative competence. Chern (2010) also raised questions about the effectiveness of these current educational policies. Some studies showed that the inadequacy of English proficiency of college-level students may be attributed to the inefficiency of the tertiary-level English curriculum (Chia, Johnson, Chia & Olive, 1999; Li, 2006; Shih & Chang, 2005) and the inappropriateness of learning materials (Lin, 2011).. 5.

(17) Since 1993, although the MOE in Taiwan has encouraged each tertiary institution to design its own English program and choose its own textbooks and materials, the improvement of the outcome of English learning for college students was not obvious. Chia et al. (1999) argued that tertiary English curriculum designers and tertiary English instructors seldom understand the needs of students. English education in colleges and universities in Taiwan thus failed to satisfy students expectations and to facilitate their language competence. According to a four-year. undertaken by the English Department of National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU) and sponsored by the MOE (2001-2005), the interviewed students complained that college English courses were dull, impractical, and showed little innovation (Shih & Chang, 2005). In addition, Li (2006) revealed that almost half of the students from 76 universities/colleges in Taiwan who completed questionnaires reported that their English proficiency did not improve after they attended university/college. Li (2007) also cited that 42% of university students thought that their English proficiency regressed after they entered university/college. Moreover, the interviewed college students who were nontextbooks adopted in their college English reading classes were much easier than their senior high English textbooks. Because of this, they thought that they would not benefit from the college English classes and, thus, lowered their motivation toward English learning.. Rationale of the Study The above studies have pointed out that the tertiary English curriculum in Taiwan is incongruent with the expectation of students and the demands of the. 6.

(18) workplace, despite the emphasis placed on it by governmental institutions. ESP curriculum may be a remedy to solve the problem (Chia, Johnson, Chia & Olive, 1998; Liu, 2011; Tsou, 2011). However, although the tertiary English curriculum has become the focus of curriculum research recently, most of the existing literature was still on the EGP curriculum. Very few studies investigated if the ESP curriculum can prepare college students to meet the English demands of the workplace. This study aims to conduct a needs analysis of the English skills required in the Taiwanese workplace and to evaluate the tertiary business English curriculum in Taiwan. The English needs for business, especially in the fields of international trade, manufacturing, and finance, were the main focus of investigation in this study. The main reason that business was selected as the focus for this present study was that Taiwan is a country that is highly dependent on international trade. According to the Department of Statistics, Ministry of Economic Affairs, in 2010, 73.65% of the Gross Domestic Products (GDP) was exported abroad, while 66.51% of the GDP was spent on importing products for domestic consumption. In addition to international trade, business-related disciplines, especially finance and manufacturing, were investigated in the present study for the following reasons. First, based on the results of the studies which investigated the choice of major among college students from 2005 to 2007 (Peng, 2006, 2007 & 2008), business majors comprised the greatest population among all the college students, about 24.39% of the college students choosing to major in business on the average. Peng (2006) discovered that in 2005 the majority of business college graduates were recruited into the fields of finance/insurance (19.21%) and manufacturing (18.86%), ranking these two fields as the first and second largest employers of graduates. In 2006, 25.6% of business college graduates were hired in the manufacturing fields, and 17.5% were. 7.

(19) hired in the finance and insurance field. Second, compared with the students from other colleges, business-major graduates have more opportunities to use English in their future jobs and are required to reach a certain level of English proficiency. For example, Zang ( English proficiency as the third priority when recruiting employees. Moreover, in Cheung et al s (2004) study, compared with other non-English major college graduates, the business major college graduates were expected to reach a higher level of English proficiency. In addition to examining the need for English competency in the workplace, the researcher also investigated the tertiary English curriculum designed for business-major students in Taiwan. In particular, the researcher focused on the ESP courses for business-major students, such as Business English, Business Correspondence, and Business Oral Communication. The main reason that the researcher focused on the business-related English courses was that these courses serve to prepare students for the English needed in their future profession. Therefore, by scrutinizing the objectives and content of these courses, the researcher may examine the extent to which the English demands of the workplace are met. Hutchinson and Waters 1987) tripartite categorization of needs served as the framework to describe the English needs in the workplace and to evaluate the tertiary EBP curricula in Taiwan. They categorized needs into three kinds-- necessities, lacks, and wants. The first kind, necessities demands of the target situation, i.e., what the learner has to know to function effectively in the target situation (Hutchinson & Waters, 1987, p. 55). The remaining two kinds, lacks and wants, are learning needs. Lacks refers to the type of need that learners think that they have difficulties with or they lack in the target situation.. 8.

(20) Wants are the needs that language learners want to enhance. Hutchinson and Waters maintained that learner-perceived wants should be also investigated in needs analysis due to the crucial role of learner motivation in the learning process. Many researchers have supported Hutchinson and Water. wants may be very b;. Dudley-Evans & St John, 1998; Jasso-Aquilar, 2005; Long, 2005; Mead, 1980; Shih, Su & Lin, 1998; Tsui, 1992). After conducting the interviews with business professionals, the researcher also found a discrepancy among the target situation. of Hutchinson and Waters (1987) seems to fit the current state of affairs and was, thus, adopted to categorize the information gathered in this study. Moreover, Bachman and Palmer s (2010) categories of language functions. which were selected from their framework of Communicative Language Ability, were adopted in this study to ascertain communicative functions of the target tasks in the business workplace. Bachman and Palmer grouped communicative functions into four macro-categories-- ideational, manipulative, heuristic, and imaginative. They indicated that the ideational function is the function where one uses language to express or interpret meaning in terms of their experience of the real world, including the use of language to inform, to express or exchange information about ideas, knowledge, or feelings (p. 46). Description, classification, and explanation are examples in which one uses language to perform ideational functions. The manipulative function is the function wherein one uses language to affect the world around himself or herself. Bachman and Palmer further divided this function into three micro-functions. One is the instrumental function, with which one uses language to get other people to do things for him or her, such as suggesting, requesting, and. 9.

(21) inquiring. Another function is the regulatory function, with which one uses language to control the behavior of others. For example, one uses language to formulate and state rules, laws, and norms of behavior (p. 47). The other function is the interactional function, with which one uses language to establish and maintain desirable social and working relationships, such as greeting, complimenting, or apologizing. The heuristic function refers to the function in which one uses language to extend his/her knowledge of the world around him/herself. For instance, one use language to solve problems at work or to gain the latest business information about the bankruptcy of Detroit. The fourth category, the imaginative function, refers to the speaker s or writer s creative ability to compose poetry or essays. This classification scheme was selected because it could differentiate and explain the functions of the target tasks carried out in the workplace.. Significance of the Study The researcher intends to stimulate an interaction between tertiary educational institutions and the industries in order to communicate the needs of the industries to academia. By investigating under which conditions and what kinds of communication functions are demanded for English communication in the business workplace, the analyses of English needs collected from the workplace can serve as a blueprint to facilitate tertiary English instructors to design syllabi and curricula. In addition, based on the self-reports from employers and employees, the findings on which aspects of English proficiency need to be enhanced can provide a guideline for tertiary English instructors to prioritize what to emphasize in their classes to better prepare college students for the internationally-oriented workplace.. 10.

(22) Research Questions Based on the above purposes of the study, the following research questions are proposed: 1. What are the workplace English needs as determined by the daily tasks in the fields of international trade, manufacturing, and finance, and what are the communicative functions of these tasks? 2. What are the workplace English needs perceived by the tertiary EBP instructors in Taiwan and what tasks do instructors use to meet these needs? 3. To what degree do the tertiary EBP curricula in Taiwan prepare college students with the English skills needed in the workplace of international trade, manufacturing, and finance?. 11.

(23) CHAPTER TWO REVIEW OF LITERATURE This chapter presents an overview of literature relevant to this study. The first section points out the theme of this study, English for Business Purposes (EBP). Its relation with English for Specific Purposes (ESP) and the highlight of current research on EBP are briefly introduced. The second section reviews the studies which examined the tertiary English curricula in Taiwan, including the curricula for English for General Purposes (EGP) and ESP. The third section of this chapter describes some related studies on the English proficiency of college students in Taiwan. The final and main part of this chapter discusses the role of needs analysis in the fields of EBP and reviews related studies of English needs and requirements in the workplace in the Asian and European contexts where English is a foreign language, including Taiwan, Japan, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Lebanon, Germany, France, and Finland.. English for Business Purposes As mentioned in Chapter One, English has become a lingua franca among people from different countries and in various fields, especially in the business field. Demand for Business English has developed drastically in re mushrooming of courses for learners, courses for teachers, materials for learners, and John, 1996). Yet compared to other ESP fields, there is still relatively little published research on EBP. In this section, the scope of EBP and the relations between EBP and ESP are discussed first. Then the directions of previous literature on EBP are highlighted and some recent research findings are introduced.. 12.

(24) ESP vs. EBP ESP is an umbrella term including two main sub-divisions, EAP (English for Academic Purposes) and EOP (English for Occupational Purposes) (Dudley-Evans and St John, 1998; Robinson, 1991). The term EAP refers to English that is for studying in a specific discipline, while EOP refers to English that is not for studying but for professional training and vocational purposes. Furthermore, Hutchinson and Waters (1987) stated that each professional area such as English for Science and Technology, English for Business and Economics, and English for Social Sciences, has an EAP and EOP division. Take the theme of this present study, Business English, as an example. English for the academic study of business, finance, banking, economics and accounting content knowledge would be regarded as the field of English for Academic Business Purposes; English for training for specific trades or finding a job would be regarded as the field of English for Occupational Purposes, especially English for Business Purposes. Alternatively, Dudley-Evans and St John (1998) i itself has become an umbrella term encompassing what we can call English for General Business Purposes (EGBP) and English for Specific Business Purposes According to their distinction, EGBP courses are usually for pre-experience learners or those at the very early stages of their career. The courses focus on the traditional four skills plus specific grammar and vocabulary development. On the other hand, ESBP courses are run for job-experienced learners who bring business knowledge skills to the language-learning situation. These courses are carefully tailored and likely to focus on one or two language skills and specific business communicative events.. 13.

(25) In the previous chapter, the researcher has pointed out the purpose of this study is to prepare college students in Taiwan to meet the English requirements in the business workplace. Thus, based on the above discussion, due to the research motivation and research context, ESBP stands out as the most appropriate direction for business English courses in the tertiary context in Taiwan. However, EGBP deserves to be taken into consideration due to the fact that college students have not yet figured out the job they will apply for in the future, which makes their needs diversified. Therefore, the commonalties of English requirements for different jobs could be detected and serve as blueprints for the planning of the tertiary EBP curriculum and syllabus. In addition, the concept of business English as lingual franca (BELF) should be considered in the stage of planning of the tertiary EBP curriculum and syllabus. Rogerson-Revell (2007) indicated that most English-medium communications in business are non-native speakers to non-native speakers (NNS-NNS), and the English they use is international English, not that of native speakers (NS) of English-medium countries. The ultimate goal of the international English is effective communication, but not necessarily NS-like. Dudley-Evans and primary concern for EBP is to communicate effectively, not necessarily totally Thus, being an effective business communicator depends not only on verbal language proficiency but also on personal and interpersonal skills. In addition, intercultural issues are increasingly emphasized in order to avoid cross-cultural miscommunication.. 14.

(26) Research Issues The previous literature on EBP showed that the focus of EBP studies was heavily on the investigation of business discourse. Due to the popularity and influence of discourse analysis, the texts of oral or written business communication have been scrutinized. Therefore, the lexis of business vocabulary, the genre of business emails, or the language of business meetings have been identified. For example, Pickett (1986) indica St ediating. general public. there may not be an easily definable body of lexis and. grammar. However, Yeung (2007) analyzed 22 authentic business reports to identify textual features that are typical of business reports as a genre. Her study showed that there are certain characteristics distinguishing business reports from other genres, such as scientific reports or academic writing. For instance, the findings of academic reports are expected to be generalized at the end, while findings of business reports are expected to make specific recommendations. Since business reports are primarily written to make recommendations or inform decision-making, they are essentially persuasive. Moreover, the use of subjective reference, such as I and we, in business. particularly with the recount of methodology or procedure, or alternatively, the stating of professional or personal opinions which may diverge from what 177). Another recent example is demonstrated by Handford (2010), who recorded 64. 15.

(27) business meetings from 26 international companies and constructed the Cambridge and Nottingham Business English Corpus (CANBEC) with one million words of spoken data. He found that the most frequent lexis used in the business meetings is the word we. Unlike the written discoursal function claimed by Yeung (2007), Handford suggested that the social relationship in the business fields tends to be collaborative. Moreover, in a business meeting, the word we was used to mostly show inclusive organizational identity, which refers to both companies in the meeting. In addition, among the four modals, need to/should/have to/must, which denote obligation, Handford indicated that the modal need to was used most frequently in business meetings; on the contrary, the modal must was rarely used. He explained that this not only shows the collaborative business culture but also reveals a strategy of threat he or she requests someone to do something in the workplace. Other researchers found that acceptable moves and the rhetoric of business letters can be both culturally and linguistically bound. For example, Jenkins and Hinds (1987) compared American and Japanese business writing in English and discovered that Americans tended to use a reader-oriented rhetoric aiming at persuading the reader of the advantages of what the writers wants, while Japanese writers tended to maintain an appropriate space between the reader and writer through the extensive use of set expressions. Nickerson (1993) found that Dutch business letters written in English are more formal and use fewer opening and confirmation moves than British letters. Although the research on business discourse analysis offers valuable suggestions on the development of EBP courses and materials, the results of such research are transferable to pedagogy only if the English proficiency of students is high enough.. 16.

(28) Therefore, the most fundamental step of ESP curriculum-- needs analysis-- ought to be implemented before these findings can be put into practice. Even though the EBP courses and teaching materials are designed with well-established discourse analysis . The focus of this present study is to ascertain frequent communicative skills and functions demonstrated in the fields of international trade, manufacturing, and finance. By integrating the findings of needs analysis and previous research findings on business discourse, the researcher hopes to provide further detailed information for the tertiary EBP instructors to plan syllabi and choose proper teaching materials for students.. The Tertiary English Curriculum in Taiwan In this section, the researcher reviews some studies which investigate the planning and evaluation of the tertiary English curriculum in Taiwan (Chang, 2005; Chern & Yeh, 2005; Chern, 2010; Chia et al, 1999) so that the context of the tertiary English education in Taiwan could be depicted. research which comprehensively investigated the up-to-date requirements of general English courses for general college students in Taiwan. Descriptions of requirements of the General English courses of 60 general universities were collected from their respective websites. Regarding the mandatory requirement on length of study, 32 universities out of 60 only required their students to take an English course as a required course in the first year. Twenty universities out of 60 had their students take required English courses for two years. Only eight universities required their students to take English courses as required courses for at least three years. Therefore, the majority of college students in Taiwan only needed to take required English courses. 17.

(29) for one to two years. Regarding the mandatory requirement on credits, the majority of the universities required students to take four to six credits of English courses. Among the 60 universities, 17 required their students to take four credits of courses, and 24 required their students to take six credits of courses. y, which also examined the planning and evaluation of the tertiary General English curriculum in Taiwan, the researcher found that most of the universities lowered their credit requirements for English courses. Chern explained that the reason for this is to meet the policy of MOE which required universities to reduce the total credit requirements for graduation so that college students would have more free time to explore their interests outside school. Moreover, Chern found that although the credits for required English courses have been reduced, the total hours of required English courses in many universities still remain the same as before the credit reduction. For example, National Cheng Kung University (NCKU) requires their freshmen and sophomore students to take one-credit mandatory English course every semester for two years. However, their freshmen have to take a three-hour class to earn one-credit of English, and the sophomores have to take a two-hour class to earn a one-credit English course. Regarding the course orientation of the tertiary English curriculum, Chern (2010) revealed that the current tertiary English curriculum in Taiwan is English for General Purposes (EGP)-oriented. The only exception is NCKU. NCKU designed their freshman English curriculum as EGP-oriented and the sophomore English curriculum as ESP-oriented. By doing needs analysis first, they designed 12 ESP courses, including five courses for English for Business Purposes, five courses for English for Science and Technology Purposes, and two courses for English for Medical Purposes. Apart from NCKU, the other universities that Chern investigated focused on the. 18.

(30) enhancement of basic English skills, especially English reading skills. They indicated that the ESP curriculum was not adopted due to two reasons. First, most of the tertiary rature, linguistics, or TESOL. Few of them have the training of other professional training. Thus, eligible ESP instructors are not easily found. In addition, the. P are too diversified to meet.. From the perspective of economic benefits, many college English curriculum designers found it difficult to offer so many ESP courses. However, i. on toward. English learning, some researchers conducted needs analyses to investigate the perspectives of students (Chia, Johnson, Chia & Olive, 1998; Liu, 2011; Tsou, 2011). Chia et al (1998) surveyed 349 medical students and 20 faculty for their opinions toward the design of the tertiary English curriculum. They indicated that 58.15% of the participants in their study proposed that the freshman English course should be relevant to their majors. Furthermore, Liu (2011) compared the feedback between the freshman students at National Taipei University (NTPU) who received the ESP courses and their counterparts who received the EGP courses and reported that the students with ESP training gave more positive feedback than the ones with EGP training. After National Cheng-Kong University (NCKU) implemented the ESP training into the sophomore English curriculum, Tsou (2011) also indicated that sophomores were much more satisfied with the ESP training than with their first-year EGP courses. Moreover, Chern and Yeh (2005) pointed out that the ultimate goal of. international workplace. Therefore, there is an urgent need to offer ESP training to facilitate college students to express their professional knowledge with effective English communication.. 19.

(31) The English Proficiency of Undergraduate Students in Taiwan Following the understanding of current tertiary English curriculum in Taiwan, this section briefly reports the findings of some studies which aim to investigate the English proficiency of undergraduate students in Taiwan (Chang, 2007; Cheung et al, 2004; LTTC, 2009; Peng, 2006-2008). The following studies, utilizing either questionnaires or English tests, all show that college graduates in Taiwan do not obtain English proficiency commensurate with their length of study, and the results all support the perceptions of college instructors and employers that college graduates have less than desirable English abilities. Investigation of English proficiency of current. Taiwan in 2003, 32.3% of the college-student participants scored lower than 410 points on the traditional pencil-and-paper TOEFL test, which is commensurate with the level of junior high school (Chang, 2007). scored even lower than 350, indicating they were still at the phase of beginning learners. Only 1.1% of the participants scored more than 608 points, which approximates the C1 level of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR), which is considered by the designers of the framework to be the effective operational proficiency level (Council of Europe, 2001). Regarding the General English Proficiency Test (GEPT), an English test with five levels1, including elementary, intermediate, high-intermediate, advanced, and. The elementary level of the GEPT approximates the English proficiency that a junior high graduate should have. The intermediate level corresponds to the English proficiency that a senior high graduate should have. The high-intermediate level corresponds to the English proficiency that a non-English-major college graduate should have. The advanced level corresponds to the English proficiency that an English major college graduate should have. And the superior level approximates the English proficiency of a near-native speaker of English. 20.

(32) superior, developed by the Language Training and Testing Center in Taiwan (LTTC), the results of test-takers do not show undergraduate English abilities in a positive light. Among the five levels, the intermediate and high-intermediate levels are the most common levels adopted by most of the universities in Taiwan as the graduation threshold for English proficiency. However, LTTC reported that in 2007, among 9,500 test-takers who graduated from colleges and universities, only 35.2% of them, 3,343 people, passed the first stage of the Intermediate Level of the GEPT, which listening and reading abilities (Chang, 2007; LTTC, 2009). When it comes to the second stage, the English speaking and writing test, only 26% of the college students passed the test. In addition, in 2008, 40% of the college students and college graduates passed the first stage of the Intermediate Level of the GEPT; however, only 21% of them passed the second stage (LTTC, 2009). If the business-. the GEPT is highlighted,. in 2007, only 32% of business majors who took the high-intermediate level of GEPT passed the first stage; the passing rate slightly decreased to 23% when it came to the second stage. In 2008, 35% of the business-major test-takers passed the first stage, while only 23% survived in the second stage (LTTC, 2009). That is to say, the above data shows. iency. correlated with the education they received. Moreover, in 2007, only 27% of the business-major test takers passed the first stage of the intermediate level of GEPT. Among the same test-takers, the passing rate slightly decreased to 24% when it came to the second stage. In 2008, 36% of test-takers with a level of GEPT, while only 20% of them survived in the second stage (LTTC, 2009).. 21.

(33) reached the English proficiency that senior high graduates should have, but did not reach the level that a college graduate is expected to. In addition to LTTC, the Bureau of Higher Education, Ministry of Education in Taiwan has sponsored the Center for Educational Research and Evaluation at National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU) to conduct a longitudinal study since 2004 to investigate the workforce of undergraduate students around Taiwan, to examine if they were ready to prepare themselves to the workplaces, and to understand what they contribute to the workplaces after their graduation one year later. They have published the results for undergraduate students graduating in 2005 (Peng, 2006 March; Peng, 2008 March) and 2006 (Peng, 2007 March). However, the researcher found that the data collection in these two studies is inconsistent because only the 2006 study reports English proficiency statistics. In the study targeting college graduates in 2005 (Peng, 2006), when the college graduates were asked how well they have developed abilities for employment during college life, English was the ability that the respondents thought that they lacked most. The average score of this question was 2.51 out of 5, which means that the respondents did not have confidence in their English abilities. It is worth mentioning that no matter what background the respondents came from, among all the abilities for employment, English ability gained the lowest score. It may indicate that the English language education they received during their college life could not enhance their English abilities. The following year in a study which investigated college graduates in 2006 (Peng, 2007), it was reported that only 5.27% of the college graduates had strong confidence in their English ability meeting the demands of the workplace; and 40.09% had confidence in their English ability meeting the demands of the workplace.. 22.

(34) In contrast, 44.95% did not have confidence in their English ability to accomplish the tasks in the workplace, while 9.69% of the subjects even thought that they had very low confidence in their English ability. Compared with the results of the overall colleg. their English ability for the. workplace was even weaker. Only 4.78% of them had strong confidence in their English ability; 39.2% of them thought that they had adequate English ability to handle the tasks in the workplaces in English. On the contrary, 46.56% of them did not think that they had sufficient English ability to deal with the tasks in the workplace in English; 9.46% of them even thought that they seriously lacked any English ability. Moreover, among all the college graduates in 2006, 10,188 participants reported that they passed the GEPT. However, 52.6% of them only passed the elementary level, 34.8% of them passed the intermediate level, and only 17.3% of them passed the high-intermediate level, the English proficiency that a non-English-major college graduate should have. In a similar vein, Cheung et al (2004) conducted a study to investigate the general English proficiency for college students in Taiwan. By using the English proficiency benchmarks that are researcher-designed and based on CEFR, American Council on Foreign Language (ACTFL) and Canadian Language Benchmarks (CLB), they conducted a survey to ask professors to estimate the level of English proficiency college freshmen in Taiwan had, what level of English proficiency college graduates in Taiwan had, and their own expectation for the English proficiency of those college graduates. Cheung et al found that there was a huge gap between the teacherestimated levels and the expected levels for college graduates. Among their 12-level English proficiency benchmarks, more than 80% of the interviewed professors. 23.

(35) expected that college students could reach the 8th level for their English reading and speaking abilities. Regarding English listening ability, 61.7% of the interviewed professors expected that students could reach at least the 6th level; 72.9% of the interviewed professors expected that students could reach the 8th level. However, when college students graduated, they only reached the 3rd to 4th level for English listening, speaking and writing and the 5th level for English reading ability. According to the above review, the poor English proficiency of college graduates casts doubt on the effectiveness of our current tertiary English curriculum in Taiwan because it obviously failed to prepare our college graduates for meeting the workplace requirements. However, from the review of the current tertiary English curriculum in Taiwan, college students are only required to take four to eight credits of English courses during their college life. It may not be surprising to find the inconvenient truth that students lack English proficiency. Due to the limitation of time and credits, there are urgent needs to ascertain the tasks and English communication skills required in the workplace and the English communication skills that current business professionals lack. On the other hand, what tertiary EBP instructors teach in the classes also deserves to be investigated so that the discrepancies between demands of the workplace and the supplies of academia can be pinpointed.. Needs Analysis The core methodology in this present study is needs analysis. Therefore, in this section, the researcher discusses various definitions of needs provided by different researchers (Berwick, 1989; Brindley, 1989; Dudley-Evans & St John, 1998; Hutchinson & Waters 1987; Munby, 1978; West, 1997). Then, the methodologies of needs analysis are introduced (Jasso-Aguilar, 2005; Long, 2005; Richards, 2001;. 24.

(36) West 1997). In addition, some studies which examined the English needs required in the workplace in and outside Taiwan were selected, based on their methodology and the nature of the occupations investigated, to provide a framework for analysis and comparison in the present study (Bacha & Bahous, 2008; Chang, 2011a; Chew, 2005; CHRMA & ETS Taiwan branch, 2010; Cowling, 2007; Edwards, 2000; Evans, 2010; Kankaanranta & Louhiala-Salminen, 2010; Kassim & Ali, 2010; LTTC, 2005; Rogerson-Revell, 2007; Shih, Su & Lin, 1998; Taillefer, 2007; Tsui, 1992).. Definitions of Needs The foundation of the ESP curriculum is built on the analysis of needs (Belcher, 2006 & 2009; Dudley-Evans & St John, 1998; Hutchinson & Waters, 1987; Richards, 2001; West, 1997). Needs analysis guides language instructors to decide their syllabus, course design, materials design and production, and evaluation. Although needs analysis is the basis for curriculum development, researchers have not yet reached a satisfying conclusion toward the definition of needs. Brindley (1984) once commented that The term needs is not as straightforward as it might appear, and hence the term is sometimes used to refer to wants, desires, demands, expectation, motivations, lacks, constraints, and requirements. (Brindley, in Richards 2001, p. 54). The focus of needs analysis shifts through time. In 1960s, influenced by the guistics, language learning needs were defined as discrete language items of grammar and vocabulary. Afterwards, Hymes (1972) coined a term communicative competence and indicated. and producing vocabulary and grammar, but also includes the ability of using 25.

(37) language with appropriate functions in proper situations. Inspired by Hymes, Munby (1978) proposed a communicative needs processor, a questionnaire inventory consisting of about 300 subskills grouped into 54 categories, to aid needs analysis of providing detailed lists of microfunctions. In other words, needs was mainly defined as language functions instead of vocabulary and grammar. sophisticatedly divide language needs into language functions, his communicative needs processor did not attract most language curriculum planners. Berwick (1989). interpretations of need and that, at the same time, it leaves largely unexamined the problem. Richards (2001) made a similar statement that. When it was published, the Munby model was welcomed as a systematic and objective set of processes for arriving at a specification of student needs and selecting language to match them. However, those who attempted to use the model soon discovered that it depended on subjective and often arbitrary judgments and decisions at almost every level (p. 35).. as Hutchinson and. of necessities, wants, and lacks, felt. and perceived needs (Berwick, 1989), objective and subjective needs (Brindley, 1989), -Evans and concept of needs analysis in ESP. Hutchinson and Waters (1987) were the first researchers to distinguish target needs from learning needs. They categorized needs into three kinds. The first kind, necessities, refers to the needs in the target situation, i.e., what the learner must know to function effectively in the workplace. The two other kinds, lacks and wants, are learning needs. Lacks, refers to the needs that learners think that they have difficulties with or they lack in the target situation. In other words, l 26.

(38) abilities and come into two varieties: one is self-efficacy or self-assessment and the It must be clarified that lacks are determined as a result of evaluation of ability. That is, a deficiency despite a period of learning, which differs from target needs wherein individuals do not have skills because they have yet to undergo training. Thirdly, wants are the needs that language learners subjectively desire to enhance. Berwick (1989) divided needs into two categories: felt needs and perceived needs.. He. he other side of the coin---. Similar to Berwick, Brindley (1989) proposed a simple dichotomy of needs: objective needs and subjective needs. He indicated that Objective needs refers to needs which are derivable from different kinds of factual information about learners, their use of language in real-life communication situations as well as their current language proficiency and language difficulties. Subjective needs refers to the cognitive and affective needs of the learner in the learning situation, derivable from information about affective and cognitive factors such as personality, confidence, attitudes, rning of English and their individual cognitive style and learning strategies (p. 70).. When conducting needs analysis, many researchers have found out that learners may have very different felt needs/wants from the target situation needs/necessities, or the learners lacks (Chang, 2011b; Dudley-Evans & St John, 1998; Jasso-Aquilar, 2005; Long, 2005; Shih, Su & Lin, 1998; Tsui, 1992). For example, when analyzing the English needs of aviation security examination police officers in Taiwan, Chang 27.

(39) (2011b) found that the participated aviation police officers claimed that they lacked the English abilities of (1) explaining the security examination regulations to foreign tourists, (2) understanding what foreign tourists said, and (3) using precise words to describe the objects needed to be checked and the location of that object in the luggage. However, the same participants, when asked which English course they wanted to take, reported that they wanted to learn (1) the names of objects which are prohibited to carry on the plane, (2) polite English request expressions, and (3) the description of the location of the prohibited object in the luggage. When conducting the interviews with business professionals, the researcher also found the discrepancy among necessities, lack. on of. Hutchinson and Waters (1987) seems to fit the current state of affairs and is adopted to label the information gathered in this study. West (1997:71-72) further expanded the scope of needs and proposed five different concepts of needs analysis: A. Target-situation analysis--- West indicated that this type of needs could be It could operate at various levels to assist language instructors to establish priorities in terms of various languages, to establish priorities in terms of skills in one language, or even to establish priorities in terms of Language for Specific Purposes (LSP) situations, functions or tasks. B. Deficiency analysis--- West indicated that deficiency analysis should be. g point of the LSP curriculum. This type of needs could be termed Brindley (1989) also argued the similar view that it is not. 28.

(40) enough to produce a teaching syllabus if one just conducts an objective needs analysis since 64). C. Strategy analysis--teaching methods (West, 1997). West indicated that this type of analysis can help language instructors determine the most efficient way to their teaching. D. Means analysis--- This analysis focuses on the teaching environment of the LSP curriculum and establishes its constraints and opportunities from the perspectives of classroom culture, learner factors, teacher profiles, and status of language institutional profiles. E. Language audits--- They are large scale operations on language needs and training requirements carried out by companies, professional sectors or countries, and consist of the above four analyses.. of learners themselves but also from the factor of context, such as teaching environment and professional sectors. In addition to analyzing needs from target situations and learning situations, Dudley-Evans and which is concerned with what learners already know, their strengths and weaknesses in language, skills, and learning experiences. As shown in Figure 1, Dudley-Evans and St John (1998: 125) created their concept of needs analysis in ESP as the following eight aspects: First, professional information about the learners, which is similar to the concept of target situation analysis proposed by West (1997) and refers to the tasks and activities which require English in the workplace. Second,. 29.

(41) personal information about the learners refers to the factors which may affect the way the learners learn, such as previous learning experiences, cultural information, attitude to English. Third, English language information about target situations refers to the characteristics of language, such as vocabulary, grammar, and functions, used to perform the tasks in the workplace. Fourth. is a concept which is. identical to Hutchinson and Waters (1987) lacks and West s deficiency analysis. Like West, Dudley-Evans and St John believe that ascertaining the learners lacks gives ESP course designers valuable information where they should start and makes the training efficient. Fifth, learners needs from English courses is similar to the concept of wants (Hutchinson and Waters) and Brindley s (1989) subjective needs, and refers to what learners want to gain from the English courses. Compared to the fifth concept, the sixth concept refers to language learning needs, i.e. objective needs. Seventh, Dudley-Evans and St John urge ascertaining what are the effective ways for learners to learn what they lack. Finally, in the middle of this concept map is the information about the environment in which the course will be run. Dudley-Evans and St John think that the teaching environment may also be an. Figure 1. Dudley-Evans & St John s concept map of needs analysis. 1. professional information about learners. 2. personal information about learners 8. environmental situation. 7. how to communicate in the target 6. language situation learning needs. 30. 5. from courses. 3. language information about target situations.

(42) Methodologies of Needs Analysis for English for Business Purposes This section introduces the sources a researcher can consult to collect needs for English for Business Purposes and the methods to elicit the needs. The strengths and weaknesses of each source and every method are discussed. With regard to sources for needs analysis for English for business purposes, previous studies collect information from four perspectives--- published and unpublished literature, learners, language teachers and applied linguists, and domain experts. Long (2005) suggested that detailed job descriptions could be a very useful source to collect needs because most job advertisements list job tasks and English proficiency requirements. Learners have been the major source to collect language learning needs in the previous studies. However, it is often criticized that learners could not be a reliable source for needs analysis for English for Occupational Purposes because they lack work experience and sometimes do not know what they really need. On the other hand, language teachers and applied linguists are often consulted to realize what language learners needs. However, although they are language experts, Jasso-Aguilar (2005. familiar with the content knowledge of business. Among all these sources, domain experts, who were often ignored, were strongly recommended by Jasso-Aguilar (2005) and Long (2005) due to their familiarity with their tasks at work. However, Long (2005) warned that domain experts are not reliable sources to consult their language needs because they are not trained to be language teachers or applied linguists. As many researchers have pointed out that since any one source of information and every method are likely to be incomplete or partial, a triangulation approach is recommended (Cowling, 2007; Dudley-Evans & St John, 1998; Jasso-Aguilar, 2005;. 31.

(43) Long, 2005; Richards ,2001; West, 1997).. casting a large net. to cover many sources allowed for more opportunities to identify needs and also to filter out any inaccurate perceived needs through the use of triangul. (p. 429).. There are many methods to carry out a needs analysis: questionnaires, self-ratings, interviews, language audits, meetings, participant and non-participant observations, collecting learner language samplers, task analysis, case studies, analysis of available information, such as journals and logs, etc. (Long, 2005; Richards, 2001; West, 1997). Among the above nine methods, the first three are most frequently adopted in the needs analysis studies, especially questionnaires and interviews. Questionnaires can be used with a large number of subjects, and the information gathered is easy to tabulate and analyze. One more advantage of the questionnaire is that it can elicit information about many different kinds of issues at the same time, such as language use, communication difficulties, preferred learning styles, preferred classroom activities, and attitudes and beliefs (Richards, 2001). However, Richards (2001:60) also warned that a disadvantage of questionnaires is may be fairly superficial or imprecise and will often need follow-up to gain a fuller understanding of w. The. second common method, self-ratings, is often included as part of a questionnaire. disadvantage of such an instrument is that it provides only impressionistic information and informatio Thus, interview has its place. It allows for a more in-depth exploration of issues. Nevertheless, an interview takes longer time to administer and is only feasible for smaller groups compared to a questionnaire.. is also recommended by many researchers, for it can obtain authentic information for. 32.

(44) a study; however, it is exceptional to be fortunate enough to utilize direct observation. In most circumstances the direct observation is not feasible. For example, Jasso-Aguilar (2005) indicated that participant observation proved to be the most useful method in her study because it allowed her to gather detailed data and language use. However, the participants in her study were hotel maids, whose duties are usually low-stake and of a non-confidential nature. Chang (2011b) also adopted direct observation to investigate the English needs of the airport security staff. However, because the Taiwanese government mandated the investigation, Chang had the rare opportunity to directly observe her participants. The mandate to do research overrides the objections of participants toward direct observation. Although the direct observation can elicit authentic information, the studies cited in the following section showed that the direct observation is the exception to the norm (Bacha & Bahous, 2008; Chang, 2011a; Chew, 2005; CHRMA & ETS Taiwan branch, 2010; Cowling, 2007; Edwards, 2000; Evans, 2010; Kankaanranta & Louhiala-Salminen, 2010; Kassim & Ali, 2010; LTTC, 2005; Rogerson-Revell, 2007; Shih, Su & Lin, 1998; Taillefer, 2007; Tsui, 1992). Those studies did not use this method because Dudley-Evans and St John (1998) astutely noted that confidentiality issues and extensive efforts in persuading the business professionals to be observed render direct observation untenable or unfeasible. Vandermeeren (2005) also indica. -consuming method, Furthermore, perform well when they are being. observed, so thi Task analysis, another method which was advocated by Richards (2001) and Long (2005), refers to analysis of the tasks which are carried out in English in the. 33.

(45) occupational setting and assessment of the linguistic characteristics and task demands.. characteristics are determined as a basis for designing a language course or training materials (p. 62). Overall, West (1997) advocates that a good needs analysis procedure should have the following requirements: It should be learner-centered and transparent. It should be related to the target situation or real world rather than linguistic categories. It can also be repeatable during the course to take account of evolving needs. In addition, it should be established upon both the subjective and objective needs for a comprehensive view. Therefore, a good needs analysis should include the analyses of both target-situation needs and lear. Finally, a good needs. analysis can establish a syllabus by indicating learning/teaching priority. Moreover, when conducting needs-analyses, Long (2005) strongly advocated the analysis. The first reason to use task as a unit of analysis is ease of data collection, especially collecting data from domain experts. Although domain experts are certain about the tasks they perform in daily work, they know little about language or theoretical linguistic constructs as they lack the linguistic training of language teachers or applied linguists. Thus, when using task as a unit and collecting needs from domain experts, the information identified by them may be more valid than the information collected from language teachers or applied linguists because the latter may know little about the content knowledge as outsiders. Secondly, Long warned that the traditional linguistic-based needs analysis risks econtextualized In addition, Long indicated that task-based analyses reveal more than text-based analyses about the dynamic qualities of target discourse. He. 34.

(46) attempts to communicate with one another. It was the tasks that motivated the texts,. English Needs in the Workplace Outside Taiwan The following studies were selected, based on their methodology and the nature of the occupations investigated, to provide a framework for analysis and comparison in the present study. Accordingly, in this section the researcher reviews the English needs which are required in the workplace in the international context first. The next. in the workplace in Taiwan. The investigation of English needs and situations in the workplace became popular in the past decade. The findings of some related studies conducted in Japan, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Lebanon, Germany, France, and Finland, where English is not the official language, are summarized as follows. Cowling (2007) conducted a needs analysis for a large Japanese heavy-industry company and designed a syllabus for intensive workplace courses based on the results of the needs analysis. He interviewed the staff in the training section in the company, the English instructors who taught in the company, and the employees who were the target students. All the English teachers felt, based on their previous experiences, that a communicative course centering on basic business situations would be most beneficial for students, while the target students identified two situations in which English would be used at work and which would be difficult to deal with: one is telephoning, such as transferring the call or taking a message, and the other is business greetings, especially self-introduction to the clients and guests from different. 35.

(47) cultures. In addition, he asked the target students to fill out an open-ended questionnaire with their senior staff to familiarize the language needs of the future tasks in the workplace. Those senior staff described cultural differences in the meetings and negotiations as a high priority. They also indicated that the following situations required English in their jobs--- negotiations, meetings, placing orders, telephone conversations, and describing business trends. Moreover, these senior staff emphasized that the teaching of first time business contacts with foreign business people would be useful, such as introductions and greetings, hosting business visitors and generally small talk situations. Based on the data gathered, Cowling (2007), thus, designed a content-based notional-functional syllabus. The notional-functional syllabus included the following modules: (a) business introductions; (b) hosting business visitors; (c) business telephoning; (d) placing business orders; and (e) describing business trends. The content-based syllabus covered the following modules: (a) describing products and services; (b) business presentations; (c) business meetings; and (d) business negotiations. The areas of the notional-functional syllabus came first in the overall course package followed by the content-based syllabus areas. Cultural aspects were discussed during each lesson as the opportunity arose. Chew (2005) investigated the English language skills which were used by new graduate employees in their daily work in various departments in four banks in Hong Kong. Through interviews and the use of questionnaires with 16 new bank employees across the four banks, the overall results showed that Cantonese was used in spoken communication and English was used in written discourse. When these participants talked to their colleagues, clients, the media, and other professionals in the other banks, they mainly used Cantonese to communicate with each other. However, this. 36.

(48) information was then translated into English for the written product as memos, minutes of meetings, reports, rules and regulations for bank customers. The importance of English was thus shown when information from written sources, such , was gathered. When these 16 participants were asked which aspect of English language training they would like to receive, about three-quarters expressed their motivation to enhance speaking skills and about half of them expressed their interests in writing skills. Regarding speaking skills, they were interested in receiving training in presentation skills, oral English for daily use and social interaction, negotiation skills and business conversations. For writing skills, they were interested in learning how to write reports, business letters, minutes, and bank documents. A more comprehensive study of language use in the workplace in Hong Kong, Evans (2010) examined the role of written and spoken English, written Chinese, Cantonese and Putonghua in the four key service industries, including the trading and logistics industry and financial services, which hav the past decade. Over 2000 professionals working at different levels were given a questionnaire. The results indicated that English continued to function as the major medium of written professional communication, whereas Cantonese remained the usual language of oral communication. This result is in line with. s finding. (2005). Furthermore, Evans also investigated the most frequently used language tasks. Regarding the use of English in reading and writing, emails surpassed other text types and became the most common task requiring English use. Reading and writing business reports in English came second. The findings showed that the frequency with which a Hong Kong professional needed to write reports in English increased as he or she rose through the ranks. Although Cantonese was the dominate language in the. 37.