CHAPTER IV PRESENTATION, ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION OF DATA
1. Learning Contents of a General English Course Offered to
The learning contents of a General English course offered to Freshman students in BacGiang was determined through literature and detailed outline of the course. General English courses are designed to give students confidence to communicate effectively in real life. Skills such as speaking, listening, reading and writing are the foci of the General English courses and cover essential vocabulary, idioms and colloquial language. Students under these courses are provided with effective training in English for work, study and travel.
General English I Course in Bac Giang Ngo Gia Tu Colleges is given four units credits with 60 hours- time allocation for the first semesters. English I has the learning objectives of providing students with guidance in the study of English Alphabet, vowels, consonants, stress, intonation as well as English basic structures; develop their ability to use these structures in different contexts; enrich their
Socialist Republic of Vietnam Republic of the Philippines knowledge in vocabulary and grammar and improve their ability to communicate effectively by providing comprehensive re-enforcement activities in the four macro-skills of English language.
Students are expected to develop competencies in these skills under this course. In listening, it is expected that students can listen and understand basic words or phrases and answer simple questions to oneself like giving their names, age, hometown, hobby, job and marital status. As for speaking, students are expected to communicate, ask and respond to questions regarding familiar topics like personal information such as student’s friends, family, family members, leisure activities, daily routine, past events and memories.
In terms of reading, it is expected that students can employ scanning and skimming in searching for main ideas or details in varied reading materials like magazines, emails, reports on familiar topics such as friends, oneself, family, family members, leisure activities, shopping, past events or memories. With regards to writing, expressing in written language on topics such as completing a form, informal email, letter about oneself, class, family, holidays, friends are expected to students.
In addition, the course outline of General English I course is divided into five units where each unit has six components namely:
grammar, vocabulary, reading, writing, speaking and listening. Each unit also comprises overall objectives. In unit I, the overall objectives
Socialist Republic of Vietnam Republic of the Philippines are for the students to get to know to each other and introduce themselves and other people. The learning contents of Unit I include verb to be focusing on positives and questions, personal subject, pronouns, possessive adjectives, articles a and an, demonstratives and number in nouns for grammar; vocabulary relating to countries and nationalities, numbers 1-20, days of the week, personal information, classroom language and common objects for vocabulary.
For reading, it focuses on reading and understanding short emails about other people while in speaking, it zero in on talking about themselves and other people saying hello and goodbye. In listening on the other hand, asking and telling numbers and listening and completing the dialogues as well as listening and understanding other people saying their names are covered under this area.
In Unit II, the overall objectives are for the students to be able to ask for personal information, talk about their family, family members, class, jobs etc. and engage in conversation. For grammar focus, the following are included: verb to be centers on questions, negatives and short answers; contracted forms of not like isn’t and aren’t; question words like what, where, who, how old, how much as well as possessives.
For vocabulary the following are included: family words, common adjectives and their opposites, food and drink vocabulary. Reading and understanding an informal email covers the reading lesson while in writing, it includes writing email, as well as composition writing about
Socialist Republic of Vietnam Republic of the Philippines class and family. For speaking lesson, it focuses on practicing the language used in coffee shops and talking about famous people and making conversation at a hotel. In the case of listening, understanding people talking, ordering and saying prices in cafes as well as talking about class, friends and family members are the coverage.
The overall objectives of Unit III are for the students to be able to use the present simple with personal pronouns as She, He, It; to talk and to write about work and daily activities; and to tell time and date.
Focus of grammar lessons are on adjectives and personal pronouns;
vocabulary on daily activities, job and job duties; reading include read and understand the text; writing covers writing about a person’s job and daily routine, speaking delves on talking about a person’s job and daily routine also as well as telling the time and date; and for listening, understanding other people talking about the same topic as those of writing and speaking.
For Unit IV, the overall objectives are for the students to use the present simple, to talk and to write about shopping, likes and dislikes, free time and leisure activities and for the students to be familiar with situations in an English class. The lessons covered in this unit are as follows: grammar delves on object and possessive pronouns;
vocabulary covers meaning of verb phrases and love story phrases,
Socialist Republic of Vietnam Republic of the Philippines reading focuses on newspaper article and story’s reading. Writing on the other hand covers writing description to a friend of other person;
speaking zero in talking about famous actors and actresses, asking, answering as to types of music as well as getting to know how to use some common and social expressions used in short dialogues and in listening, understanding other people talking about topics related to speaking is the focus of this skill.
Regarding Unit V, the overall objective is for the students to describe the place where students live and for them to ask and to give directions. The learning contents of this unit include grammar, past simple of be and past simple regular and irregular verbs; vocabulary word formation, past time expression and adjectives use for describing rooms or a house; reading covers the practice of scanning for specific information; writing gears toward describing a holiday through a written report; speaking focuses on talking about stories and practice police interview and in listening the focus is on listening for specific information.
The course, General English I required students to attend and participate in all class activities and do homework and this is given ten percent weight. Students are also required to take progress test in grammar, vocabulary, reading and writing and assigned also ten
Socialist Republic of Vietnam Republic of the Philippines percent of weight and a midterm test in the same area with twenty percent allocated weight for each.
These learning contents are designed to help students develop English language proficiency. This finds support to the idea of Liu et al (2003) as regard to the basic goals of college English teaching that of helping students to establish the concept of self-learning, creating the environment of self -learning, providing guidance in English learning strategies and cultivating students’ ability of self –learning.