1.

The target group needs The target learners of this course are fairly small and hetero-generous in level, including twenty senior students of hotel receptionists major at Hanoi Tourism College who are going to work in the tourism and hotel service industry. They have been learning English for at least years at high schools! however, most of them are from rural areas where teaching and learning conditions are still limited and where speaking and listening skills are hardly paid attention to. Therefore, it is inevitable that the learners have inade"uate skills to well e"uip themselves for their future profession. #s can be clearly seen, the profession of hotel receptionists re"uires a capability of good communication in which abundant source of vocabulary and pronunciation plays a crucial role. $evertheless, in reality, rural schools focus much on English grammar rather than the other aspects of language learning since the students need to be well prepared for the entrance e%am to universities and colleges. &ome students are aware of the meaning of the words but don't know how to enunciate them, which leads to their limited speaking ability. That e%plains why they can do grammar e%ercises, yet they are rarely able to communicate in English. (ollowing the university curriculum, all the students took )eneral English *)E+ course for two semesters. The main course book of $ew Headway Elementary was utili,ed and the course met three periods a week. Thereafter, it is compulsory for them to take the course of English for Hotel &taff, their major, during their senior year. They all passed the end-term )E test in which four skills were tested, even though there is a considerable disparity in their results. -nly five of them got ., the highest mark, compared to ten students who got /. 0t is interpreted that the students' level is not high. (urthermore, one of the initial problems is the lack of practical e%perience in tourism that is regarded as a drawback in learning this subject. #s a result, an e%tra E&1 course is launched by the individual teacher in the duration of twelve weeks in order to better the learners' English competence and to

help them meet the demand of successful communication in their future career. The first thing to be done is conducting a pre-course needs analysis using means of "uestionnaires and interviews. The "uestionnaires filled in by the students are instrumental in seeking information about students' interests such as preferred learning styles, preferred classroom activities, the attitude towards this course, beliefs and their communication difficulties. The interviews have been implemented on the teachers who taught the students in the )E course, which helps the course designers to grasp detailed information about the course, each student's level and ability, their specific strengths and weaknesses in language learning. Then, participants' background, target needs and learning needs can be identified and an appropriate course design will be conducted. 2. Literature review of ESP course design approaches # course design is a process in which the raw data about a learning need is interpreted to produce an integrated series of teaching and learning e%periences. 0ts aim is to direct the students to a particular state of knowledge. 0t re"uires the use of theoretical and empirical information available to produce a syllabus, to e%ploit a methodology for teaching those materials and to establish evaluation procedures so as to measure learners' progress towards specific goals. #ccording to 3athleen )raves *4555+ 62, p.78, course design is a system in which changes to one component will have an influence on all the others. 9hat learners want may conflict with what they need. There are also various elements that need to be taken into account such as: e%ternal constraints *classroom facilities and time+ and educators' theoretical views and e%periences of the classroom. #s stated by Tom Hutchinson and #lan 9aters *2.;<+ 64, p.<<8, there are three main approaches to course design: language-centered, skills-centered and learning-centered approach. 4.2 Language-centered approach The language centered course design, which is common in E&1 to a great e%tent, aims at a direct connection between the analysis of the target situation and the content of the E&1 course. 0t starts with the learners and their needs based on

which the appropriate syllabus, thence materials in use in the classroom and mastery evaluation of the syllabus items is produced. This approach seems logical! however, Hutchinson and 9aters *2.;<+ 64, p.<=8 state some of its weaknesses as follows: #lthough it starts from the learners and their need, the learners have no e%tra roles in the course. &ince the learning needs of the students are not considered, it is not learner-centered. 9hen the initial analysis of the target situation is over, the course designer is kept in an infle%ible process. 0t seems to be systematic but learning itself is random. 0n fact, systematically analy,ed and presented knowledge does not mean that it will be learnt systematically. There is a great e%tent regarding the risk of boredom because the materials are arranged according to language needs. The language centered analysis of the target situation data is just at the surface level. Conse"uently, it implies very little concerning the competence that stresses the performance. 2.2 Skills-centered approach The skills-centered approach aims to unveil learners' competence that underlines the performance, not the surface performance. Thus, the learning objectives of a skills-centered course will be presented in terms of performance and competence as well. &kills-centered approach is founded on two fundamental principles, theoretical and pragmatic. The theoretical principle asserts that underlying any language behaviour are certain skills and strategies used to produce or comprehend discourse. The pragmatic basis for the skills-centred approach derives from a distinction made by 9iddowson *2.;2+ between goal-oriented courses and process-oriented ones. The emphasis in the E&1 course in not on achieving a particular set of goals, but on enabling the learners to achieve what they can within the given constraint. $eeds analysis plays an essential role in this approach. (irstly, it provides a basis for e%ploring the underlying competence that enables people to perform in the target situation. &econdly, the course designer is able to

discover the potential knowledge and abilities that the learners bring to the E&1 classroom. 4. Learning-centered approach The learning-centered approach aims to e%plore not the development of skills and proficiency in a subject matter but also concentrate upon the steps and methods taken to achieve the competence. 0t is seen as a process in which the learner use what knowledge or skills they possess to make sense of the flow of new information. 0t is an internal process , which is crucially dependent upon the knowledge the learner already have and their ability an motivation to use it. 0t is a process of negotiation between individuals and the society. &ociety sets the target and the individuals must do their best to get as close to that target as possible. 0t is based on the principle that learning is totally determined by the learner even though teachers can influence what is taught The learner is one factor to consider in the learning process, but not the only one . 0n this approach, the methodology cannot be just decided on to the end of an e%isting selection of syllabus items and te%ts. 0n other words, it must be considered right from the start. That is why the term >learning-centered?, not >learner-centered? has been chosen. 0n this approach, in order to well develop a curriculum, every aspect of learning needs are identified and assessed. @esides, student feedback and freedom to negotiate and various other aspects of the program also contribute to better the learning structure. (urthermore, from the earliest stages of the course design, evaluation that brings about constructive feedback is utili,ed, ensuring that a learning-centered approach is about to suit the students' learning needs and re"uirements. 3. An approach to the course of English for Hotel Staff There is no one way or >best way? to design a course *3athleen )raves, 4555+ 62, p.24;8 , and the point is just trying to find what is the most suitable for a particular situation *Aobinson,2..2+ 67, p.758. (rom the comprehensive analysis of the three approaches, some of their advantages and disadvantages are revealed.

#s cited by Hutchinson #nd 9alter *2.;<+, while a language-centered approach says it is the nature of the target situation performance that determines the E&1 course, a skills-centered approach emphasi,es it is necessary to look behind the target performance data to discover what processes enable someone to perform. Beanwhile, a learning-centered approach declares that looking beyond the competence that enables learners to perform is the prere"uisite for designing the E&1 course. 0t is obvious that the learning-centered approach can be regarded as the most appropriate and effective approach of all to this E&1 course design since it allows students to learn in the most efficient manner, which is definitely most prominent in the learning-centered approach. Boreover, the learners are considered what is the decisive factor to the success or failure of the course in every stage of course design and thus the student's needs and purposes would be met. @esides, constraints of learning situation are taken into account in this approach since any learning process is not isolated from social, political, cultural and other factors. 0f these factors are manipulated, the course design can be conducted more efficiently. (inally, the constant evaluation offered by this method is also crucial in ensuring the course is always as productive as possible. #fter cautiously considering various approaches to course design and being aware of the benefits of the integrated approach, the learning-centered approach will be adopted to design an E&1 course for the students of Hotel Aeceptionists major at Hanoi Tourism College. 4. A sa ple of s!lla"us 4.1. The courses description The supplement E&1 course is launched by the individual teacher in the duration of twelve weeks in order to better English competence of the senior students who speciali,e in hotel receptionists at Hanoi Tourism College and to help them meet the demand of successful communication in their future career.

The course meets two classes a week with the duration of <5 minutes each class. The class normally starts from <1B to = 1B at the teacher's house. 4.1 The courses aims (irst of all, the course aims to better the learners' English proficiency for effective and confident English use in their future profession, especially in the field of Hotel Aeceptionists. 0t also enables the students to be aware of a variety of related terminologies and structures for hotel receptionists correspondingly to different communicative purposes. #part from that, the students grasp the pronunciation of the words so as to perfect their communicative ability. (urthermore, the course contains a collection of familiar situations related to hotel industry which e"uips the learners with the essential background knowledge and a good refle%, sharpens their ability to respond "uicker and more native-like and by the way, becomes the driving force to encourage the students' studying. 4.2 The courses objectives @y the end of the course, the students will be able to utili,e hotel-related source of vocabulary and well communicate in target language in target situations with the tourists, for instance, reserving a hotel room, dealing with complaints... 4.3 ntr! re"uirements# &tudents are re"uired to take part in a course of )eneral English, preintermediate level before beginning this course. 4.4 The learning and teaching situation# The class si,e of 45 students allows optimum interaction between not only the teacher and the students but the teacher and the groups also. The learning room is well e"uipped with a computer, a projector, an air- conditioner and other teaching aids depending upon the re"uirements of the specific lessons. 4.$ The s!llabus o% the course o% nglish %or hotel receptionists

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