Analyzing undergraduates’ needs for an improvement in interpreter training curriculum at banking university hcmc, Vietnam

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ANALYZING UNDERGRADUATES’ NEEDS FOR 
AN IMPROVEMENT IN INTERPRETER TRAINING
CURRICULUM AT BANKING UNIVERSITY HCMC, VIETNAM
Nguyen Quang Nhat*, Nguyen Ngoc Phuong Dung
Banking University of Ho Chi Minh City
Received: 06/08/2018; Revised: 20/09/2018; Accepted: 22/04/2019
Abstract: This paper aims to analyze students’ needs for an improvement in interpretation
course design, administered among 96 seniors from the Faculty of Foreign Languages at
Banking University of Ho Chi Minh City (BUH), Vietnam. It used a questionnaire on
learning objectives, course planning, teaching contents, teaching methods, testing and
evaluation in this institution. The results indicated that the students would like to get good
marks in the final exams as well as acquire necessary knowledge and skills of a real
interpreter. The findings also revealed that there should be more authentic practice, group-
work activities, and practical collaborative evaluations. The topic selection and teaching
methods need to take learners’ interests and effective formal class time into account.
Finally, the results showed that the students lacked confidence in their interpreting ability;
therefore, instructors should spend more time on practice and practical implications should
be considered for subsequent course curriculum updates.
Key words: Curriculum, interpretation, interpreter training, needs analysis, quality
improvement
1. Introduction
1.1. Research statements and problems
As English has become the lingua franca worldwide, proficient interpretation skills have
been playing an essential role for workforce of non-English speaking countries which aim to
participate in the global economy for social, educational, and economic development. As a
result, there is an increasing demand for competent interpreters as well as effective teaching
methods of this discipline. This situation necessitates a reconsideration of contemporary
pedagogical practices as a way of increasing the effectiveness of interpreter training. A majority
of interpretation lecturers desire to change their instructional styles from traditional lectures to
more active, student-centered methods during the limited formal class time while ensuring
content coverage. Those teaching methods have been constructed based on innovative
pedagogical theories, requirements of national curriculum updates or practical market needs.
For example, Faculty of Foreign Languages at Banking University of Ho Chi Minh City,
Vietnam (2015) conducted a questionnaire survey on the employer’s needs for graduates to
develop a curriculum for interpretation undergraduate classes to meet the requirements of CDIO
standards. However, no research study has been carried out in this Faculty to investigate
students’ desires or expectations for interpreter training. Such needs analysis should be the
starting point for any course updates because it helps equip the course designers with valuable
information to align the course contents with learners' needs. Therefore, this study aims to fill
* Email: nhatnq@buh.edu.vn
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this gap by conducting an analysis to understand students’ needs for an improvement in
interpretation teaching and learning.
In addition, Vietnamese interpreter training generally relies on previous course designs
and intuition of instructors, as well as sticking closely to traditional methods (Pham, 2016). This
tendency, as a result, pays little or no attention to learners’ needs, which not only hinders
students’ performance but also de-motivates them. Therefore, it is also the reason that strongly
convinced the researchers to conduct this study to analyse comprehensive needs from the
learners’ perspectives towards the whole interpretation curriculum so that future delivery of
interpreter programs might be modified for better learners’ engagement and better academic
performance.
1.2. Research questions
With a concern for improving the quality of interpreter training, this study tries to answer
two following questions:
1) What are BUH senior students’ needs for the interpretation curriculum in terms of 
learning objectives, course planning, teaching contents, teaching methods, and testing and
evaluation?
2) What can be done for an improvement in the current interpretation curriculum based 
on the needs analysis?
2. Theoretical framework
2.1. Needs analysis and its roles in education
Needs analysis, as Nunan stated, is "a family of procedures for gathering information
about learners and about communication tasks” such as learning goals, learning objectives,
styles and learning preferences (Nunan, 1988, p.75). The history of needs analysis in language
teaching and learning is considered to originate in the 1960s, when there was an increase in
demand for specialized language programs. Since then, needs analysis has proved its position as
a useful tool for planning, developing and evaluating programs. Information on those learning
points can be collected through scores on students’ proficiency test, questionnaires about
learners’ previous training, and interviews about students’ abilities (Brown, 2001). Information
about learners’ needs may influence the teacher’s choice of course content, learning materials,
classroom activities, assessments and evaluations. Likewise, learners may appreciate the courses
better when they feel that their needs are appreciated. Finally, needs analysis provides an insight
into the real needs of not only learners but also of stakeholders. This information includes the
desired outcomes of stakeholders towards a program, the efficiency of assessment, the status of
students’ proficiency and the practicality of current curriculum contents. Therefore, provided
instructors would like to improve the quality of their teaching, needs analysis is a necessary step
during the course design.
2.2. Approaches to needs analysis
It might be categorised into five main approaches to needs analysis. First, the systemic
approach of Richterich and Chancerel (1977) is used to determine the needs in terms of the
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learners’ nature, learning context, and a wide range of perspectives. Needs are collected before
and during a course with many data collection instruments; however, his method does not pay
attention to learners’ real-world needs and relies too much on their subjective perceptions
(Kaewpet, 2009).
Munby’s (1978) Target-Situation-Analysis model addresses the importance of
communicative mode and activities, highlighting an abundance of needs required for
communication such as communicative events, channel of communication, the relationships
between the target and his interlocutors. However, this method is merely a checklist of
communicative facets with too many complex and time-consuming activities, whereas learners’
voices and society’ needs are not taken into consideration and it did not really inform how to
turn these issues into an actual syllabus.
The learning-centred approach proposed by Hutchinson and Waters (1987) investigates
learners’ needs in the comparison of perceived vs. felt needs, product vs. process oriented
interpretations, and objective vs. subjective needs. “Perceived needs” are needs of teachers,
parents or experts, while “felt needs” are gathered from learners. The “product-oriented
interpretation” means the proficiency required to communicate effectively in the target
situations, whereas the “process-oriented interpretation” means how learners are expected to
respond satisfactorily to different learning situations. Finally, “objective needs” provide insights
about learners’ real-life needs, their proficiency, their current difficulties and obstacles while
“subjective needs” refer to affective and cognitive factors such as students’ desires and
expectations (Berwick, 1989). 
The critical approach of Dudley-Evans and St. John (1998) aims to display a
comprehensive list of viewpoints from students, teachers, stakeholders and policy makers in
order to provide suggestions for improvements in course contents, instructional materials,
teaching methods and assessments. In other words, this approach tries to incorporate all
elements of needs analysis into a course design; therefore, it might be suitable for large and
complex projects with multiple of activities and dependency relationships.
The task-based approach of Long (2005) states that tasks are the units of analysis and a
course should be organized with different task types based on real-life activities that learners
might have to perform in their future. Therefore, course designers should conduct needs analysis
to find what tasks are necessary to reflect the real world. It can be said that the task-based
approach pays much attention to language variables with the claim that learning only takes
place during communication, which fails to consider learner’s social needs and situations. 
After reviewing the documents in the Faculty of Foreign Languages at BUH, the
researchers found that the syllabi were determined mainly from the results of “BlackBox”
survey of the proficiency outputs of BUH’s English-majored graduates from the perspectives of
employees (2015) whereas no formal research had been conducted to investigate learners’
needs. Therefore, it raised a question that the current teaching approaches and curriculum
development in this institution might not bring about expected beneficial learning outcomes
when learners’ needs were not taken into serious consideration. As a result, this study aimed to
explore learners’ needs for a quality improvement of interpretation course design. While looking
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at the merits and defects of each aforementioned approach, the researchers decided that the
learning-centred approach is the most suitable one. Hence, this study focused on felt needs,
process-oriented interpretations, and subjective needs since few studies have been done on these
issues. Five components in language curriculum development stated by Richards (2001) were
adopted and modified, including learning objectives, course planning, teaching contents,
teaching methods, and testing and evaluation.
3. Methodology
The data collection process occurred in May 2018. The participants were 96 seniors (11
male, and 85 female) in a four-year Bachelor programme at the Faculty of Foreign Languages at
Banking University of Ho Chi Minh City. Most of them were at intermediate level in English (at
least 6.5 in IELTS or equivalent), and they had studied two interpretation courses in their final
school year. The study took place on the last day of their second course on interpretation so that
the participants could express their attitudes toward interpretation courses based on their
experiences.
The study adopted a 44-item questionnaire including 9 multiple-choice questions, 1
dichotomous question, and 34 rating-scale questions (see Appendix). The questionnaire was
written in English, sent directly to all students and administered in class. After the data were
collected, the questionnaires were analysed quantitatively by descriptive to examine the
assumption of normal distributions; therefore, they could shed light on the learners’ needs and
requirements for an improvement in interpretation teaching and learning.
4. Findings
The results of this study are described as follows.
4.1. Learning objectives
Table 1 reveals that “to pass the exams as a requirement of the Bachelor degree” was the
most important goal in an interpretation course while “to adopt appropriate ethical attitudes
towards interpretation” was the least important one. “To acquire necessary knowledge and skills
of an interpreter” also received a particular attention from the students as it was ranked the
second with a mean of 4.92.
Table 1. Importance level of learning objectives 
Objectives Mean SD Rank
1. to acquire necessary knowledge and skills of an interpreter 4.92 0.27 2
2. to improve English and Vietnamese proficiency 4.81 0.4 3
3. to pass the exams as a requirement of the Bachelor degree 4.96 0.2 1
4. to find language strengths and weaknesses 4.19 0.39 4
5. to adopt appropriate ethical attitudes towards interpretation 3.95 0.39 6
6. to be able to work in international contexts 3.96 0.5 5
4.2. Course planning
96% of the participants would like their teachers to spend more time on practice with
foreign speakers. 84% of them expressed a preference towards simulation practice, 72% would
like to have field trips, while only 48% of the students enjoyed listening practice like the way
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they normally do in the physical classrooms. In addition, Table 2 reveals the skills that the
subjects wanted to have more time to practice. Three students chose the “Other” option with
team-work skills, research skills and speaking skills.
Table 2. Interpretation skills or knowledge students want to have more time to practice
Interpretation skills or knowledge Percentage Rank
1. Interpretation techniques 94% 1
2. Cultural awareness 64% 4
3. Specialist knowledge 51% 5
4. Reformulation skills 81% 2
5. Assessment skills 24% 6
6. Public speaking skills 78% 3
4.3. Teaching contents
98% of the subjects preferred teacher-generated materials to the current textbook with the
reason that the textbook was not updated and some assignments were taken from literary texts,
which they did not find comprehensible or relevant to them. Besides, Table 3 indicates that
among the 9 kinds of contents, “listening skills” was regarded as the most important element in
the interpretation course whereas “interpretation theories” was considered the least important
one. As such, five most important types of content were “listening skills,” “note-taking skills,”
“memory training and chunking”, “public speaking,” and “reformulation techniques”.
Table 3. Importance level of interpretation contents
Contents Mean SD Rank
1. interpretation theories 3.82 0.62 9
2. listening skills 4.89 0.32 2
3. note-taking skills 4.88 0.33 1
4. memory training and chunking 4.84 0.37 3
5. speaking skills 4.70 0.46 6
6. cultural awareness 4.66 0.48 7
7. reformulation techniques 4.72 0.45 5
8. public speaking 4.74 0.44 4
9. practice of different interpretation types and modes 4.31 0.47 8
72% of the participants preferred to have 50% of the business-related topics in their
materials. In addition, Table 4 indicates the preference level of additional genres that students
are interested in (Question 21) when no “Other” option was chosen. These results can provide
more insights into choosing topics for further practice and reference.
Table 4. The preference level of additional genres that students are interested in
Additional genres Percentage Rank
1. daily news 75% 1
2. legal issues and politics 41% 6
3. media and entertainment 70% 2
4. advertisements 44% 5
5. tourism 69% 3
6. education 56% 4
7. medicine and medication 29% 7
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8. literature 23% 9
9. scientific speeches 28% 8
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4.4. Teaching methods
In terms of grouping, 86% of the subjects expressed a preference for group work, while
58% preferred pair work, 36% whole-class work, and 18% individual work. Table 5 reveals the
learning activities that the students would like to join in the classroom. According to this table,
the three most preferable activities were “group in-class practice”, “discussion on interpretation
tasks” and “presentations”. “Teacher’s lectures” were the least-preferred learning activities. No
“Other” option was chosen.
Table 5. The preference level of activities in class
Activities Percentage Rank
1. revision of previous lessons 66% 5
2. discussion on interpretation tasks 74% 2
3. individual in-class practice 68% 4
4. group in-class practice 82% 1
5. peer editing/ peer review 64% 6
6. presentations 72% 3
7. teacher’s lectures 33% 7
Table 6 shows the importance level of teacher’s roles. The top three types of roles were to
“provide real-life/simulated practice”, “provide jargons, terminology and idioms in both
languages”, and “inform common errors that students usually make”. “Provide lessons of
interpretation theories” was ranked as the least important.
Table 6. Importance level of teacher’s roles
Teacher’s roles Mean SD Rank
1. provide real-life/simulated practice 4.9 0.3 1
2. provide jargons, terminology and idioms in both languages 4.79 0.41 2
3. provide lessons of language knowledge 4.55 0.52 8
4. provide lessons of interpretation theories 4.18 0.6 10
5. teach you how to apply theories into practice 4.64 0.48 5
6. inform common errors that students usually make 4.78 0.42 3
7. provide suggested answers 4.56 0.5 7
8. interact with students to answer problems 4.65 0.48 4
9. review previous lessons 4.61 0.49 6
10. teach you how to assess an interpreted version 4.23 0.53 9
4.5. Testing and evaluation
In terms of testing methods, 84% of the students wanted to have role-plays on the stage as
simulated practice, 72% would like to have projects and assignments on real-life interpretation,
and 76% of the students preferred to have quizzes, games and collaborative tests rather than
paper-based tests. As far as teacher’s evaluations and comments are concerned, 64% of the
students chose “peer review and different suggestions from the teacher”, whereas that of the
students who chose “teacher’s comments on the paper only” and “teacher’s provision of
feedback in class” was 14% and 22% respectively. No “Other” option was chosen. 
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Finally, Table 7 reveals the confidence level of the subjects as regards their interpretation
ability. Generally speaking, the subjects did not think highly of their interpretation ability (“less
confident” or “confident”) with the mean scores ranging from 2.78 to 3.86. It should be noted
that their confidence in “interpretation theories” is the highest at 3.86 whereas the confidence in
“public speaking” is the lowest at 2.78.
Table 7. The confidence level of students’ interpretation ability
Content Mean SD Rank
1. interpretation theories 3.86 0.49 1
2. listening skills 3.25 0.66 8
3. note-taking skills 3.58 0.56 4
4. memory training and chunking 3.28 0.66 7
5. speaking skills 3.77 0.61 2
6. cultural awareness 3.53 0.62 5
7. reformulation techniques 3.44 0.58 6
8. public speaking 2.78 0.65 9
9. practice of different interpretation types and modes 3.67 0.54 3
5. Discussion and implications 
This study has provided certain insights into how the curriculum could be built upon felt
needs, process-oriented interpretations, and subjective needs based on learners’ perspectives and
expectations. First, the finding showed that besides getting good marks to pass the exams, the
students also wanted to acquire necessary knowledge and skills of an interpreter. This means
that they wanted to improve real interpretation skills in case they might work as an interpreter in
their future career. Therefore, interpretation courses should be process-oriented and provide
real-life practice for the students to sharpen their skills. Second, a majority of the subjects
suggested that more class time be devoted to real-life practice and that the tasks be done in class
in order to promote effective learning and instructions. In addition, interpretation techniques and
reformulation skills are two foci that r