Workplace english communication needs and esp curriculum: An analysis of misalignment

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WORKPLACE ENGLISH COMMUNICATION NEEDS 
AND ESP CURRICULUM: AN ANALYSIS OF MISALIGNMENT
Ho Thi Quynh Nhu*
Hue Industrial College
Received: 11/09/2018; Revised: 30/09/2018; Accepted: 22/04/2019
Abstract: This study aims to examine English communication needs at workplace contexts
in comparison with the current English for Specific Purposes (ESP) curriculum at Hue
Industrial College. For this purpose, a mix-method approach was employed for quantitative
and qualitative analysis. The questionnaire survey and interviews were administered with
the employees from eleven corporations. The findings reveal workplace communication of
English as required by the employees majoring in business administration (BuAdmin) and
yield some mismatches between the current ESP curriculum and the current needs. This
comparison reveals a valid proposal for a new ESP curriculum of the setting under research.
The study would bring more insights into the field of teaching English for professional
purposes. 
Key words: Curriculum, English for specific purposes (ESP), English language needs,
workplace communication
1. Introduction
The demands for learning and teaching English for workplace purposes have been
increasing rapidly in the era of rapid integration. Employees in almost all areas of specialization
need to possess a decent level of English proficiency to communicate well at work. 
However, it is reported in most studies that the English proficiency of labour forces,
especially in non-English speaking countries such as Thailand, China, South Korea has not met
the demands of the internationalized workplace (Hart-Rawung, 2008, p. 10). This limitation has
urged countries to highlight English for workplace use as a dramatically urgent need. Attention
has been paid to the teaching and learning of English for Specific Purposes (ESP) much more
than ever.
While it is really essential to enhance learners’ proficiency in general English, their
professional communication needs should be satisfied in the English programs so that they can
keep up with the trends of globalization and the market. In this respective, the current research
aims to identify the actual needs in terms of English for communication at work. Then, the study
examines the mismatch between the HUEIC’s current ESP curriculum and the English
communication needs at workplace contexts so that a vocational English curriculum can be
designed in alignment to the industry needs.
2. Theoretical background
The rapid development of international business and the highly-required labor market
have brought about the growth of ESP and created more demands for the ESP program
development. It is likely inefficient or inadequate if language teaching and curriculum design do
not consider particular groups of students (Long, 2005). As commented earlier by other authors
* Email: htqnhu@hueic.edu.vn
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(Jordan, 1997; Holliday & Cooke, 1982; Richterich & Chancerel, 1977), context influences the
teaching and learning of ESP. On this issue, Basturkmen (2010, p. 8) confirms that ESP
concentrates on when, where and why learners need the language either in study or in workplace
contexts. In this sense, decisions about what to teach and how to teach are specified by
descriptions of how language is used in the learners’ work or study contexts. On this matter,
Huhta, Vogt, Johnson, Tulkki and Hall (2013) suggested that a need analysis should identify the
communicative tasks and the discourse that learners have to deal with in their future profession.
Additional factors to consider when looking at the context of teaching and learning are
related to the educational environment, called situation analysis (Richards, 2001) or constraints
analysis. In this study, the current English curriculum was taken into accounts to examine its
misalignment to the graduates’ target situations of using English. This aimed to explore possible
solutions to the teaching of professional English to vocational students. 
3. Research methodology
The researcher adopted a mixed-methods strategy of both quantitative and qualitative
methods, which is based on questionnaire survey and interviews. The research instruments were
designed with reference to a professional profile of business administration, the basic purpose of
which was to describe the language and communication needs for workplace context at a level
of detail sufficient to create an effective ESP training program or vocationally oriented language
course. Based on the questionnaire information, interview schedules were developed for further
survey purposes. 
One hundred and twenty-six BuAdmin employees from 11 corporates were involved in
this study. The questionnaires and interviews were devised to explore the employees’ actual
English communication needs at work and their suggestions towards the ESP curriculum design
for BuAdmin students at college. 
4. Findings and analysis
English language requirements 
According to the recruitment information from the employers investigated, the employers
identified English as one of the prioritized standards in recruitment. Though English criteria in
these companies differed, the employers generally expected their employees to have English
competence at certain levels that can help them in their job contexts. A common requirement
was that the employees should be able to communicate efficiently in English. This was
understandable since most corporations in Vietnam realized the challenges on entering the new
era of integration (Trung, 2016; Viet, 2015; Vietnam News, 2016). They had to possess skillful
labor forces in response to the higher demands of international cooperation. Particularly, English
played a key role for mutual understanding and collaboration among business partners. In
recognition of this increasing demand, English has been chosen as the unique foreign language
and a compulsory subject to all learners in the HUEIC language programs. Most importantly,
the HUEIC Project of Foreign Language set level 3 (CEFR-B1) as the college graduates’
English language standard. While it is really essential to enhance the students’ proficiency in
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general English, their professional communication needs should be satisfied in the ESP program
so that they can keep up with the trends of globalization and the market.
English communicative activities at work
Concerning the actual use of English in BuAdmin workplace settings, a question in the
questionnaire was raised using the five-point scale with 1 as never to 5 for daily to elicit the
answers. The data in Table 1 showed the mean score of this cluster centering around 3 points
(M=2.47). This means that the BuAdmin employees tended to use English for BuAdmin
workplace activities. The data revealed that the two most frequent activities were reading and
using information from professional sources (M=3.23) and writing English emails and business
(M=2.88). 
Table 1. English communicative activities at work
Communicative activities N Minimum Maximum Mean Std. Deviation
Reading and using information from 
professional sources 126 1 5 3.23 .931
Writing e-mails and business letters 126 1 5 2.88 1.336
Reading/writing invoices and 
certificates 126 1 5 2.40 1.259
Telephoning 126 1 5 2.49 1.144
Negotiating 126 1 5 2.15 1.051
Making oral presentations, 
demonstrations and product descriptions 126 1 5 2.10 1.072
Reading and writing reports and 
summaries 126 1 5 2.64 1.120
Reading/writing contracts 126 1 5 2.66 1.247
Writing memos and minutes 126 1 5 2.68 1.184
Writing CV’s, job applications 126 1 5 2.27 1.046
Social talks, meeting clients and 
business associates 126 1 5 2.53 1.025
Other activities/situations 126 1 5 1.70 .879
Mean of cluster 126 1 5 2.47 .839
The table above indicated that emails and business letters were the most frequently
writing tasks in the BuAdmin profession. The BuAdmin employees working in the section of
foreign customer services answered in the interviews that they often dealt with their work
through emails and tended to read and write English emails every day. A survey study on written
business communications conducted by Louhiala-Saliminen (1996) revealed that mails and
telefaxes were the most common mediums of communication. In 2004, Grosse investigating
Mexican business executives’ English use reported email and phone calls as the most frequently
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used communication channels. In comparison with these studies, the use of emails in the current
research was still popular while the use of fax tended to reduce. 
As shown from Table 1, the mean scores around 2.6 indicated the participants’ less
frequent access to reports and summaries, contracts, memos and minutes. The texts related to
orders and purchasing such as invoices and certificates were less frequently proceeded by the
respondents (M=2.40). In addition, the low mean scores implied that the participants rarely used
English for presentations, demonstrations and product descriptions and for negotiating (2.10 and
2.15 respectively). Using English for business meetings (e.g. presentation, negotiation, briefing,
conference, seminar and social meetings) was not considered as a frequent task in BuAdmin
jobs at the companies surveyed. 
Some employees also mentioned other situations at work (M=1.70) in which they were
involved in English such as participating in the English club (at Company 3), using English-
medium software in banks and travelling. However, those listing these items accounted for a
low percentage (6.3%). Meanwhile, CVs and job applications were considered the least popular
documents that the respondents had access to (M=2.27). It was true since almost all the
companies involved in this study did not require the candidates’ minimal English proficiency
certificates with their CVs and application forms written in English. This questionnaire result
was relatively contrary to the interview data while the respondents suggested that BuAdmin
graduates should know how to write English CVs and application forms. In their opinions, this
would help them in the employment outcomes.
As can be seen from Table 1, these English business tasks involved all four language
skills, namely listening, speaking, reading and writing. The skills tended to be used equally
through reading and using information from different English sources related to BuAdmin job,
writing English e-mails and business letters, oral presentations and telephoning with foreign
clients, business partners and employers. However, all the four macro language skills as well as
business English subskills have not been paid equal attention to in the current ESP curriculum at
HUEIC. The English program for BuAdmin students concentrates on vocabulary, grammar and
reading skills while other language skills and areas have been widely neglected. This is actually
a common problem in the EFL education in Vietnam and ESP teaching is not an exception. Most
ESP curricula in Vietnamese universities often concentrate on vocabulary, grammar and macro
language skills (Duong, Bui & Bui, 2005; Nguyen, 2015; Vu, 2015) while neglecting training
students on professional skills. This reality implies a dramatic change in teaching ESP to
vocational students. 
English communicative topics at work
The five-point scale with 1 as never to 5 for daily was used to elicit the frequency of the
employees’ involvement in the English communicative topics at work. The data in Table 2
indicated that the most popular topics in BuAdmin profession were work and jobs (M=2.86),
sales and selling, marketing, production and finance. These are, by chance, the main
professional areas of BuAdmin job. Some other professional topics (e.g. statistics, stock market
and international economics) were rarely mentioned in BuAdmin profession (M<2).
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Table 2. English communicative topics at work
English communicative topics N Minimum Maximum Mean Std. Deviation
Work and jobs 126 1 5 2.86 1.136
Marketing 126 1 5 2.42 1.083
Finance 126 1 4 2.30 .974
Human resources 126 1 4 2.10 .950
Production 126 1 5 2.40 1.111
Sales/selling 126 1 5 2.54 1.122
Strategy 126 1 5 2.10 1.034
Quality 126 1 5 2.32 1.078
Brands 126 1 5 2.23 1.052
Stock market 126 1 4 1.70 .888
International economics 126 1 4 1.79 .897
Management 126 1 4 1.94 .901
Business operations 126 1 5 2.1 .985
Statistics 126 1 4 1.84 .889
Others 126 1 5 1.56 .844
Mean of cluster 126 1 5 2.47 .939
The questionnaire findings coincided with the interview data when the five content
teachers mentioned finance, sales/selling, production and human resources as the main issues in
the BuAdmin profession among several content areas reported in the interviews (e.g. education,
cultures, people and shopping, marketing, finance, human resources, production, business
operations, trades and sales, strategy, quality, brands and statistics). 
Noticeably, stock market, international economics and statistics were rarely discussed at
the workplace. The mean scores of these items were below 2, indicating the low frequency of
BuAdmin employees’ engagement in these topics. It was also approved by the content teachers
that the communicative topics related to stock market, international economics and statistics
were rarely conducted in English at the workplace. 
It can be inferred that BuAdmin graduates are likely to engage in basic communicative
issues at work such as sales, marketing, production and finance. The interviewees recommended
that an effective ESP curriculum needed to include these topics since BuAdmin graduates would
frequently be involved in these communicative matters in future workplaces. However, these
themes have not been sufficiently included in the HUEIC’s ESP curriculum (see Table 3). 
Table 3. The current ESP curriculum for BuAdmin students
Module Themes Objectives
1 Introductions Introducing yourself and others
2 Work and leisure Talking about work and leisure
3 Problems Describing problems where you live
4 Sales Presenting and buying a product
5 People Negotiating: dealing with problems
6 Markets Participating in discussions
7 Companies Describing companies
8 Cultures Identifying problems and agreeing action
9 Jobs Interview skills
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From the findings, there exists a mismatch between what the BuAdmin graduates actually
need in terms of English for BuAdmin and what they have been prepared for at HUEIC. The
issues Production and Finance and professional language skills such as telephoning,
reading/writing emails, memos, minutes tend to be untouched in the ESP curriculum. This fact
is understandable. In the position of an English teacher at this college for such a long time, I
have found that three essential steps in their development, namely environment analysis, needs
assessment and course evaluation (Nation & Macalister, 2010) have never been conducted to
check if the ESP courses address the social demands, students’ professional needs and learning
needs of English for vocational purposes. 
In recent years, the ESP programs at HUEIC including ESP curriculum for BuAdmin
students follow a semester-based system which includes fifteen-week semesters with 3 credits.
Each credit is equivalent to 15 teacher-led hours. The curriculum and syllabus with reference to
the target learning outcome achievement are determined by the program designers and
administrators, including the head of Training Department, the head of Foreign Language
Department and English teachers. No analysis of students’ target needs and learning needs has
been found in the language program development. In order to enable graduates to attain minimal
proficiency, the teachers are expected to apply learners-centered approach in classrooms. In
reality, communicative language teaching (CLT) has not been applied frequently. Though the
teachers were well aware of the benefits of CLT, they failed to apply it to HUEIC English
classes. Students’ low proficiency levels and big classes have caused the hesitation in practicing
productive skills, especially speaking. Little time has been reserved for the students to utilize
the target language productively.
From the afore-mentioned, there exists a number of problems in the current English
curriculum at HUEIC. It is anticipated that the mismatch between the current ESP curriculum
and their target needs and learning needs might result in the students’ low English proficiency
and limited communication skills. 
5. Conclusion and implications
The above analysis indicated the misalignment between the HUEIC language curriculum
and the BuAdmin graduates’ language demands for workplace settings. While the
predetermined ESP curriculum for BuAdmin students heavily impacted the theory-based
teaching practices, language used at work illuminated functional and communicative priorities.
This mismatch implied considerations for the development of an industry-oriented ESP program
and the adjustment of methodology in alignment to the students’ English communication needs
in their future workplace. The workplace-oriented needs analysis was considered as a valuable
channel and essential starting point to develop syllabus and choose teaching approaches. The
employers’ expectations and employees’ needs regarding English for workplace communication
could help ESP designers and teachers anticipate what specialized content knowledge and
language functions are most necessary to meet the graduates’ communication at work. Then, the
actual language practices can be conducted appropriately.
In addition, the research suggested a change in the methodology. This study found out
that the classroom approaches adopted by ESP teachers were generally inappropriate. Thus, they
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were advised to employ communicative approach for classroom practices. For this, interactive
activities such as pair-work and group-work tasks were advantageous. Interactions between
pairs and groups of students were thought by the researcher to be important in the development
of linguistic and communicative competence. Therefore, ESP teachers were recommended to
adopt these classroom techniques and activities.
In a word, in order to enhance the students’ English proficiency and prepare them with
professional English communicative skills appropriate to the current globalized context,
developing a new ESP curriculum in alignment with the students’ workplace communication
needs is worthwhile and in need of promotion in the current educational setting. 
Reference
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Hart-Rawung, P. (2008). Internalizing English language education in Thailand: English language
program for Thai engineers. Unpublished Ph.D. thesis in education. RMIT University.
Holliday, A., & Cooke, T. (1982). An ecological approach to ESP. In A. Waters (Ed.), Issues in ESP,
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Huhta, M., Vogt, K., Johnson, E., Tulkki, H., & Hall, D.R. (2013). Needs analysis for language course
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