LITERATURE REVIEW
Vocabulary in second language learning and teaching
There have been different definitions of vocabulary Ur (1996) defined vocabulary as “the words we teach in the foreign language However, a new item of vocabulary may be more than a single word: a compound of two or three words or multi- word idioms” A similar definition from Richards and Platt (1992) is that vocabulary is
“a set of lexemes, including words, compound words and idioms” Read (2000) believes that vocabulary is considered as an inventory of individual words, with their associated meanings From different definitions of vocabulary, it indicates that vocabulary is “the total number of words in a language” (Hornby, 1995)
1.1.2 The status of vocabulary in language teaching and learning
Vocabulary teaching and learning has changed dramatically in the last two decades Mc Carthy (1990) pointed out that the biggest component of any language course is vocabulary The fact is that no matter how well the student learns grammar, no matter how successfully the sounds of second language (L2) are mastered, without words to express a wide range of meanings, communication in an L2 just cannot happen in any meaningful way
Since the mid-1980s there has been a renewed interest in the role of vocabulary in second language learning There have been studies on the nature of the bilingual lexicon, vocabulary acquisition, lexical storage, lexical retrieval, and the use of vocabulary by second language learners Vocabulary is an essential component of language “Vocabulary is central to language” and “words are of critical importance to the typical language learner.” (Coady and Huckin, 1997)
Nowadays, vocabulary is considered an important aspect of teaching and learning a foreign language L2 vocabulary acquisition has become an increasingly interesting topic of discussion for researchers, teachers, curriculum designers, theorists, and others involved in second language learning and teaching
1.1.3 Main characteristics of vocabulary in business context
What vocabulary is and how important it is in second language learning and teaching have just been discussed in the above sections In this section, what ESP vocabulary is and what major characteristics of vocabulary in business context are will be mentioned
English for Specific Purposes (ESP) represents a specific reason for learning a foreign language There are two distinguished types of ESP: English for Occupational Purposes (EOP- learning English for a job) and English for Academic Purposes (EAP - learning English for a study specialization) At present, these streams include many other fields, e.g English for Technicians, English for business, etc
Technical words are specialized words closely related to a specific area or field of study like engineering, medicine, linguistics, etc They are commonly used in specialized course books The meaning of a word strict to the field in which it occurs identifies this group of words and its high frequency of occurrence or use in that field and covers about
5% of running words in the text (Nation, 2001) Specialized words are made up of words that occurred frequently in a specialized text or subject area but did not occur or were of frequency in other fields (Nation and Chung 2004)
Main characteristics of vocabulary in business context
It is necessary to specify that the characteristics of specialized English, including medical English, technical English, business English, etc lies in its lexicon Nguyen Phuoc Vinh (2011) researches the main characteristics of Business English Business English covers many subjects and professions, therefore; the meaning of a word is usually related to one/more than one subject such as accounting, finance, banking, marketing, etc These following parts will focus on the morphological and semantic characteristics of financial, accounting, and banking English vocabulary (Vinh, 2011)
Simple words : financial, accounting, and banking English has simple words such as „asset‟, „bear‟, „capital‟, „debit‟, „earnings‟, „fraud‟,etc., and most words are composite in that they have a recognizable internal structure
Compound words: according to Longman Business English Dictionary (2007), compound nouns make up a large part of the vocabulary of business English Nguyen and Ton (2010) point out that collocations (nouns plus nouns and adjectives plus nouns) are one of the most typical features of financial, accounting, and banking English The corpus of the collocations of compound nouns in „Longman Business Dictionary‟ given by these two authors shows that the word „account‟ has 65 collocations; „asset‟ has 13 collocations; „balance‟ has 14 collocations and so on
Some compounds consisting of verb + preposition also add to the terminology of finance, accounting, and banking such as buy-back, buy-in, take-out, take-over, turn- over, write-back, write-down, write-off
The few compounds on the pattern count noun + adjective that take the plural inflexion on the noun as in attorneys general, notaries public, courts-martial are also present in financial English such as accounts payable, bills receivable, shares outstanding
Some examples of following compounds will show that they themselves are the problems for anyone learning, reading, and translating a financial text: (dormant) account, (liquid) asset, (idle) balance, (baby) bond, (cooperative) bank, (red-chip) company
Vocabulary memorization
Language learning involves memorization, i.e., the storage of the new information in memory (Schmitt, 1997) Many definitions of memorization can also be found in various studies and dictionaries For example, according to Richards and Platt
(1992), "Memorizing is the process of establishing information in memory The term 'memorizing' usually refers to the conscious processes." This means the learners use memorization consciously and they think about the process of memorization when they are applying it Another explanation can be found in the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary (2005) that "Memorizing is to learn something carefully so that you can remember it exactly." This technique is similar to a description of a cognitive learning strategy called rehearsal (O'Malley & Chamot, 1990) In short, memorization is the process of committing something to memory The act of memorization is often a deliberate mental process undertaken in order to store in memory for later recall items such as experiences, names, appointments, addresses, telephone numbers, lists, stories, poems, pictures, maps, diagrams, facts, music or other visual, auditory, or tactical information
Unlike the learning of grammar, which is essentially a rule-based system, vocabulary knowledge is largely a question of accumulating individual items During the process of teaching and learning vocabulary an important problem occurs: How does memory work? Researchers into the workings of memory distinguish between the following systems (Thornbury, 2002):
Short-term store is the brain capacity to hold a limited number of items of information for periods up to a few seconds It is the kind of memory that is involved in repeating a word you have just heard the teacher modeling However, successful vocabulary learning involves more than holding words for a few seconds To integrate words into long - term memory they need to be subjected to different kinds of operations
Alan Baddeley and Graham J Hitch (2010) define working memory as a limited capacity part of the human memory system that combines the temporary storage and manipulation of information in the service of cognition Klimesch (1994) points that there exist four characteristics that are important in describing short-term memory: it‟s limited capacity, its primarily serial way of processing, its importance as temporary- working store and its control processes Material remains in working memory for about twenty seconds The existence of articulator loop enables this new material processing It works a bit like audiotape going around again It assures the short- term store to be kept refreshed The ability to hold a word in working memory is a good predictor of language learning aptitude The better ability to hold words in working memory the smoother the process of learning foreign languages is
Long-term memory can be seen as kind of filling system Unlike working memory, which has a limited capacity and no permanent content, this kind of memory has an enormous capacity and its contents are durable over time However, to ensure moving new materials into permanent long-term memory requires a number of principles to be followed, described by Thornbury (2002):
Repetition - repetition of encounters with a word is very important, useful and effective If the word is met several times over space interval during reading activities, students have a very good chance to remember it for a long time
Retrieval - another kind of repetition Activities, which require retrieval, such as using the new items in written tasks, help students to be able to recall it again in the future
Spacing - it is useful to split memory work over a period rather than to mass it together in a single block
Pacing - to respect different learning styles and pace, students should be ideally given the opportunity to do memory work individually
Use - putting words to use, preferably in an interesting way, is the best way of ensuring they are added to long - term memory This is so called “Use it or lose it” principle
Cognitive depth - the more decisions students make about the word and the more cognitively demanding these decisions are, the better the word is remembered
Personal organizing - personalization significantly increased the probability that students will remember new items It is achieved mainly through conversation and role-playing activities
Imaging - easily visualized words are better memorable than those that do not evoke with any pictures Even abstract words can be associated with some mental image
Mnemonics - tricks to help retrieve items or rules that are stored in memory The best kinds of mnemonics are visuals and keyword techniques
Motivation - strong motivation itself does not ensure that words will be remembered Even unmotivated students remember words if they have to face appropriate tasks
Attention - it is not possible to improve vocabulary without a certain degree of conscious attention.
1.2.3 Factors affecting ESP vocabulary memorizing
According to Ur (1996), there are various reasons why we remember some words better than the others: the nature of the words themselves, under what circumstances they are learnt, the method of teaching and so on The following paragraphs will discuss the factors in detail
Nation (2001) points out that specific lexis is one of the key problems in teaching and learning ESP As he states, then, specific lexis can be a problem for ESP language learners not only because they do not know the correct words, but because they lack experience of a “whole new way of conceptualizing” that is characteristic of discourse community using that word Similarly, ESP lexis constitutes a puzzle for ESP learners because it involves values and conventions shared by a discourse community, which are not familiar to outsiders
Moreover, Bowker and Pearson (2002) mention that technical words and general words can have some degree of overlap When two words overlap in meaning, learners are likely to confuse them Words with multiple meanings can also be troublesome for learners Having learned one meaning of the word, they may be reluctant to accept a second, very different meaning Unfamiliar concepts may make a word difficult to learn
1.2.3.2 Leaner- related factors Vocabulary memorizing strategies
Research on the use of vocabulary strategies has revealed differences among learners in terms of their strategy use Macaro (2005) states that a learner needs to be able to consciously apply a strategy to a cognitive process to strengthen the link between the strategy and the achievement of vocabulary learning In this regard, Cohen (1996) indicates that many learners do not develop sufficient mastery of a strategy repertoire that will allow them to make progress in language learning on their own
Daller, Milton, and Treffers-Daller (2007) propose that learning strategies and individual variation interfere with vocabulary memorizing to some extent In general, memorization strategies refer to making connections between the to-be-learned word and some previously learned knowledge, using some forms of imagery or grouping Thus, memorization strategies play an important role in helping learners to commit new words into memory and in the whole process of vocabulary learning Schmitt (2000) includes twenty-seven memorization strategies in his 58-item vocabulary learning strategy taxonomy, for examples “study word with a pictorial representation of its meaning” There are many memorizing strategies; however, the problems here are in how to use and apply them so that they are the most effective to individual learners
Sun (2010) further explains the way in which individual learner differences affect word storage in the memory Based on the arguments postulated by Sun, there are three main aspects of individual learner differences play a role in remembering words
THE INVESTIGATION
Research methodology
The study aims at finding out the difficulties in memorizing ESP vocabulary faced by the second-year non-English major students and possible solutions to the problems by answering two research questions:
(1) What are the 2 nd year non-English major students’ difficulties in memorizing ESP vocabulary in the textbook “English for Finance”?
(2) What are the possible solutions to help the learners memorize ESP vocabulary better?
There are two groups of participants: students and teachers Group 1 involves
100 students of 4 departments (31 from the Accounting Department, 23 from the banking and insurance department, 29 from the international finance department and the rest from the taxation and customs department) They are in the second term of their second year at the AOF, and had finished both GE and ESP courses Most of these students (78%) come from the countryside, 22% are from towns and cities Most of them are female (79%) 87% have learnt English before entering the AOF Among 13% of the students who have not learnt English before, 2% have not learnt any foreign languages, the rest have learned French Group 2 includes 16 teachers who are teaching ESP at the AOF They have got from 4 to 25 years of teaching experience
To collect data, two instruments, questionnaire for students and interview for teachers are used
The questionnaire was based on the literature on ESP vocabulary learning, the researcher‟s observation and experience during her 4 years of teaching at the AOF and the discussion with the other English teachers at the college The questionnaire consists of four main parts Part I collects information about the students‟ background – place of domicile, their major and their status of learning English The other three parts collect information about students‟ difficulties in memorizing ESP vocabulary Part II is for getting students‟ opinions on ESP course book and ESP vocabulary Part III is for getting students‟ opinions on their teachers‟ vocabulary teaching Part IV is for getting students‟ opinion on their own vocabulary learning The questionnaire is presented in appendix 1
The semi-structured interview is designed to get teachers‟ opinions on ESP vocabulary in the course book, their students‟ vocabulary memorizing, their vocabulary teaching methods, and recommendations to improve their students‟ vocabulary memorizing The interview questions are added in appendix 2
To obtain the data for the investigation, the questionnaires were delivered to 100 students during their class time The students were given clear instruction for each question so that they could respond appropriately to each one After the questionnaire was administered, the respondents were encouraged to read it thoroughly and answer frankly and truly Then they will be instructed to take as much time as they need to complete the questionnaire
For teachers‟ deep understanding, thorough answers and great contribution, the interview questions were delivered before having interviews with them
The answers for the questions in the questionnaire were used for analysis
Descriptive statistics were mainly employed to examine the collected data In addition, raw data were transformed and illustrated in tables and charts for easy understanding and comparison For the open-ended questions in the interviews, the common themes were identified and then analyzed.
Data analysis and discussion
This part deals with the results from the questionnaire to the students and from the interviews with teachers The findings from those results will lead to the suggested solutions to make improvement for memorizing ESP vocabulary
2.3.1 Discussion of the results 2.3.1.1 The results collected by questionnaire on the target language input
Topics of reading texts are…to your own knowledge
According to you, reading texts contain…new vocabulary items
There are…phrases, compounds in each unit
New vocabulary items are…repeated in the next units
Meanings of vocabulary items are…
C unfamiliar 78 There are…vocabulary practice exercises in each unit
Vocabulary practice exercises in each unit are…
Table 1: Students‟ opinion on the syllabus and ESP vocabulary in the course book
Regarding students‟ opinion on the syllabus and ESP vocabulary, table 1 shows that:
In terms of topics of the reading texts, 61% consider they are strange while only 27% feel familiar to their background knowledge when they have finished their course on these topics in Vietnamese Evidently, it is a challenge for students to memorize what they do not know in their target language
The option that reading texts contain many new vocabulary items accounts for the largest portion, 63% There are only 2 % choose option C (few) The rest choose option B (average) Thus, there are too many new vocabulary items, which students are not able to remember all of them after each unit Besides, 67% say there are many phrases, compounds in each unit This also contributes to the students‟ worry and difficulty in memorizing new vocabulary items
The next question shows that no one thinks new vocabulary items are usually repeated in the next units, while 62% students say “rarely”, the rest choose “sometimes”
This reveals that students have few chances to come across new vocabulary items so that they can review and put them in their long- term memory
In terms of meanings, only 5% students think meanings of vocabulary items in the book are very familiar, while 15 more times than that number (78%) are in favor of the option C (unfamiliar) It is difficult for student to memorize general English; however, it is even much more difficult for them to memorize ESP vocabulary items that have numerous special meanings and many others overlap with general English, which results in students‟ meaning confusion
More than a half (51%) of the students think there are few vocabulary practice exercises in each unit However, more than a half (58%) think those exercises are boring This indicates that although a large number of students want to do more vocabulary practice exercises while they are not interesting enough This prevents the students from consolidating and then memorizing vocabulary items
1.3.1.2 The results collected by questionnaire on the teachers’ vocabulary teaching methods
Teachers play important roles in helping students acquire language knowledge in general, and vocabulary in particular However, the figures in table 2 indicate that teachers at the AOF still cannot help students much in their vocabulary memorizing
Your teacher spends….time presenting new vocabulary items
Your teacher…teaches you to pronounce new vocabulary items
Your teacher… tests your learned vocabulary items
Your teacher trains you in memorizing new vocabulary items
Your teacher‟s vocabulary presenting ways are…
What techniques for presenting new words does your teacher often use?
(you can choose more than one)
B saying the words clearly and writing them on the board
C translating all the words into Vietnamese
D using mimes, gestures, and facial expressions
E using target language to define new words
Table 2: Students‟ opinion on their teachers‟ vocabulary teaching methods
Forty eight percent of the students confirmed that their teachers spend much time presenting, explaining new vocabulary items What teachers give students are meanings, part of speech and sometimes the connotation of the vocabulary items in Vietnamese
Pronunciation is not paid much attention to when 49% of the students revealed that their teachers rarely teach them how to pronounce vocabulary and the rest (35%) chose sometimes” Students‟ bad pronunciation is one of reasons for their poor vocabulary memorizing
Asking students to do and then correcting for them vocabulary exercises also help students in consolidating and reviewing what they have learnt; however, just 11% of the students admitted their teachers often ask them to do and correct vocabulary exercises, 34% chose “sometimes” and the rest with largest portion (55%) chose
“rarely” This makes students inactive in their vocabulary practicing and reviewing
Students themselves do not know how to apply memory strategies effectively if their teachers do not instruct them However, 95% confessed that their teachers do not instruct them memory strategies, only very small portion (5%) said their teachers do it
This is also a great difficulty for students to memorize vocabulary
With techniques for presenting new words, more than a half (66%) do not like their teachers‟ vocabulary presentation when they chose the option c (boring) while techniques like writing on the board or translating all the words into Vietnamese take the largest proportions (34% & 72%) These data show that the teachers‟ ways of presenting new vocabulary are no longer interesting to students
2.3.1.3 The results collected by questionnaire on students’ vocabulary learning
You feel it….to study ESP vocabulary
You are…in learning vocabulary during class lessons
You use new vocabulary items to discuss and communicate during class and after- class time
Memorizing ESP vocabulary items is…
You learn ESP vocabulary at home…
Table 3: Students‟ opinion on their own vocabulary learning
Whether vocabulary memorizing is effective or not most depends on students‟ own vocabulary learning However, as can be seen from table 3 above, many problems are revealed from students‟ own learning
With students‟ interest in studying ESP vocabulary, only 23% feel interesting, 36% feel neutral, while 41% feel boring This is low motivation for students to learn vocabulary Moreover, most students (81%) realized that they are very passive in learning vocabulary This figure also cognates with the number of students (78%) who admitted they rarely use vocabulary to discuss or communicate what they have learnt during-class as well as after-class time
For memorizing vocabulary, 68% students consider it difficult However, just only 16% students spend time learning at home every day, while 53% sometimes learns vocabulary at home They only learn them before the tests Students‟ laziness and feeling of difficulty in memorizing vocabulary contribute to students‟ vocabulary memorizing difficulty
As mentioned above, learning strategies are always important elements of language learning success and vocabulary is not an exception Table 4.1 below shows vocabulary strategies which are often used and the most effective ones
Which vocabulary strategies do you often use to memorize vocabulary?
A Connect words to personal experience 18
C Connect new words with known words 11
D Group words on topics such as: kinds of banks, etc 42
E Make sentences with new words 5
F Write down all new words in a notebook and learn them 49
G Rote- learn words and their Vietnamese equivalents 74
J Study and practice vocabulary through group work (e.g test each other‟s vocabulary)
Your3 most effective strategies are…
A Connect words to personal experience 5
C Connect new words with known words 6
D Group words on topics such as: kinds of banks, etc 28
E Make sentences with new words 4
F Write down all new words in a notebook and learn them 15
G Rote- learn words and their Vietnamese equivalents 27
J Study and practice vocabulary through group work (e.g test each other‟s vocabulary) 11
Table 4.1: Students‟ vocabulary memorizing strategies used
From figures shown on table 4.1 above, the comparison between question 19 and
20 is made in chart 1 below:
Chart 1: The comparison between used strategies and effective ones
Some suggested solutions
Basing on the analysis of the difficulties students face and some suggested solutions from the teachers in the interviews and the author‟s study on theories of vocabulary memorization, some suggestions to overcome the given difficulties will be offered below for ESP learners, teachers, curriculum developers and material writers
2.4.1 Material writers and curriculum developers
Material designers should conduct a need analysis and define objectives of the learners in relation to their field of study before writing materials This can lead to providing interesting, informative, short, pictorial passages with adequate new vocabulary items, which are repeated in the subsequent passages with enough exercises to practice and reinforce the essential learning strategies
Curriculum developers should adjust the learning schedule so that specialized courses such as accounting, auditing, banking, etc are taught before ESP Necessary specialized courses should be held first to familiarize the students with the basic specialized concepts
The size of English classes should also be seriously paid attention to so that learning ESP is more effective to students This also helps teachers more easily design materials as well as vocabulary practice exercises Each class should include at last 35 students Teaching facility is in need of improvement as well so that it can aid teachers in interesting vocabulary teaching
The teachers should arouse passion and motivation in students‟ ESP vocabulary learning To do this, firstly, presenting vocabulary by using effective teaching techniques should be done Besides traditional techniques, saying the words clearly and writing them on the board or translating all the words into Vietnamese, other techniques like using visual aids (pictures, images,…) should be exploited
Secondly, teachers should invest more time creating interesting activities For example, filling the gaps in the word networks, guessing games, spelling, brainstorming round an idea, topic discussing, identifying words we know, random items (see in appendix 3) for vocabulary practice should be exploited Teachers should also give students more chances to practice and use learned vocabulary with regular vocabulary check by weekly or monthly progress tests (see appendix 4&5) and students‟ summary of previous units
Thirdly, ESP teachers should actively improve their specialized knowledge by reading economics books, newspapers or watching TV programs related to economic issues in both Vietnamese and English so that teachers are more confident in presenting and explaining new ESP vocabulary items, which contributes to students‟ belief in their teachers‟ knowledge and good impression
Furthermore, teachers should also focus more on presenting pronunciation by asking students to pronounce new vocabulary items several times chorally or individually
Finally, teachers should instruct students to use memory strategies such as connecting words to personal experience, using synonyms or antonyms, connecting new words with known words, grouping words on topics such as kinds of banks, branches of economics, etc, (see appendix 6) in several lessons at the beginning of the course for students‟ suitable use of strategies
First, it is advisable for the students to make the words meaningful Sometimes students soon forget new words they learned a few minutes ago, just because they did not make the words meaningful to them In other words, they just read the words or write the words mechanically without further thinking about them This results in poor memory To achieve this goal, students may form images, understand and organize information, relate the words to what they have already known
Second, students should spend more time practicing and rehearsing learnt vocabulary by doing vocabulary exercises, summarizing the contents of the reading texts The more frequently they relearn new words, the more words they can remember
Students should test the learnt knowledge regularly Students should be asked and checked vocabulary exercises regularly so that they are more industrious and active in consolidating vocabulary Students can test themselves what they have learnt by playing games with their friends or working in pairs or in groups and then mutually checking vocabulary
Furthermore, to memorize vocabulary better, it is suggested that students minimize interference More forgeting occurs when a person stays awake and learns other new materials Students may review what they learn about the words just before they sleep, they may get unexpectedly better result In addition, to minimize interference, students should not try to memorize many new words at a time That there are so many new words is always in the minds of the students However, in fact students do not need to memorize all the words in the same period They can take advantage of several minutes before or after meals, the time before rest to memorize or relearn new words Making full use of little intervals, riding on the bus, waiting for class to start and so on will help students with better vocabulary memorizing
Students should also take an active part in class-time vocabulary learning (using learned words to discuss and communicate), taking notes in a well- organized plan (word family, parts of speech, word groups, etc) so that they feel like looking at what they have learnt at home It is necessary for students to take notes in the right way
Students often take notes like:
Equilibrium (n): sự cân bằng Aggregate (n & adj): tổng Commodity (n): hàng hóa
Current account (n): tài khoản séc Liquidity (n): tính thanh khoản Legal tender (n): đồng tiền pháp định
This is not an effective way of taking notes Although this system gives a very basic form of information about the most common meaning of an item as well as its part of speech and gender, the organization represents a very old one-dimensional view of language Moreover, this system of storage is not flexible It does not allow latter additions or refinements as one‟s knowledge of the uses and derivatives of an item increases, and gives us no indication of the pronunciation of the items Students therefore should use a more comprhensive framework to be encouragd to store items with the relavant information They also should leave space so that they can add the entry where need be:
Equilibrium /,i:kwi'libriəm/(n): sự cân bằng, điểm cân bằng e.g
Equilibrium for a particular goods means that the demand of that goods equals the supply
Commodity /kə'mɔditi/ (n): a product or a raw material that can be bought and sold
Ex: They need more commodities for supplying their new markets
Finally, students should spend more time exploring memory strategies (see appendix 6) and try to apply them to find out what are the most suitable and effective to them to work with
Conclusion
The study set out to investigate the common problems of ESP vocabulary memorizing faced by the second-year non-major students when working with the course book “English for Finance” at the Academy of Finance It was conducted in the light of qualitative method combined with a quantitative one, using different instruments like questionnaire and interview Subjects of the study are the second-year non-major students and the teachers working with these students at the AOF
To begin with, it reviews the theoretical issues related to some concepts of vocabulary in general and ESP vocabulary in particular together with the importance of vocabulary teaching and learning in the current trend, and characteristics of ESP vocabulary Besides, theory of memorization is also mentioned Findings from the study lay the foundation for the researcher to seek some feasible solutions to the discovered problems in order to improve students‟ ESP vocabulary memorizing
To answer the first research question: “What are the 2 nd year students’ difficulties in memorizing ESP vocabulary in the textbook “English for Finance”, the difficulties result from ESP curriculum and characteristics of ESP vocabulary, teachers‟ vocabulary teaching methods, and students‟ own vocabulary learning
To answer the second research question, What are the possible solutions to help the learners memorize ESP vocabulary better?, ESP-material redesigning, more suitable
ESP-schedule developing, chances for learnt-vocabulary practice, effective vocabulary- presentation techniques, active specialized-knowledge improving, pronunciation- presentation focus are solutions suggested toward material writers, curriculum developers and teachers to help the learners memorize ESP vocabulary better For the students, it is advisable to spend more time exploring and trying to apply memory strategies, make the words meaningful, spend more time practicing, test learnt vocabulary regularly, minimize interference and take an active part in class-time vocabulary learning
In general, better memorization of vocabulary, especially ESP vocabulary requires much consideration and efforts of not only students themselves but also teachers, material writers and curriculum developers.
Limitations of the study
It is unavoidable for the study to have some limitations in spite of researcher‟s efforts If the study was conducted in the light of an experimental research, the effectiveness and workability of the suggested solutions would be more convincing
Moreover, redesigning ESP material is not an easy task, which can be done in a short period In addition, to develop a more suitable ESP schedule needs much consideration when curriculum developers have to meet the need of more than 12 thousand students at the Academy each year.
Suggestions for further study
To aid memory, there are memory strategies In the scope of this study, the researcher has not investigated deeply how each strategy works with students and when to take advantages of these strategies In the researcher‟s future study, she will carry out an experimental research on how memory strategies aid ESP students in memorizing ESP vocabulary
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Science and Technics Publishing House
This survey questionnaire is designed for my study on Difficulties in memorizing at the Academy of Finance and some suggested solutions” I hope you will take into consideration and answer all questions seriously Your opinion will be helpful for my study and then help students memorize ESP vocabulary better Thank you very much for your help
Please, answer the following questions by circling suitable answers or writing if necessary
Residence: A Countryside B City Did you learn English before entering at AOF? A Yes B No
If no, which language did you learn? ………
II Students’ opinion on ESP vocabulary in the course book
1 Topics of reading texts are… to your own knowledge
2 According to you, reading texts contain… new vocabulary items
3 There are….phrases, compounds in each unit
4 New vocabulary items are…repeated in the next units
5 Meanings of vocabulary items are…
6 There are….vocabulary practice exercises in each unit
7 Vocabulary practice exercises in each unit are…
III Students’ opinion on their teachers’ vocabulary teaching
8 Your teacher spends……… time presenting new vocabulary items
9 Your teacher………teaches you to pronounce new vocabulary items
10 Your teacher… tests your learned vocabulary items
11 Your teacher trains you in memorizing new Vocabulary items?
12 Your teacher‟s vocabulary presenting ways are……
13 What techniques for presenting new words does your teacher often use?
(you can choose more than one option)
B saying the words clearly and writing them on the board
C translating all the words into Vietnamese
D using mimes, gestures, and facial expressions
E using target language to define the new words
IV Students’ opinion on their own vocabulary learning
14 You feel it……….to study ESP vocabulary
15 You are…in learning vocabulary during class lessons
16 You… use new vocabulary items to discuss and communicate during class and after- class time
17 Memorizing ESP vocabulary items is…
18 You learn ESP vocabulary at home…
19 Which vocabulary strategies do you often use to memorize vocabulary?
C Connect new words with known words
D Group words on topics such as: kinds of banks, branches of economics, etc
E Make sentences with new words
F Write down all new words in a notebook and learn them
G Rote- learn words and their Vietnamese equivalents
J Study and practice the meaning through group work (e.g test each other‟s vocabulary)
20 Your 3 most effective strategies are…………
(write the letters on the twentieth question)………
1 What problems do you have when teaching ESP vocabulary to the 2 nd - year students at the AOF?
2 What do you think about ESP vocabulary in the course book “English for Finance” in terms of: - relevance to students‟ major
3 What problems do you find from your students‟ vocabulary memorization when working with the book “English for Finance”?
4 What techniques and activities do you often use to present new words? a using visual aids (objects, pictures,…) b saying the words clearly and write them on the board c translating all the words into Vietnamese d using mimes, gestures, and facial expressions e using target language to define the new words f other ways (please specify)………
5 What techniques and activities do you often use to help your students to review and memorize the taught words? a making sentences with words b completing sentences c filling in the gaps d choosing the words that have the nearest meaning to the given words e matching words f reordering words g asking and answering questions h discussing i playing games j other ways (please specify)………
6 What recommendations should be made to improve your students‟ vocabulary memorizing?
APPENDIX 3 Some suggested activities for teachers’ applying to teaching vocabulary
(Adapted from Ur (1996), Gairns, R and Redman, S (2004), Kate Kinsella (2005), Steven Stahl & Barbara Kapinus, 2001)
Goal: - introduce new vocabulary or check learnt vocabulary items Procedures:
- Write a single word in the centre of the board
- Ask students to brainstorm all the words they can think of that are connected with it
- Ask several students come to the board and write down the words they think/ call as many students as possible at random say out the words and write down as example above with the word price
Goal: to introduce the vocabulary of a new reading passage Procedures:
- Give students new texts (or texts in the course book)
- Ask students to underline or mark with fluorescent pens all the words they know
- Then ask students work in pairs or in three to compare: a student who knows something not known to his friends teaches it to them Then they try to get the meanings of the remaining unmarked items
- Bring the class together to hear the results, check guesses and teach new items where necessary
Goal: for students‟ vocabulary revision Procedures:
- Write on the board a number of vocabulary items (learnt items in previous lessons)
- Jumble the words (not appear in categories)
- Ask students to work alone to categorize the items into 3 or 4 groups (more effective if teacher lets students make their own decision on which categories and then explain their choices)
- Sort the word cards by category (e.g., words related to people, words related to things)
- Find words that have certain connotations such as positive and negative, good and bad, desirable and undesirable
- Sort words by part of speech (e.g., N, V, Adv, Adj)
- Make sentences using pairs of words
- Group words and then explain basis of groupings
5 Filling gaps Goal: Help review vocabulary and summarize the contents of the reading texts
- Write down on the blackboard the chart
- Ask students close their books and do this one in several minutes
- Ask one students come to blackboard to fill in
- Ask another one to stand in front of the class and make a presentation on money basing on that information
- Ask these others listen to and then correct information
- Give students comment on their work and then correct the table
- Ask the other one using the correct information to make another presentation
Hints: - This kind of activity should be used at the beginning to check old lessons or at the end of the lesson to consolidate the information
Token money E.g paper note, dollars
Medium of exchange Measure of value Commodity money
Store of value Standard of differed payment
Goal: help students consolidate and build more vocabulary with its origin Procedures:
- Give students a verb, noun or adjective of each word and then ask them to find out the other related words origin from the given word to fill in the chart
- Ask them to work in pairs and then compare
- Ask them to explain the meanings of the words in English to their partners
- Call students to blackboard to fill in
- Call several students to explain meanings of the words during their friend‟s work on blackboard
- Then correct the information and ask students chorally pronounce the words
- Dictate the word to be taught and have students record in square
- Have students suggest examples of the word and record a number of examples
- Have students provide non-examples of the concept and record of number of non-examples
- Finally, have students write a definition of the concept
(to go bankrupt) Supply supplier
APPENDIX 4 English vocabulary test (30 minutes)
I For each of the following words, write a sentence that makes its meaning clear (3 pts) fiscal policy stock exchange contractionary deposit equity venture capital
II Match the words on the left with their definitions on the right (3 pts)
1 Pension a Money paid on what is inherited after someone died
2 Inheritance tax b Money paid to people with a handicap
3 Disability allowance c Money paid to people after a certain age
4 Child benefit d Money chargeable on a loan
5 Saving account e Money paid towards the cost of raising a family
6 Interest f An account that is used mainly for keeping money
III Teacher dictates these following words, the students write down (2 pts) profitability, permanent, fluctuation, inventory, over- stringent, negotiate
IV Teacher dictates these following Vietnamese words, the students write down
Tiền gửi không kỳ hạn, trung gian tài chính, thâm hụt thương mại, chính sách tài khóa thắt chặt, nền kinh tế toàn cầu, tài sản, ban giám đốc, thị trường chứng khoán thứ cấp
(Adapted from Cambridge University Press 1996 in “A course in language teaching Ur,
APPENDIX 5 VOCABULARY-TESTING TECHNIQUES Example 1
Choose the letter of the item which is the nearest in meaning to the word in italics:
He was reluctant to answer a unprepared b unwilling c refusing d slow
Choose the letter of the definition which comes closest in meaning to the word elated a Ready and willing b Tending to talk a lot c Tense and excited d In high spirits
Draw lines connecting the pairs of opposites
A B brave awake female expensive cheap succeed asleep cowardly fail male
Which of the prefixes in column A can combine with which of the words in column B?
Write out the complete words
For each of the following words write a sentence that makes its meaning clear
1 Financial intermediary 2 Fiscal policy 3 Benefit 4 deposit
(The teacher dictates the words from Example 6, the students write them down.)
(The teacher dictates the mother-tongue equivalent of the words in Example 6, the students write down the target-language versions.)
Example 9: Match the definitions in column B to the words in column A:
7 Profit a The actual receipt and expenditures of cash by an organization b Anything of value or use to an organization This includes cash, receivables, securities, property and intangibles, such as goodwill c Fixed regular pay each month for a job, especially a job done by a senior member of staff d The difference between the cost and the selling price e The gradual decline in value of a fixed asset, such as real estate (but not land) or machinery f The branch accounting that involves determining the correct liability- that is, the amount owed- for taxes, and preparing the necessary tax- return forms g A review or evaluation of a company‟s financial records by employees of the same company h Calculating and controlling the cost of a unit- a single item or a group of items- of a product, service, function, or operation of a business
Example 10: Complete the gaps with one of the words from this box: dumping, competitive, employment, quotas, competition, employ, unemployment
1 People are worried about the rise in ………
2 The new factory has provided opportunities of……… for local people
3 Government……….limit the import of luxury cars to just 200 each year
4 We can‟t compete with their prices; they must be…… their goods to put us out of business
5 Our prices are no longer……… ; we have to cut costs somehow
(Students are given sentences in the mother tongue to translate into the target language or vice verse)
Các doanh nghiệp thường có 3 báo cáo tài chính hang năm Báo cáo thu nhập cho biết các khoản chi tiêu và khoản kiếm được Bảng cân đối tình hình tài chính cho biết tình hình tài chính của một công ty tại một thời điểm cụ thể, thường là ngày cuối cùng của năm tài khóa Loại báo cáo thứ 3, báo cáo về sự thay đổi tình hình tài chính, cho biết luồng tiền vào và ra của một doanh nghiệp
2 I never have an appetite when…
3 It was a great relief when…
(Adapted from Cambridge University Press 1996 in “A course in language teaching Ur,
Oxford (1990) presents techniques for the retention of language input: a) grouping language material into meaningful units; b) associating new language information to concepts already in memory; c) placing new words into a context, such as meaningful sentences; d) using semantic mapping; e) using keywords with auditory and/or visual links; f) representing sounds in memory for link with a target language word; g) reviewing the target language material in carefully spaced intervals; h) acting out a new target language expression; i) using mechanical techniques, such as writing words on cards
Schmitt (2000) adds some suggestions for memory strategies that have, according to the author, been shown effective: a) pictures - pairing L2 words with pictures; b) imagery - associating L2 words with images created by the learner, usually associated with a personal experience; c) related words, with sense relationship, such as synonymy, antonymy, etc; d) unrelated words that rhyme;