Luận văn tiếng anh

Luận văn : Luận văn tiếng anh

PART A: INTRODUCTION

i Rationale

Nowadays, as an effective means of international communication, English is widely used

in all fields of activity throughout the world Therefore, there has been a growing demandfor the learning of this language of those who want to master English to serve theirdifferent purposes This leads to the introduction of English for Specific Purposes (ESP) inmany universities in Vietnam Being aware of the importance of ESP, Department ofLinguistics and Vietnamese Studies at University of Social Sciences and Humanities(USSH) – VNU have had its own collections of teaching material on Linguistics Studies It

is aimed at providing students with background knowledge and a system of terms related toLinguistics

In the process of acquiring English as a whole, students must learn not only language itemsbut also four language skills among which reading plays an important part This is also true

to students of linguistics because they can broaden their professional knowledge in theirmajor as well as get access to language inputs to develop the other language skills whenreading a lot of materials on linguistics in English

Despite the significant role of reading skills, the teaching and learning of it at theDepartment have not been properly carried out There are some exiting problems such asthe lack of experience in teaching ESP, no training course for teachers of ESP, unevenEnglish level of the students Besides, Grammar-Translation method is still in use toexploit reading texts Reading skill is often taught separately or, in other words, there is nointegration with the other language skills The text is, in fact, exploited as a source ofmaterials for a language lesson As a result, most of the students become bored andpassive

This has given rise to the question, “How can ESP teachers improve the situation to bringlife into the lessons and motivate the students to read in English?” And the followinganswer can often be heard, “To teach reading skills in integration with the other languageskills.” But how can this be done? This study will try to answer this question

ii Objectives of the study

The study is aimed at:

1 identifying and analyzing strong points and weak points of ESP teaching andlearning reading skills in Department of Linguistics and Vietnamese Studies atUSSH - VNU;

2 exploiting the advantages of skill-integration in the light of CommunicativeLanguage Teaching in teaching reading skills to students of linguistics; and

3 suggesting techniques that are applicable and useful for the improvement in ESPteaching and learning reading skills in integration with the development of the otherlanguage skills to students of linguistics at USSH - VNU

iii Scope of the study

It is impossible to cover every aspect of language theory and practice in this study Due to lack of time,experience and reference materials, the study will focus only on studying teaching readingESP to students of linguistics in the light of the Communicative Approach to languageteaching

iv Methods of the study

To carry out this study, the following methods will be employed:

1 Collection and critical review of related literature;

2 Survey questionnaires for both ESP teachers and students of linguistics at USSH VNU This will be carried out in combination with classroom observation; and

-3 Data analysis

PART B: LITERATURE REVIEWCHAPTER 1: READING IN ESP TEACHING AND LEARNING

Reading itself includes numerous issues Therefore, it is difficult to complete the coverage

of such a vast topic In this chapter, some different definitions of reading, the role ofreading, reasons for reading, kinds of reading, reading skills and reading in ESP teachingand learning will be discussed

1.1 Reading redefined

In the reading class, what the teacher understands about reading will have a great influence

on what he or she teaches in the classroom Therefore, for the teacher of reading, a carefullook at definitions of reading is very important

However, defining reading is not easy although a lot of attempts have been made to define

it Different people define the term reading in different ways and each definition reflects a different viewpoint of reading According to Robinson and Good (1987: 9), “reading is best described as an understanding between the author and the reader Reading is much more than just pronouncing words correctly or simply knowing that the author intends; it

is the process whereby the printed page stimulates ideas, experiences and responses that are unique to an individual Reading can simply be thought of as a personal encounter with the printed page Basically, an important aspect of reading is the process of constructing meaning from printed materials.”

Petty and Salzer (1989: 323) held a similar point of view, that is, “reading involves the identification and recognition of printed or written symbols which serve as stimulus for the recall of meanings built up through past experience and further the construction of new meanings through the reader's manipulation of relevant concepts already in his or her possession The resulting meanings are organized into thought processes according to the purposes that are operating in the reader.”

Both of the above definitions indicate that reading is not only an interaction between thereader and the author but also between the reader and the text

Gould, DiYanni, Smith and Standford (1990), on the other hand, defined this term bylooking at its scope According to them, reading is a creative act, interaction, interpretation,

a social act and responding

Although "no definition of reading can possibly include all viewpoints and features"

(Robinson and Good - 1987: 9), for the sake of teaching and learning reading skills, the

following definition should be emphasized: “Reading means "reading and understanding" A foreign language learner who says, "I can read the words but don't know what they mean" is not, therefore, reading, in this sense He or she is merely decoding - translating written symbols into corresponding sounds.” (Ur - 1996: 138) This does not mean that the reader

needs to understand every word in a text but actively work on the text and extract therequired information efficiently

So far we have had some knowledge of the definition of reading The following sectionwill discuss the part reading plays in a language teaching programme

2 Only by reading can the pupil acquire the speed and skills he will need for practical purposes when he leaves school In our literate society, it is hard to imagine any skilled work that does not require the ability to read;

3 Further education depends on quantity and quality of reading All the important study skills require quick, efficient and imaginative reading; and

4 General knowledge depends on reading The "background" or cross - culture problem can only is tackled by wide reading The more the student reads, the more background knowledge he acquires of other ways of life, behavior and thought and the more books he finds he can understand.

(Bright & McGregor - 1977: 52)Thus, it can be said that reading is the core of the syllabus as it helps students broaden theirgeneral knowledge as well as professional one, improve other language skills and succeed

in their future life As a result, it is the teacher of reading that helps and motivates students

to learn to read so that they can read to learn To fulfill this task, he or she should give the

student a reason for reading The following section will, thus, discuss answers to thequestion, "Why do people read?"

1.3 Reasons for reading

Most students of English expect to be able to read the language sooner or later Theirpersonal desires and expectations vary from wanting to be able to read Shakespeare, MarkTwain or a scientific journal to being able to read a tourist brochure or advertisement.Accordingly, the reasons for reading will influence the way they read For example, thequick scanning of a page in the telephone directory to find a single name is very differentfrom the careful attention one pays to a legal document

According to Rivers and Temperly (1978: 187), we read normally because we

1 want information for some purpose or because we are curious about some topic;

2 need instructions in order to perform some task for our work or for our daily life ;

3 want to act in a play, play a new game, do a puzzle, or carry out some other activity which is pleasant and amusing;

4 want to keep in touch with friends by corresponding or understand business letters;

5 want to know when or where something will take place or what is available ;

6 want to know what is happening or has happened ;

7 seek enjoyment or excitement

Also concerning the reasons for reading, Nuttall (1989: 3) wrote: “You read because you wanted to get something from the writing: facts, ideas, enjoyment, even feelings of family community (from a letter).”

Sharing the same opinion, White in "Communication in Classroom" (Johnson, Morrow

-1981: 87), stated that “we read in order to obtain information which is presented in written form By "information" I mean content which is cognitive (or intellectual), referential (or factual) or affective (or emotional).”

All of the above opinions agreed that reading is carried out for, at least, a reason other thanreading the language itself When reading, readers are not concerned with the language butwith the message and its applications In other words, they have authentic reasons forreading Therefore, the teacher of English should combine the teaching and learning of the

target language with the uses to which his or her students can put reading in their daily lifeoutside the classroom In addition, the teacher of reading should know how to exploit eachtext with each proper strategy by making students practise different types of reading.

1.4 Kinds of reading

Although there are different ways to classify reading, the most popular one is to base onmanners and purposes of reading (or reasons for reading)

1.4.1 Classification according to manners of reading

Based on manners of reading, reading can be divided into reading aloud and silent reading

1.4.1.1 Reading aloud

According to Doff (1995: 67), “obviously, reading aloud involves looking at a text, understanding it and also saying it” What he meant is that when we read aloud, our

purpose is not just to understand a text but to convey the information to someone else In

his opinion, “reading aloud can be useful at the earliest stage of reading (recognising

letters and words); it can help students to make the connection between sound and spelling”

However, Doff (1995: 58) also pointed out that "for reading a text, it is not a very useful technique" because it is not a natural activity – most people do not read aloud in real life.

In addition, when reading aloud, only one student is active at a time while the others areeither not listening at all or are listening to a bad model And students only pay attention topronunciation, not understanding the text Besides, students usually read slowly becausethey find it hard to read aloud in their own language, let alone in a foreign language.Therefore, it takes up a lot of time in class

Hedge (1991: 14) took the same view about reading aloud He gave out points both for and against this kind of reading:

For

 Students often read out loud as an aid to

making sense of sentences and finding the

boundaries of sense groups.

 It gives extra practice in pronunciation,

word stress and rhythm.

 It brings variety to classroom activities.

Against

 Listening to inaccurate pronunciation from classmates confuses understanding of the sound - symbol relationship.

 The reader is so intent on articulation that he loses track of the content

 It does not allow the reader to use natural

 It is appropriate to certain kinds of texts

such as poetry and drama.

 Many students enjoy oral reading and are

motivated by it

 Traditionally it is the mode of reading in

many educational systems.

strategies for reading quickly and forces him

to revert to a slow reading of every word so that overall meaning may be lost through attention to detail

 It requires a considerable amount of classtime that might be better exploited

As a result, according to Doff (1995: 59), "if a teacher wants students to read aloud, it should be the final activity at the end of a reading lesson" It can be suggested that

to make full use of this type of reading, a reading lesson must be carefully prepared andcarried out in various ways to motivate and encourage the student to learn

1.4.1.2 Silent reading

Different from reading aloud, silent reading is the normal and natural activity that most

students do in classroom as well as in real life “Normally, reading is a silent and individual activity since the writer's expectation was that the text would be read, not heard” (Abbott and Wingard - 1985: 81).

Doff (1995: 67) added that “it involves looking at sentences and understanding the message they convey, in other words, "making sense" of a written text.” This means that

when we read, we do not merely sit as "passive receivers" of the text but we, based on ourown knowledge of the world and of the language, extract the required information andrelate it with real life In addition, in silent reading, the student can read at his own speedand can go back and read whatever he wants to understand more

1.4.2 Classification according to purposes of reading

As mentioned above, people read because of various reasons or, in other words, differentpurposes Accordingly, the ways they read also vary Most methodologists have agreedthat the main kinds of reading according to purposes of reading are skimming, scanning,extensive reading and intensive reading

1.4.2.1 Skimming

Skimming can be defined as follows: “By skimming we mean glancing rapidly through a text to determine its gist, for example in order to decide whether a research paper is relevant to our own work , or in order to keep ourselves superficially informed about matters that are not of great importance to us” (Nuttall - 1989: 34) Or simply speaking, when skimming, we go through the reading material quickly to get general sense or the gist

of it without being concerned with the details Therefore, skimming should be treated as auseful skill in teaching and learning reading and can be applied at the first stage of a readinglesson with the aim that the student can have an overview of what he is going to read.

1.4.2.2 Scanning

Scanning is also a necessary technique in reading efficiently Nuttall (1989: 34) stated

that “by scanning we mean glancing rapidly through a text either to search for a specific

piece of information or to get an initial impression of whether the text is suitable for a given purpose ”

Unlike skimming, scanning is a kind of reading carried out when we go through the text veryfast in order to find a particular item of information, then concentrate on it When scanning, weonly try to find what we are looking for Therefore, this kind of reading can be very useful inreading selectively

1.4.2.3 Extensive reading

Extensive reading is also called "reading for fluency" The student reads long texts to havegeneral understanding, to practise his fluency in reading, or to relax Therefore, this kind ofreading is often carried out individually outside classroom In general, the student should

be encouraged to do extensive reading to improve his knowledge of the world as well as ofthe target language or simply to foster fluency and pleasure

1.4.2.4 Intensive reading

In contrast with extensive reading, intensive reading requires full understanding of the text

Nuttall (1989: 23) wrote “intensive reading involves approaching the text under the close guidance of the teacher , or under the guidance of a task which forces the student to pay great attention to the text The aim of intensive reading is to arrive at a profound and detailed understanding of the text: not only of what it means, but also of how the meaning

is produced The "how" is as important as the "what", for the intensive reading lesson is intended primarily to train students in reading strategies.” Accordingly, intensive reading

should be a basic activity in a reading classroom

In conclusion, the above kinds of reading are closely related They can be used eitheralternatively or in combination in reading one text The teacher of reading should varyreading strategies and make full use of each kind of reading Furthermore, to make theteaching and learning reading better, the teacher should select activities suitable for

promoting reading as a major language skill as well as its sub-skills which will bediscussed below.

1.5 Reading skills

The reader employs a number of specialist skills when reading and his success inunderstanding the content of what he reads depends to a large extent on his expertise inthese specialist skills The following are some of the main reading skills required by alearner of English listed by Matthews, Spratt and Dangerfield (1991: 65):

1 recognising the letters of the alphabet;

2 reading groups of letters as words;

3 understanding the meaning of punctuation;

4 understanding the meaning of vocabulary items;

5 understanding the grammar of a sentence;

6 understanding the relationship between sentences and clauses in a text;

7 recognizing the effects of style;

8 recognizing the organization of a text;

9 making inferences;

10 reading longer texts (extensive reading);

11 skimming for gist;

12 scanning for specific information; and

13 reading for detail

This list concerns students of different levels of reading ability For students of linguistics,the skills numbered (4), (5), (8), (9), (10), (11), (12) and (13) should be paid far moreattention to than the rest since they are essential skills for them not only in their major butalso in real life

Reading skills are also identified as follows:

1 recognizing words and phrases in English script;

2 using one's own knowledge of the outside world to make predictions about and interpret a text;

3 retrieving information stated in the passage;

4 distinguishing the main ideas from subsidiary information;

5 deducing the meaning and use of unknown words; ignoring unknown words/phrases that are redundant;

6 understanding the meaning and implications of grammatical structures;

7 recognizing discourse markers;

8 recognizing the function of sentences - even when not introduced by discourse markers;

9 understanding relations within the sentence and the text;

10 extracting specific information for summary or note taking;

11 skimming to obtain the gist, and recognise the organisation of ideas within the text;

12 understanding implied information and attitudes; and

13 knowing how to use an index, a table of contents, etc Understanding layout, use of headings, etc.

(Willis - 1998: 142)Basically, Willis took the same view on reading sub-skills as Matthews, Spratt andDangerfield These methodologists all emphasized that the student of foreign languagesshould improve his reading ability by acquiring the ways to make prediction; how to skimand scan; understanding the text by getting the main idea, the specific information;recognizing the organization as well as the discourse patterns

Also being concerned about reading skills, Harmer (1992: 183) gave another list of sixspecialist skills which, to some extent, summarize all the above-mentioned skills including

1 Predictive skills;

2 Extracting specific information;

3 Getting the general picture;

4 Extracting detailed information; and

5 Recognizing function and discourse patterns

6 Deducing meaning from context

All the skills mentioned above should be paid a special attention to by both teachers andlearners of English in the process of acquiring the language The teacher of reading shouldencourage his or her students to predict what they are going to read, to know how to findout a fact in the fastest way, how to pick out main points or detailed information rapidly,and how to discard what is not essential or irrelevant In addition, he or she needs to makethe students aware of discourse markers, help them develop their ability to deduce themeanings of unfamiliar words from the context in which they appear Perhaps, these skills

are largely subconscious in the minds of the students when reading in their mother tongue.However, reading in a foreign language can create barriers for the students, which maymake these sub-skills more difficult to use The teacher’s job, then, is to re-activate theseskills which may be less effective when the students are faced with English If the teacher

of reading can make the students feel less anxious and thus remove some of the barriers,that alone may dramatically improve their reading ability

1.6 Reading in ESP teaching and learning

1.6.1 What is ESP?

Obviously, different human activities require different communication skills which in turnrequire specific linguistic items Hutchinson and Waters (1987: 19) stressed that ESPshould be seen as an approach, not a product It means that ESP students’ goal of learning

a second language might not only be to acquire general linguistics competencies but alsoacademic and job-related skills Widdowson, on the other hand, argued that the distinctionbetween English for General Purposes and ESP is not the problem of specificity of purpose

but “the way in which purpose is defined and the manner of its implementation”

(Widdowson – 1983: 6) He also put the specification of objectives in ESP course design in

a close relation with training It can be said that ESP basically focuses on all aspects oflanguage pertaining field of human activity while taking into account the time constraintsimposed by learners

There are two central areas in ESP: content and methodology Content is concerned withhow broad the scope of a particular course is when compared with the totality of thelanguage Methodology is concerned with the ways linguistic items are introduced andpracticed In general, ESP teaching and learning should take place in contexts which are asauthentic as possible and content-based This means that learning materials should useactual texts produced by people working in the ESP field and focus on specific problemsthat learners are likely to encounter in their everyday working lives As a result, learningwill have greater relevance to the employment situation and ESP learners will have greatermotivation in the course

1.6.2 Teaching reading ESP

There are three main factors involved in a reading lesson: the ESP teacher, the student andreading materials But before these factors are discussed, the following question should beanswered, “What is the difference between a language lesson and a reading lesson?”

1.6.2.1 Language lessons and reading lessons

As mentioned before, foreign language teachers should give students the authenticpurposes of reading This means that reading is not just a linguistic exercise but is involvedwith the getting of meaning out of a text for some purpose But in fact, the most typical use

of reading in an ESP class is to teach the language itself, that is the teacher tries to present

or practise specific linguistic items such as vocabulary, structures, etc Although languageimprovement is the central purpose of a foreign language learner, this is not an authentic

use of a reading text Furthermore, according to Nuttall (1989: 20), “We need lessons like this, of course, but we need reading lessons too, if our students require the ability to read

in the foreign language.”

Therefore, it is necessary to point out the differences between a language lesson and areading lesson Nuttall (ibid.) argued that giving a lesson based on a text is not the same asgiving a reading lesson because most of the skills practised are probably not reading skills

at all She also gave out two features that make a reading lesson different from a language

one “First, it is different because the type of text used is likely to be different In a reading lesson we need to use texts that have been written not to teach language but for any of the authentic purposes of writing: to inform, to entertain and so on Even if the language has been modified to suit the level of the learners, the purpose of the text must be first and foremost to convey a message Second, the procedures have to be different, because the aim of the reading lesson is to develop the student's ability to extract the message the text contains So, unlike a language development lesson, we are not trying to put some thing into his head, but instead we are trying to get him to take it himself: to get him to make use of the knowledge he already has in order to acquire new messages.”

The above differences between a language lesson and a reading lesson suggest that the ESPteacher should use reading lessons to develop students’ reading proficiency andcommunicative competence rather than only to improve linguistic competence and thereading lessons need to make allowances for both variety of texts as well as of readers

1.6.2.2 ESP teacher’s roles

Although it is known that reading involves the skills that the student must learn forhimself, it does not mean that there is nothing for the ESP teacher to do There is, in fact, agreat deal of language work that can be done in an ESP reading lesson

In general, a teacher of reading has two main roles as Richard and Amato (1988)

described: “The first role is to facilitate communicative process between all participants in the classroom, and between these participants and the various activities and texts The second role is to act as an interdependent participant within the learning - teaching group.”

Accordingly, the teacher is an organizer of resources and as a resource himself; a guidewithin the classroom procedures and activities; a researcher to improve the teachingmaterials, techniques, methods; and a conductor and advisor for all learners' activities

An ESP teacher has to fulfill these above mentioned roles Besides, it is agreed that “The key quality needed by the ESP teacher is flexibility: the flexibility to change from being a general language to being a specific purpose teacher, and the flexibility to cope with different groups of students, often at a very short notice” (Jordon - 1997: 122).

Having a good knowledge on the subject matters of the ESP materials is also veryimportant to the ESP teacher It does not mean that he or she must become an expert in the

major field but “an interested student of the subject matter” (Hutchinson & Waters – 1987:

163) The ESP teacher should meet three following requirements: a positive attitudetowards the ESP content; a knowledge of the fundamental principles of the subject area;and a awareness of how much they probably know

Whatever role he or she plays, the ESP teacher should be responsible for helping thestudents However, the trouble is that it is easy to give too much help, or help of the wrongkind So what sort of help should the ESP teacher give? To answer this question, Nuttall

(1989: 22) stated that “Briefly, it (her book) sees the teacher's job as providing, first, suitable texts and second, activities that will focus the student's attention on the text The student must develop his own skills, but we (teachers) must make him aware of what he is doing, and interested in doing better.”

In addition, to fulfill the aim of an ESP course, the ESP teacher must act as a material

provider involving “choosing relevant published material, adapting material when publish material is not suitable” (Jordon – 1997: 15) He or she should also create an environment

of a communicative classroom where meaningful and useful reading activities are carriedout so that the students can best acquire reading skills and practise other language skills inorder to communicate successfully

1.6.2.3 Learner's roles

As "a communicative approach is essentially learner - centered" (Sheils - 1993: 1), the

roles of the learner in a reading lesson should also be discussed Generally, although theroles of the student seen by different methodologists are not the same, it can be undeniablethat they all agreed that the student in a communicative classroom must do his work on hisown or with little help from the teacher In other words, he is supposed to contribute asmuch as he gains and learns in an interdependent way And, in fact, he plays an active role

in every language lesson This means that "the student's role as a reader", wrote Nuttall (1989: 147), "demands that he should make sense of the text for himself In his reading lesson, he is supposed to learn how to do this: doing it for him will not teach him this".

In summary, the ESP teacher and the students are interrelated to each other during theprocess of teaching and learning a foreign language in general, and reading skills inparticular The teacher's job is to provide suitable texts, assign such tasks and activities thatthe student can acquire his own skills while the student is supposed to do most of thesetasks and activities by himself

1.6.2.4 Reading material's roles

It should be noted that materials for reading ESP play an important role in reading teachingprocess Firstly, they enable students to improve their fluency as well as accuracy in acquiringthe target language Through reading materials, students can enrich their vocabulary related totheir major, structures, etc They can also develop other language skills Secondly, materials forreading provide students with more knowledge of the major field Furthermore, they helpstudents acquire some qualities such as creativity, imagination and so on

To sum up, beside the course book, the ESP teacher should supply other authentic readingmaterials with readability, suitability of content and exploitability It is agreed with what

Boughton, Brumfit, Flavell, Hill and Pincas (1990: 102) wrote: “ the teacher needs to bear in mind that the choice of an appropriate text is very important in building up pupils' reading competence” and “texts must be properly graded and sequenced and varied so that their linguistic content and cultural difficulty match the abilities and sophistication of the pupils, and ensure a reasonable coverage of the various kinds of reading skill they need to develop.”

1.6.2.5 Principles of teaching reading

It is essential for the ESP teacher to be aware of the principles of teaching reading Burns,Roe and Ross (1988: 22) suggested fourteen principles of teaching reading They are asfollows:

1 Reading is a complex act with many factors that must be considered;

2 Reading is the interpretation of the meaning of printed symbols;

3 Reading involves constructing the meaning of a written passage;

4 There is no one correct way to teach reading;

5 Learning to read is a continuing process;

6 Students should be taught word recognition skills that will allow them to unlock pronunciations and meanings of unfamiliar words independently;

7 The teacher should diagnose each student's ability and use the diagnosis as a basis for planning instruction;

8 Reading and the other language arts are closely interrelated;

9 Reading is an integral part of all content area instructions within the educational program;

10 The student needs to see why reading is important;

11 Enjoyment of reading should be considered of prime importance;

12 Readiness for reading should be considered at all levels of instruction;

13 Reading should be taught in a way that allows each child to experience success; and

14 Encouragement of self - direction and self - monitoring of reading is important.

Although the principles listed above are, of course, not all-inclusive, it is believed that theyare helpful in guiding teachers in planning reading instruction

1.6.2.6 Characteristics of an effectively organized classroom for reading instruction

Like the principles of teaching reading, an all-inclusive answer to this question isimpossible Therefore, in the following, only the most common characteristics of aclassroom effectively organized for reading instruction will be presented According toJohn N Mangieri (Lapp - 1981: 11), there are six major characteristics of an effectivereading classroom They are

1 Individual differences of students are recognized and provision is made to accommodate these differences It is obvious that no two individuals are precisely

the same in every aspect Individual differences exist in intellectual, physical,emotional and educational traits Thus, the effectively organized classroom has tomake instructional provisions for the diverse reading capabilities and abilities ofeach student

2 Comprehensive, continuous diagnosis occurs in order to ascertain student reading proficiencies and deficiencies Diagnostic test, or in other words, diagnosis, is a

test to find out weaknesses and strengths of students In an effectively organizedclassroom, diagnosis is conducted on an initial, a final, and above all, continuousbasis It is considered as a blueprint for instruction Teachers of reading would dowell to remember that instruction will become exemplary only when it accuratelymeets the reading needs of each student Diagnosis can be the vehicle fordetermining these needs

3 Both immediate and long-range planning for reading instruction take place on a regular basis It is imperative that comprehensive planning for reading instruction

occurs prior to the actual teaching act This planning should deal with both immediateand long-range instructional concerns The major objective of immediate planning is

to answer the question, “What am I going to teach tomorrow?”, whereas long-rangeplanning involves looking beyond tomorrow’s lesson The process of assessingimmediate versus long-range outcomes is a continual but necessary one Effectiveplanning is the prelude to effective reading instruction

4 The nonteaching conditions of the educational situation are employed to their maximum usage This means that the effective teacher of reading is not the teacher

who merely has maximum conditions for instruction or works in a well-equippedreading class Rather, he or she is the one who employs the financial and physicalconditions of a teaching situation to maximum usage

5 Instructional procedures are utilized, which will produce optimal reading achievement for every child in the classroom Reading instruction should be

learner-centered and designed to promote optimal and continuous achievement foreach student The teacher should make provision for the learning process, payingparticular attention to motivation, reinforcement, and rate and type of learning

6 Evaluation of the instructional process relative to reading is conducted in a continuous and thorough manner Most methodologists agree that the instructional

process is a three-phase task of planning, teaching and evaluating Evaluation isascertaining the degree to which a teacher’s immediate and long-term instructionalobjectives have been or are being attained It plays a significant role in everyteacher’s classroom, and if properly conducted, evaluation can provide teacherswith something more than intuition to tell them whether their students are attainingoptimal achievement in reading

Based on the above list, the teacher of reading can know whether his or her classroom iseffectively organized for reading instruction or not The degree to which these characteristicsexit or are absent in a classroom will determine the effectiveness of a teacher's provision forreading instruction However, it should be noted that all of these characteristics must bepresent if a language classroom is to function optimally and produce maximum student growth

in reading To do this difficult task, great efforts on the part of the teacher must be made And

the teacher should not be deterred from implementing these characteristics "since students are the bottom line of instruction and the goal of providing exemplary reading instruction is worth optimal efforts" (Lapp - 1981: 25).

In summary, what has been done in this chapter is to focus on an overall view of readingand teaching reading ESP Some theoretical concepts have been also related to theirapplication in teaching and learning reading ESP The next chapter will discuss howreading skill and the other language skills are interrelated

CHAPTER 2: SKILL – INTEGRATION 2.1 Productive and receptive skills

In daily life, people who use language employ a number of different abilities They areable to speak on the telephone, write letters, listen to the radio or read books, newspapers,

etc In other words, they possess the four basic skills of speaking, writing, listening and reading.

According to Harmer (1992: 16), “speaking and writing involve language production and

are therefore often referred to as productive skills Listening and reading, on the other hand, involve receiving messages and are therefore often referred to as receptive skills.”

The following table designed by Harmer (ibid.: 17) represents a very general picture of language skills.

MEDIUM

Receptive Listening and understanding Reading and understanding

Table 2.1 The four language skills

Naturally, language users very often employ a combination of skill Speaking and listeningusually happen simultaneously, and people can read and write at the same time when theytake notes or write something based on what they are reading Thus, the teacher of readingshould develop not only reading skills for the student but also other language skills throughreading

2.2 Skill-integration

2.2.1 Definition

As previously mentioned, it seems clear that, in a language class, it is the teacher'sresponsibility to see to it that all the skills are practiced This means that he or she issupposed to apply skill-integration approach So what is meant by integrating the skills?

Carol Read (Matthews, Spratt and Dangerfield- 1991:72) stated that “the integration of skills in the language classroom can be defined quite simply as a series of activities or tasks which use any combination of the four skills - Listening (L), Speaking (S), Reading (R), Writing (W) - in a continuous and related sequence.” In other words, the four language

skills are closely intertwined and can be integrated through a series of activities within acontext naturally built in a real life situation The activities in the sequence may be related

through the topic or through the language or both of these It can be said that an importantfeature of the sequence is the interlocking nature of the activities It is a whole chain of

activities involving the exercise of different skills or "each task develops from those that have come before and prepares for those that are to follow" (by Carol Read, quoted in

Matthews, Spratt and Dangerfield - 1991: 73) The skills are, therefore, not practised inisolation but in a closely interwoven way

2.2.2 Reasons for skill-integration

When discussing skill-integration, many methodologists emphasize its importance bygiving some reasons for it According to Carol Read, there are two main reasons for

devising activity sequences which integrate the skills “The first is to practise and extend the students' use of a particular language structure or function and the second is to develop the students' ability in two or more of the four skills within a constant language.”

(ibid.: 73)

Harmer (1992) also explained the reason why skill-integration is needed by giving two

reasons “Firstly, it is very often true that one skill cannot be performed without another Secondly, people use different skills when dealing with the same subject for all sorts of reasons.”

It is absolutely agreed that it is impossible to speak in a conversation if one does not listen

at the same time and people seldom write without reading Another reason is that whensomeone listens to a lecture, he often takes notes and then writes a report on the lecture ordescribes it to his friends

Furthermore, Carol Read (ibid.: 73) offered a number of important advantages in providingstudents with the kind of integrated skills practice including:

 Continuity: Task and activities are not performed in isolation but are closely related and

dependent on each other

 Input before output: In an integrated skills approach, learners can be provided with a

suitable input which may be in the form of a direct model or a much freer stimulus Thisinput will then form the basis for the learners' own output - or productive use of thelanguage - in a subsequent task

 Realism: It allows for the development of all four skills within a realistic,

communicative framework

 Appropriateness: This helps the learners to recognize the appropriateness of a

particular language form and mode in different contexts and with different participants

 Variety: Activities involving all four skills provide variety and can be invaluable in

2.3 Relationship between reading skills and other language skills

One of the principles of teaching reading is that "reading and the other language arts are closely interrelated" (Burns, Roe and Ross - 1988: 24) This point of view is similar to what Rivers and Temperly (1978: 241) suggested: “Reading is not an isolated activity In a language class it should lead to something, and thus be integrated with the improvement of all skills.” In other words, reading should not be taught separately from the other skills.

The following will discuss the relation between reading skill and the other language skills

2.3.1 Reading and listening

As mentioned above, reading and listening are receptive skills According to Durkin

(1989: 383), “the major similarity between listening and reading is very apparent: The listener and reader both attend to language for the purpose of getting or constructing a message The two, thus, display language-processing behavior.”

Therefore, the two skills are closely related Reading makes the student familiar with thevocabulary, structures, grammar as well as provides him with background knowledge ofthe topic, which is very helpful for the student when listening On the other hand, listeningmakes great contribution to interpretation of the reading unit because the aural elementscan add vividness and daily life to it For this close relationship, Rivers and Temperly

(1978: 259) suggested that “students may listen to a story, play, poem, or speech by a

famous person and then read it, or they may read first and then listen to a worthwhile reading or dramatic presentation of what they have read Before listening to an English play, students may read a synopsis of the action In this way they are better prepared to comprehend because they have some expectations to help them project meaning.” This

integration will surely make language lessons more interesting

2.3.2 Reading and speaking

Obviously, reading broadens readers' knowledge of both of the target language and the world

which can enhance speaking In addition, reading aloud itself "gives extra practice in pronunciation, word stress and rhythm" (Hedge - ibid.: 14) Thus, Rivers and Temperly (1978: 259) suggested that “students should be provided with frequent opportunities to give in English the gist of what they have been reading.”

They also offered some ways to exploit the reading material for speaking: “Some of the material read will serve as a basis for oral presentation of projects; some will be dramatized in the original form or through extempore role-playing; and some will provide ammunition for discussions and debates.” (Rivers and Temperly - ibid.: 260)

The teacher can do this in post-reading activities in various ways For example, he or she canask the student to discuss the topic of the text, give his opinions and feelings about thecontent of the text, summarize the text orally, etc

Speaking, in its turns, can serve as input for reading At pre-reading stage, the teacher canencourage the student to form certain expectations about the text by saying what he can guessfrom pictures, photographs, headings; the student can be asked to say what he knows about thetopic, whether he agrees or disagrees with some given statements concerning the topic andgives reasons, etc

2.3.3 Reading and writing

There is no doubt that both reading and writing are active, thinking processes When ateacher teaches the two skills to the students, he or she is virtually teaching them to think

According to Howie (1989: 5), “What students learn can only be more solidly reinforced if the two processes are taught together, not separately Teaching reading and writing together integrates the processes, interrelates them, and enhances the amount and strength

of what is being learned.”

He also added: “The processes of reading and writing are so intertwined that not to teach them together, across the curriculum, is to shortchange students Teaching the two

processes together allows students to learn better how to acquire and use information.”

(Howie - ibid.: 7)

Smith (1990: 137) took the same view when stating “To keep the two activities separately does more than deprive them of their basic sense, it impoverishes any learning that might take place.”

Both of them are right in saying that reading and writing are basically constructiveprocesses The connection between them is particularly strong The teacher, therefore, is

responsible for building a scaffold (Robinson and Good - 1987: 282) that aids the student

in getting information from the reading text and helps him to organize the information in

an appropriate form for writing about it Accordingly, a scaffold should

1 make the students aware of the structure of the text that they read and thereby increase their access to relevant information in the text;

2 help students to supplement this information by adding relevant background knowledge from their own understanding of particular topic or event;

3 give students a way to organize the information, and

4 make students aware of the structure that they can use to write about the information in order to convey it to someone else.

(Robison and Good - 1987: 282)However, what should the teacher actually do to integrate reading with writing? We candivide the activities that the student is asked to do in a reading lesson to tie his reading withhis writing into two broad categories: with the text and from the text The student workswith the text when he copies and examines the writer's choices of specific linguistic andlogical features such as cohesive links, punctuation, grammar, sentence arrangement andorganization He works from the text when he uses it to create a text on his own bysummarizing, completing, reacting, etc

Durkin (1989) suggested some classroom activities that the teacher can use to combine

reading and writing In his opinion, before reading, the teacher can "elect to have students write what they know about a topic before they start to read what an author has to say about it" (Durkin - ibid.: 473) This means that he or she provides a genuine purpose for

the reading He also believed that writing can take place during reading With stories, forexample, the teacher can ask the students to read to a certain point, then they try to predictwhat is likely to happen next and write their own ending Besides, they may be required to

write a summary of what they have learned up to a certain point Last but not least, once areading text has been read, many opportunities are available to use writing in ways that can

be fruitful for the reading For instance, the students can mimic someone else's writingafter reading it because they have been provided with a model to understand language use;

or they can rewrite a story told from a first-person perspective from the point of view ofanother character, etc

Also concerning the integration of these two skills, Rivers and Temperly (1978: 258) gave

out the following activities: “Students may be asked a series of questions which, when answered in sequence, develop a summary or resume of the material read They may write

an ending to a story or play of which they have read part, or develop a different ending from the one in the book They may write letters which one character in the story might have written to others Students may create their own stories on similar themes to those they have been reading.” From these suggested activities, the teacher of reading can make

the reading lesson more interesting and motivate the students to learn better

To conclude, it must be kept in mind that reading is closely related to listening, reading andwriting By integrating this skill with the other language skills, the teacher of reading canimprove not only students' reading ability but also their knowledge and ability for languageuse Therefore, to make full use of the interrelation between these skills, the teacher isrequired to interweave them creatively and flexibly in order to give the students greatmotivation for acquiring the target language

PART C: THE STUDYCHAPTER 3: INVESTIGATION OF CURRENT SITUATION OF TEACHING AND LEARNING READING ESP IN DEPARTMENT OF LINGUISTICS AND VIETNAMESE STUDIES AT USSH - VNU

3.1 The teaching and learning reading ESP in Department of Linguistics and Vietnamese Studies at USSH - VNU

It cannot be denied that there have been positive changes in teaching English inDepartment of Linguistics and Vietnamese Studies at USSH – VNU in recent years:language classrooms are better equipped, ESP materials are designed, teachers of Englishare more qualified, etc However, the teaching and learning of this subject in general and ofreading ESP in particular have not been properly carried out yet This section will have a

general look at the teaching and learning of reading skills by "A collection of teaching materials

on linguistics studies” (Tập bài giảng tiếng Anh chuyên ngành ngôn ngữ học) in Department of

Linguistics and Vietnamese Studies at USSH - VNU

First of all, at USSH – VNU, the main duty is to train students in various fields such asLiterature, History, Philosophy, Social Work, etc As a result, English is not considered asthe main subject Students learn the language as a means to do their future job or futuretraining Therefore, the teaching reading ESP in Department of Linguistics and VietnameseStudies at USSH – VNU is aimed at not only improving the students’ reading skills butalso making them familiar with English for Linguistics

For the students of linguistics, they learn English because of many reasons They want toget high marks in their exams Besides, a lot of books on linguistics are written in English.Therefore, if they want to broaden the knowledge related to their major, they should masterthis language Furthermore, being aware of the demand of the society today, they need touse this international language in their future jobs The students in Department ofLinguistics and Vietnamese Studies learn ESP in their fifth semester In the first and the

second year, they learn general English in Lifelines – Elementary and Pre-intermediate

level – by Tom Hutchinson Therefore, they are supposed to have the most basic skillsbefore getting access to ESP

About the ESP material, "A collection of teaching materials on linguistics studies” (Tập bài giảng tiếng Anh chuyên ngành ngôn ngữ học), it is designed for the third year students of linguistics.

It is a collection from different books on linguistics by different authors and adaption fromsome softwares including Encyclopeadia Britainica and The Microsoft EncartaEncyclopeadia It is adapted and written in such an attempt to simplify the texts with thebasic ESP terms in order to fit the language level of the students As stated in its syllabus,the material aims at helping the students have opportunity to read more effectively, makingsentences grammatically by using linguistics terms and translating It continues to train thestudents in the three language skills: speaking, reading and writing but mainly focuses ondeveloping their reading skills For that purpose, the material aims at introducing thestudents to fundamental issues related to linguistics such as Authors in Linguistics,Subfields of Linguistics, Kinds of Grammar, Language Changes and these are organizedinto 12 units There are four parts in each unit The first and also the most important one isthe reading text which includes three stages namely pre-reading, while reading and post-reading The second part is speaking Grammar is dealt with in the third part And the lastpart gives the students a chance to practice writing and translation

However, it seems that there are still some problems Firstly, listening skill is neglected inthe material Secondly, although the material tries to provide the students with many types

of reading comprehension exercises, there are still more exercises which need designing bythe teacher so that the students can improve their reading ability

Yet, we cannot blame the material completely We all know that the teacher himself plays

an important role in fulfilling the aim of the reading programme Nevertheless, many ESPteachers find it difficult to exploit reading texts in the light of Communicative LanguageTeaching They also have troubles in using techniques to motivate students to learn Few ofthem have experience in teaching ESP for Linguistics As a result, students become boredand passive in learning

It must be admitted that although the students in Department of Linguistics andVietnamese Studies have learnt ESP for 4 years, only 5 units have been taught The resthas not been put in pratice Furthermore, despite the fact that each language classroom isequipped with one cassette player, there is lack of modern equipment like OHP and properguide on choosing appropriate supplementary reading materials Besides, the students'uneven levels of English and background knowledge are also another disadvantage thataffects the quality of teaching and learning

In short, the teaching and learning of reading ESP in Department of Linguistics and

Vietnamese Studies at USSH – VNU have both strong points and weak points But all theabove-mentioned is, to some extent, superficial and subjective The following is an attempt

to provide a more truthful picture of the matter

3.2 Survey questionnaires and observation

3.2.1 Survey questionnaires

3.2.1.1 Aims

The aims of the surveys are:

- To see if the teaching and learning of reading ESP in Department of Linguistics andVietnamese Studies at USSH – VNU are carried out in integration with other skills;

- To identify the actual strong points and weak points of teaching and learning readingskills in Department of Linguistics and Vietnamese Studies at USSH - VNU

The results of the surveys are expected to serve as the basis for the suggestions of sometechniques that are useful in teaching and learning reading ESP in integration with theother language skills

3.2.1.2 Description

In order to achieve the above aims, two survey questionnaires, one for teachers and one for

students of linguistics are designed (see Appendix 1 and 2) Each questionnaire consists of 12

questions with some ready-designed choices For every question, informants are asked to ticktheir choice Besides, they are also expected to give their own choices if those provided do notmatch their opinions

Twelve questions of the surveys focus on six parts in which part A and C consists of threequestions, part B includes two questions, part D, E and F have only one question each

- Part A attempts to find out the attitudes of teachers and students toward readingcomprehension (the importance of reading skills, their purposes of teaching and learningESP and their opinions of teaching and learning reading skills in integration with otherlanguage skills)

- Part B aims at the attitudes of the informants’ attitudes toward reading texts in the presentESP material and other supplementary ones

- Part C is designed to see what techniques are often used in reading lessons in practice

- Part D concerns which types of classroom interaction that are usually carried out duringreading lessons

- Part E focuses on difficulties in teaching and learning reading skills.

- Part F is designed with a hope that informants will make some suggestions for theimprovement in ESP reading lessons in Department of Linguistics and Vietnamese Studies

at USSH - VNU

3.2.1.3 Procedures

The survey questionnaires were distributed to 7 ESP teachers of Linguistics in Department

of Foreign Languages and 100 students in Department of Linguistics and VietnameseStudies at USSH - VNU However, only 95 questionnaires for students and 6 for teacherswere completed and returned

Before having a deeper look at how the real situation of the teaching and learning reading ESP

in Department of Linguistics and Vietnamese Studies at USSH - VNU, some personalinformation about the informants will be presented as follows For the teachers, two-thirds ofthem have been teaching English for less than 10 years and one-third for more than 10 years.All of them have been teaching ESP for students of linguistics for less than 5 years As for thestudents, most of them have been learning English for six years and over

The following section is about the data and data analysis which will be given and discussed

in the order the six parts mentioned above

3.2.1.4 Data and data analysis

3.2.1.4.1 What are the attitudes of teachers and students toward reading comprehension?

In order to find out the attitudes of the teachers and the students toward readingcomprehension, three questions were designed The following column charts represent theresults

0 20 40 60 80 100

Question 1 Question 2 Question 3

a b c d e

Chart 3.1 The teachers' attitudes toward reading comprehension

0 20 40 60 80 100

Question 1 Question 2 Question 3

a b c d e

Chart 3.2 The students' attitudes toward reading comprehension

The first question of the questionnaires deals with the importance of reading skills tostudents of Linguistics As can be seen from the two charts, 67% of the teachers and 58%

of the students considered reading very important The same proportion of the teachers andthe students, about one-third, agreed that this skill was as important as the other languageskills None of them thought that reading was not important The figures indicate that themajority of the informants are aware of the importance of reading skill to the students’future jobs

Responding to the second question concerning the purpose of teaching and learningreading ESP, all of the informants put vocabulary, especially ESP terms in Linguistics totheir foremost priority This suggests that in reading lessons, the teachers usually spentmost of the time presenting new words In other words, reading lessons have been used as

a means to exploit linguistics terms As a result, a large number of the students paidattention to only vocabulary 83% of the teachers answered that they taught reading to thestudents of linguistics in order to develop their reading skills and the other language skills(listening, speaking and writing) Meanwhile, one-third of their students ticked this choice

It can be refered that although many teachers wanted to improve the students’ otherlanguage skills via reading texts few students were aware of that This raises a question:Are the surveyed ESP teachers’ methods of teaching reading skills appropriate? Whereas,two-thirds of the students compared with one-third of the teachers thought that reading theESP texts could improve their knowledge related to Linguistics Just a few informantschose grammar Obviously, the surveyed teachers and students paid much attention to ESPterms and ignored the purposes of reading activities, i.e to get information from the textand adopt appropriate reading strategies

The third columns of the two charts show the teachers and the students' opinion of teachingand learning reading in integration with other language skills None of them held that it wasineffective The majority found it interesting 67% of the teachers and 58% of the studentsthought the integration in reading lessons was helpful To some extent, these charts seem toreflect the fact that a few teachers and students have recognized the advantages ofinterweaving reading skills with the other language skills Besides, approximately four-fifths ofthe informants found it difficult to apply this way of teaching and learning reading Thisimplies the need of more suitable techniques

3.2.1.4.2 What are the attitudes of teachers and students toward reading materials?

0 50 100

Difficult Interesting Long

not difficult/ not interesting/ not long difficult/ interesting/ long

very difficult/ very interesting/ very long

Chart 3.3 The teachers’ attitudes toward the ESP materials

0 50 100

Difficult Interesting Long

not difficult/ not interesting/ not long difficult/ interesting/ long

very difficult/ very interesting/ very long

Chart 3.4 The students’ attitudes toward the ESP materials

As can be seen from the two above charts, when asked about their attitudes toward the

texts in "A collection of teaching materials on linguistics studies” (Tập bài giảng tiếng Anh chuyên ngành ngôn ngữ học), the teachers and the students shared the same point of view of the

difficulty of the texts (67% and 72% perspectively) However, one-third of the teachersclaimed that the texts were not difficult; whereas, only 5% of their students thought so Noteachers compared with 23% of the students suppose them to be difficult Half of theteachers and nearly two-thirds of the students found the texts not interesting None of the

informants agreed that the texts were very interesting There is also a difference betweenthe teachers and the students in the attitude toward the length of the texts Half of thestudents said that they were too long meanwhile none of the surveyed teacher shared thesame point of view According to two-thirds of the teachers and 43% of the students, thetexts were long From the data above, it can be refered that there should be someadjustment in the present ESP materials and the teacher should be aware of the attitude oftheir students toward the reading texts so that they can choose appropriate methods ofteaching This also leads to the next question: “How often do the informants usesupplementary materials in teaching and learning reading ESP?”

Chart 3.5 Supplementary materials to the teachers and students

Obviously, all the surveyed ESP teachers saw the importance of supplementary materials

in teaching reading ESP Two-thirds often used them and one-third sometimes gave theirstudents extra reading However, how to use these kinds of materials should be put intoconsideration They should go in accordance with the purposes of teaching and learningreading ESP Besides, ESP teachers should make full use of them, not just to interest thestudents

From the students’ viewpoints, 79% of them sometimes read other materials The number

of the students often and never used supplementary materials is the same (11% and 10%respectively) There are some possible reasons for this Firstly, they do not know how tofind other ESP materials Therefore, it is necessary for the teachers to suggest theirstudents some source of extra reading texts such as newspapers, magazines, books, theInternet Secondly, as mentioned above, most the students found the course material wasdifficult As a result, they may think that it is enough for them to master all in the material.It’s the teachers’ duty to motivate them to learn by assigning more interesting but less

demanding reading activities in supplementary materials Last but not least, English is notconsidered as their major They want to spend their time on major subjects

In short, all the figures above are statistically significant for understanding the teacher andthe students' attitudes toward reading comprehension and reading materials Nevertheless,

to know more about the real situation of teaching and learning reading skills to students oflinguistics, questions 6, 7 and 8 were designed They are all about activities being carriedout in a reading lesson at each stage The below section will discuss this

3.2.1.4.3 What techniques are often used in reading lessons in practice?

Chart 3.6 Techniques used at pre-reading stage

The data shown in Chart 3.6 present more details about the techniques being applied inteaching reading comprehension texts at the pre-reading stage As can be seen, the twoactivities of giving a brief introduction to the text and doing as required in the material arethe most frequently used with majority of the informants ticking these options Perhaps theseactivities do not take much time and effort They are quite easy to carry out since there areguiding questions for discussion at pre-reading stage in the material Giving students somemore guiding questions was also another common activity claimed by the informants (67%and 55% respectively) About one-third of the surveyed teachers and students ticked thechoice of guessing what the text might be about It is noticeable that none of the informantsvoted for the two techniques of presenting a listening text on the same topic and askingstudents to fill in the blanks of a summary of the text with some important words taken fromthe text It can be concluded that there is little skill-integration at the beginning of the readinglessons

3.2.1.4.3.2 While-reading stage

0 20

Chart 3.7 Techniques used at while-reading stage

The chart illustrates that the number of teachers and students claimed that they dealt withexplanation of new words and structures is 33% and 48% respectively It is advisable thatthe teachers should explain meaning of only some key ESP terms that cause muchdifficulty for their students before reading The rest should be done after they read the text

to improve one of the most important reading skills, i.e the students’ ability to guessmeanings of new words Then the students can base on their background knowledge of themajor and English language to interpret the text

As can be seen clearly from the chart, all of the informants agreed that they did theexercises below the text However, two-thirds of the teachers designed more exercises fortheir students to understand more about the text On the contrary, this was confirmed byonly 29% of their students Surprisingly, the surveyed teachers and students did not sharethe same point of view in this option

3.2.1.4.3.3 Post-reading stage

0 20

Chart 3.8 Techniques used at post-reading stage

Responding to the question concerning what techniques are often used at the reading stage, like at the former stages, all of the informants claimed that they oftendid as required in the material The majority voted for translation, (83% of the

post-teachers and 76% of the students) This reveals that the Grammar-Translation method

is still preferred Discussion and practice of newly learnt vocabulary and grammarrank third About two-thirds of the informants chose these options Writing asummary of the text was chosen by half of the surveyed teachers This choice wasshared by 39% of their students The activity of reading aloud the whole text forseveral times was chosen by 17% of the students but none of their teachers ticked it

As can also be seen from the chart, games and plays are rarely organized Thisactivity was chosen by only 17% of the teachers and 13% of the students Listeningand writing on similar theme were not applied at this stage Once more, there is littleskill-integration after reading the texts

3.2.1.4.4 Which type of classroom interaction is often used during reading lessons?

Chart 3.9 Types of classroom interaction used during reading lessons according to the teachers

Chart 3.10 Types of classroom interaction used during reading lessons according to the students

The above charts show that among the four types of classroom interaction chosen by theinformants (individual, pairwork, groupwork and the whole class), individual and activityand pair work are predominant in a reading lesson All of the informants agreed that groupwork and class activity were not used at while-reading stage However, while none of the

teachers said they did not often ask the students to work individually before and afterreading lessons, there were still some of their students disagreeing with this.

3.2.1.4.5 What are the difficulties in teaching and learning reading skills?

It is undeniable that there are some difficulties in teaching and learning reading skills tostudents of linguistics at USSH - VNU Thus, the eleventh question was designed toidentify these The below charts present the results

Chart 3.11 The teachers and students' difficulties in teaching and learning reading ESP

For the teachers, half of them thought that students' limited vocabulary and backgroundknowledge were their difficulties One third claimed that their students had grammarproblems which decreased their reading ability 17% said that finding supplementaryreading materials in ESP was not easy The same percentage can be found in the fifthchoice in which the informants admitted that they did not have enough time for developingtheir students' reading ability

It seems that the students have more difficulties than their teachers Many claimed that itwas difficult to find other reading materials in ESP (81%) That is why few of them saidthat they did extra reading when being asked about the frequency of using supplementary

materials in reading ESP (see 3.2.1.4.2) More than two-thirds thought that their limited

vocabulary hindered their reading ability The lack of background knowledge and grammarproblems were also chosen by about half of the surveyed students A quarter said that theydid not have enough time in reading comprehension

In short, it is possible that the lack of interesting materials and uneven students’ ability ofreading and level of background knowledge as well as English make the quality ofteaching and learning reading ESP ineffective as expected Therefore, the last question ofthe two surveys was designed with a hope that the teachers and the students would make

useful suggestions for the improvement of the quality in teaching and learning reading ESP

in Department of Linguistics and Vietnamese Studies (USSH – VNU)

3.2.1.4.6 What are the suggestions made by the teachers and the students?

0 20

Chart 3.12 Suggestions made by the teachers and the students

As can be seen, when being asked what should be done to make the reading lesson moreinteresting, most of the informants suggested reading suitable materials in Englishfrequently, improving teachers' methodology and knowledge related to Linguistics andclassifying students’ level of English They also thought that developing the present ESPmaterial would improve reading ability 67% of the teachers and 71% of the studentsticked this choice

With the other choices, the teachers and the students did not share the same opinion Thenumber of the surveyed students choosing the activities of doing more reading exercisesand learning more vocabulary and grammar is 90% and 65% respectively On the contrary,these were confirmed by only 50% and 33% of their teachers This implies that thestudents still pay much attention to grammar and vocabulary However, 17% of thesurveyed students suggested using more songs, more role plays, more games and spendingmore time on discussion while little feedback was given from the teachers None of themmade other suggestions Therefore, it can be said that the students have desire forimproving communication competence though they may be unconscious of communicativeapproach

3.2.1.5 Findings and comments

The results of the survey questionnaires have revealed both good points and bad points inteaching and learning reading skills to students of linguistics at USSH - VNU Thefollowing section will identify and analyze positive factors

3.2.1.5.1 Strong points

Firstly, concerning the attitudes of the teachers and the students toward readingcomprehension, the data show that most of them were aware of the important role ofreading in teaching and learning English This creates good chances for the ESP teachers tomotivate their students to read and if they find appropriate techniques to teach this skill totheir students, they will be certainly more successful Besides, the purpose of teaching andlearning reading to develop the four language skills was chosen by some teachers andstudents Although the figures are not big, they show that the students of linguistics andtheir teachers begin to recognize the use of reading texts to improve the four skills of thetarget language In addition, the teaching and learning this skill in integration with theother language skills is highly appreciated by the teachers and the students

Another good point is that some teachers have exploited the reading texts in the light ofCommunicative Language Teaching in one way or another This means that when teachingreading they not only teach their students how to read but also encourage them to speakand write although the proportion of the teachers often do this is not very high This canhelp students to get a deeper understanding of the text and develop their other languageskills There is also good news that what the students suggested in the surveyquestionnaires indicates their need of improving communication skills

The surveyed teachers were also aware of the importance of supplementary materials inteaching reading ESP This results in their frequency of using extra reading in readinglessons

However, there are some weak points remaining in teaching and learning reading skills tostudents of linguistics at USSH - VNU which will be identified and analyzed in thefollowing section

3.2.1.5.2 Weak points

According to the statistics of the data, many teachers and students found the reading texts

in “A collection of teaching materials on linguistics studies” (Tập bài giảng tiếng Anh chuyên ngành ngôn ngữ học) difficult and uninteresting This suggests that the concerned

parties in editing the material should do some adjustment to make the texts moreappropriate Besides, although the majority of the informants were interested in theteaching reading in integration with other language skills, a few of them found it difficult