Nghiên cứu các chiến lược học từ vựng tiếng anh chuyên ngành của sinh viên điều dưỡng trường cao đẳng y tế quảng trị

STATEMENT OF ORIGINAL AUTHORSHIP The work contained in this thesis has not previously been submitted for a degree or diploma in any university I certify that, to the best of my knowledge and belief, my thesis contains no material previously published or written by another person except where due reference is made in the thesis itself Signed: Date: ………./………….…/ 20… i ABSTRACT This study aims to find out the types of frequently used ESP Vocabulary Learning Strategies by the nursing students at QuangTri Medical College and challenges in their learning ESP vocabulary The participants of the study included 86 second-year nursing students studying at the intermediate level and taking the English for Specific Purposes course They ranged in age from 19 to 22 years The students were required to answer a five-part questionnaire, five interview questions, and a reading task The collected data was quantitatively and qualitatively analysed The results indicated that the most used ESP vocabulary learning strategies among the participants were consolidation strategies In terms of the strategy categories, cognitive strategies were used with the highest frequency Pronunciation of words was found as the biggest challenge in learning ESP vocabulary The findings of the study suggest recommendations for students and teachers in order to make teaching and learning ESP vocabulary better in some extents and how to instruct learners to limit challenges in learning ESP ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENT First of all, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Dr Truong Bach Le for his enthusiastic and professional guidance He has been a source of knowledge, and his feedback is great value for me in improving and completing this thesis I truly appreciate the kind support and cooperation of the teachers and students of Quang Tri Medical College during the time I carried out this study Lastly, from the bottom of my heart, I wish to thank my family and my friends for their constant support and encouragement during the time I was conducting this research iii TABLES OF CONTENTS Page Statement of Original Authorship…………….…………… ……………….iv Abstract ………………………………………………….………… ……….ii Acknowledgement ……………………………………………………… .iii Table of contents …………………………………………………………… iv List of tables ……………………………….……………………… ….……vi List of abbreviations………………………………………………… …….vii CHAPTER INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale 1.2 Research aims 1.3 Research questions 1.4 Scope of Research 1.5 Organisation of the thesis CHAPTER II LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Definition of vocabulary 2.2 Learning ESP vocabulary 2.3 The importance of ESP vocabulary learning 2.4 Vocabulary learning strategies 2.5 Difficulties of ESP vocabulary learning 12 2.6 Vocabulary teaching techniques and activities 13 2.7 Review of previous studies 15 2.8 Summary 18 CHAPTER III 20 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 20 3.1 Research design 20 3.2 Research participants 20 3.3 Research procedure 20 iv 3.4 Data collection method 21 3.5 Data analysis method 23 CHAPTER IV 25 FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 25 4.1 Reliability of the research 25 4.2 The evaluation of students‟ proficiency in English and perceptions on ESP course 25 4.3 The current learning English vocabulary by QTMC students 28 4.4 ESP Vocabulary Learning Strategies used by the student participants 31 4.4.1 The overall ESP VLS use 31 4.4.2 Student participants’ frequency of use of ESP VLS categories 32 4.4.3 The most and least frequently used ESP VLSs by student participants 33 4.4.4 Effectiveness of using ESP VLSs by student participants 37 4.5 Teaching activities by teachers and practice activities by students from in the interviews 37 4.6 Challenges in learning ESP vocabulary by student participants 38 CHAPTER V 46 CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS 46 5.1 Conclusion 46 5.2 Pedagogical implications 46 5.2.1 Recommendations for students 46 5.2.2 Recommendations for teachers 47 5.3 Limitations of the research 48 5.4 Suggestions for further research 48 REFERENCES 49 APPENDICES v LIST OF TABLES Table 4.1: The reliability of the questionnaire 25 Table 4.2.1: Students’ proficiency in English 25 Table 4.2.2: The usefulness of ESP 26 Table 4.2.3: Students’ preference of ESP 26 Table 4.2.4: Time for studying ESP 26 Table 4.2.5: ESP textbook in accordance with nursing 27 Table 4.2.6: ESP important areas 27 Table 4.3.1: Definition of learning English vocabulary 28 Table 4.3.2: Time for learning English vocabulary 29 Table 4.3.3: Means of studying English vocabulary 29 Table 4.3.4: The difficulties in learning English vocabulary 30 Table 4.4.1: The importance of learning ESP vocabulary 31 Table 4.4.2: The overall ESP VLS use 31 Table 4.4.3: Student participants’ frequency of use of discovery strategies and consolidation strategies 32 Table 4.4.4: Student participants’ frequency of use of ESP VLS categories 33 Table 4.4.5: The five most frequently used ESP VLSs (DIS) 33 Table 4.4.6: The five least frequently used ESP VLSs (DIS) 34 Table 4.4.7: The five most frequently used ESP VLSs (CON) 35 Table 4.4.8: The five least frequently used ESP VLSs (CON) 36 Table 4.4.9: Effectiveness of using ESP VLSs by student 37 Table 4.5.1: Teaching activities by teachers and practice activities by students 38 Table 4.6.1: Time for learning ESP vocabulary 38 Table 4.6.2: Challenges in learning ESP vocabulary by student participants 39 Table 4.6.3: Factors impact on learning ESP vocabulary 39 vi LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS COG : Cognitive CON : Consolidation DET : Determination DIS : Discovery ESP : English for Specific Purposes GEV : General English Vocabulary MEM : Memory MET : Meta-cognitive QTMC : Quang Tri Medical College SOC : Social VLSs : Vocabulary Learning Strategies VTSs : Vocabulary Teaching Strategies vii viii CHAPTER INTRODUCTION This chapter presents in detail the background that motivated the research It then describes the research rationale, research aims, research questions as well as the scope of the research Finally, the structure of the research is also presented in the chapter 1.1 Rationale English is the most actual common universal language It is the primary language for all parts of the world English can be understood almost everywhere among educated people, as it is the language of TV shows, and the computer world All know many English words, their pronunciation, and meaning Together with information technology, English is as the second language and the priority in the educational reformation of countries A good English-speaker has the requirement of four basic skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing Each skill has its tips or techniques that help speakers efficiently to get language acquisition However, vocabulary learning is central to language acquisition, whether the language is first, second, or foreign Knowing the way how to learn pronunciation, meaning, the intonation of a word is also the condition to develop four above mentioned skills To meet the need for global integration and strengthen studying, exchanging and cooperative relationship with international friends, English became an essential and compulsory subject in every curriculum of universities, schools in the education system in Vietnam English for Specific Purposes (ESP) refers to teaching the English language to university or college students A given course of ESP will focus on one occupation or profession that students chose after they finish Basic English in universities It is also a good condition for students to reach the work environment by applying English in their specific work There are different kinds of ESP books for each occupation Some books under common standards of curriculum issued by publishers Licensed lecturers compile other books from universities All books have a common point, that is, most contents in the textbook are focusing on providing related knowledge to each occupation through extensive readings with a lot of paragraphs in a unit It is different from the books of English for communication for the beginners to learn with the videos, pictures, tapes Mainly, each paragraph in the readings contains new and challenging words that are hard for learners to pronounce them and to remember the meaning of the words Therefore, how learning ESP vocabulary quickly and effectively is a very important thing It requires teachers to have suitable teaching methodologies and necessary strategies of students in learning ESP vocabulary In universities and colleges in Vietnam, in spite of the increasing number of research on language learning strategies, most studies have focused on learning strategies in English language skills in the classroom, difficulties on learning English language, ESP textbook… It, hence, needs to be taken into consideration by teachers of English because ESP vocabulary learning strategies are essential to non-English majors who will go out to work in other specific professions QuangTri Medical College is one of the high-quality medical colleges in Vietnam, at present; the college is training chiefly two principal majors in nursing and pharmacy at the college level After students graduated from high school, they enter the college to take a course of three years ESP is always a subject in the training program and makes specific difficulties for students of QuangTri Medical College English for Nurses and English for Pharmaceutical Students are used to teach the students in the college As were compiled by lecturers of the college according to the curriculum and approved by the Training Council of the college, most of the units in the textbook are the combination of basic skills, in which, vocabulary is central to connect those skills In the recent years, nursing students often take a long time to learn ESP vocabulary because they are the terms in medicine, nursing techniques, scientific names called in hospitals, diseases in the diagnosis and the way how to care the in-patients and out-patients Not many students can learn the vocabulary and remember exactly their meanings, even they also make some mistakes in communication because of the meaning of the words, word-formation All second-year nursing students at QuangTri Medical College have to take a 75-hour-ESP course after finishing the Basic English The students cannot find a certain ESP vocabulary learning strategy that helps them to 4.4.4 Effectiveness of using ESP VLSs by student participants From the discovery and consolidation strategies that the students used most frequently for ESP vocabulary learning at the college, the results showed the effectiveness of using current ESP vocabulary learning strategies as displayed in the table below: Table 4.4.9: Effectiveness of using ESP VLSs by student Responses N Percent Percent of Cases I can understand new words rapidly 35 28.7% 40.7% I can remember new words for a long time 54 44.3% 62.8% I can apply new words in the context 33 27.0% 38.4% 122 100.0% 141.9% Effectiveness Why does your ESP VLS help you to study? Total As can seen in the table, in order to discover a new ESP word‟s meaning and consolidate an ESP word once it has been encountered by current ESP vocabulary learning strategies, the students can remember new words for a long time (44.3%), the students can understand new words rapidly (28.7%) and the students can apply new words in the context (27.0%) 4.4.5 VLSs use gained from reading task Along with the interview, 10 students were invited to a reading task (see Appendix 4), by reading a paragraph with ten words in bold, after the students found the meaning of the ten words, they filled in a form by ticking the strategies that they used to discover the word‟s meaning The results are: determination strategy is used frequently by using a bilingual (EnglishVietnamese) dictionary to look for the word’s meaning; I try to guess the word’s meaning from the context The second is the social strategy by asking my friend for a Vietnamese translation 4.5 Teaching activities by teachers and practice activities by students from in the interviews In order to collect the data on presentation, teaching activities by teachers and practice activities by students that help students to learn words better, the 37 study opted ten students to take part in the interview The results are analyzed in qualitative data as follow: Table 4.5.1: Teaching activities by teachers and practice activities by students Teacher’s Presentation Students’ Practice - Using videos, dialogues, images to - Write words in English-Vietnamese teach words many times - Giving examples from hospital to teach - Read words many times at home words - Write words on papers and stick on the - Listening to tapes and fill words in the wall at home gap - Listen to tapes and videos on the - Teachers let students study words by Internet to remember the words abbreviation - Teachers arrange words on topics - Teachers let students write a paragraph using related words 4.6 Challenges in learning ESP vocabulary by student participants As mentioned in 4.2, due to the time pressure of study at the college and practice nursing at the hospital, the students had not much time to spend on learning ESP vocabulary (58.1%) Table 4.6.1: Time for learning ESP vocabulary Frequency Percent Valid Percent 36 41.9 41.9 No 50 58.1 58.1 Total 86 100.0 100.0 Valid Yes Meanwhile, 41.9% of students spent much time for learning ESP vocabulary In fact, time for study is one of the challenges for students in learning ESP vocabulary as the results of the interview due to other subjects 38 Table 4.6.2: Challenges in learning ESP vocabulary by student participants Challenges Responses Percent of Cases N Percent Pronunciation of words 47 29.7% 54.7% Writing a word 34 21.5% 39.5% Choosing the appropriate meaning of a word 32 20.3% 37.2% Choosing different grammatical forms of a word 45 28.5% 52.3% Total 158 100.0% 183.7% According to the results of the questionnaire, pronunciation of words (54.7%) is the biggest challenges in learning ESP vocabulary Another challenge is choosing different grammatical forms of a word (52.3%) Writing a word (39.5%) is the third challenges The last challenge is choosing the appropriate meaning of a word (37.2%) The results of the interviews show that pronunciation is the biggest challenge in their learning ESP vocabulary (5/10 students mentioned), 4/10 students mentioned challenges in choosing different grammatical forms of a word such as parts of speech, antonym and synonym, writing a word is another challenge in learning ESP vocabulary when they expressed that the ESP words are long, complicated and easy to confuse with other words Meaning of words is hard to remember for a long time and easy to confuse with other meaning of the word Other challenges from the interview are that ESP vocabulary in ESP course is too much in reading comprehension, and the students rarely have the chance to practice ESP words with native speakers In terms of the students‟ thinking of related factors impacting on learning ESP vocabulary The results of the questionnaires can be seen in the following table: Table 4.6.3: Factors impact on learning ESP vocabulary Factors ESP textbook for nurses Knowledge on ESP vocabulary No strategies of learning ESP vocabulary Total 39 Responses N Percent 20 17.7% 54 47.8% 39 34.5% 113 100.0% Percent of Cases 23.5% 63.5% 45.9% 132.9% From Table 4.6.3, it can be recognized that knowledge on ESP vocabulary had the largest impact factor on learning ESP vocabulary of the students at QTMC (47.8%), 34.5% of the students noticed that they did not determine a certain and proper learning strategy for ESP vocabulary ESP textbook for nurses (17.7%) also impacted on learning ESP vocabulary The results of the interviews indicated that seven out of the ten students (70%) had high time pressure for their curriculum Five out of the ten students (50%) had a negative attitude towards the studying capacity of themselves 20% of the students had not ever reached much ESP vocabulary before Summary Summary of the study The current study investigated the types of ESP VLSs among the students at QuangTri Medical College Particularly, the study explored the overall frequencies of use of ESP VLSs The use of strategy categories was also examined In addition, the most and least frequently used ESP VLSs were identified Furthermore, this study determined the challenges in learning ESP vocabulary that the students faced An exploration of the students‟ practice VLSs, the teachers‟ presentation of VTSs was also targeted in this study The research data was collected by questionnaires, interviews and reading tasks Summary of the key findings The answers to the two research questions in the current study can be summarized as follows: Research question 1: What types of strategies nursing students at QuangTri Medical College frequently use to learn ESP vocabulary? The participants in this study were found to be moderate users of ESP VLSs They used consolidation strategies more frequently than discovery strategies In terms of the strategy categories, cognitive strategies were used with the highest frequency while determination strategies were lowest frequently employed In addition, the participants were found to frequently use strategies such as using a bilingual (English-Vietnamese) dictionary to look for the word’s meaning, asking teacher for a Vietnamese translation; guessing the 40 word’s meaning from the context; asking friends for a Vietnamese translation; working with my friends to discover the new word's meaning Meanwhile, they rarely used strategies such as analyzing a new word’s affixes and roots to discover its meaning; using a monolingual (English-English) dictionary to look for the word’s meaning; asking the teacher for a sentence including the new word; analyzing a new word’s part of speech to discover its meaning; ask my friends to paraphrase or give me antonyms or synonyms of a new word Research question 2: What challenges nursing students at QuangTri Medical College have in learning ESP vocabulary? The answer to this question was gained from the questionnaire and interviews: Pronunciation of words is the biggest challenge of nursing students in learning ESP vocabulary Other challenges are choosing different grammatical forms of a word, writing a word, and choosing the appropriate meaning of a word Other challenges from the interview are that ESP vocabulary in ESP course is too much in reading comprehension and the students rarely have the chance to practice ESP words with native speakers In addition to the challenges, the participants determined the relevant factors impacting on their learning ESP vocabulary is that, Knowledge on ESP vocabulary, No strategies of learning ESP vocabulary, ESP textbook for nurses The participants in the interviews also added some other relevant ideas such as time for studying ESP, proficiency and knowledge on ESP Discussion ESP VLS use by the student participants The participants in the current study were found that the participants used consolidation strategies more frequently than discovery strategies This finding is in accord with Tram (2016), the students used consolidation strategies more frequently than discovery strategies In terms of the strategy categories, cognitive strategies were used with the highest frequency while determination strategies were lowest frequently employed Besides, the teachers sometimes checked the students about the vocabulary they had learned before, which probably made the students review vocabulary That 41 could be the reason why the students employed consolidation strategies more frequently than discovery strategies As regards the five strategy categories (i.e., determination strategies, social strategies, memory strategies, cognitive strategies and metacognitive strategies), cognitive strategies were highest frequently used This finding is similar to the finding in Wang‟s (2004) study on Taiwanese students As for the lowest frequently used strategy category, determination strategies were found to be the lowest frequently employed strategy category in the present study as opposed to social strategies identified as lowest frequently used in Wang‟s study The findings of the current study were also completely different from those of Hamzah et al.‟s (2009) study which indicated that determination strategies were highest frequently used, whereas the lowest frequently used category was social strategies As has just been presented, different respondents used strategy categories with different frequencies In the present study, the respondents used cognitive strategies with the highest frequency, which indicated that these respondents tended to employ strategies to manipulate or transform vocabulary In fact, cognitive strategies were found to be the most popular strategies with language learners in many studies and were essential in learning a new language (Oxford, 1990) This kind of strategy was also claimed by Schmitt (2000) to be easy to utilize because cognitive strategies involved directly operating on incoming information and did not focus so specifically on mental processing Consequently, they were preferably used by the participants in the current study In contrast, determination strategies were identified as the lowest frequently used ones, which implied that the participants in the study paid a little attention to analyzing a new word‟s part of speech, affixes and roots, and using a monolingual (English-English) dictionary to look for the ESP word‟s meaning The possible reason was that the participants have not been familiar with learner-centered instruction, so they have not become aware that they should take charge of their own vocabulary learning In general, it seemed that using cognitive strategies was the simplest strategies Thus, cognitive strategies were used by the students in the current study with the highest frequency while determination strategies were used with the lowest frequency Of the most frequently used VLSs, using bilingual dictionary was found to be the most frequently used strategy This finding is in agreement with the 42 findings in many studies carried out by Schmitt (1997), (Noprianto, 2019), Hamzah et al (2009), and Zhi-Liang (2010) This strategy was considered as an easy and quick way to find meanings of new words Additionally, the participants were probably still influenced by the old way of learning vocabulary in which they were asked to prepare new words at home by consulting dictionaries Consequently, it became their habit, and they believed that dictionaries could provide reliable support to deal with new words In addition to using bilingual dictionary, asking teachers or friends for a Vietnamese translation was reported to be used with the second most frequency This strategy appeared to be convenient and time-saving to get the meanings of the words The preference for using this strategy was also found in Schmitt‟s (1997) study Another strategy that was reported to be one of the most frequently strategies was guessing the word’s meaning from the context This finding is congruent with what was found in the study carried out by ZhiLiang (2010) The participants were also found to frequently use the strategy of working with friends to discover the new word's meaning This finding is contradictory with what was found in Zhi-Liang‟s (2010:161) study In his study, this strategy was least frequently used In the current study, the participants frequently employed cognitive strategy maybe because they paid attention to remembering the meanings of the words in addition to the forms In fact, forms and meanings of words are considered two important elements of knowing words Therefore, the two strategies of writing the words repeatedly and making a list of words with their Vietnamese translation were frequently used by the participants Saying the words out loud repeatedly to remember them was also the frequently used strategy This strategy, actually, is an essential skill in language learning, so teachers need to help and let students practice this strategy In fact, Saying the words out loud repeatedly to remember them was also found to be one of the most frequently used strategies in the studies implemented by Schmitt (1997), Hamzah et al (2009) and Zhi-Liang (2010:161) Concerning the least frequently used VLSs, the current study found that the participants rarely used the strategy Analyzing a new word’s affixes and roots to discover its meaning and analyzing a new word’s part of speech to discover its meaning were the least frequently used strategies This finding is similar to what was found in Zhi-Liang‟s (2010) study The fact that this 43 strategy was not frequently used was probable that they were not familiar with affixes and parts of speech, or they probably did not know the meaning of affixes Moreover, maybe they did not encounter many words with affixes, and they had difficulties in changing part of speech of words, so these strategies were not commonly used among the participants Another least frequently used strategy was using a monolingual (English-English) dictionary to look for the word’s meaning This strategy, by contrast, was found to be one of the most frequently used strategies in Hamzah et al.‟s (2009) study In their study, the students frequently used monolingual dictionaries because they were trained on how to use this kind of dictionary In contrast, the students in the current study rarely employed monolingual dictionaries This strategy seemed to be difficult for the participants since their English could be not good enough to use this kind of dictionary The two other least frequently used strategies were asking the teacher for a sentence including the new word and asking friends to paraphrase or give antonyms or synonyms of a new word As for the strategy of asking the teacher for a sentence including the new word, it was rarely used probably because the students were not given the chances to so Challenges in learning ESP vocabulary by student participants The current study found out the challenges in learning ESP vocabulary of nursing students: Pronunciation of words is the biggest challenge Other challenges are choosing different grammatical forms of a word, writing a word, and choosing the appropriate meaning of a word This finding is similar to the results of Rohmatillah (2015) Other challenges from the interview are that ESP vocabulary in ESP course is too much in reading comprehension and the students rarely have the chance to practice ESP words with native speakers These above findings are also likely to the results of Hoa (2016) In her study, the reason why the students have difficulties in learning ESP is due to the big difference between Vietnamese and English involving parts of speech, pronunciation, word usage and grammar Many long and difficult ESP words, as well as complex structures in scientific articles creates difficulties in learning ESP However, most of the students believe that students‟ language proficiency now is a big challenge for teaching and learning ESP The difference in students‟ language proficiency among universities and among areas has a negative impact on learning ESP vocabulary 44 As found in this study, the survey determines some factors caused the difficulties in learning ESP vocabulary: ESP textbooks for nurses This finding is congruent with Hoa (2016) In fact, the lectures and textbooks at Vietnam universities still have many shortcomings, such as heavy focus on theory, not scientific and practical content Knowledge on ESP vocabulary This finding is similar to (Romalliah 2015:84), the limitations of sources of information about words; the complexity of word knowledge; lack of understanding of grammatical of the words No strategies of learning ESP vocabulary is one of the factors caused certain difficulties in learning ESP vocabulary Actually, most of the students just get acquainted with ESP after finishing 75-90 hourBasic English course Moreover, the field of nursing is different from other fields, especially ESP vocabulary, therefore, lack of knowledge on ESP vocabulary and determining a specific strategy of learning play an important role in learning ESP vocabulary 45 CHAPTER V CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS 5.1 Conclusion Based on the theories, the findings and the analysis, the present study arrives at the conclusions This study investigated the types of ESP VLSs among the students at QuangTri Medical College, they used consolidation strategies more frequently than discovery strategies when learning ESP vocabulary In terms of the strategy categories, cognitive strategies were used with the highest frequency The study also found the teacher‟s activities use in the classroom and the student‟s practice for consolidation of ESP vocabulary The challenges faced by the students were almost all of the students have in pronouncing the words, writing a word, choosing the appropriate meaning of a word and choosing different grammatical forms of a word There were some factors caused difficulties in learning ESP vocabulary All of these concerns were answered through questionnaires, interviews and reading tasks 5.2 Pedagogical implications From the findings, the researcher would like to offer some implications for both teachers and students in order to make teaching and learning ESP vocabulary better in some extents 5.2.1 Recommendations for students Firstly, students should clearly determine learning objectives by enhancing the learning responsibility and motivation This is not a finding discussed however, it is very important to students by attending class regularly, paying attention to the lectures Secondly, students should be more active in learning by interacting more with teachers and participating in activities and tasks such as discussions, presentations and group activities Using the new words when interacting with teachers and using new words in conversations or writing to remember them are two of the five least frequently used ESP VLSs for consolidation The students always use their mother language in the classroom and activities Hence, they need to be changed to creat such good habit 46 Thirdly, students need to enhance their knowledge by finding more ESP materials, bilingual dictionaries, especially medical specialized documents in the library As stated in Table 4.6.1, ESP textbook for nurses and knowledge on ESP vocabulary are factors impacting on learning ESP vocabulary of the students There is a well-prepared and adequate library with different materials including ESP textbook, documents and dictionaries, however, the students rarely go to the library Fourthly, they should spend more time practicing the English skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing; and focusing on weak skills Besides, students need to practice two important skills for learning ESP, including translation skills and skills in using a dictionary Most of the students at QuangTri Medical College are unsatisfactory with their English language skills None of the students is feeling good with their general English and ESP vocabulary In addition, time for studying ESP is still not enough for the students (table 4.2.2), due to the other subjects with theoretical and practical classrooms at the college and in the hospital 5.2.2 Recommendations for teachers Firstly, they must improve their language knowledge, especially English for specific purposes; increase lecture attraction by finding more ESP materials and learning from others‟ experience This allows them to expand their understanding Their professional experience should be improved by actively participating in domestic and overseas professional training courses; and sharing experience with other teachers This helps expand the relationship and enhance professional experience Secondly, the teachers often controlled dealing with new vocabulary Due to the infrequent use of the five above-mentioned strategies, the researcher suggests that teachers should try to make students aware of the contribution of these strategies to their vocabulary size and ask them to use these strategies in their vocabulary learning The teachers should also teach the students how to use these strategies whenever necessary and try to include these strategies in-class activities, assignments, etc, in order to encourage the students to internalize these strategies In fact, making the students aware of the strategies they use in learning is one of the ways to enhance their learning (Oxford, 2001) When they are aware of the strategies which help them to learn better, they are motivated to use them more frequently in their learning 47 Thirdly, teachers should give more practical examples of ESP vocabulary especially focusing on the pronunciation of words and choosing different grammatical forms of words According to the results of the research, these are the biggest challenges in learning ESP vocabulary In order to that, teachers can increase lectures‟ attraction by adding more attached videos and sound in presentations or designing the presentations as a voice dictionary 5.3 Limitations of the research Although this study has reached its aims, it has some unavoidable limitations First, because of a small number of teachers (just ESP teachers), the researcher of the present study did not apply the questionnaires and interviews for teachers to collect data on ESP vocabulary teaching activities, the teaching activities on ESP vocabulary were just based on answering through 10 opted students Second, due to a small number of population (just 86 students of nursing classes who are taking the ESP course at the college) taking part in answering the questionnaire, the present study cannot offer a concise description of the use of ESP VLSs of all second-year students at the college 5.4 Suggestions for further research The study presented the only investigation into the types and challenges of 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