A study on students' difficulties in learning English for special purposes at Faculty of Broadcasting Technology of College of Broadcasting I

POST GRADUATE STUDIES --- HOANG THI HAI HANH A STUDY ON STUDENTS’ DIFFICULTIES IN LEARNING ENGLISH FOR SPECIFIC PURPOSES AT FACULTY OF BROADCASTING TECHNOLOGY OF COLLEGE OF BROADCASTIN

POST GRADUATE STUDIES

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HOANG THI HAI HANH

A STUDY ON STUDENTS’ DIFFICULTIES IN LEARNING ENGLISH FOR SPECIFIC PURPOSES AT FACULTY OF BROADCASTING TECHNOLOGY OF COLLEGE OF BROADCASTING I

(NGHIÊN CỨU NHỮNG KHÓ KHĂN CỦA SINH VIÊN KHOA KỸ THUẬT PHÁT THANH - TRUYỀN HÌNH, TRƯỜNG CAO ĐẰNG PHÁT THANH- TRUYỀN HÌNH I TRONG VIỆC HỌC TIẾNG ANH

CHUYÊN NGÀNH)

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: METHODOLOGY Code: 60 14 10

Hanoi, December 2009

POST GRADUATE STUDIES

- HOANG THI HAI HANH

A STUDY ON STUDENTS’ DIFFICULTIES IN LEARNING ENGLISH FOR SPECIFIC PURPOSES AT FACULTY OF BROADCASTING TECHNOLOGY OF COLLEGE OF BROADCASTING I

(NGHIÊN CỨU NHỮNG KHÓ KHĂN CỦA SINH VIÊN KHOA KỸ THUẬT PHÁT THANH - TRUYỀN HÌNH, TRƯỜNG CAO ĐẰNG PHÁT THANH- TRUYỀN HÌNH I TRONG VIỆC HỌC TIẾNG ANH

CHUYÊN NGÀNH) M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: METHODOLOGY Code: 60 14 10

Supervisor: Duong Thi Nu, D.r

Hanoi, December 2009

Hanoi, December 2009

Table of Contents Certificate of originality

Acknowledgement

Abstract

List of Abbreviations

List of tables figures and charts

Part I: Introduction

1 Rationale

2 Aims of the study

3 Scope of the study

4 Methods of the study

5 Design of the study

Part II: Development

Chapter 1: Theoretical Background

1.1 Reading and reading comprehension

1.1.1 The nature of reading and reading comprehension

1.1.2 Reading process

1.1.3 Classification of reading according to the purposes of

reading

1.2 ESP reading

1.2.1 Definitions of ESP

1.2.2 Reading skills in ESP

1.2.3 ESP reading materials

1.3 Problems in learning ESP reading

1.3.1 Reading skill problem

1.3.2 Language problem

1.4 Previous studies

1.5 Summary

Chapter 2: The current situation of teaching and learning ESP

reading at College of Broadcasting I (CB-I)

2.1 Introduction about CB-I learners

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2.2 The objectives of teaching and learning reading English in CB-I

2.3 Teachers and method of teaching

2.4 The ESP program at CB-I

2.5 Summary

Chapter 3: Research Methodology

3.1 Research questions

3.2 The participants

3.3 The data collection methods

3.4 Data analysis

3.4.1 Students’ attitudes towards ESP reading

3.4.2 The purpose of reading ESP in the views of the students

3.4.3 Students’ perception of ESP reading difficulties

*In term of grammar

* In term of vocabulary

* In term of discourse

* In term of reading skills

* Rank order of ESP reading difficulties 3.4.4 The causes of difficulties

* The reading materials

* The teachers

* The learners 3.4.5 Students’ expectations in term of material

3.4.6 Students’ expectations in term of methodology

3.5 Summary

Chapter 4: Some suggestions to improve learning ESP reading in

CB-I

4.1 Improving teachers’ classroom techniques for teaching

Broadcasting Technology reading

4.1.1 Applying different approaches to teach vocabulary

4.1.2 Supplying more grammar structures

4.1.3 Increasing students’ reading interest and motivation

4.2 Training students to become efficient readers

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4.2.1 Teaching students different reading strategies

4.2.2 Assigning and checking students’ completion of

homework

4.3 Training teachers

4.3.1 Improving Broadcasting Technology background

knowledge for teachers of English

4.3.2 Improving teaching methodology

4.4 Developing ESP reading materials 4.4.1 Developing topics 4.4.2 Adapting reading practice exercises 4.4.3 Simplifying highly specialized texts 4.5 Summary Part III: Conclusion 1 Summary of the findings 2 Some conclusions 3 Limitations of the study and suggestion for further study References Appendices Appendix 1: Some pictures about mixing desk and recording studio Appendix 2: Unit 6- Making a recording Appendix 3: Bảng câu hỏi dành cho sinh viên Appendix 4: Translated version of the questionnaire for students 37

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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS CB-I: College of Broadcasting I

ESP: English for Specific Purposes

FBT: Faculty of Broadcasting Technology

GE: General English

LIST OF TABLES, FIGURES AND CHARTS

Figure 1: Schematization of the To-down approach

Figure 2: The vicious circle of the weak readers

Chart 1: Students’ perception about the importance of reading skill in ESP reading Chart 2: Students’ views about the role of ESP reading for their future job

Chart 3: Students’ interest in ESP reading

Chart 4: Purposes of reading ESP in the views of students

Chart 5: Students’ views of sources of difficulties

Table 1: The difficulties in term of grammar

Table 2: The difficulties in the term of vocabulary

Table 3: The difficulties in the term of discourse

Table 4: The difficulties in the term of reading skill

Table 5: The average source of the items in each area of difficulties

Table 6: Students’ expectations in material

Table 7: Students’ expectation in methodology

PART I: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale

Owing to the ongoing process of regional and global integration in Vietnam, the demand for English language learning across the country is increasing English has become a compulsory subject in every school, college and university with a considerable length of time

To students, nowadays, English is not only a subject in the curriculum at university but also a key to gain access to the information world In Vietnam, there is a growing demand for English language teaching to meet the needs of a new generation of learners who want to learn English

to “gain access to the required knowledge that is available, either exclusively or most readily, in English” (Munby, 1978:3) or to serve other different specific purposes That leads to the coming into being of English for Specific Purposes (ESP)

Being aware of the great demand for English in particularly and the importance of ESP

in specially, officials in CB- I have adapted GE since 1990 and ESP since 1993 as compulsory subject It is aimed at broadening students‟ knowledge and achieving success in their career life

as well

As a technical college, one of the requirements for graduates is to be able to read professional documents in their field for further study or future jobs Therefore, ESP was first introduced into the syllabus about 10 years ago However, teachers and students at CB-I still face some of these problems:

- There has been little or almost no research work touching upon ESP teaching

methodologies to language students in Vietnam

- Most teachers at CB-I lack experience in teaching ESP

- There are no training courses for teachers of ESP

- Students are not of equal level of English

- The present course book at CB-I is not effective and relevant

The foresaid reasons of ESP teaching and learning at CB-I have aroused my interest and made me find out the areas of students‟ reading difficulties at CB-I Once problems have been identified, it will be possible to make suggestions for the teachers and students to improve teaching and learning of ESP reading at CB-I

2 Aims of the study

This study aims to examine the areas of difficulties in ESP reading of the second-year students of Faculty of Broadcasting Technology (FBT) at CB-I The objectives of this study are:

- to investigate the student attitudes towards ESP reading

- to find out the students‟ reading difficulties and their causes

- to investigate the students‟ needs in terms of material and methodology

- to offer some recommendations to reduce the difficulties and help students to

improve their reading skills

Hopefully, the study will make some contributions to the improvement of teaching and learning ESP in CB-I

3 Scope of the study

Dealing with ESP learning difficulties is too broad for a study of this size It is impossible

to cover all aspects of language theory and practice in this study Therefore, the focus of this study is to investigate some linguistic problems and difficulties in ESP reading skill experienced by the second-years students at Faculty of Broadcasting Technology in CB-I then recommend some techniques to help them improve their reading

4 Methods of the study

The theoretical background of the study mainly relies on many published books written by different authors on language of technology, communicative language teaching, English for specific purposes, approaches to ESP teaching and learning

The major method used in the study is the survey one With the aim of finding out the difficulties in ESP reading of the second-year students of Faculty of Broadcasting Technology, this thesis uses the analysis of the statistics from the instruments including one questionnaire, informal interviews and small talks conducted with the teachers and students at CB-I

5 Design of the study

The study is organized into three main parts: the introduction, the development and the conclusion

The first part introduces the rationale, aims of the study, method, scope of the study as well

as design of the thesis

The second part consists of four chapters:

Chapter 1 reviews the theoretical background of the research including Reading and reading comprehension, ESP reading and problems in learning ESP reading

Chapter 2 discusses the present situation of teaching and learning reading English in Faculty

of Broadcasting Technology at CB- I

Chapter 3 presents the research methodology which focuses on the research questions, the participants, research method including data collection methods, data analysis process and some discussion and findings

Chapter 4 suggests some recommendations to reduce difficulties and to improve the teaching and learning of ESP reading

The last part summarizes the issues addressed, presents some conclusions made on the basis

of the findings, shows the limitations of the study and makes some suggestions for further research

PART II: DEVELOPMENT

Chapter 1: Theoretical background

As the study aims at finding students‟ difficulties in ESP reading in the field of broadcasting technology in this chapter, we will take a long , careful look at the theoretical background of the study which would be a review of issues relevant to the thesis topic

1.1 Reading and reading comprehension

1.1.1 The nature of reading and reading comprehension

* The nature of reading

According to Anderson et al (1985), the majority of scholars in the field now agree on

the nature of reading: “Reading is the process of constructing meaning from written texts It is a

complex skill required the coordination of a number of interrelated sources of information”

Reading is “a psycholinguistics process by which the reader, a language user,

reconstructs, as best as he can, a message which has been encoded by a writer as a graphic display” (Goodman, 1971:135) According to Goodman, this act of reconstruction is viewed as

“a cyclical process of sampling, predicting, testing and confirming”

Eddie Williams (1984:2) noted that “a simple definition of reading is that it is a process

whereby one looks at and understand what has been written.” He takes the same view with

Goodman on reading, especially on the act of reconstruction as Goodman

Clearly, there is a great deal of defining reading and no definition can capture all the ideas and features of what reading is Each researcher reflects what reading means according to his or her own opinions What is common between them is that however they have an effort to find out the nature of reading, reading act in which reading, the readers and the text are emphasized Now it is essential for us to understand thoroughly the definition of reading comprehension before teaching a reading text

* Reading Comprehension

Grellet (1983: 3) indicated that “reading or understanding a written text means

extracting the required information from it as effectively as possible”

Reading comprehension is considered as an important part in teaching and learning reading a foreign language It can be understood as the ability to attract the required information from the text as effectively as possible

According to Swan (1975: 1) “a student is good at comprehension, we mean that he can

read accurately and efficiently, so as to get the maximum information of a text with the minimum of understanding.” That means reader can show his/her understanding by re-

expressing the content of the text in answering questions, summarizing the text, choosing right answer, etc

Besides, Richards (1992) stated that “reading comprehension is best described as an

understanding between the author and the reader” The emphasis is on the reader‟s

understanding of the text based on the individual‟s unique background of experience

In conclusion, reading comprehension is the process in which the readers, as they read, can recognize the graphic form and can understand the relation between the writing and the meaning It means that after reading reader can understand what is implied behind these graphic forms, for example, they can master grammatical structures, word pronunciation, understand the context, the text and use it in real life as effective as possible

1.1.2 Reading process

According to Burn Roe Ross, the reading process is described in the following way by

psychology theorists “the brain directs the eye to pick up visual information from the

configurations on the page, once the information starts coming into the brain, the brain processes it for meaning using if its prior knowledge of language (syntactical rules that lend themselves to prediction) and content”

An interactive theoretical model of the reading process depicts reading as a combination

of two types of processing, top-down (reader-based), and bottom-up (text-based)

* Top-down models of the reading process

The top-down process moves from the top, the higher-level mental stages, down to the text itself In fact, in these models, the reading process is driven by the reader‟s mind at work

on the text

In top-down approach, we draw on our own intelligence and experience-the predictions

we can make, based on the schemata we have acquired - to understand the text, Nuttall (1982: 16) Cambourne (1979:41) provides the following schematization of the approach

Past experience, language Selective aspect Meaning Sound, pronunciation

Figure 1: Schematization of the Top-Down approach

From the diagram, it can be seen that this approach emphasizes the reconstruction of

meaning rather than the decoding of form The interaction of the reader and the text is central

to the process, and the reader brings to this interaction his knowledge of the subject at hand, knowledge of expectations about how language works, motivation, interest and attitudes towards the content of the text Rather than decoding each symbol, or even every word, the reader uses his general knowledge of the word or of particular text components to make intelligent guesses about what might come next in the text, or forms hypotheses about text elements and then the reader samples only enough of the text to confirm or reject his/her guesses, to determine whether or not the hypotheses are correct Thus, the reader plays an active role and supplies more information to construct meaning than the printed page does

A strong proponent of the top-down reading models is Smith He believes that “to be

able to read, a child must be encouraged to predict, to use prior knowledge or even have visual information provided” (1975:60) Smith (1971:2) emphasizes the role of meaning and of

non-the reader‟s need to predict when reading: reading is less a matter of extracting sound from print than of bringing meaning to print He cites four distinctive and fundamental characteristics

of reading: (1) reading is purposeful; (2) reading is selective; (3) reading is based on comprehension; (4) reading is anticipatory Smith gives the reader a central role in

understanding what he or she reads However, one of the shortcomings of the top-down model

is that it sometimes fails to distinguish adequately between beginning readers and fluent ones

* Bottom-up models of reading process

In bottom-up reading models, the reader begins with the written text (the bottom) and constructs meaning from letters, words, phrases and sentences found within and then processes the text in a linear fashion Alderson (2000: 16) noted that: in bottom-up approaches, “the readers begins with the printed word, recognizes graphic stimuli, decoded them to sound, recognizes words and decodes meanings Each component involves sub-processes which take place independently of each other, and build upon prior sub-processes Sub-processes higher up

the chain cannot, however, feed back into components lower down

LaBerge and Samuels (1974) also emphasizes the role of attention in processing information and the importance of automaticity in the reading process They assume that the reader‟s understanding depends on what appears in the text and that the reader performs two tasks when reading: decoding and comprehending For LaBerge and Samuels, decoding is going from the printed word to some articulatory or phonological representation of the printed stimulus Comprehending is deriving meaning from the decoded materials (Samuels & Kamil,

1984: 197) However, an important shortcoming of these models is lack of feedback (Samuels and Kamil, 1988: 31) Because of this limitation and together with the advent of Goodman‟s top-down view of reading as a psycholinguistic process, the bottom-up view of reading fell into disfavor

In short, bottom-up models tend to be linear as they start with the printed stimuli and proceed to higher-level stages, one step after another The basis for bottom-up processing is linguistic knowledge of the readers There is now a great deal of evidence which points to the inadequacy of the bottom-up reading models

To sum up, the appearance and popularity of interactive models show that interactive models can maximize the strengths and minimizes the weaknesses of the separate use of either bottom-up or top-down models

1.1.3 Classification of reading according to the purposes of reading

According to purpose of reading, many researchers categorized reading into four kinds:

extensive, intensive, skimming and scanning

* Extensive reading

Reading extensively means to read widely and in quantity in daily life According to

Grellet (1981: 2), extensive reading means “reading longer texts usually for one’s own

pleasure This is a fluency activity, mainly involving general understanding.”

Extensive reading gives students opportunities to use their knowledge of the target language for their own purpose Besides, it provides the valuable reinforcement of language items and structure already presented in the classroom, giving students useful practice in inferring meaning from the context when the grammar structures and vocabulary are unfamiliar Moreover, extensive reading is a useful way for the students to update their language knowledge because students can choose the topic they like and read for enjoyment without consideration for any single item, pressure of time and need for intensive concentration and total comprehension

This is an effective way for students to improve their language reading The teacher should introduce some suitable reading materials to them, as it is useful for them to form good habit of reading

* Intensive reading

The aim of intensive reading is to understand not only what the texts mean but also how

the meaning is produced Nuttall (1982:23) noted that: “intensive reading involves approaching

the text under the close guidance of the teacher or under the guidance of task which forces the students to pay great attention to the text.” And Francoise Grellet (1981:41) defined “intensive reading means reading short texts to extract specific information This is an accuracy activity involving reading for details”

The objective of intensive reading is to understand a text in details that is contrastive with extensive reading In intensive reading, readers are required a very good understanding in details of the text

In brief, intensive reading does not require a large amount of reading material, but a rich comprehension of a small amount of reading material which may be even a few lines or a passage The readers have to research and try to get to know every idea, and every piece of hidden information in the text They have to pay their attention to the area of the words in the passage through which some hints may be conveyed Students read intensively when they are seeking for detailed instruction for using sound mix machine or video recorder for the first time, etc

This reading way is very important for foreign language learners, especially for students

of Faculty of Broadcasting Technology Therefore, teachers should design more exercises and

to provide more reading texts about the same topic for the students to develop their reading ability as well as knowledge

* Skimming

Grellet (1981:19) stated that: “when skimming, we go through the reading material

quickly in order to get its main points or the intention of the writer, but not o find the answer to specific questions.”

Nuttall said: “By skimming we mean glancing rapidly through a text to determine

whether a research paper is relevant to your own work or in order to keep ourselves superficially informed about matters that are not of great importance to us”

The purposes of skimming are:

- To check relevance of text

- To set the scene for more concentrated effort that is to follow if the text is useful Skimming is useful to look at chapter/ section headings, summaries and opening

paragraphs Skimming is very useful for students It can help students have an overview of what they are reading

* Scanning: Scanning is another useful skill to locate a specific item of information that we

need In scanning, we focus our research only on the information that we want, running our yes rapidly along the lines

Williams (1990:100) said that: “Scanning occurs when a reader goes through a text

very quickly in order to find a particular point of information” This way of reading is widely

used in reading comprehension It can be practiced with variety of texts such as dictionary, maps, advertisements, labels, indexes, or references materials, etc It is necessary and useful because scanning helps the students understand the gist of the text well

In conclusion, when teaching and learning reading comprehension, there are many different ways of reading which students can choose to use according to students „purpose However effective readers do not use these ways separately, they must know how to use suitable way to achieve their reading purpose and the text can be best tackled by a combination

At first, ESP is defined to meet specific needs of the learners Hutchinson and Waters

(1993:19) theorize “ESP is an approach to language teaching in which all decisions as to

content and method are based on the learners reasons for learning” For Hutchinson and

Waters, starting point in determining appropriate input for ESP course is identifying learner‟s needs

Secondly, in terms of content, the themes and the topics of an ESP course are related to

particular disciplines occupations and activities (Stevens, 1988) stated that “ESP is a particular

case of the general category of special purpose language teaching”

Thirdly, “ESP makes use for the underlying methodology and activities of the

disciplines serves” (Dudley-Evans & St John, 1998: 8).The important elements of methodology

and activities determine the success of an ESP syllabus to train the learners how to use the language and to be skillful in practicing it

Finally, ESP should be in contrast with GE Learners of ESP usually study English to perform a role rather than studying for general examination ESP course, thus, have to find out the distinguish features of the language in the specific specialism in its selection of skills and themes, topics, situations, functions language and methodology Only in this way, ESP does its special work

It is clear that all the above definitions originate from different time by different researchers; they meet each other at a point that any ESP course must be based on the learner‟s needs

1.2.2 Reading skills in ESP

Reading is always considered an important skill in both GE and ESP teaching and learning In ESP, English is not only taught with the purpose of improving the students‟ reading skills, but also of familiarizing them with the English language used in many specific fields (English for business, English for Medicine, English for computer science…) in terms of vocabulary, terminology, registers That is, after an ESP reading course, students are supposed

to be able to interpret texts of their subjects in order to get information for their further studies, their future work in the most appropriate way In the field of teaching reading comprehension researchers have recommended a lot of essential reading skills In an ESP course, the learning

of the reading comprehension is the learners‟ most important need In second language education, Munby‟s taxonomy of micro skills has been influential in syllabus and material design as well as the design of the language tests Reading involves a variety of skills Munby (1978) distinguishes the nineteen reading micro skills Dudley-Evans and St Johns (1998:96) show some of the key skills:

- Selecting what is relevant to the current purpose

- Using all the features of the text such as headings, layout, typeface

- Skimming for content and meaning

- Scanning for specifics

- Identifying organizational patterns

- Understanding relations within a sentence and between sentences

- Using cohesive and discourse markers

- Predicting, interfering and guessing

- Identifying main ideas, supporting ideas and examples

- Processing and evaluating the information during reading

- Transferring or using the information while or after reading

In brief, the above skills are very effective tools to facilitate the reading process and to help readers to achieve different reading purposes Also, to master these reading sub-skills learners need to do many types of reading activities

1.2.3 ESP reading materials

Materials are regarded as an important part in teaching and learning process, especially

in teaching ESP reading They are considered a source of language and a learning support They also used for motivation and efficient learning

ESP is designed to meet specific needs of the learners Hutchinson and Waters

(1993:19) theorize “ESP is an approach to language teaching in which all decisions as to

content and method are based on the learners reasons for learning” Thus, selecting reading

materials is very important “Selection” in language teaching is defied as “the choice of

linguistic content (vocabulary, grammar, etc.) for a language course, textbook, etc procedures for selecting language items to include in a language course include the use of frequency counts, needs analysis and pedagogic grammar” (Richard, Platt and Webber, 1986:253).

Selecting materials involves making choices and decisions To make good choices, we need to have good criteria on which the decision is based Numerous criteria including factors about the learners, the role of the materials, the topics, the language, the presentation have been assessed for the analysis of materials

Reading materials must be used for a given purpose Hutchinson and Waters (1987:107) state that a good ESP material must contain interesting texts, enjoyable activities which make the students think, opportunities for them to use their existing knowledge, skills and content that they and their teachers can cope with; truly reflect what you think and feel about learning process; provide clear and coherent unit structure to guide the student through various activities

to maximize the chances of learning; create a balance outlook which both reflects the complexity of the task, yet make it appear manageable; introduce teachers to new techniques and provide models of correct and appropriate language use

1.3 Problems in learning ESP reading

Reading knowledge of a foreign language is often important to professional, academic studies, and personal development There are a great deal of factors affect the success in reading including students‟ habits, attitude, motivation, exposure to target language, textual characteristics, the way reading is taught, and the teacher‟s classroom techniques or learning

environment, etc Many authors including Jolly (1978), Coady (1979) Yorio (1971) and others agree that problems with foreign language reading may be classified into three types: reading skill problems, language problems, and cultural background knowledge

1.3.1 Reading skill problems

According to Anderson (1984), a reading ability is often all that is needed by learners of English and other foreign languages In his experience, as well as that of many other teachers, the reason their students cannot read adequately in English is that they cannot read adequately

in the native language, in the first place The problems of reading in English would be vastly reduced if they learnt to read „properly‟ in their first language

Student‟s limited reading skills create many problems Some students who read too slowly will easily get discouraged They do not know how to use the appropriate ways to move their eyes from word group to word group They just look at every single word, and accordingly fail to grasp the general meaning of the text

Reading is an active skill, involving guessing, predicting, etc If learner does not have a good guessing ability and cannot make full use of grammatical, logical and cultural clues, he/she will read the text with less understanding than he/she might expect, and/or will feel frustrated at the text, and will not want to continue reading Therefore, the reader is trapped in a vicious circle:

Figure 2: The vicious circle of the weak readers (Nuttall, 1982:167)

Learner‟s motivation to reading is another factor in the reading process Good speed, enjoyment, and comprehension are the things that can promote good reading Lack of motivation will cause the reader not to want to read

1.3.2 Language problems

According to Yorio (1971:108), reading problems of foreign language learners are due

to imperfect knowledge of the target language and to mother tongue interference in the reading process In Yorio‟s view, reading involves four factors: knowledge of the language, ability to predict or guess in order to make the correct choices, ability to remember the previous cues, and ability to make the necessary associations between the different cues that have been selected Thus, learners with limited knowledge of the target language might have considered difficulty

when reading in the target language This view is supported Alderson (1984) He agreed that a lack of appropriate linguistic knowledge constrains the transfer of reading skills and strategies from L1 to L2

When readers deal with a reading text, the first problem they often face is that they may

have to work with unfamiliar and difficult topics These are called “text problems” The content

of the text is rather strange to the students and the grammatical structures are new and difficult, that make the unable to understand The readers will find the text very challenging and do not

have any motivation left to keep on reading Secondly, students may have “vocabulary

problems” Readers encounter a great deal of difficulties in coping with proverbs and idioms,

synonyms, antonyms, poly-semantic and sub-technical vocabulary, metaphor, etc According to O‟Donnell, (1961: 313-316) knowledge of vocabulary is deal more important as a factor of reading comprehension than awareness of grammatical structure

1.4 Previous studies

There are some studies relating students‟ difficulties in learning ESP reading were carried out at Vietnam National University, Hanoi- College of Foreign Languages- Postgraduate Studies These studies, two of which were read, revealed some strengths and weaknesses as well Both Bui Thi Ngoc Ha (2006) and Pham Hai Yen (2008) proposed studies

on difficulties in reading ESP of learners in the Army Cryptography Technical College and at Vinh Technical Teachers‟ Training University respectively Both two these researchers administered one questionnaire, interviews and small talks to investigate students‟ difficulties

in grammar, vocabulary, reading skills, discourse and cultural background; the causes of these difficulties and students‟ expectations in reading materials and teaching methodology These researchers also presented some suggestions to limit these difficulties They did not suggest recommendations to improve students‟ grammar knowledge although the area also made the students have problems However, their researches still considered as sample for reference before the researcher began the study Probably, the researcher will find out solutions for this existing to help students feel more motivated in learning ESP reading

1.5 Summary

In conclusion, this chapter presents a theoretical frame work for the study It provides an overview of ESP as well as the nature of reading and reading comprehension Furthermore, this chapter also discussed ESP reading with reading skills and reading material Besides, via this chapter,the researcher also would like to present problems in learning ESP reading theoretically

Chapter 2: The current situation of teaching and learning ESP reading at

College of Broadcasting I (CB-I) 2.1 Introduction about CB-I learners

The College of Broadcasting I belongs to Radio, the Voice of Vietnam and its duty is to train journalists and broadcasting technicians for broadcasting stations throughout the country The college helps them to master scientific advances and use perfectly modern technological equipments such as computers, cameras, recorders, sound- mixture machines and so on The college has been established for nearly 55 years from a school for technician workers then a vocational school and now a college Every year, our college trains about 1000 students in six faculties for a three-course of study After graduating, our learners become journalists, reporters and technicians specialized in information technology and broadcasting and telecommunication There are six kinds of ESP in my college but I only focus on ESP for students at faculty of Broadcasting Technology in the thesis

Most of the students who enter CB-I are aged from 18 to 22 They come from different parts of the country, from Ha Giang province to Quang Binh province They have many advantages in learning a foreign language Firstly they have good cognitive abilities that can help then succeed in learning Secondly, they can learn and retain a larger vocabulary and complex grammar structure However, my students have some disadvantages when learning English My study focuses on students of Faculty of Broadcasting Technology and foreign language is not considered the main subject It serves as means that helps students to read documents, machine manuals in English, but not to communicate with English native speakers What is more, the students come to the English class with different English background and learning styles The students come from different parts of the country Some of them come from the rural areas; others are from cities and towns Many students who come from cities had learnt a lot of English at school or at English centers before going to university whereas others had learnt only little Some even had learnt Russian or French or never learnt a foreign language This mixed ability has caused certain problems to teaching and learning English at the college In the same class, some students find classroom activities too relaxing while others find these activities too hard The common observation is those who know a lot of English are very active and those who know little are too shy or passive during the class time In such a mixed class, it is obviously a challenge for teachers to satisfy all the needs of the students

Thus, the first thing the teachers have to do is to improve the students‟ level of GE before they can deal with subject matters in this language

Another problem of the students is about learning styles Students‟ learning style is quite dependent on the teachers and the text books This one is tracked in learning vocabulary and grammar rules The education model in which the teacher is active and the students are passive is still the dominant habit of teaching Students in class prefer written work and private reading, which means that in class students work quietly and individually Consequently, they are most comfortable with using dictionaries, repetition or copying, taking notes, using vocabulary notebooks, finding synonyms and antonyms or spelling exercises Besides, they prefer translation It results in the fact that they pay more attention to forms than to functions and meanings This fact calls for a teacher‟s provision of the methods of teaching at the tertiary level for students

2.2 The objectives of teaching and learning reading ESP in CB-I

ESP was taught in the faculty of Broadcasting Technology after the teaching of GE three years later ESP was introduced in the training program to meet students‟ needs of English for their future work The aim of these ESP courses is to provide students with adequate knowledge of English used in the field they are studying so that they can use it for their future work To achieve this objective English has been taught with the following format: GE is taught

in the first year with the integration of four skills Priority is given to teaching translation Teachers select materials from newspapers or journals on both Vietnamese and English related

to the students‟ fields of study and students have to translate them from English into Vietnamese or vice versa

Students learn ESP for Broadcasting Technology to read materials or control equipment instructed in English At the end of each semester, students have to sit for an English examination

2.3 Teachers and methods of teaching

There are seven teachers of English in our college, aged from 27 to 35 All of them had been educated in ELT training in the foreign language university inside Vietnam Two of them participated in short-time language courses oversea These are our advantages; however, we also have some problems One of most obvious difficulties is that both teachers and students lack a language environment to develop their communicative abilities Another problem is that none of teachers has been trained in teaching ESP This is an obstacle for teachers to improve

the teaching of ESP in the college Almost teachers teach GE with little or no specific knowledge of broadcasting technology Sometimes we find it difficult to transfer specialized knowledge to ESP However, we learn by ourselves to improve broadcasting technology knowledge through materials or asking our colleagues

Each of our teachers teaches both GE and ESP and we have the responsibility for training for nearly 40 classes This is also our difficulty Besides, methodology addresses as a key in teaching ESP teachers usually use the traditional method of teaching in ESP reading lessons The teachers cover all the class They read, explain new grammar structure, vocabulary and direct students to do exercises, sometimes, translate the text into Vietnamese Students only listen and take notes and do these exercises Teachers are as the main speakers working with the text Students are passive and only ask teachers questions when they encounter difficult structures or words that they cannot find in the dictionary

2.4 The ESP program at CB-I

In the faculty of broadcasting technology, English is taught in the first two years During the first years, students study GE in two terms, focusing on the development of the four language skills at elementary level Usually, two teachers are responsible for a class In the first term of the second year students learn English for Broadcasting Technology That means ESP is taught after the students have studied GE for two terms and they learn ESP while they were not taught much about broadcasting technology in Vietnamese subjects‟ materials

English is taught in the college from the beginning of 1990s and it is a compulsory subject for all students At first, we used “Streamline” (Departures) textbooks in GE classes for over 10 years However, we find this textbook is not suitable to drill four language skills, thus,

we have moved to use “New Headway” (Elementary) since 2004 In addition to “New Headway” textbook, workbook and cassettes, we have also collected some texts in other material for students‟ further reading For teaching ESP, Oxford English for Electronics and English for Electronics and Telecommunication are used as the course books However, based

on the needs of the students, the requirement of the college and the time allocated for ESP teaching, we have chosen only 15 important units in these materials to teach Because of specialty of English for Broadcasting Technology, our teachers have to collect materials from Internet or other materials, articles or extracts from newspapers, journals, instructions on machine usage, etc related to broadcasting and television to supply for students the most practical texts And these materials were individually selected, compiled into the reading

materials for the course As the result of this, different teachers had different focal points in choosing lesson plans with different language items such as vocabulary, functions, structure, skills or learning activities, and different teaching approaches The most common approach then was the grammar-translation one Although the main focus of this approach was on teaching vocabulary, grammar was considered as an important component of the whole process This method was used as a means of presenting grammar, specialist vocabulary, structures which were assumed to be relevant to the students‟ needs and at the same time it was used as a feedback to check the students‟ comprehension ESP course at CB-I was delivered in this way for a long time

At presents, students learn English in three semesters in which GE is taught in the first year and ESP in the first semester of the second one The time allocated for GE is 90 periods (each period lasts 45 minutes) and that for ESP is 60 periods The ESP syllabus focuses on the subject matters of broadcasting technology It also focuses on languages skills, speaking, reading, writing and translation and reading comprehension is a major source of input

Regarding assessment, the common form includes written achievement tests (a term and an end-of-term one) The form of tests usually comprises three main parts: reading comprehension, grammar exercises and translation The test aims at assessing students‟ knowledge and the results of the test together with other forms of continuous assessment at the class through the course will supply information about the students‟ progress These information help teachers adjust their methodology and material available to promote learning

mid-2.5 Summary

In brief, this chapter displays the current situation of teaching and learning ESP reading

at CB-I with introduction about CB-I learners, the objectives of teaching and learning reading English in CB-I Moreover, this chapter provides some information about teachers and methodology as well as the ESP program in CB-I

Chapter 3: Research methodology

This chapter presents the research questions and the data collection methods Information about the participants used for the study will also be provided Data were obtained

by means of a survey questionnaire and informal discussions with teachers and informal interviews with students to provide more in depth information All data will be analyzed to find out the students‟ difficulties in learning ESP reading, the causes of these difficulties and the students‟ expectations in materials and methodology

3.1 Research questions

There are three research questions for this thesis as follows:

- What are the difficulties that students of FBT have when reading ESP materials?

- What are the causes of these difficulties?

- What adjustments in material and methodology help students overcome or limit difficulties?

3.2 The participants

One hundred students including 68 males and 32 females in their second year at the FBT were invited to participate in the study They came from two classes and have the different English proficiency levels At the time when the researcher did the data collection, these students were in the third semester All of them finished two semesters of GE course in which they used New Headway as the materials

Students‟ age varied from 19 to 22 so they belonged to the same psychological

However, their length of English learning at school (before entering our college) was different

The 100 students in two classes were selected randomly to participate in the research Choosing students in the classes is more suitable and convenient for the researcher to observe the participants who filled the questionnaire in classes

3.3 The data collection methods

To reach the primary purposes of the study, a survey questionnaire has been chosen as the main method for data collection for this particular research One survey with 15 questions is designed for students who are currently learning English for Broadcasting Technology to get information about difficulties of students at FBT in learning ESP reading Besides, the questionnaires helps researcher to find out materials and methodology which are appropriate to students The questionnaire was written in Vietnamese to ensure students‟ accurate understanding of all the questions before answering them One hundred copies of the

questionnaire were given to the 100 participants in two classes of FBT The survey questionnaire consists of the following sections:

- Personal information

- Students‟ attitudes toward ESP reading and purposes of learning ESP reading

- Students‟ perception of ESP reading difficulties

- The causes of difficulties

- Students‟ expectations of material and methodology

At the same time, informal discussion with teachers and informal interview with students are also carried out in the hope to reach a more comprehensive picture of the learning and teaching of ESP reading at FBT

The survey questionnaire has been chosen because it is known as the best way to collect

a large amount data in relatively short time The questionnaire is also supposed to help to obtain background information about the research subjects such as age, previous background in language learning and years of studying the language Using the survey questionnaire also save time and it is normally cheap way of collection data but also a suitable one for non-language learners

3.4 Data analysis

This part of the thesis is the treatment of the data collected from the survey questionnaire conducted on 100 students at Faculty of Broadcasting Technology and transcription from informal discussion with teachers and interviews with students The collected data will be presented from question 5 to question 15 separately according to three aims of the study Because of limitation of the number of participants, the data is manually analyzed using descriptive statistics and interpretations All the statistical data will be shown in tables and charts in the form of numbers and percentages

3.4.1 Students’ attitudes towards ESP reading

The collected data will be illustrated on charts Each chart is followed by an analysis of

the data

Chart 1: Students’ perception about the importance of reading skill in ESP reading

As can be seen from the chart 1, a great number of students (60%) considered ESP reading skill is very important and 32% for important and there are only 8% of students who did not realize the importance of reading in ESP

Chart 2: Students’ views about the role of ESP reading for their future jobs

In the chart 2, 70% of students thought that reading skill was very essential for their future job 27% of them considered it was essential Only 3% found reading‟s role for their

future job neutral and none believed that reading skill was not essential for their future career

The reasons for this may result from their understanding of reading for students in their future work in which they have to either read a lot of specific documents related to their subject topics from different sources such as course books, reference books, newspapers, magazines and on the Internet or control machines instructed in English namely, sound mix machine, camera, computer, etc In other words, reading helps students extend their knowledge of the world‟s science and technology An awareness of the importance of reading comprehension is supposed to create motivation for the students to overcome difficulties they encounter in their learning process However, reading skill is only one of some skills students have to be trained

Chart 3: Students’ interest in ESP reading

From chart 3, we can see that most of students dislike reading ESP (68%) and only 32%

of the participants like it As we see above, there is high percentage of students considering reading ESP is very important and very essential for their future job However, a few of them like reading ESP This low percentage may originate from some following reasons Firstly, most of participants were male (68%) and they themselves assessed their English qualification

at elementary level and pre-intermediately one (91%), therefore, ESP reading exercises and lessons caused them many difficulties Such difficulties did not motivate them in learning ESP Gradually, they dislike ESP and maybe they hate English and feel be afraid of it Secondly,

although most of the student had studied English from 4 to 9 years, many of them had poor knowledge of GE and their average marks on GE were not good This might have had a bad influence on their ESP learning, which explained why they lost interest in learning ESP Thirdly, among 100 participants, there were only 11 people from urban, the rest came from rural countryside In many countryside of Vietnam, GE has been taught unprofessionally and pupils in the countryside are bad at English Being uninterested in learning ESP may result from this reason Moreover, English was not considered as a major subject in our college, thus, some of students did not pay attentions to learning it although they aware of the importance of ESP reading in their future job

These negative attitudes may cause certain difficulties to some students

3.4.2 The purpose of reading ESP in the views of the students

2nd purpose

3rd purpose

4th purpose

5th purpose

6th purpose

Chart 4

Percentage

Chart 4: Purposes of reading ESP in the views of students

1 To have more knowledge about General English and ESP

2 To learn terminology in English

3 To read specific materials

4 To apply for a good job in the future

5 To get a high score in English exams

6 No purposes at all

Chart 4 indicates the students; purposes of learning reading ESP Most of BT students learn ESP reading with different purposes, to have more knowledge about GE and ESP (39%);

to learn terminology in English (10%); to read technical documents (18%); to apply for a good job in the future (26%) and only 6 % of the students learn to get a high score in English examination and only 1% learn to read ESP with no purposes at all Depending on their own specific purposes, the students will spend how much of their time learning ESP reading

3.4.3 Students’ perception of ESP reading difficulties

* Scoring procedure:

Tables show how the students themselves perceive the difficulties they experience when reading in four categories: vocabulary, grammar, discourse and reading skills The figures in columns 1, 2, 3 and 4 represent the numbers of students who ranked the items in the questionnaire

The procedure followed in the analysis of the findings was to allocate a score (see

column 5) for level of difficulty to each item in the list A four-point scale was used, with 4 points for Very Difficult (VD), 3 points for Difficult (D), 2 points for Easy (E), and 1 point for Very Easy (VE) Using this method, we would obtain the highest scores for items that the

students perceived as most difficult

* Descriptive statistics:

For most of the items, the students‟ responses centered mainly on Very Difficult (VD), Difficult (D) and Easy (E) Only a few items were categorized as Very Easy (VE) In general, vocabulary and reading skills are considered to cause more problems to the students than others Details of the responses to the items in each section are as follows:

Areas of difficulties

How difficult/easy

score

9 In the area of grammar

a Recognizing the word‟s parts of speech:

nouns, verbs, adjectives…

b Understanding and using verb tenses and

preposition phrases

d Understanding and using unfamiliar

syntactic structures

e Understanding identifying the types of

sentences: simple or complex, passive or

active voice

f Identifying elements of simple sentences

(S,V,O,A,C)

g Identifying elements of complex sentences

(main or subordinate clause)

h Understanding the relationship between

clauses of compound and complex

Table 1: The difficulties in the areas of grammar

* In the area of grammar

In question 9, the participants were asked to point out the difficulties in some aspects of grammar The results of the responses are presented in Table 1

As can be seen, scores of difficulties with grammar vary from 280 to 343 This area

seems to cause many difficulties for students They put item 9d (Understanding and using

unfamiliar syntactic structures) at the top of the grammar difficulty list with 243 points 49

students think that it is very difficult for them to comprehend reading texts containing

unfamiliar syntactic structures 45 of them consider it difficult, the rest (6 students) think that it

is easy to identify unfamiliar syntactic structures None found it “very easy”

Item 9c with the score of 329 points follows closely in the list

Item 9h and 9i had the nearly same score (325points, 326 points respectively) which

suggested that Understanding the relationship between clauses of compound and complex

sentences and Identifying the correct word order were at the nearly same level of difficulty

Item 9f had the lowest score, with 280 points, compared to the others in this section,

which mean that students did not have any problems with simple sentences The second lowest

score in this area was the score for item 9a with 284 points, which also means that students

found the task of understanding and identifying parts of speech fairly easy

The remaining items 9b, 9e, 9g had quite high points (318, 302 and 310 points

respectively) These items are accepted by most students not to be easy as the responses centre mainly on Very Difficult and Difficult

From Table 1 we can see that the number of students selecting the responses “Very difficult” and “difficult” to the items in the grammar area were higher than those of students

selecting other responses “easy” and “very easy”, except for items 9f and 9a which has the

higher number of students choosing the response “easy” Thus, we can see that the area of grammar seems to cause many difficulties for our students

* In the area of vocabulary

Areas of difficulties

How difficult/easy

score

10 In the area of vocabulary

a Pronunciation and remembering lengthy

words

b Understanding and remembering

professional technical words

c Understanding and remembering idiomatic

expression verb phrases and noun phrases

d Finding the appropriate meaning for

Table 2: The difficulties in the areas of vocabulary

Question 10 investigated the difficulties in some vocabulary aspects The results are shown in Table 2 Scores in this section range between 290 and 355 The high scores indicate that vocabulary problems, as perceived by students, are among the biggest problems for them

Table 2 shows that item 10c (Understanding and remembering idiomatic expression

verb phrases and noun phrases.) was at the top of the difficulty list with a fairly high score (355

points) 65 students thought that it was “very difficult” for them to understand and to remember the meanings of the idiomatic expressions, verb phrases and noun phrases 25 of them perceived it to be “difficult” and only 10 students considered it “easy” No students considered understanding and remembering idiomatic expression verb phrases and noun phrases “very easy” in reading materials

Item 10a (Pronunciation and remembering lengthy words) had the lowest score (290

points) which means that lengthy words seemed to be the easiest for students to pronounce and remember There were 30 students thinking this item “easy” and “very easy”

Item 10 b, 10d and 10e had rather high scores (312, 329and 334 points respectively)

This shows that understanding and remembering professional technical words; finding the

appropriate meaning for poly-semantic words and understanding homonyms (see & sea, pair & pear…) were also “difficult” for students None rated these items as “very easy”

* In the area of discourse

Areas of difficulties

How difficult/easy

score

11 In the area of discourse

a Understanding relationship between

sentences/segments in a text

b Understanding relationship between

paragraphs in a text

c Recognizing larger textual patterns of a

discourse (answer-question, problem-solution,

and hypothesis-practice)

d Identifying and understanding ellipsis and

substitution (one/ ones, the same)

e Identifying and recognizing conjunctions

and discourse markers

f Recognizing functional values (explaining