Factors affecting reading comprehension of English for computer science of the second year students at Vinh Technical Teachers' Training University = Những yếu

Department of POST GRADUATE STUDIES ---@---Đinh ThỊ THU FACTORS AFFECTING READING COMPREHENSION OF ENGLISH FOR COMPUTER SCIENCE OF THE SECOND YEAR STUDENTS AT VINH TECHNICAL TEACHERS’

Department of POST GRADUATE STUDIES

-@ -Đinh ThỊ THU

FACTORS AFFECTING READING COMPREHENSION OF ENGLISH FOR COMPUTER SCIENCE OF THE SECOND YEAR STUDENTS AT VINH TECHNICAL TEACHERS’ TRAINING

UNIVERSITY

(Những yếu tố ảnh hưởng đến việc đọc hiểu tiếng anh chuyên ngành tin học của sinh viên năm thứ hai ở trường đại học sư phạm kỹ

thuật Vinh)

M.A Minor Programme Thesis

Field: English Teaching Methodology

Code: 60.14.10

HANOI - 2010

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY-HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

Department of POST GRADUATE STUDIES

-@ -Đinh ThỊ THU

FACTORS AFFECTING READING COMPREHENSION OF

ENGLISH FOR COMPUTER SCIENCE OF THE SECOND YEAR STUDENTS AT VINH TECHNICAL TEACHERS’ TRAINING UNIVERSITY

(Những yếu tố ảnh hưởng đến việc đọc hiểu tiếng anh chuyên ngành tin học của sinh viên năm thứ hai ở trường đại học sư phạm kỹ

thuật Vinh)

M.A Minor Programme Thesis

Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60.14.10

Supervisor: Dr Dương Thị Nụ

HANOI - 2010

IT: Information Technology

L1: The first language

L2: The second language

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES

Figure: Students’ background

Table 1: Students’ attitudes towards ESP reading

Table 2: Students’ preparation lessons before going to class

Table 3: Students’ frequency of reading supplementary materials

Table 4: Students’ evaluation of the texts in the current ESP reading material

Table 5: The causes of the students’ difficulties in reading English for CS

Table 6: Activities the teachers ask the students to do at pre/ post-reading stages Table 7: Activities carried out by the teachers to motivate students in a reading lesson Table 8: The learners’ expectation in terms of ESP materials

Table 9: The learners’ expectation in terms of teaching methodology

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Declaration ……… i

Acknowledgements………ii

Abstract………iii

List of abbreviations……… iv

List of figures and tables ……… v

Table of contents ……….vi

Part A: Introduction ……… 1

1 Rationale ……… 1

2 Aims of the study ……….2

3 Methods of the study……… 2

4 Scope of the study ……… 2

5 Organization of the thesis ……… 2

Part B: Development ……… 4

Chapter 1: Theoretical background ……….4

1.1 The nature of reading ……… 4

1.1.1 Definitions of reading and reading comprehension……… 4

1.1.2 Classification of reading according to purpose of reading ……… 5

1.1.3 Reading in General English and in ESP ……… 6

1.2 ESP reading ……… 7

1.2.1 Definitions of ESP ……… 7

1.2.2 Reading skills in ESP ……… 8

1.2.3 Factors in teaching and learning ESP reading ……… 8

1.2.3.1 ESP teachers and their roles ……… 8

1.2.3.2 ESP students and their roles ……… 9

1.2.3.3 ESP materials and their roles ……… 10

1.3 ESP reading difficulties for foreign language learners ………10

1.3.1 Reading skills problems ………11

1.3.2 Language problems ……… 11

1.4 Summary ……… 12

Chapter 2: Investigation into the current situation of teaching and learning English for Computer Science at Vinh Technical Teachers’ training University ( VTTTU ) 2.1 Introduction of the VTTTU ……… 13

2.2 The teachers and their teaching methods ……… 13

2.3 The students and their background ……… 14

2.4 The teaching and learning English at VTTTU ……… 14

2.5 The present ESP syllabus and materials ………15

Chapter 3: The study ……… 16

3.1 Research questions ………16

3.2 Participants ………16

3.3 The data collection method ……… 16

3.4 The data collection procedure ……… 17

3.5 Data analysis ……… 17

3.5.1 Factors affecting reading English for Computer Science at VTTTU ………18

3.5.1.1 The participants’ background ………18

3.5.1.2 Students’ attitudes towards ESP reading ……… 19

3.5.1.3 The reading materials ……… 21

3.5.1.4 The teachers and teaching methods ……… 23

3.5.2 The learners’ expectation in terms of ESP materials ……… 25

3.5.3 The learners’ expectation in terms of teaching methodology ………26

3.6 Summary ……… 28

Chapter 4: Recommendations to improve the quality of the teaching and learning to read English for CS at VTTTU ………29

4.1 Improving teachers’ classroom techniques ……… 29

4.1.1 Increasing students’ reading interest and motivation ……… 29

4.1.2 Applying different approaches to teach vocabulary ……… 29

4.2 Training students to become efficient readers ……… 30

4.2.1 Training students with different reading strategies ……… 30

4.2.2 Encouraging students to develop extensive reading habits ……… 32

4.2.3 Giving homework and checking the previous lessons frequently …………32

4.3 Improving teachers’ background knowledge about CS and teaching methodology

4.3.1 Improving teachers’ background knowledge about CS ………33

4.3.2 Improving teachers’ teaching methodology ……… 33

4.4 Developing E CS reading materials ……… 34

4.4.1 Adapting and improving reading exercises ……… 34

4.4.2 Choosing supplementary reading materials ……… 35

4.5 Summary ……… 35

Part C: Conclusion ……… 36

1 Conclusions of the study ……… 36

2 Limitations of the study and Suggestions for Further study ……… 37

References ……… 38 Appendices ……… I

PART A: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale

English learning has been popular in Vietnam over the last few decades Especially,

learning English has become a burgeoning need when Vietnam fosters its international relations Everyday an increasing number of people learn and use English for different purposes

In teaching and learning English as a foreign language in Vietnam, English for Specific Purposes (ESP) has recently received a great deal of attention It has been introduced in the training curriculum at almost every university in Vietnam as recognition

of the increasing importance of the language as a tool to help students access information and technological advancements of the world One of the main objectives of the ESP program is to develop the students‟ skills in accessing, analyzing, and evaluating critically the information available for their career purposes Therefore, being able to read in a foreign language, especially in English is often important to academic studies, professional success and personal development It is obvious that reading is given the most important account for the students of Information Technology That is because reading is not only the important means to get knowledge but also means of further study By means of English, the learners can take it professionally in their future work as well as reading their specialized materials It is completely true for the students of IT

At VTTTU, after finishing three semesters of GE, the students of IT department begin to take 60 ESP periods of CS

Being an ESP teacher of CS, the researcher has always been aware of the importance

of developing the reading skills for IT students If the students read well, they are able to handle subjects related written materials in English and to work with modern technological equipments But in fact, despite of the effort of the teachers and students, the researcher finds her students‟ reading skills disappointed, which do not meet the requirements of the college and they have a lot of difficulties in reading English for CS

For all the above reasons, the researcher would like to find out the factors affecting reading comprehension of English for CS of the second year students at VTTTU It is

hoped that the study will make some suggestions for teachers and students to improve the quality of teaching and learning English for CS at VTTTU

2 Aims of the study

The study aims to examine the factors affecting reading comprehension of English for Computer Science of the second year students at VTTTU To be more specific, the objectives of the study are:

- To examine the students‟ attitudes towards ESP reading

- To investigate the current situation of teaching and learning English for CS at VTTTU in order to find out the factors affecting reading comprehension of English for CS

of the second year students at VTTTU

- To investigate the learners‟ needs in terms of reading materials and methodology

- To give some recommendations to improve the quality of teaching and learning English for CS at VTTTU

It is hoped that the findings from this study will be of some benefits to teachers and students at VTTTU

3 Method of the study

In order to achieve the aims mentioned above, the methodologies adopted for this study are a survey questionnaire with 100 students which is used as the main method to collect the needed data from the learners and informal interviews and discussions with the teachers as well as the researcher‟s observation during the course

4 Scope of the study

The study mainly focuses on the investigation of factors most affecting reading comprehension of English for Computer Science of the second year students at VTTTU, and then suggests some techniques to help them improve their ESP reading

5 Organization of the thesis

This minor thesis consists of three parts: Introduction, Development and Conclusion

The first part concludes the rationale for the study, the aims, the methods, and the scope of the study as well as the organization of the thesis

The second part consists of four chapters Chapter 1 discusses the theoretical background to the nature of reading and reading comprehension and reading in ESP teaching and learning Chapter 2 investigates the current situation of teaching and learning English for CS at VTTTU Chapter 3 deals with the research methodology which covers

the research questions, the participants, the data collection method, and the data collection procedure as well as the data analysis, findings and some discussion of findings Chapter 4 offers some possible suggestions to improve the current situation of teaching and learning English for Computer Science at VTTTU

The last part- Conclusion - summarizes the main issues of the study, points out the limitations and makes some suggestions for further research

PART B: DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

This chapter involves the theoretical background of the study which would be a

review of issues relevant to the thesis topic The review includes an overview on the nature

of reading, in which the definitions of reading and reading comprehension as well as classification of reading according to the purpose of reading are discussed Moreover, this chapter also discusses the definition of ESP, reading skills in ESP, factors in teaching and learning ESP reading, and ESP reading difficulties for foreign language learners

1.1 The nature of reading

1.1.1 Definitions of reading and reading comprehension

So far, there are numerous definitions of reading by many perspectives – linguists, psychologists, educators and second language researchers Each author defines in a different way as seen from his own point of view

According to Goodman (1971:135), 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” This act of reconstruction is viewed as “a cyclical process of sampling, predicting, testing, and confirming”

Harmer (1989:153) considers reading as a mechanical process that “eyes receive the message and the brain then has to work out the significance of the message” Harmer

focuses on not only two actions dominated by the eyes and the brain but also the speed of

the process: “a reading text moves at a speed of the reader”, which means it is the reader

who decides how fast he wants to read the text

Sharing the same opinion, Smith (1985:102) defined: “reading is understanding the

author‟s thought” It means that the readers “read the author’s mind not the author’s

words”

To sum up, it is obvious that attempts to define reading have been various but no definitions can reveal all the features and ideas of what reading is However, the definitions all focus on the nature of reading that is the interaction between readers and authors

Reading comprehension takes an important role in teaching and learning reading It

is the ability to get information from the text as efficiently as possible There are three elements involving in the reading process: the text being read, the background knowledge

of the reader and the contextual aspects relevant for interpreting the text

According to Grellet (1981:3), “reading comprehension or understanding a written

text means extracting the required information from it as efficiently as possible” Richard

and Thomas (1987:9) also stated: “reading comprehension is best described as an

understanding between the author and the reader”

And according to Swan (1975:1), “a student is good at comprehension” if “he can read accurately and efficiently, so as to get the maximum information of a text with the minimum understanding” After reading, readers can master the grammatical structures,

words pronunciation, understanding the context of the texts and use it in real life as effective as possible

Though these ideas are not exactly the same, they all seem that “reading without comprehension is meaningless” (Karlin and Kartin, 1982:2)

1.1.2 Classification of reading according to purpose of reading

According to purpose of reading, Wood (1985), Williams (1986) and Grellet (1990)

categorize reading into intensive, extensive, skimming, and scanning

Intensive reading means the careful reading of shorter, more difficult foreign

language texts with the goal of complete and detailed understanding The objective of intensive reading is to understand not only what the text means but also how the meaning

is produced Francoise Grellet (1981:41) defined: “Intensive reading means reading short

texts to extract specific information This is an accuracy activity involving reading for

details” And according to Nuttal (1982:36), “Intensive reading involves approaching the

text under the guidance of a teacher or a task which forces the student to pay great attention to the text” To this kind of reading, readers are required a profound and detailed

understanding of the text They have to know every idea, every piece of hidden information in the text They also have to pay attention to the area of the words in the passage through which some hints may be conveyed In short, intensive reading is reading

in detail for a complete understanding of every part of the text

Extensive reading means to read widely and in quantity 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” Harmer (1989:497)

also has the same view He states “extensive reading would normally start with reading for

the main idea or for general comprehension and finally, after much practice, for detailed comprehension” In fact, most of extensive reading is done silently and out of the

classroom and it gives the students opportunities to use their target language knowledge for their own purposes

Skimming is a very useful reading skill for students to locate a specific item of

information that they need Grellet (1981:19) stated: “when skimming, we go through the

reading material quickly in order to get its main points out the intension of the writer, but not to find the answer to specific questions” Because of its nature, the key to skimming is

to know where to find the main idea of different paragraphs and to be able to synthesize them by way of generalization

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

need Williams (1986:100) said: “scanning occurs when a reader goes through a text very

quickly in order to find a particular point of information” In contrast with skimming,

scanning is far more limited since it only means retrieving needed information This kind

of reading is widely used in reading comprehension

In sum, there are different ways of reading and they are determined not by the texts but by the reader‟s reasons for reading In order to understand a text effectively, the readers should not use these ways independently They must know how to use suitable ways to achieve their reading purpose

1.1.3 Reading in General English and in ESP

In many countries, English is learnt by a number of students who may never have opportunities to converse with native speakers, but may have access to scientific and technical materials written in English In comparison with other languages skills, reading, once developed, is the one that can most easily be maintained at a high level by the student himself with further help from his teachers Through reading exercises, he can increase his knowledge and understanding of the speakers‟ culture, their way of thinking and their contribution to different fields in our everyday life Reading, therefore, is always considered an important skill in both GE and ESP contexts

Reading in GE and ESP classes involves teachers, students and texts that are used for reading In general, these factors function similarly in both types of English teaching However, ESP teaching is different from General English teaching in some aspects

1.2 ESP reading

1.2.1 Definition of ESP

There are different definitions of ESP by different linguistics According to

Hutchinson and Waters (1987:16), “ESP – an approach not a product- does not involve a

particular kind of language, teaching materials or methodology” In their opinion, ESP is

“not a matter of teaching specialized varieties, not different in kind from other form of

language teaching” They state ESP “is an approach to language teaching in which all

decisions as to content and method are based on the learners’ reason for learning” So an

ESP course should differ from a GE course in selection of skills, themes, topics, situations and functions And, all ESP courses should be based on the learners‟ needs and meet the learners‟ needs

However, Strevens‟ definition of ESP (1988) makes a distinction between four absolute characteristics and two variable characteristics:

- The absolute characteristics of ESP are as follows:

* designed to meet specific needs of the learners

* related in context (that is in its themes and topic) to particular disciplines, occupations and activities

* centered on language appropriate to those activities in syntax, lexis, discourse, semantics, and so on, and analysis of the discourse

* in contrast with GE

- The two variable characteristics are that ESP:

* may be restricted to skills to be learned (for example, reading only)

* may not be taught according to any pre- ordained methodology

Robinson‟s definition is based on two key defining criteria and a number of characteristics that are generally found to be true of ESP The key criteria are that ESP is

“normally goal-directed” and that ESP courses develop from a needs analysis, which

“aims to specify as closely as possible what exactly it is that students have to do through

the medium of English” (Robinson; 1991:3)

From the definitions above, it is clear that ESP courses are purposeful and aim at the successful performance of occupational roles by an individual or a group whose need is considered to be a distinguished feature to those of GE

1.2.2 Reading skills in ESP

According to Hutchinson and Waters (1987:19) ESP “is an approach to language

teaching in which all decisions as to content and method are based on the learners’ reason for learning” An ESP course therefore should differ from a GE course in its selection of

skills, themes, topics, situations and functions What is more, all courses have a purpose and aims to achieve Therefore, the reading component of an ESP course requires a balance between skills and language development 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 texts such as headings, layout, typeface

- skimming for content and meaning

- scanning for specific information

- identifying organizational patterns

- understanding relations within a sentences and between sentences

- predicting, interfering and guessing

- using cohesive and discourse markers

- identifying main ideas, supporting ideas and examples

- processing and evaluating the information during reading

- transferring or using the information while or after reading

1.2.3 Factors in teaching and learning ESP reading

1.2.3.1 ESP teachers and their roles

Together with students, the teacher is one of the two main necessary elements which create the teaching and learning process In general, the role of the teacher is to provide students with knowledge and the best methods for learning effectively However, it is obvious that the work of GE and ESP teachers differs One of the skills an ESP teacher has

to acquire is the ability to balance content level and language level Therefore, it is likely that in addition to the normal functions of a GE teacher, The ESP teacher will have to deal with needs analysis, syllabus design, materials writing or adaptation and evaluation

According to Littlewood (1881:51), the language teacher is expected “to perform in a

variety of roles, separately or simultaneously” As for Wright (1987) and other authors, the

roles of the teacher include: an instructor, a manager, a counselor, a facilitator, an organizer, an evaluator, a curriculum developer, a material writer and even a friend Swales (1985) prefers to use the term “ESP practitioner” than “ESP teacher” Teacher‟s work may only involve teaching whereas practitioner‟s work involves much more than teaching

It is true that the role of the teacher will vary according to the type of syllabus and course, and the teaching and learning environment (Jordan, 1997) Thus, one of the most

important qualities that an ESP teacher expects to have is flexibility - the flexibility to

change from being a general language teacher to being a specific purpose teacher Firstly,

an ESP teacher must work as a teacher He should help students learn, be willing to listen

to them, be ready to change tasks in a lesson to take account of what comes up, to think and respond quickly to events Secondly, an ESP teacher must also work as a course designer and a material provider Moreover, an ESP teacher must know something about the subject matters of the ESP materials It does not mean that the teacher must become an expert of the subject matters (though it should be ideal if he is), but rather an interested student of the subject matter According to Hutchinson and Waters, ESP teachers should have three things: (i) a positive attitude towards the ESP content; (ii) knowledge of the fundamental principles of the subject area; (iii) an awareness of how much they probably know Finally, The ESP teacher is an evaluator who tests and assesses students through discussion and on-going needs analysis, negotiation with students, then evaluates the course and teaching materials

To sum up, the roles of the ESP and GE teacher can hardly be separated, and they vary as circumstances change So, it is necessary to note that the success of an individual teacher depends to a large extent on how flexible and adaptable he is in tackling the actual teaching situations

1.2.3.2 ESP students and their roles

Like teachers, students are also one of two main factors of teaching and learning process They are not also the subject but also the object of that process In particular, in a reading lesson, the students act as readers They are involved actively in getting the right meaning from the text Sometimes, they meet difficulties in interpreting the text because of unfamiliar vocabularies and limited background knowledge or because their reading speed

and comprehension ability are not yet up to the expectation In this case, the students have

to work under the direction of their teachers

Apart from all above activities in a reading classroom, ESP students also have to become familiar with English used in their specialized field Having acquired Basic English in terms of grammar and having been familiar with reading activities, these students attend ESP reading classes with the hope to improve their reading skills in their specialized field Furthermore, in reading, the students would tackle texts which are full of terminologies that can be comprehensively understood only in combination with their available specialized knowledge ESP students in reading classes should have ability to combine their English competence with their specialized background knowledge Therefore, for vocational purposes, ESP students are in more requirements of not only English knowledge but also specialized knowledge of the field

1.2.3.3 ESP reading materials and their roles

Materials play an important role in exposing learners to the language, especially in

teaching and learning ESP ESP is designed to meet specific purpose of the learners Therefore, selecting reading materials is very important Selecting materials involves making choices and decisions To make good choices, we need to have good criteria on which to base the decisions These criteria such as factors about the learners, the role of materials, the topics, the language, the presentation have been put forwards for the analysis

of materials and each of them has validity A good ESP material must contain interesting texts and enjoyable activities which make students think, give them opportunities 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 students through various activities to maximize the chances of learning; create a balance outlook which both reflect the complexity of the task, yet make it appear manageable; introduce teachers to new techniques and provide models of correct and appropriate language use (Hutchinson and Waters; 1987:107)

1.3 ESP reading difficulties for foreign language learners

It is undeniable that reading in a foreign language is of great importance to personal development, professional success and academic studies However, reading in a language which is not the learners‟ first language is much more difficult The previous studies by

Jolly (1978), Coady (1979), Yorio (1971) and others indicate that problems in reading for

foreign learners may be either in learners‟ reading skills, language proficiency or cultural and background knowledge However, in this section I would like to focus on two main problems that foreign language learners often face with They are reading skill problems and language problems

1.3.1 Reading skill problems

According to Bernhard (1995:17), “reading performance in a second language is

largely shared with reading ability in a first language” Sharing the same opinion, Sarid

assumed that “the same reading strategies types accounted for success and failure in both

languages to almost the same extent”

From these above viewpoints, we can come to a conclusion that reading processes from the first language do appear to the foreign language It can be seen clearly that student‟s limited reading skills create many problems Frequently they read in a foreign language slower than in their first language Moreover, they do not know how to read in the appropriate ways They just look at every single word, read slowly from the beginning

to the end and consequently fail to grasp the general meaning of the passage Sometimes, they may encounter a lot of vocabularies, a long text or an unfamiliar topic, yet they can not concentrate well on the text and when they get to the last paragraph they may not recall what they have read in the first ones

It is common that there are new words, new structures, and ideas in a reading text to every language learner If learners do not know how to make use of grammatical, logical and cultural clues and have a guess or predicting ability, they will read the texts with less comprehension than he might expect And poor reading comprehension may result in disinterest in reading They may be trapped in a vicious circle:

Doesn‟t understand → read slowly

Doesn‟t read much ← doesn‟t enjoy reading

1.3.2 Language problems

In contrast, Yorio (1971:108) argues that reading problems of foreign language

learners are due largely to the imperfect knowledge of the target language and to mother tongue interference in the reading process In his view, reading involves four factors:

knowledge of the language, ability to predict or guess in order to make correct choice, ability to remember the previous cues, and ability to make the necessary associations between the different cues that have been selected Therefore, learners with limited knowledge of the target language might have considerable difficulty when reading in the target language This view is supported by other researchers (Alderson; 1984 and Clarke; 1980) They acknowledge that a lack of appropriate linguistic knowledge constrains the transfer of reading skills and strategies from L1 to L2

Dealing with a reading text, readers have to face various difficulties The first

problem is that the readers may have to work with unfamiliar and difficult topics These are called “text problems” The content of the text may be rather strange to the students and grammatical structures might be new Therefore, they can not understand it The readers will find the text very challenging and might not have any motivation left to keep

on reading

The second but not less important kind of problem is the “vocabulary problems”

As we know, grammatical knowledge accounts for a great deal of competence in reading However, knowledge of vocabulary is a great deal more important as a factor of reading comprehension than awareness of grammatical structures (O‟ Donnel, 1961:313-316) Readers encounter a lot of difficulties in dealing with proverbs, idioms, synonyms, antonyms, poly-semantic, and sub-technical vocabulary Metaphor, metonymy and other types of transference of meaning also cause great difficulty for readers

1.4 Summary

In short, this chapter provides a theoretical framework for the study First, it provides an overview on the nature of reading, in which the definitions of reading and reading comprehension as well as classification of reading according to the purpose of reading are discussed What is more, this chapter also discusses the definition of ESP, reading skills in ESP, factors in teaching and learning ESP reading, and ESP reading difficulties for foreign language learners

CHAPTER 2: AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE CURRENT SITUATION OF TEACHING AND LEARNING ENGLISH FOR COMPUTER SCIENCE AT VINH TECHNICAL TEACHERS’ TRAINING UNIVERSITY

This chapter will take a close look at the present situation of teaching and learning

English for CS at VTTTU The intention of this analysis is to achieve a better understanding of the proposed and actual problems affecting the efficiency of ESP teaching and learning, which in turn, will lay the foundation for a discussion of

methodology improvement and further recommendations in chapter 4

2.1 Introduction of the VTTTU

VTTTU has been in operation for 50 years Initially, it was only a Vocational

School Gradually, it was upgraded and became a Technical Teachers‟ Training College in

1996, and then a Technical Teachers‟ Training University in 2006 Now its duty is to train students to become upper- secondary school teachers in four major fields: Mechanical Engineering, Mechanical Dynamic Engineering, Electrical and Electronics Engineering and Information Technology

The students are provided a lot of general educational subjects and different specializations like other institutions, of which English has been regarded as a vital component in the program But in fact, the conditions for teaching and learning are not ideal due to the large class-size (usually more than 50 students in total and even more than

70 students), no language environment, out of date reference documents, lack of facilities for language learning and teaching such as videos, tape recorders, networked computers, multimedia labs, and so on

2.2 The teachers and their teaching methods

There are twelve teachers of English at VTTTU, aged from 28 to 40 Most of them

are M.A, The others are taking M.A course They have responsibility to teach both GE and ESP They are energetic and willing to devote their time and energy to teaching However, they are inexperienced in teaching ESP because none of them has been trained in teaching ESP and they have no specialized knowledge on the subject matter They are unexpectedly required to teach a subject which is new and unfamiliar with them Most of them have little chance to access to the latest alterations of language teaching methods So they have to face a lot of difficulties, of which the lack of the professional knowledge and the choice of appropriate teaching methodologies seem to be the major concerns

As far as the methodology is concerned, ESP teachers usually employ the traditional method of teaching in ESP reading lessons Classes are conducted in the forms of lectures Most of the time, the teachers play a key role in the lesson, being the main speakers working with the text The teachers often explain every word, new structure and even translate the text into Vietnamese Students are passive and only ask the teachers when they encounter difficult structures or words that they can not find in the dictionary And the success rests on how flexible and adaptable the individual teacher is to respond to the requirement of the new teaching situation

2.3 The students and their background

The age of the students varies from 18 to 25 They come from different geographical

places Most of them are from the rural or remote areas, where there are no good

opportunities for studying English They are varied in terms of English proficiency Most

of them started learning English from zero when they enrolled the university The others come from cities, who, theoretically, have all finished three or seven years of learning English at high schools before entering the college, but in fact, their levels are rather mixed Moreover, their length of English learning was different To some extent, there are some students whose English is very excellent, but generally the target students‟ English proficiency is still of low level

In fact, the students come to class with different English background and attitudes, motivation, learning style towards learning the language Therefore, 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 is that most of them do not have the habit of learning independently and tend to depend on the textbooks and the teachers for knowledge These provide the ESP teachers with the basic understanding of the subject of ESP

2.4 The teaching and learning English at VTTTU

Due to the particular tasks of our technical college, English at VTTTU is allowed to

be non- major and of course not the compulsory subject for entrance exam Like many other subjects, English is taught in a formal setting (classroom) without language environment and the students have to do two English courses: 120–period GE and 60-period ESP

Being responsible for teaching English for Computer Science (ECS) – a type of ESP

at VTTTU, we realize that teaching and learning ESP in general and ECS in particular is really an issue of immediate concern Problems in teaching and learning that arise as a block to teaching and learning quality There are some actual reasons for the problems Firstly, the teaching and learning are realized on no theoretical foundation, materials are subjectively selected by the teachers and then compiled into reading materials for students

As a result, different teachers have different self- developed lesson plans with focus on different language items such as vocabulary, tasks, structures, and skills Secondly, teachers do not have experience in teaching ECS, they lack both knowledge of its subject matter as well as English for Computer Science Furthermore, the evaluation is not based

on any rules, and instructional materials and testing tools are subjective As a result, despite all efforts made in terms of methodology and materials chosen, the students‟ reading competence remains unimproved Even worse, they seem to be unmotivated during the reading lessons

2.5 The present ESP syllabus and materials

As mentioned above, English is taught in two stages with different textbooks But

to the scope of the study, the syllabus used for the second stage is presented, that is

“English for Computer Science” It is designed and selected randomly by the teachers of English without any consideration basing on Needs Analysis and syllabus design theory The syllabus was designed concluding 12 units with the stated purposes of providing the students with an amounts of vocabulary relating to the computer science topics such as:

History of computer, characteristics and applications of computers, the CPU, memory, hardware and software, the operating systems, computer graphics and design, programs and programming languages, databases, data transmission, network, etc and training

reading skills which would be helpful for their future job It focuses on language skills such as reading, writing and translation The ESP syllabus put greater emphasis on content teaching- the knowledge of the specific area than the language skills The texts and the exercises are designed in the form of content-based syllabus than a task-based one The exercises after each text are often reading comprehension and grammar ones There is a list

of new words and their meanings in Vietnamese at the end of each unit

After some years teaching this material, the teachers continuously get feedback from the students and make suitable adaptation to improve the course book

CHAPTER 3: THE STUDY

This chapter deals with the research methodology that has been employed for the

achievement of the aims and objectives of the study Data was obtained by means of a survey questionnaire Besides the survey data, additional data was gathered by other instruments such as informal interview or discussion with teachers and students to provide more in-depth information

3.1 Research questions

As it has been stated, this study was carried out to find out the factors affecting reading comprehension of English for Computer Science of second year students at VTTTU Thus, it was designed in an attempt to seek answers to the following questions:

1 What are the factors affecting reading comprehension of English for Computer Science of the second year students at VTTTU?

2 What are the suggestions to help the students improve their ESP reading skills?

3.2 Participants

The participants of the study were 100 second – year students of Information

Technology Department at VTTTU who finished GE course last term and have just finished ESP course this term The reason for choosing the second year students is as follows: The students at this university only take the ESP course after finishing a 120-period GE course which was studied in the first year and half of the second year

The 100 students among those of Information Technology Department were selected

at random to participate in the research It was difficult to select a random sample of individuals since students had already been assigned to different classes In this case, cluster random sampling was more feasible, which means that instead of randomly selecting the individuals, the researcher randomly selected the group or classes for investigation (Fraenkel and Wallen, 1996) This approach is more appropriate and convenient for the researcher to observe the participants who filled in the questionnaire in classes Besides, 11 other teachers who were teaching English at the VTTTU were invited

to participate in the study for informal discussion

3.3 The data collection method

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 questionnaire with 12 questions was designed for IT students to identify their opinions on reading lessons, the factors affecting their comprehension in an English text for CS and to find out their expectation to achieve better reading competence To make sure that all the subjects understand the questions properly, the author asks them to answer the questions truthfully and trustworthily with the translation from English to Vietnamese The questionnaire is constructed based on the literature on factors in teaching and learning ESP reading, the researcher‟s observation of the students during some years of teaching at VTTTU as well as her discussions with the other 11 teachers of the University

The questionnaire consists of two main parts: Part 1 aimed to collect information about the students‟ background which included their place of domicile, the number of years they had been learning English and their proficiency levels in English measured by their average marks in English in the first three terms Part 2 aimed to collect information about the students‟ attitude towards reading ESP, the factors affecting their reading English for Computer Science and their expectation of the teachers‟ methodology and the reading materials The questionnaire was written in Vietnamese to ensure students‟ accurate understanding of all the questions before answering them (See Appendix 1)

3.4 The data collection procedure

To collect data for the study, 100 photocopied copies of the questionnaire were delivered to the students during the class time Before giving the questionnaire to the respondents, the researcher explained the purpose of the questionnaire, the requirement for the respondents and answered any questions asked by the respondents The respondents were also encouraged to ask if there was anything they did not understand in the questionnaire Then they were instructed to take as much time as they need to complete the

questionnaire

3.5 Data analysis

Data from the questionnaire was classified into different categories such as students‟

background, their attitudes towards ESP reading, their difficulties in the reading materials, the teachers and teaching methods and their expectation in terms of ESP materials and the teachers‟ methodology

Then the data was manually analyzed using descriptive statistics (percentage) and interpretations The information was then displayed in forms of tables and figures

3.5.1 Factors affecting reading English for Computer Science at VTTTU

3.5.1.1 The participants’ background

The participants involved in this research are 100 second- year students of Information Technology Department, who had fulfilled both of their General English course and the course of English for Computer Science Most of them are from the rural or

remote areas, where there are no good opportunities for studying English They are varied

in terms of English proficiency Most of them started learning English from zero when they enrolled the university

Figure : Students’ background

Duration of learning English

before entering college

The place the students live

Cities 18%

Countrysides 82%

Beginner 16%

3-4 years 54%

6-8years 30%

More than

10 years 0%

Students‟ level of General

English before participating

this ESP course

Results of General English course

Satisfactory 53%

Under satisfactory 31%

Good 11%

Excellent 5%

it did not bring about much effect Consequently, figures from the bar chart have shown that 31% of the students did not pass the final examination of the General English course And 69% of them were qualified enough for the requirement of the course, in which 53%

of them just passed at the level of satisfactory (they got from 5 to 6 marks), 11% got the good scores and 5% won the excellent marks The results of the study of the GE course reveals the fact that it is rather hard work for both of the students and the teachers to run the English course of Computer Science

3.5.1.2 Students’ attitudes towards ESP reading

Questions 1, 2, 3