Factors affecting second-year students’ reading comprehension in English for Tourism at State Commercial No5 School = Những yếu tố ảnh hưởng đến việc đọc hiểu t

The aims of this study are to identify the factors affecting second-year students' reading comprehension in English for Tourism at State Commercial No5 School SCS and suggest possible so

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

*********************

HÀ THỊ TÂN

FACTORS AFFECTING SECOND-YEAR STUDENTS’ READING COMPREHENSION IN ENGLISH FOR TOURISM AT STATE

COMMERCIAL No5 SCHOOL

Những yếu tố ảnh hưởng đến việc đọc hiểu tiếng Anh chuyên ngành du lịch của

học sinh năm thứ hai Trường trung cấp Thương Mại TW5

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY CODE: 60140111

Hanoi, 2014

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

*********************

HÀ THỊ TÂN

FACTORS AFFECTING SECOND-YEAR STUDENTS’ READING COMPREHENSION IN ENGLISH FOR TOURISM AT STATE

COMMERCIAL No5 SCHOOL

Những yếu tố ảnh hưởng đến việc đọc hiểu tiếng Anh chuyên ngành du lịch của

học sinh năm thứ hai Trường trung cấp Thương Mại TW5

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY CODE: 60140111

SUPERVISOR: NGUYỄN THỊ MINH TÂM, PhD

Hanoi, 2014

CANDIDATE’S STATEMENT

I hereby certify that the thesis entitled

Factors affecting second-year students' reading comprehension in

English for Tourism at State Commercial No5 School

is the result of my own research for the degree of Master of Arts at University of Languages and International Studies- VNU, and that this thesis has not been submitted for any degree at any other university or tertiary institution

Hanoi, 2014

Student‟s signature

Hà Thị Tân

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First of all I would like to express my sincere and deep gratitude to my supervisor, Dr Nguyễn Thị Minh Tâm for her wholehearted guidance, invaluable advice, constructive criticism and encouragement in the completion of my research work

I am grateful to all lecturers and the staff of the Faculty of Post-Graduate Studies at University of Languages and International Studies-VNU for their useful lectures and guidance during my study

My sincere thanks also go to my colleagues and students at State Commercial No5 School, who provided me with inspiration for the research topic and helped me with the research data

Last but not least, I would like to thank my family and dear friends for their support and encouragement

ABSTRACT

In learning English for General Purposes (EGP) in general and English for Specific Purposes (ESP) in particular, reading plays an important role In comparison with writing, speaking and listening, reading will be used most often in the students‟ future work, especially reading ESP However, learning reading is really the greatest challenge in learning a foreign language because learning reading involves a number of cognitive processes and it is affected by a number of factors The aims of this study are to identify the factors affecting second-year students' reading comprehension in English for Tourism at State Commercial No5 School (SCS) and suggest possible solutions to help students study ESP reading more effectively

The study was undertaken with 50 second-year students of Tourism and three ESP teachers at SCS The data show that the major factors affecting second-year students' reading comprehension in English for Tourism are reading skills, language, cultural background knowledge and reading habits and motivation Some solutions are suggested to deal with these factors including increasing students‟ interest and motivation in reading, training students to become readers with efficient reading skill, encouraging students to develop extensive reading habit and motivation, giving homework and checking the previous lessons frequently, improving teachers‟ professional knowledge, helping students to improve their cultural knowledge and developing the reading materials

It is hoped that the result of this study will help students and teachers at SCS learn and teach ESP reading in general, reading English for Tourism in particular more effectively

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

ESP: English for Specific Purposes

EGP: English for General Purposes

EFL: English as a Foreign Language

ELT: English Language Teaching

L1: First Language

L2: Second Language

SCS: State Commercial No5 School

LIST OF CHARTS &TABLES

Chart 1: Students‟ attitude towards ESP reading

Chart 2: Students‟ attitude towards the importance of the reading skill

Chart 3: Students‟ attitude towards the necessity of reading English for tourism for their future job

Table 1: Framework of factors that affect students‟ ESP reading

Table 2: Students‟ frequency of reading supplementary materials

Table 3&4: Students‟ evaluation of the texts in the current ESP reading material Table 5: Students‟ views of sources of difficulties in reading English for Tourism Table 6: Activities the teachers ask the students to do at pre-reading stages

Table 7: Activities the teachers ask the students to do at post-reading stages

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Candidate‟s statement i

Acknowledgements ii

Abstract .iii

List of abbreviations iv

Lists of Charts and Tables v

Table of contents vi

PART A: INTRODUCTION 1

1 Rationale 1

2 Aim of the study .2

3 .Research questions 2

4 Scope of the Study 2

5 Methods of the study 2

6 Organization of the study 3

PART B: DEVELOPMENT 4

Chapter I: LITERATURE REVIEW 4

1.1 Reading and reading comprehension 4

1.1.1 Definition of reading 4

1.1.2 Reading comprehension 5

1.2 ESP reading 6

1.2.1 Definition of ESP 6

1.2.2 Reading skills in ESP 7

1.3 Factors affecting students‟ reading comprehension in ESP 8

1.3.1 Reading skill factor 9

1.3.2 Language factor 9

1.3.3 Cultural background knowledge factor 10

1.3.4 Reading habit and motivation factor 11

1.4 Review of previous studies 13

1.5 Summary 14

CHAPTER II: METHODOLOGY 15

2.1 The context of the study 15

2.1.1 The teachers of English and their methods of teaching 15

2.1.2 The students and their background 15

2.1.3 The teaching materials 16

2.2 The study 16

2.2.1 Research questions 16

2.2.2 Data collection instruments and procedure 17

2.2.2.1 Questionnaires for students (a,b,c,d) 17

2.2.2.2 Interview questions for teachers (a,b,c,d) 18

CHAPTER III: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 20

3.1 Answers to research question 1 20

3.2 Answers to research question 2 24

3.2.1 To what extent does reading skill factor affect students‟ learning reading? 26

3.2.2 To what extent does language factor affect students‟ learning reading? 27

3.2.3 To what extent does cultural background knowledge factor affect students‟ learning reading? 28

3.2.4 To what extent does reading habit and motivation factor affect students‟ learning reading? 29

3.3 Suggestions for improving students‟ reading ability 29

3.3.1 Increasing students‟ interest and motivation in reading 31

3.3.2 Training students to become readers with efficient reading skill 31

3.3.3 Encouraging students to develop extensive reading habit 33

3.3.4 Giving homework and checking the previous lessons frequently 34

3.3.5 Improving teachers‟ professional knowledge 34

3.3.6 Helping students to improve their cultural knowledge 35

3.3.7 Developing the reading materials 35

PART C: CONCLUSION 36

1 Recapitulation 36

2 Pedagogical implication 37

3 Limitations of the study 37

4 Suggestions for further study 38

REFERENCES 39 APPENDICES

Appendix 1: Questionnaire for students (in English) I Questionnaire for students (in Vietnames) V Appendix 2: Interview questions for teachers VIII Appendix 3: Interview notes IX

PART A: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale

Learning English now is not only an interest but also a practical thing for many people Learning English means learning four related skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing In teaching and learning English as a foreign language in Vietnam, reading has always received a great deal of attention This is understandable because English is taught and learnt in non-English environment, so reading is not only the important means to get knowledge but also means of further study

From the early 1960‟s, English for Specific Purpose (ESP) has grown to become one of the most prominent areas of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teaching today Hutchinson and Waters (1987) defines ESP as an approach to language teaching in which all decisions as to content and method are based on the learner‟s reason for learning In ESP, it is a need analysis that determines which language skills are most needed by the students and the syllabus is designed accordingly During the last few decades, ESP has been developing vigorously for the reasons that there has been an increase in vocational training and learning throughout the world and the spread of globalisation has resulted in the increasing use of English as the language of international communication, more and more people are using English in a growing number of occupational contexts In teaching and learning English as a foreign language in Vietnam, ESP has recently received a great deal of attention

In the context of State Commercial No5 School (SCS), English is a compulsory subject to the students They have to learn ESP at the beginning of the second year With limited knowledge of vocabulary and English grammar, it is difficult for students to study ESP, especially ESP reading The students often complain that they do not know how to read the text effectively Despite the efforts

of the teachers, students‟ reading proficiency is still low With some years of experience in teaching ESP, the researcher recognizes that there are many factors

that effect the teaching and learning process such as inappropriate teaching methods and classroom techniques, inappropriate attitudes of teachers and the students towards the subject, inappropriate teaching materials

With an attempt to improve the students‟ reading proficiency, this study is aimed at finding out the factors that most affect second-year students for Tourism at SCS and the cause of those factors as the first step to the pedagogical solutions I believe that these solutions would be based on the understanding of what the students find most challenging to them while reading English texts and why they find it challenging

2 Aim of the study

The study is aimed at finding out the factors affecting second-year students' reading comprehension in English for Tourism at SCS Once these factors have been identified, solutions to help students study ESP reading more effectively will

be suggested

3 Research questions

The research is carried out with an attempt to find out answers to the following research questions:

1 What are the factors that affect second-year students' reading comprehension

in English for Tourism at SCS?

2 To what extent do those factors influence second-year students' reading comprehension in English for Tourism at SCS?

4 Scope of the study

Because of the limited time, the study merely focuses on ESP reading factors that effect students of tourism at SCS Then some solutions are made to improve the quality of teaching and learning ESP reading

5 Method of the study

In order to achieve the aims mentioned above, the major method used in the study is the qualitative Two data collecting instruments are survey questionnaire and interview The survey questionnaire with 10 questions (See Appendix 1) was

designed for tourism students to identify their opinions on reading lessons, the factors affecting their comprehension in an English text for Tourism and to find out

their expectation to achieve better reading competence The interviews with 9

questions (See Appendix 2) were conducted for data triangulation for the questionnaire and to seek for teachers‟ explanation about why and how, through their teaching methodology, the four factors: reading skill, language, cultural background, and reading habit and motivation can influence their students‟ learning

of reading

6 Organization of the study

The study is organized into three main parts:

Part I: Introduction presents the rationale for choosing the topic of the study, the aims, research questions, the methods, the scope and the organization of the study

Part II: Development includes three chapters:

- Chapter I: Theoretical background and Literature review

- Chapter II: Methodology

- Chapter III: Findings and Discussion

Part III: Conclusion gives a recapitulation of the study, pedagogical

implication, limitations and suggestions for further study

PART B: DEVERLOPMENT Chapter I: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 Reading and reading comprehension

1.1.1 Definition of reading

It is stated that reading is a kind of culture that people regardless of age, sex,

or class should learn and have Although no one can deny the high frequency of reading in daily life, many people do not fully understand thoroughly what reading

or reading comprehension There have been so many definitions of reading that they cause much confusion However, no single definition or explanation can live up to everyone‟s satisfaction

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” For Goodman, this act of reconstruction is considered as a cyclical process of sampling, predicting, testing, and confirming To make the matter simple and easy, from the motor-psychological perspective, Harmer (1989:153) considers reading as a mechanical process that

“eyes receive messages and the brain then has to identify the meanings of those messages” So the speed of reading depends much on the mechanical process of looking and perceiving and it is the reader who decides how fast he wants to read the text

From a cognitive perspective, Smith defines that “reading is to understand author‟s thought” (Smith, 1985:102) But the problem posed hereof is that how the reader understands the written texts because the meanings of a word depend on the context in which it appears The closer the reader shares the context with the author, the more he/she can understand what the author wants to say through the message This mostly depends on the reader‟s reading proficiency

It is clear that reading is defined from a variety of perspectives: psychological, motor-psychological, cognitive, and interactive Therefore, no

definition can possibly capture all the ideas and features of what reading is Each scholar‟s definition reflects what reading means as seen from his point of view However, what they all share is that they try to find out the nature of reading, and reading act, in which the readers, reading process and reading messages are emphasized

1.1.2 Reading comprehension

Reading comprehension plays a very important part in teaching and learning reading a language and a foreign language as well It can be seen as the ability to retain information of a written text to the fullest of the readers Grellet defines that

“reading comprehension or understanding a written text means extracting the

required information from it as effectively as possible” (Grellet, 1981:34) From this

point of view, Grellet focuses on readers‟ ability of understanding the meaning of a written text based on the individual‟s background knowledge Having the same point of view with Grellet, Swan states that “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” (Swan, 1975: 1) This

means that the student can show his understanding by re-expressing the content of the text in many ways such as summarizing the text, answering questions, etc

For a little more different definition of reading comprehension, Richards and Rodgers (1986) put their emphasis on the share of opinion between the author and the reader So according to them, “reading comprehension is best described as an understanding between the author and the reader” (Richards and Rodgers, 1986:7) This implies that during the reading process, readers on the way to discover what the author means and to build meaning for themselves at the same time in their own language, their thoughts, and their own view of the world based on their background knowledge It is very difficult, even impossible to understand the author‟s meaning

to the maximum if there is no interaction between the author and the reader about language and thoughts Consequently, the reader is as active in searching for meaning as is the writer in creating written language

To sum up, reading comprehension plays a very important role in teaching and learning a foreign language in general and teaching reading in particular However, the reasons for reading differ from one person to another As a result, the ways we read are also different In other words, the purposes of reading determine the ways or the styles of reading Now it is necessary to identify the factors involved in the reading comprehension to have a closer look at reading comprehension

1.2 ESP reading

1.2.1 Definition of ESP

What is ESP? This is a big and complicated question that requires much effort in seeing how ESP at the present relates to the rest of English Language Teaching (ELT) If we take a look at the tree of ELT (Hutchinson and Waters, 1987:17), it is clear that ESP is a big multi-levels branch of ELT being nourished by the learning and communication roots Hutchinson and Waters regards it as “an approach to language teaching in which all decisions as to content and method are based on the learners‟ reason for learning” (Hutchinson and Waters, 1987:17) ESP must be seen as an approach not as a product and is directed by specific and apparent reasons for learning ESP Students' goal of 1earning a second 1anguage might acquire not only general linguistics competencies but also academic and job-related skills

Strevens (1988:1), by contrast, states that “ESP is a particular case of the general category of special - purpose language teaching” In his work, he points out four following absolute characteristics of ESP:

+ ESP is designed to meet the learners‟ specified needs

+ ESP has the content relating to particular disciplines, occupations and activities + ESP is centered on language appropriate to those activities in syntax, lexis, discourse, semantics, and analysis of the discourse

+ ESP is in contrast with General English

In order to make the above mentioned absolute characteristics of ESP distinctive, other two variable characteristics are set up Firstly, ESP may be restricted to skills to be learnt (for example reading only) Secondly, ESP may not

be taught according to any pre-ordained methodology All of the characteristics of ESP make us come to an end that teaching and learning ESP is a challenging task for both teachers and students

Widdowson (1983:5) argues that the purpose for ESP and EGP is the same, but he clearly points out that what distinguishes ESP from EGP is “the way in which purpose is defined and the manner of its implementation” He further distinguishes the two by their differences in relation to education and training The design of ESP is based as precisely as possible on what learners need Courses are designed to provide learners with the restricted competence they need to cope with certain clearly specified set of tasks

From the above mentioned viewpoints, when dealing with ESP, it is necessary to identify two central areas in ESP which are content and methodology

In terms of content, it is important to concern about the scope of a particular course

in comparison with the totality of the language to make the ESP course balanced in content so that it is not either too narrow or broad In terms of methodology, ESP courses aim to develop linguistic skills relating to particular spheres of activity, not only the nature of the linguistic items introduced, but the ways in which they are introduced and how they are practised So it is also crucially important for teachers

to apply good methods in ESP classes because good methods decide most of the success of the classroom

1.2.2 Reading skills in ESP

According to Hutchinson and Waters (1987:17), ESP “is an approach to language teaching in which all decisions as to content and method are based on the leaner‟s reason for learning” An ESP course therefore should differ from an EGP course in its selection of skills and themes, topics, situations and functions What is more, all courses have purposes and aims to achieve All courses should be based

on an analysis of the students‟ needs and meet students‟ needs ESP reading normally receives more attention

There is another significant contribution to teaching reading on ESP courses: the recognition that good reading requires language and skills, which has been shown by many researchers (Alderson, 1984) Learners need to reach a threshold level of language knowledge before they are able to transfer any L1 skills to their L2 reading tasks Therefore, the reading component of an ESP course requires a balance between skills and language development Dudley-Evans and St.John (1998: 134) 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

1.3 Factors affecting students’ reading comprehension in ESP

Reading in a foreign language is important to personal development, professional success and academic studies However, in learning reading especially

in ESP reading, there are many factors affecting reading success such as reader‟s reading habits, attitude, motivation, exposure to the target language, textual characteristics, the way reading is taught and the teacher‟s classroom techniques or learning environment, etc In this study, I base myself on the previous studies by

Jolly (1978), Coady (1979), Yorio (1971) and others indicate that factors effecting foreign language reading may lie either on learners‟ reading skills, language proficiency , cultural and background knowledge or reading habit and motivation.

1.3.1 Reading skill factor

According to Jolly (1978), one‟s first language reading ability plays a more important role in reading success than his level of the target language does because foreign language reading requires the transference of old skills, not the learning of new ones This view is shared by Coady (1979) who confirms that foreign language reading is a reading skill problem, not a language problem

Bernhard (1995:17) states “reading performance in a second language is largely shared with reading ability in a first language” Sharing this opinion, Sarid assumed that “the same reading strategies types accounted for success and failure in both languages to almost the same extent”

It can be seen clearly that student‟s limited reading skills create many problems Frequently they read text in a foreign language at a slower speed 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 unfamiliar 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 be able to recall what they have read in the first ones

1.3.2 Language factor

Yorio (1971) argues that reading problems of foreign language learners are

largely due to the knowledge of the target language and the mother tongue interference in the reading process In his opinion, reading involves four factors: knowledge of the language, ability to guess so as to make the correct choice, ability

to remember the previous cues, and ability to make necessary association between the different cues that have been selected Therefore, learners with limited knowledge of the target language may face with considerable difficulties 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

Besides, readers have to face various difficulties The first and the foremost problem is that they may have to work with unfamiliar and difficult topics These are called “text problems” The content of the text might be rather strange to the students and the 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 L2 readers may have difficulty adjusting their reading strategies to match the author‟s intent or purpose They may not be familiar with a particular story “grammar” or the organizational patterns of informational text They may not be familiar with specific genre and the literary devises used in text

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

problems” As everyone knows, grammatical knowledge accounts for a great deal of

competence in reading However, knowledge of vocabulary is a great deal more important as a factor to reading comprehension than awareness of grammatical structures (O‟Donnel, 1961: 313-316) L2 readers may lack knowledge of English grammar and syntax and, therefore, may read word by word They may encounter too much unfamiliar vocabulary which hinder their grasp of the overall concept conveyed in the sentence They are also challenged when reading idiomatic

expressions and unfamiliar grammatical constructions

1.3.3 Cultural background knowledge factor

Several studies on reading skills indicate that apart from language problems and reading skill problems, cultural knowledge can also affect students‟ reading ability

Strang (1972) states that readers will have different levels of comprehension

of the same text because they start off from different positions They interpret texts differently because of the differences in the high-level cultural schemata that were activated

Many studies including Steffensen et al (1979) and Carrell (1981) have demonstrated the effect of cultural knowledge on the product of comprehension Appealing to the processes of distortion and elaboration to account for the differences between a recall of text and the original text Readers facing with unfamiliar cultural contents may mistranslate or misinterpret the text according to their own cultural experiences Reading comprehension is a function of cultural background knowledge If readers possess the schemata assumed by the writer, they understand what is stated and effortlessly make the inferences intended As Hudson (1982:9) states: “the reading problems of the L2 readers are not due to an absence of attempts at fitting and providing specific schemata Rather, problem lies in projecting appropriate schemata”

To conclude, in most cases, reading and understanding a text is often a challenging task for a reader during a reading process if he/she does not have full background knowledge of the subject matter, his/her low reading speed is low to keep pace with other better students‟, the topics are unfamiliar, and he has not enough reading strategies in hand, etc All of those difficulties prevent him/her from understanding to the fullest the writer‟s purposes and ideas and lead to decrease in reading motivation So it is necessary to create learners‟ interest, enhance their motivation in teaching reading

1.3.4 Reading habit and motivation factor

Motivation plays a crucial role not only in second language learning but also

in reading comprehension Reading behaviors are influenced by motivation across cultures and languages It is said that readers‟ motivation has an effect not only on the result of comprehension but also upon the process of understanding If the readers have no interest in the text, it means that they do not want to read than the

reading activity will become a pressure to themselves and even the reading process may not happen at all

In the case readers are motivated to read, they will start reading the texts to satisfy their desire, to find a number of questions and specific information or ideas they are interested in A great deal of conducted studies on the motivation of second language readers have shown that poor readers usually lack motivation to read and make efforts to improve their reading competence This is, of course, the effect of poor reading as the cause of it

It is suggested that learners should be encouraged to choose the topics they wish to read as well as to have enough time getting ready before starting reading

To put it bluntly, the teachers should arouse learners‟ interest and curiosity in the text, encourage their prediction and stimulate them when dealing with reading activities In other words, “it is an important part of a reading teacher‟s job to motivate learners” (Girard, 1997:120)

In sum, four factors that possibly affect students in their ESP reading are: Reading skill factor, Language factor, Cultural background knowledge factor and Habit and motivation factor

Factors Brief description

1 Reading skill Student‟s limited reading skills result in many problems

Frequently they read text in a foreign language at a slower speed 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

2 Language Reading problems of foreign language learners are largely

due to the knowledge of the target language and the mother tongue interference in the reading process Learners with limited knowledge of the target language may face with

considerable difficulties when reading in the target language

4 Reading habit

and motivation

Readers‟ motivation has an effect not only on the result of comprehension but also upon the process of understanding If the readers have no interest in the text, it means that they do not want to read than the reading activity will become a pressure to themselves and even the reading process may not happen at all

Table 1: Framework of factors that affect students’ ESP reading

In the methodology presented in chapter 2, the researcher, accordingly, bases

herself on the framework above to explore which factors affect students‟ reading at

SCS and to what extent do these factors affect second-year students' reading

comprehension in English for Tourism at SCS

1.4 Review of previous studies

A lot of studies have been carried out in order to explore students‟

difficulties in reading and the factors affecting students‟ learning of reading

English

In the unpublished thesis of Đinh Thị Thu named “Factors affecting reading

comprehension of English for Computer Science of the second year students at

Vinh Technical Teachers‟ Training University” (2010) is mentioned that there are

four factors affecting reading English for Computer Science at VTTTU They are:

participants‟ background, students‟ attitudes towards ESP reading, reading

materials and the teachers and teaching method She gave some recommendations

to improve the quality of teaching and learning to read English for Computer Science at VTTTU However, she only uses questionnaires as a data collection instrument which is not enough to achieve objective results of the study

In Nguyễn Thị Nga‟s thesis named “An Investigation on the difficulties of learning reading English for ESP of students of Finance and Banking at HUI in Nghe An branch” (2011) It is mentioned that improving reading skill in Finance and Banking by working out some problems which may negatively have influence

on students‟ learning reading English for Finance and Banking and then suggest some possible solutions to over come those problems

The thesis of Đinh Thị Tuyết Thoa named “Difficulties in reading English for Finance of the second year students of Accounting Department at Ha Noi Vocational Training College for Electro-Mechanics” aims at investigating the difficulties in reading English for Finance of the second year students of Accounting Department at Ha Noi Vocational Training College for Electro-Mechanics The results of the study has shown that the second year students often have difficulties with vocabulary, grammar, reading skills and cultural background knowledge when learning reading English for Finance

As mentioned above, there are many studies that have been carried out in this field; however; none of them has been implemented with students for tourism This fact establishes a research gap for my present study with the desire to explore the factors that most affect second-year students‟ reading comprehension in English for Tourism at SCS

1.5 Summary

In this chapter, the relevant literature which has helped to form the theoretical and conceptual framework for the present study is presented First, this chapter provides an overview on the nature of reading, in which the definitions of reading and reading comprehension Then, the definitions of ESP, reading skills in ESP and ESP reading materials are also addressed in this part What is more, this chapter also discusses the factors affecting students‟ reading comprehension in ESP

CHAPTER II: METHODOLOGY 2.1 The context of the study

2.1.1 The teachers of English and their methods of teaching

The English teaching staff at SCS consists of 4 official teachers at the ages from 30 to 44 All of them are female and they graduated from different universities

in Vietnam One of them learned French before being re-trained to teach English and two of them have obtained MA degrees The number of teachers is limited so all of these teachers are responsible for teaching both EGP and ESP but they are not trained in doing that difficult task That leads to many difficulties for them to encounter when performing their roles in ESP classrooms As a result, they do not feel self-confident enough to teach ESP in spite of their positive attitudes to it

It is usual that ESP teachers at SCS attach themselves to the traditional methods of teaching such as the Grammar-Translation method, especially in ESP reading lessons This method focuses on accuracy, the detailed analysis of grammar rules, not on the acquisition of language skills It is characterized by the use of mother tongue as a medium of instruction and communication in the classroom By using this method, it is the teacher to be the center in the classroom speaking most

of time, explaining new terminologies and translating the text into Vietnamese Students often listen and take notes passively Questions are rarely raised in the class By raising students‟ awareness of reading as a skill that requires active engagement, and by explicitly teaching reading strategies, teachers help students develop both the ability and the confidence to handle communication situations they may encounter beyond the classroom In this way students can improve their reading ability and enrich their knowledge and communicative competence in the target language

2.1.2 The students and their background

The students of English at SCS are aged from 18 to 38 or over The majority

of students are female students They come from different provinces, towns and cities in the North of Vietnam Most of them come from the countryside, where

there are no good opportunities for learning English Some of them come from towns or cities and have finished three years or seven years of learning English In fact, most of these students commonly did not spend much time learning English at high school Thus, they are real beginners of English when coming into the school, and of different English proficiency levels But they have to learn ESP at the beginning of the second year after taking 90 periods of EGP It is, therefore, difficult for them to learn ESP, especially ESP reading It can not be denied that students at SCS are very passive They are always afraid of making mistakes In class, students listen to the teacher, take notes and rarely ask questions related to the subject matter and their questions about new words and grammar is asked in Vietnamese The students are dependent too much on the teachers and the textbooks They are lazy or passive in exploiting other resources

2.1.3 The teaching materials

The textbook “English for International Tourism” Pre-intermediate (by

Iwonna Dubika & Margaret O‟Keeffe (2010), Longman) has been used as the only textbook to teach the students of tourism in 150 periods This material is divided into 15 units and designed to provide lots of tips and guidance to help students develop the essential reading skills to work in tourism Each unit provides students with opportunities to learn and develop their knowledge in categories of grammar, vocabulary, communication skills, and pronunciation through practice activities of listening, speaking, reading, and writing The textbook puts greater emphasis on content teaching - the knowledge of the specific areas rather than the language skills However, for most of the students learning this material, reading is the most challenging task

2.2 The study

2.2.1 Research questions

As stated, this study was carried out to find out the factors affecting year students' reading comprehension in English for Tourism at SCS Thus, it was designed in an attempt to seek the answers to the following questions:

1 What are the factors that affect second-year students' reading comprehension

in English for Tourism at SCS?

2 To what extent do those factors influence second-year students' reading comprehension in English for Tourism at SCS?

2.2.2 Data collecting instruments and procedure

2.2.2.1 Questionnaires for students

a Purpose

To reach the primary aim of the study, a survey questionnaire has been chosen

as the instrument for data collection One survey questionnaire with 10 questions (See Appendix 1) was designed for tourism students to identify their opinions on reading lessons, the factors affecting their comprehension in an English text for

Tourism and to find out their expectation to achieve better reading competence

b Structure

The questionnaire was written in Vietnamese to ensure students‟ accurate understanding of all questions before answering them

The questionnaire consists of three parts:

(i) - From question 1 to 6: these questions explore the factors that affect students‟ reading and the extent of their influence

- Question 1 to 4 aim to seek for the influence of the reading habit and motivation factor on students‟ reading skill learning

- Question 5 aims to seek for the information about the extent to which the language

factor influences students learning of reading skill through the course book text

- Question 6, through the 10 given options, allows students to evaluate the extent to which the four factors: language factor (a,b,c,d,e), reading skill factor (f,g), cultural background factor (i) and reading habit and motivation factor (h) affect their learning of reading skill

(ii) Question 7 and 8 enable students to evaluate the extent to which their teachers let the four factors influence their learning of reading skills

(iii) Question 9 and 10 explore students‟ expectation of how they should be facilitated and motivated in reading class

c Participants

The participants of the questionnaire were 50 second-year-students of Tourism Department at the SCS Their age varied from 18 to 23, both male and female (mainly female) so they belonged to the same psychological age group However, their length of English learning at school (before entering our school) was different The reason for choosing the second year students is as follows: the students at SCS only take the ESP course after finishing a 90-period EGP course which was studied in the first year The 50 students were selected at random to participate in the research

d Data collecting procedure and presentation of data

To collect data for the study, 50 hard 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 Data from the questionnaire were classified into different categories such as students‟ attitudes towards reading English for Tourism, their difficulties in reading in the areas of vocabulary, reading skills, cultural background, and reading habits and motivation, the causes of their reading problems and their expectations of the teachers‟ methodology Because the number of respondents is small, the data is manually analyzed using descriptive statistics (percentage) and interpretations The information was then displayed in forms of charts and tables

2.2.2.2 Interview questions for teachers

a Purpose

The interviews with 9 questions (See Appendix 2) were conducted for data

triangulation for the questionnaire and to seek for teachers‟ explanation about why and how, through their teaching methodology, the four factors: reading skill, language, cultural background, and reading habit and motivation can influence their students‟ learning of reading The interviews also seek the information about the difficulties teachers are facing in teaching reading, and their suggestions to improve their students‟ learning in reading

b Structure

(i) From question 1 to 6: these questions explore the extent to which the four factors (reading skill, language, cultural background and reading habit and motivation) affect students learning

(ii) Question 7 seeks for information about the difficulties teachers have when letting four factors affect their students learning

(iii) Question 8 and 9 seek for information about teachers‟ suggestions about how to exploit the best the four factors positively affect their students‟ learning of reading skill

c Participants

The participants of this study were 3 teachers of English at SCS The reason for choosing them is that two of them are holding MA degree; one is going to finish the MA course on English linguistics soon and they all have over five-year experience in teaching English for Tourism These teacher are assumed to have good experience in teaching and good understanding of teaching methodology, thus the data from the interviews with them are expected to be more informative and useful

d Data collecting procedure and presentation of data

The interviews between the researcher and 3 teachers were conducted during short breaks or after lessons focusing on their teaching methods, comments on teaching difficulties for Tourism and their solutions The interview data were presented as field notes

CHAPTER III: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 3.1 Answers to research question 1

From the data collected, it can be seen that all the factors reading skill, language, cultural background, and reading habits and motivation are found to affect students‟ learning reading These factors can be seen from the questionnaire and data interview

- Question 1 to 4 of the questionnaire explore students‟ habit and motivation We can see clearly in the data collected below

Chart 1(question 1)

(Please refer to question 1 in appendix 1)

According to the result in Chart 1, it can be seen that not all the students like learning English for Tourism and have positive attitude towards it Therefore, 48%

of the students like learning English for Tourism much, 22% of them like it very much and 26% of the students don‟t like it much and only 4% don‟t like it at all Chart 2

Very important Important Not very important Unimportant

(Please refer to question 2 in appendix 1)

As we can see clearly from the chart 2, the participants considered reading an important skill in learning English for Tourism (74% including 28%-very important and 46%-important), whereas only 22% did not find reading skill important and 4% chose an “unimportant answer”

Chart 3 (question 3)

(Please refer to question 3 in appendix 1)

It can be seen that most of the students considered reading English for Tourism necessary for their job (70%) Only 22% saw that for their future job, it was not very necessary to learn reading English for Tourism and 8% chose an unnecessary for their future job

Table 2 (question 4)

Scale rating

Question

Percentage of responses (%)

usually sometimes rarely never

4 How often do you read