Problems and solutions in teaching and learning medical vocabulary at Thanhhoa Medical College

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES NGUYỄN THỊ THU THUỶ PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS IN TEACHING AND LEARNING MEDICAL VOCABULARY AT THANHHOA MEDICAL COLLEGE (Thực trạng giải pháp việc dạy học từ vựng chuyên ngành y trường Cao Đẳng Y tế Thanh Hoá) M.A MINOR THESIS Field: English Methodology Code: 60 14 10 Course: K17 Supervisor: Kim Văn Tất Hanoi, 2010 vi TABLE OF CONTENT Declaration…………………………………………………………………………… i Acknowledgement…………………………………………………………………… ii Abstract……………………………………………………………………………… iii List of abbreviations………………………………………………………………… iv List of figures and tables…………………………………………………………… v Table of content……………………………………………………………………… vi PART A: INTRODUCTION……………………………………………………… 1 Rationale……………………………………………………………… Aims of the study……………………………………………………… Research questions……………………………………………………… Scope of the study……………………………………………………… Method of the study…………………………………………………… Design of the study…………………………………………………… PART B: DEVELOPMENT……………………………………………………… CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW………………………………………… 1.1 General knowledge of English for Medical Purposes (EMP)……………… 1.1.1 ESP vs EMP…………………………………………………………… 1.1.2 Medical English……………………………………………………… 1.1.3 Medical English courses……………………………………………… 1.1.4 Subject knowledge…………………………………………………… 1.2 Vocabulary teaching and learning in EMP………………………………… 1.2.1 Vocabulary and its role in language teaching and learning…………… 1.2.2 Techniques in presenting new vocabulary…………………………… 1.2.3 Vocabulary practice…………………………………………………… 1.2.4 Vocabulary Consolidation……………………………………………… 1.2.5 EMP vocabulary practice and consolidation…………………………… 1.2.6 Difficulties in teaching and learning vocabulary……………………… CHAPTER 2: CONTEXT OF THE STUDY…………………………………… 2.1 The general review of the teaching and learning EMP at TMC…………… 2.1.1 Teachers……………………………………………………………… 2.1.2 Students………………………………………………………………… 2.1.3 Facilities……………………………………………………………… vii 2.2 Research Methodology………………………………………………………… 2.2.1 Respondents…………………………………………………………… 2.2.2 Research Instrument…………………………………………………… 2.2.3 Data collection………………………………………………………… 2.2.4 Data analysis…………………………………………………………… CHAPTER 3: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION…………………………………… 3.1 Results…………………………………………………………………………… 3.1.1 Questionnaire for students…………………………………………… 3.1.2 Interview for teachers………………………………………………… 3.2 Discussion……………………………………………………………………… 3.2.1 Contextual problems…………………………………………………… 3.2.1.1 Large and heterogeneous class……………………………………… 3.2.1.2 Poor facilities………………………………………………………… 3.2.2 Students’ problems…………………………………………………… 3.2.3 Teachers’ problems…………………………………………………… CHAPTER 4: SOLUTIONS……………………………………………………… 4.1 Towards the contextual problems…………………………………………… 4.1.1 Poor facilities………………………………………………………… 4.1.2 Large and heterogeneous class………………………………………… 4.2 Towards the students…………………………………………………………… 4.3 Towards the teachers…………………………………………………………… 4.3.1 Teaching vocabulary in context……………………………………… 4.3.2 Making use of visual aids……………………………………………… 4.3.2.1 Pictures……………………………………………………………… 4.3.2.2 Objects……………………………………………………………… 4.3.3 Teaching word parts…………………………………………………… 4.3.4 Consolidating vocabulary……………………………………………… PART C: CONCLUSION………………………………………………………… Summary of the study…………………………………………………… 2 Limitations of the study………………………………………………… Suggestions for further studies…………………………………………… Reference Appendix iv LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS EGP: English for General Purpose ESP: English for Specific Purposes EMP: English for Medical Purpose TMC: Thanhhoa Medical College v LIST OF FIGURES & TABLES Table 1: Students’ length of English learning Figure 1: Ways of learning vocabulary Figure 2: Students’ management when they meet a new word Figure 3: Problems influenced on students’ motivation and interest Figure 4: Student’s problems when learning vocabulary Table 2: Ways of presenting new words Figure 5: Student’s interest in ways of presenting new words Figure 6: Ways of practicing new words Figure 7: Students’ interest in ways of practicing new words Figure 8: students’ interest in ways of consolidating new words PART A: INTRODUCTION Rationale One of the main concerns for those of us working in an ESP context is how to help our students deal with (i.e understand, extract information, assimilate, evaluate, summarize) authentic academic texts which by their nature require a fairly advanced level of proficiency in order to be understood By ‗advanced level of proficiency‘ it is meant, in fact, a good vocabulary size, because although it‘s possible to find examples in texts (especially scientific or technical texts) where grammatical structure is crucial to understanding the subtle nuances of meaning, what seems more important for comprehension is knowing what the words mean (Coady, 1993; Grabe and Stoller ,1997) As Vermeer (1992: 147) puts it: ―Knowing words is the key to understanding and being understood‖ Vocabulary is like the base of a high building Without it, nothing can be built Teachers who have been teaching English in general and English for Specific Purposes in particular must know that at the beginning or in the end, vocabulary is always one of the biggest problems The English for Medical purposes (EMP) field is no exception Medical language is a special language It is made up of vast pool of words and terms that is employed by doctors and nurses in writing medical records and communicating with each other Questions are increasingly being asked about the role played by the specialized vocabulary needed for academic study At ThanhHoa Medical College, teaching and learning medical vocabulary are a really challenging job Medical vocabulary has long been considered a difficult and boring subject by many ESP students at the college It takes much time and energy to make progress in this field For ESP teachers, correspondingly, it is difficult task to get students involved in vocabulary explanation even they devoted much time to vocabulary teaching, the results have been disappointing The question posed for ESP teachers now is how to meet the needs of learners of ESP, especially the needs of improving their vocabulary acquisition for communication Facing this situation, the teachers of English of ThanhHoa Medical College want to something new to help students develop vocabulary acquisition Being one of the teachers there, I would like to a study to find out an effective way to claim a more satisfactory standing for medical vocabulary for the second-year students at ThanhHoa Medical College, as a result, the minor thesis title goes as: “Problems and solutions in teaching and learning medial vocabulary at Thanhhoa Medical College” Aims of the study Medical Vocabulary consists of so many new words and terms that medical students often have difficult time learning and understanding them The main purpose of the study was to probe problems in teaching and learning medical vocabulary among the teaching staff and the second-year students at ThanhHoa Medical College Within this purpose the three central objectives were: i) To give a brief overview about teaching and learning medical vocabulary at ThanhHoa Medical College ii) To describe the difficulties perceived by the ESP teachers and second-year students when learning and teaching medical vocabulary iii) To suggest some solutions to stimulate students and give recommendation for the teachers to improve the teaching of ESP vocabulary at ThanhHoa Medical College Research questions To achieve these above aims, the following questions were proposed: What are the difficulties perceived by the ESP teachers and second-year students when learning and teaching medical vocabulary? What solutions should be offered to stimulate students and give recommendation for the teachers to improve the teaching of ESP vocabulary at Thanhhoa Medical College? Scope of the study This minor thesis is conducted at Thanhhoa Medical College in order to perceive difficulties in teaching and learning medical vocabulary of both teachers and second-year students The study focuses on describing the problems and factors causing such challenges as, large-size class, facilities, materials, and students‘ vocabulary acquisition The researcher would like to offer some appropriate suggestions to better the current context Method of the study The study was designed to use a combination of various methods to achieve its aims and objectives To begin with, an extensive review of literature was conducted, critically examining vocabulary‘s role in ESP teaching and learning Various sources of data were used, involving second-year students and teachers of ESP at ThanhHoa Medical College in order to achieve the aims of the study:  Conducting a survey questionnaire to investigate students‘ evaluative comments on and attitudes towards teaching and learning medical vocabulary at Thanhhoa Medical College  Interviewing ESP teachers to get better insight into the research questions Design of the study The thesis consists of three main parts The first part introduces the rationale for the study carried out by the researcher, the aims of the study, the research questions, the scope of the study, and the method by which the study was conducted The second part developed in four chapters The first chapter reviews relevant literature concerning the general knowledge of English for Medical Purposes and the vocabulary teaching and learning The second chapter discusses the context and methodology of the study The results and discussion of the survey are presented in the third chapter, followed by the solutions in the fourth, which are expected to improve the second year students‘ medical vocabulary learning and the teachers‘ medical vocabulary teaching in TMC context The conclusion serves as a summary of the major issues involved and discusses the implications of the study, limitations of the study and suggestion for further research PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 General knowledge of English for Medical Purposes (EMP) 1.1.1 ESP vs EMP To talk about Problems in teaching and learning medical vocabulary (EMP vocabulary), we need to begin with the definition of ESP or EMP Pauline Robinson (1980) states that the term of ESP itself has changed its signification during the past years Formerly standing for English for special purposes, the term now used by ―an increasing number of scholars, practitioners and institutions‖ is English for specific purposes English for special purposes is thought to suggest special languages, i.e restricted languages, which for many people is only a small part of ESP whereas English for specific purpose focuses on the purpose of the learner and refers to the whole range of language resources Ronald Mackay (1976) states that ESP is generally used to refer to the teaching/learning of a foreign language for a clearly utilitarian purpose of which there is no doubt Brumfit (1979) says, ―First, it is clear that an ESP course is directly concerned with purposes for which learners need English, purposes which are usually expressed in functional terms‖ ―ESP thus fits firmly within the general movement towards ―communicative‖ teaching of the last decades or so Krashen (1982) identified what he calls a ―transition problem,‖ which he refers to a perceived gap in the English language and study of learners who have passed through traditional language classes, and those required for study purposes within universities He agues that subject content-based courses can impart both subject knowledge and language competence at the same time What he identified was actually what ESP is concerned with According to Perren (1974), an ESP course is purposeful and aims at the successful performance of occupational or educational roles It is based on a rigorous analysis of students‘ needs and should be ―tailor-made.‖ Any ESP course may differ from another in its selection of skills, topics, situations and functions, and also language It is likely to be limited duration Students are more often adults but not necessarily so, and may be at any level of competence in the language: beginner, post-beginner, intermediate, ect…Student, may take part in their ESP course before embarking on their occupational or educational role, or they may combine their study of English with performance of their role in English as well as in their first language According to this definition, EMP is a kind of ESP We notice that attention to learners‘ needs is a key element in any definitions of ESP Therefore, EMP is intended to help the medical student who is planning to study medicine in English It is assumed that he will have some knowledge of general English but limited experience of studying works in medical English 1.1.2 Medical English English for Medical Purposes (EMP) is one of the genres in English for Specific Purposes (ESP) Class subjects in ESP have been getting widespread among Vietnamese university ESP has been trying to attain its popularity since the 1990s among Vietnamese university in the growing necessities in ESP genres such as English for economics, business, English for law, and English for Science and Technology (EST) However, class subjects in EMP are still small in number in Vietnam compared to other ESP genres despite the strong need of EMP Medical language is a special language It is made up of vast pool of words and terms that is employed by doctors and nurses in writing medical records and communicating with each other In fact medical students and nursing students have various reasons for learning medical English (Kawagoe, 2009) Doctors need to learn to read and write medical terminology in L2 to complete hospital admission notes, diagnosis, and orders, which, later on, nurses must read, follow in order to carry out nursing interventions and take care of their patients For these medical and nursing professionals, their first step to access medical language is to learn medical words Besides, They also need to read journals and books in medical genres to speak to colleagues on professional visits, to make use of the expanding and increasingly important database available through the Internet, to participate in international conferences, to write up research for journal publication, to take postgraduate courses in the U.S or in U.K to work in hospitals where English is the first language or the lingua franca 1.1.3 Medical English courses According to Higuchi Akihiko (2009) EMP is different from English for General Purposes (EGP) in the selection of language that is to be taught There is an overlap with EGP course content (a common core), especially in grammar EGP teachers who start teaching EMP have to learn how to deal with the new are not included in the common core – most noticeably vocabulary They also have to get to know the classis ―genre‖ or text types so that language work can be appropriately contextualized However, depending on the type of learner, EMP courses also differ from EGP courses in that they may focus on specific skills: e.g interviewing patients, or reading for 34 and asks the students to repeat after the teacher Then the teacher asks the students to say the words by themselves when the teacher points to each part of the body 4.3.2.2 Objects Many English words can be introduced by using the real objects The reason is that the meaning can clearly and quickly be presented Students can see the objects while they are learning the foreign names for them If the teacher plans to teach the words about medical tools, he or she could bring to class: Band-Aid, capsule, thermometer, model of stretcher, wheelchair, ambulance, crutches, xray, and stethoscope: Teaching procedure: Presentation stage: -Teacher starts the lesson by showing medical tools then the teacher tells students the name of each tool Teacher: It‘s a thermometer It‘s a syringe It‘s a Band-Aid, ect -After that the teacher asks the students to repeat the names of the each tool after the teacher Then the teacher asks the students to say the words by themselves when the teacher holds up the medical tools one by one Practice stage:  The Teacher divides the students into groups of ten, each with a group leader  The teacher distributes pictures of medical tools to each group as follows: 35  The teacher asks the students to work in groups: a group leader asks questions about objects in the picture and the other members answer For example: A group leader points to an object and asks: ―What is it?‖ Student A: It‘s a thermometer The students should the same until they finish all the objects in the picture While students are doing their work, the teacher goes around and helps them 4.3.4 Teaching word parts An important goal of teaching medical vocabulary is to teach the tools of word analysis that will enable understanding of complex terminology - First, we help students analyze words by dividing them into component parts Our goal is to help them learn the tools of word analysis that will make the understanding of the complex terminology easier They are constructed of small pieces that make each word unique, but the pieces can be used in different combinations in other words as well As the student become familiar with the words and learn what each means, they will be able to recognize those word parts in totally new combinations in other term medical language is logical in that most terms, whether complex or simple, can be broken into basic parts and then understood At the beginning, some ordinary English words with which students are quite familiar can be showed to help students understand the magical effect of the word building For example for the word ―psychology‖ we can divide it as follows: Psych /o/ logy: The root psych-mean of mind The suffix- logy means study of So the entire term means study of the mind 36 -And then we show some medical words to illustrate the same rules Hemat /o/ logy: The root hemat- means blood The suffix –logy means study of It is useful to read the meaning of medical terms starting from the suffix back to the beginning of the term Thus, the term hematology means study of blood 4.3.4 Consolidating vocabulary For many students, perhaps it is more difficult to consolidate and remember vocabulary than to learn vocabulary for the first time We often hear students complain that they keep learning and forgetting Some people say that vocabulary cannot be taught, it can only be learnt by the students It is not true When students learn vocabulary by themselves, usually the effectiveness is not satisfactory The students can remember the spelling of words, but cannot know the usage appropriately When students learn vocabulary together, through different kinds of activities and under the teacher's supervision, vocabulary acquisition becomes more fun and effective Hence, the students need more important support and more varieties of activities to help them consolidate the words There are some kinds of exercises for consolidating vocabulary: Example 1: Using internet exercise (www.ebookee.com/Check-Your-English-Vocabularyfor-Medicine_645083.html -) Besides the exercises the teachers have often used It is recommended that they can use the exercise in this website to consolidate vocabulary relating to word-building (page 1-9), parts of speech (page 10-20), pronunciation of medical vocabulary (page 21-24), and vocabulary in context (page 25-36), puzzle and quizzes (27-49) Example 2: Semantic mapping  Activity 1: Brainstorming The teacher writes the key word ―anatomy‖ in the middle of the board and asks students to give the related words to ―anatomy‖ The teacher draws the arrow around the word ―anatomy‖ and writes the words the students just say The semantic map will look like as follow: ANATOMY 37 Possible keys: ear; 2: head; 3: mouth; 4: hand; 5: eye; 6: nose; 7: chin; 8: cheek  Activity 2: Group-work - The teacher draws the map with the word ―anatomy‖ in the middle on the board with empty boxes as follows: ANATOMY ADAM’DADAPP LE Learnt words: forehead, ear, eye, mouth, head, nose, cheek, neck, shoulder, chin, Adam‘s apple, elbow, arm, forearm, wrist, finger, hand, calf, leg, thigh, foot, toe, ankle, knee, groin, abdomen, breast, chest - The teacher divides the class into ten small groups (seven students- a group) and asks the students to fill in the empty boxes with the words they have learnt - When the students finish their work the teacher asks each group to come up the board to write the words of their groups into the empty boxes The group who writes the most words will win Vocabulary instruction, as well as grammar, is of critical importance, especially at TMC Therefore, as college English teachers, we need to answer two major questions concerning vocabulary teaching what vocabulary should we focus on? And how can we teach vocabulary in the classroom? By giving some solutions to the teaching vocabulary at TMC, we suggest teachers teach vocabulary in a sequence according to learners‘ needs Also we have listed a range of vocabulary learning techniques, and discussed the theories behind them and their learning context Hopefully by so doing we can prompt more thinking and more effective teaching strategies on vocabulary instruction 38 PART C: CONCLUSION In this last part of the paper, an overall of the study is viewed with a brief description of the study together with the findings and conclusion Also, there are some suggested solutions for both teachers and students who are working with the book ―English course for nursing students‖ at TMC Finally, the limitations of the study are notified and some recommendations for further study are made Summary of the study The study set out to investigate the common problems of EMP vocabulary teaching and learning faced by teachers and second-year students at Thanhhoa Medical College It was conducted in the light of a qualitative method combined with a quantitative one, using different research instruments, namely questionnaire and interview Subjects of the study are the second-year students and the teachers working with these students at TMC To begin with, it reviews theoretical issues related to English for Medical Purpose, some aspects of vocabulary, which have shown much significance to vocabulary teaching so far Findings from the study lay the foundation for researcher to seek some feasible solutions to the discovered problems in order to minimize them, and maximize the effectiveness of vocabulary teaching at the college The statistics from the students‘ questionnaires together with the information from teacher‘s interview indicates that a considerable number of the second-year students and teachers at TMC have problems in their vocabulary learning and teaching Their common problems are identified in three aspects: lacking of efficient vocabulary teaching methods, ineffective vocabulary learning strategies, some contextual problems such as large-size class, poor facilities, lacking of teaching materials, out-of date textbook Also recommendation are made by the teachers on what vocabulary teaching methods to be further used to improve students‘ word-memory, with a focus on diversifying teachers‘ presenting, practicing and consolidating vocabulary, designing exercises, activities which aim to increase student‘ motivation in their learning process At last, based on the study‘s findings, and to the best understanding of the researcher, some solutions are suggested for both students and teachers at TMC, with the hope to partly improve this situation, making vocabulary learning and teaching here less challenging as before To the students, it is necessary for them to be more ware of the importance of their self-learning while time distributed for their English lessons To the teachers, they are 39 encouraged to look for more interesting and effective vocabulary teaching methods or techniques with a range tasks to fulfill students‘ gaps in their vocabulary learning Limitation of the study It is important to note that the present study was not without its limitation First, this study only reflects the challenges that facing teachers and second-year students at TMC in teaching and learning vocabulary In addition, the list of the questionnaire and interview were designed by the researchers, may not fully cover all the important information about challenges in teaching and learning vocabulary Finally, my research only applied to my own school context with small number of subjects Thus, its result is not completely universally true Suggestion for further research Teaching and learning English vocabulary in general and medical vocabulary in particular is a complex process which depends on a lot of other factors So future researcher will need to further investigate problems and solutions on vocabulary learning by looking at learners‘ internal factors such as learner‘ perception, motivation, belief to the vocabulary learning i REFERENCE Allen, J.B & Widdowson, H.G.(1974) English in physical science (English in Focus Series) Oxford: Oxford University Press Brumfit, C (1979) Common sense about ESP: Problems and principles in English teaching Oxford: Pergamon Press Buchanan, K (1990) “Vocational English-as-a-Second-Language Programs” Washington DC: ERIC Clearinghouse on Languages and Linguistics, ERIC Document Reproduction Service ED3211551 Celce-Murcia, M and C.H Prator (1979) An Outline of Language Teaching approaches in Teaching English as a Second or Foreign Language Duman, Y.(1997) The British Influence on English Language Teaching Unpublished B.A Thesis Ankara: Hacettepe University Fiorito, L.(2005) Teaching English for specific purposes Retrieved from http://www.usingenglish.com Gatehouse.K (2001) Key issues in English for specific purposes (ESP) curriculum development Retrieved from http://www.khae-service.com Harrison, J.P Barron, H Kobayashi, E Harrison.(2003) Medical English Communications Edited by: Erin, Hua Zhou and Annie Higuchi, A (2009) Integrative task-based Instruction in English for Medicine: Insights from the Evolution of ESP Hutchinson, T & Walters, A.(1981) English for specific purposes Cambridge University Press Kawagoe, E (2009) English for Specific Purposes in Medical and Nursing Schools th The Proceedings of the 49 JACET Annual Convention Programs Krashen, S.D (1982) Principle and practice in second language acquisition Oxford: Meare, P (2009) “Vocabulary acquisition research Group Archve: VARGA Search Engine v0.3”: Accessed 13th February 2009: http://www.lognostics.co.uk/varga/vargaXX/search.cgi : Pergamon Press Laufer, B (1997) “What„s in a word that makes it hard or easy: some intralexical factors that affect the learning words” In Schmitt and McCarthy (1997), pp 140-155 Leonard, P.C And Saunders, W.B (2001) Building a Medical Vocabulary (5th Edition) ii Lewis, M (1993) The Lexical Approach Hove: Language Teaching Publications Lewis, M (1997) Pedagogical Implications of the Lexical Approach in Second Language Vocabulary Acquisition: A Rational for Pedagogy Macaro, E (2003) Teaching and Learning a Second Language New York: continuum Mackay, R & Mountford (1976) Pedagogic alternatives to “explication de texte” with specific reference to English for science and technology IUT Bulletin Pedagogique, (44) Györffy, M (2002) English for Doctors: Authentic Consulting-room Activities for Doctors, Dentists, Students and Nurses (2ndEdition) Japanese edition supervised by J Patrick Barron Medical View Meara, P (1908) Vocabulary acquisition: A neglected aspect of language learning Language Teaching and Linguistics: Abstracts: 221-246 Murcia, C (1991) Teaching English as a Second or foreign Language Boston: Heinle & Heinle Publishers Nation, I.S.P (1990) Teaching and Learning Vocabulary Boston, MA: Heinle and Heinle Nation, I.S.P (2008) Teaching Vocabulary: Strategies & Techniques Boston, MA: Hedge, T (1988) Writing Oxford: Oxford University Press Nattinger, J (1998) Some current trends in vocabulary teaching In R Carter and M McCarthy (Eds) Vocabulary and Language Teaching London: Longman Richard, J and T Rogers (2001) Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching: A description and analysis Cambridge: CUP River, Wilga M (1981) Teaching Foreign-Language Skills Chicago: The University of Chicago Press Robinson, P.C (1980) English for specific purposes Oxford: Pergamon Press Schmitt, N.(2000) Vocabulary in Language Teaching Cambridge: CUP Departments of the Faculties of Education for Approaches in ELT Course Unpublished PhD dissertation Ankara: Hacettepe University Stern, H.H (1991) Fundemental Concepts of Language Teaching Oxford: OUP Stryker, S And Leaver, B (1997) Content-Based Instruction: Some Lessons and iii Implications In Conten-Based Instruction in Foreign Language Education: Models and Methods Stryker, S and B Leaver (Eds.) Washington, DC: Georgetown UP Thornby, S.1979 Semantics Newjork: Brasil Blackwell Thornbury, S 2002 How to Teach Vocabulary London and New York: Longman Ur, P (1996) A course in Language Teaching Cambridge: CUP Zimmerman C (1997) Historical Trends in Second Language Vocabulary Instruction iv APPENDIX 1: QUESTIONNAIRE (ENGLISH VERSION) My name is Nguyen Thi Thu Thuy, I am currently conducting my research entitled “problems and solutions in teaching and learning medical vocabulary at Thanhhoa Medical College” There are no „right‟ or „wrong‟ answers Please give your answers sincerely as only this will guarantee the success of the research Your information will be kept in secret Personal Information Sex: □ Female □ Male Age: ………… Question 1: How long have you learned English? □ years □ 3-6 years □ 6-10 years □ more than 10 years Question 2: Which way of learning English vocabulary you use? You can tick any that is true of you □ I write the words and Vietnamese equivalents □ I make a list of new words □ I make sentence with them □ I connect new word to its synonyms and antonyms to remember it □ I write/say new words several times □ I review new words often □ I connect the sound and the picture of the words to help me remember □ I find the meaning of new words by dividing them into parts I understand (e.g cardiology cardio=heart, logy=study of) Question 3: What you often when you meet a new word? You can tick any that is true of you □ Look it up in the bilingual dictionary □ Try to guess the meaning from the context (activate knowledge or using language items) □ Ask the teacher for Vietnamese explanation □ Ignore it □ Ask classmates for meaning v □ Analyze word affixes and roots Question 4: What problems have influenced your motivation and interest in vocabulary learning at class? You can tick any that is true of you □ Big class size (70 or more) and poor facilities (video, television, projectors, computers, and so on) □ Time-management (lack of time for further practice) □ Students’ low background knowledge □ Teachers’ teaching methods and techniques (uninteresting, unattractive, difficult to understand) □ Requirements of the examinations Question 5: What difficulties have you encountered in learning English vocabulary? You can tick any that is true of you □ I cannot remember words and their meanings □ I forget words I’ve learned □ I cannot use words properly in different contexts □ I can not multiple meaning of words Question 6: How often does your teacher use these following ways to present the new words? You can tick any that is true of you always usually Sometimes rarely Using visual aids (pictures, video, real objects… Translating new words into Vietnamese Saying the words clearly one by one and writing them on the board Using synonyms and antonyms Using mimes, gestures and facial expressions Using target language to define the new word Encouraging guessing the meaning in context Introducing new words in context and giving examples Question 7: which ways of presenting new words are you interested in? You can tick any that is true of you □ Using visual aids (picture, video, real objects…) □ Saying the words clearly one by one and writing them on the board never vi □ Translating new words into Vietnamese □ Using synonyms and antonyms □ Using mimes, gestures and facial expressions □ Using target language to define the new word □ Encouraging guessing the meaning in context □ Introducing new words in context and giving examples Question 8: What are the ways your teacher often asks to practice new words? You can tick any that is true of you □ Making sentences with new words □ Making dialogues with new words □ Asking and answering questions related to new words □ Discussing □ Playing games □ Repeating Question 9: Which ways of practicing new words are you interested in? You can tick any that is true of you □ Making sentences with new words □ Making dialogues with new words □ Asking and answering questions related to new words □ Discussing □ Playing games □ Repeating Question 10: What kinds of vocabulary consolidation are you interested in? You can tick any that is true of you □ Making sentences with given words □ Completing sentences □ Filling in the gaps □ Choosing the word that has the nearest meaning to the given words □ Matching words □ Reordering words □ Asking and answering questions □ Discussing □ Playing games Thank you very much for your time and co-operation vii APPENDIX 2: INTERVIEW A Interview questions In your opinion, what problems your students encounter when learning vocabulary? What problems you encounter when teaching vocabulary in the book “English course for Nurses” What techniques and activities you often use to present new words? What techniques and activities you often use to help students to consolidate and remember the taught words? What you suggest to better the current vocabulary teaching and learning situation? B: Interview transcript Interviewer: In your opinion, what problems your students encounter when leaning vocabulary? Interviewee: I think the first problem they face is that they not have time to learn vocabulary because they concentrate on their medical subjects, so mainly they this in class The second is that they cannot use words properly in different contexts You know, students think that opening a dictionary and getting started, or rather every time they see a new word, they try to learn it, are all the correct ways to learn vocabulary Unfortunately, most of them discover that they cannot retain the new words in memory for long Improper learning methods are the biggest learning challenge my students are coping up with Interviewer: What problems you encounter when teaching vocabulary? For example we need to use visual aids or encourage them to guess the meaning in context but sometimes the references is limited Big class size and poor facilities as well as lack of time for further practice And I think we need equipments, too I think we need some interesting activities for our students to practice but we haven't searched the documents or we not have time to that Besides, in all the groups that we have been teaching for two years we have always faced additional difficulties due to the large and heterogeneous class including in vocabulary teaching Our students of English are not the same competence, so it is difficult for teachers to choose an appropriate method to teach all viii Interviewer: What techniques and activities you often use to present new words? Interviewee: I use visual aids (pictures and PowerPoint), say the words clearly one by one and write them on the board, translate new words into Vietnamese And I think translating new words into Vietnamese is the method I use almost the time because it timesaving and effective for my students learning Interviewer: What techniques and activities you often use to help students to consolidate and remember the taught words? Interviewee: I told my students to makes sentences exercises such as fill in the gaps, answer the questions, matching… And I encourage my students to learnt new words by heart by coping words many times Interviewer: What you suggest to better the current vocabulary teaching and learning situation? Interviewee: The teacher should improve teaching methods, especially use visual aids and teaching students from guessing words meaning from context because context can connect the word knowledge to the knowledge that learners already have Teachers should compile exercises and activities for students to practice for example play games, listen to the English songs, upgrade teaching facilities and divide students into smaller groups Teacher (T2) Interviewer: What problems your students encounter when they are learning vocabulary? Interviewee: I feel that the main problem in teaching vocabulary is that many times after new words are learned, they are not used This creates a problem because the more we use the words the more we remember them and will be able to use them correctly If they are not repeated though, then they slowly just leave our minds Additionally, it is hard to remember many words at one time When students are given 30-50 vocabulary words they generally just learn then for an exam and then forget it I know in my college when we had vocabulary exams, most people just crammed about 10 minutes before the exam and memorized little key words to remind them After the exam was over though, no one knew a thing! The knowledge and usage of English is also another challenge of my students Many of them find it hard to cope with learning ESP basically because of lack of the General English skills ix Interviewer: What problems you encounter when teaching vocabulary in the book “English course for Nursing students” Interviewee: I think my biggest problems when I teach vocabulary in the book “English course for nursing students” are: - The textbook is not suitable - Multiple ability of students - No private English environment Interviewer: What techniques and activities you often use to present new words? Interviewee: I often present new words by: - Asking students to read new words after them, and then translating into Vietnamese - Using real objects - Showing the pictures - Giving examples to illustrate In my opinion, it is necessary to make the new words clear for students to understand their meaning, that’s why we should translate all of them Using visual aids are also very important in presenting some medical terms for example: body organs… Interviewer: What techniques and activities you often use to help students to consolidate and remember the taught words? Interviewee: I often help students to consolidate: - Make sentences - Do exercises For remembering taught words I advised my students to: - Say and write new words often - Write on note-taking papers and fix somewhere we often see - Read and write a word repeatedly - Extensive reading to expand their vocabulary Interviewer: What you suggest to better the current vocabulary teaching and learning situation? Interviewee: the teachers should improve teaching methods: use visual aids, play games, teach word meanings in context and give further practice and consolidation There should be more equipment such as: radios, computers…Number of students in class should be reduced