Teaching vocabulary in mechanical engineering to the second year students at Bacninh Vocational College: challenges and suggestions for solutions

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY - HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST - GRADUATE STUDIES    CAO THỊ TÚ TEACHING VOCABULARY IN MECHANICAL ENGINEERING TO THE SECOND YEAR STUDENTS AT BACNINH VOCATIONAL COLLEGE: CHALLENGES AND SUGGESTIONS FOR SOLUTIONS (NHỮNG KHÓ KHĂN VÀ GIẢI PHÁP GỢI Ý TRONG VIỆC DẠY TỪ VỰNG CHUYÊN NGÀNH CƠ KHÍ CHO SINH VIÊN NĂM THỨ HAI TRƯỜNG CAO ĐẲNG NGHỀ BẮC NINH) M.A Minor Programme Thesis FIELD: CODE: SUPERVISOR: TEACHING METHODOLOGY 60 14 10 ASSOC PROF DR NGUYỄN VĂN ĐỘ Hanoi, July-2010 iv LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS BVC: Bacninh Vocational College M.E: Mechanical Engineering GE: General English ESP: English for Specific Purposes v LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS Tables: Table 1: Teachers’ difficulties in teaching vocabulary in Mechanical Engineering Table : The learners' purposes of learning vocabulary in Mechanical Engineering Table 3: Students' ways of learning vocabulary Table 4: Ways of learning English vocabulary for Mechanical Engineering Table 5: Ways of vocabulary presentation students interested in Charts: Chart 1: The teachers' attitude towards the importance of vocabulary in language teaching Chart 2: Students' attitude towards vocabulary learning Chart 3: Way of practising new words students like most Chart 4: The students' attitudes towards the present course book Chart 5: Parts students find most trouble when dealing with an English word vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Candidate's statement i Acknowledgements ii Abstract iii List of abbreviations iv List of tables and charts v Table of contents vi PART 1: INTRODUCTION 1 Rationale Aims of the study Scope of the study Research questions Method of the study Design of the study Part 2: Development CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 Definition of vocabulary 1.2 Classification of vocabulary 1.3 The importance of vocabulary in language teaching and learning 1.4 How teaching vocabulary differs from teaching other skills 1.5 What should be taught in teaching vocabulary? 1.5.1 Word form 1.5.2 Grammar 1.5.3 Collocation 1.5.4 Aspects of meaning 1.5.5 Word-formation 10 1.6 Techniques in vocabulary teaching currently used 10 1.6.1 Techniques in presenting vocabulary 10 vii 1.6.1.1 Visual techniques 10 1.6.1.2 Verbal techniques 10 1.6.1.3 Translation 11 1.6.2 Techniques in practising new words 11 1.7 Vocabulary in ESP teaching and learning 11 1.7.1 What is ESP? 11 1.7.2 The roles of ESP teachers 12 1.7.3 ESP and EGP 13 CHAPTER 2: AN INTRODUCTION ON THE CONTEXT OF LEARNING AND TEACHING VOCABULARY OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING AT BVC 2.1 Teaching staff and teaching methods 15 2.2 Students and their background 15 2.3 The teaching materials 16 2.3.1 The textbook 16 2.3.2 The course content 16 2.4 Teaching facilities 16 CHAPTER 3: THE STUDY 18 Context of the study 18 The subject 18 3 Instruments for collecting data 18 3.3.1 Questionnaires 18 3.3.2 Interviews with ESP teachers 19 Data collection procedure 19 Data analysis results 19 The teachers' interviews 19 The students' questionnaires 22 3.6.Problems in teaching and learning vocabulary in Mechanical Engineering at BVC 3.6.1 Teachers' problems 28 3.6.1.1 Methods of teaching vocabulary 28 3.6.1.2 Knowledge of Mechanical Engineering 29 3.6.2 Students' problems 29 3.6.2.1 Ways of learning vocabulary 29 viii 3.6.2.2 Level of English 29 3.6.3 Materials and equipment … 30 CHAPTER 4: SOME SUGGESTIONS FOR SOLUTIONS TO IMPROVE THE TEACHING OF VOCABULARY IN MECHANICAL ENGINEERING AT BVC 4.1 Students 31 4.1.1 Guiding students with different vocabulary learning strategies 31 4.1.2 Assigning and checking students' fulfillment of homework 36 4.2 Teachers 37 4.2.1 Improving teachers' classroom techniques for teaching vocabulary in particular and teaching methodology in general 37 4.2.2 Improving specialized knowledge for ESP teachers 38 4.2.3 Equipping teaching facilities ………………………………………………… 39 PART 3: CONCLUSION 40 Summary of the study 40 Limitations and suggestions for further study 41 References 42 Appendices I PART 1: INTRODUCTION Rationale In recent years, there has been a global increase in the number of language teachers who have greater and wider responsibility thrust upon them by training institutions They are required to teach English to students from various fields such as engineering, information science, medicine, accountancy, etc to enable them to cope with their academic work This type of education is called English for Specific Purpose (ESP) Since ESP was introduced, it has attracted the attention of language instructors Furthermore, the idea of English for Specific Purpose has been welcomed by staffs of universities who have seen the great benefits from teaching ESP Also it is to meet the learners‘ needs for better reading of specialized books in English and for more successful job performance in the future ESP courses are now offered not only by universities and colleges of language but also by departments of technical universities and colleges Bacninh Vocational College (BVC) is a typical example of the training centre where ESP involved within an English language teaching situation in response to the demand for specific language skills However, up to now, teaching and learning ESP, particularly teaching and learning vocabulary items has still been far from satisfactory Being a teacher of English at BVC, the author does realize a number of problems that the teachers and students encounter in teaching and learning vocabulary in Mechanical Engineering That is the reason why the author would like to carry out this research entitled, ―Teaching vocabulary in Mechanical Engineering to the second year students at Bacninh Vocational College: Challenges and suggestions for solutions” Aims of the study The study is aimed at: a) Better understanding the notions, types, roles and techniques in teaching vocabulary currently used and vocabulary in ESP teaching and learning b) Identifying some problems in teaching vocabulary in Mechanical Engineering at BVC c) Offering some suggestions for solutions on teaching vocabulary in Mechanical Engineering at BVC Hopefully, the study will make some contributions to the improvement of teaching ESP in general and teaching vocabulary in Mechanical Engineering in particular at BVC 3) Scope of the study It is impossible to cover every aspect of language theory and practice in this study Therefore the study focuses on problems in teaching vocabulary in Mechanical Engineering to the second year students at BVC It is not proposed to deal with other language elements: pronunciation and grammar or with language skills The other subjects of the study are the second year students at BVC Also, the ―Specific Purpose‖ of the course are confined to ―English in Mechanical Engineering ― 4) Research questions The research is carried out with an attempt to find out the answer to the following research questions: - What are the main difficulties experienced by teachers teaching vocabulary to students of ME at BVC? - What suggestions for solutions should be offered to help teachers to find out the effective ways to teach vocabulary to students of ME at BVC? 5) Methodology The theoretical background of the study mainly relies on many published books written by different authors on language teaching, English for Specific Purpose, approaches to ESP teaching, etc The major method used in the study is the quantitative one That is all comments, consideration, suggestions given in the thesis are based on the analysis of the statistics from the survey questionnaires conducted with the teachers and students at BVC Besides, the study is also carried out through course book assessment, informal interviews, and discussions with the teachers and students at BVC 6) Design of the study The study is organized into introduction, the main part and conclusion The introduction includes the rationale, aims of the study as well as scope and methods of the study The main part comprises chapters Chapter deals with the theoretical background of the research It is concerned with the issues relevant to the topic of the research: vocabulary (definition, classification and roles), techniques in vocabulary teaching and vocabulary in ESP teaching and learning Chapter is an overview of English teaching and learning context at BVC Chapter The study explores problems of teaching and learning vocabulary in Mechanical Engineering experienced by the teachers and students at BVC Chapter offers some suggestions for solutions to improve the teaching of vocabulary in Mechanical Engineering The conclusion summarizes the issues addressed and presents recommendations for further improvements and some suggestions for further research PART 2: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 Definition of vocabulary There are different definitions of vocabulary Each linguist gives his own definition of vocabulary depending on the criteria that he considers the most important in terms of linguistics, semantics, lexicology, etc In her book, "A course in language teaching", Penny Ur defined vocabulary roughly as "the words we teach in the foreign language" However, she also accepted, "a new item of vocabulary may be more than a single word, a compound of two or three words and multi-word idioms" Pyles and Algeo (1970) said, "it is true that vocabulary is the focus of language with its sound and meaning, which interlock to allow us to communicate with one another, and it is words that we arrange together to make sentences, conversation and discourse of all kinds " (p.96) This statement indicates that vocabulary is essential for learning a language The American Heritage Dictionary defines vocabulary as "the sum of words used by, or at the command of a particular person of group " According to Michael Lewis (1993:89), vocabulary " may be individual words or full sentences - institutionalized utterances - that convey for social or pragmatic meaning within a given community " In short, it can be concluded that vocabulary is the total number of all the words that a language possesses, including a single words, two or three words items expressing a single idea and multiword idioms of which meaning cannot be deduced from the analysis of the component words but only understood in the sentences, or in contexts, etc 1.2 Classification of vocabulary Vocabulary can be classified differently according to different criteria basing on morpheme, meaning, function, frequency or the use of word, etc - Vocabulary classified according to the concept of morpheme Word can be divided into three kinds: simple, derived, and compound Simple word A simple word consists of one morpheme only and cannot be broken down into smaller meaningful unit like heat, port, oil, gas… Derived word 33 extra penny if he doesn‘t have to,‖ not spending an extra penny is an illustration of being parsimonious You can see that parsimonious means ―too careful with money.‖ VII In some cases, the writer will mention the purpose or use of an object, and this tells you what the object is For example, in the sentence ―I used a cherry pitter to remove the seeds from the cherries,‖ the writer tells you that a cherry pitter is something used to remove seeds from cherries • Learning words in groups Research has showed that people often remember words in groups which have something in common The way we group our words is very personal By putting words which have something in common, can students remember them better and expand their vocabulary a lot Here are some words which have been sorted into groups Can you see what each group has in common? Group 1: Engine, gear-box, tyre, Group 2: Piston, cylinder, fly- wheel and camshaft Group 3: Lathe, planer, milling machine, stamping –machine • Semantic mapping Connecting the new words to words belonging to the same topic or situation that you already know can be a useful way to remember them: Here is an example of one way of doing it - Choose a topic, for example "Mechanical Engineering " Write it to the middle of a blank sheet of paper: Mechanical Engineering - What is the first word that comes into your mind which is connected in some way with it? Write the word anywhere you like on the paper and joint it to the first word Mechanical Engineering Manufacturable Engineering Continue this way, adding new words as you think of them 34 Mechanical Engineering Parts of Machine Manufacturable Engineering Dynamics Engineering Diesel Engine • Making association Research has shown that people remember words by making associations in their mind For example, when you learn the word "dynamical circuit" you may think of parts relating to it such as: ―motor‖, ―fuse‖, ―knife- switch‖… - Word Bag Activities (Vocabulary games) (A “word bag” is a bag or box that is filled with new vocabulary that comes up during classes that students want to learn, that can then be recycled every lesson) 1) ‘Categories’: Groups of three of four students have to divide the vocabulary up into a specified number of categories The challenge lies in grouping together seemingly unrelated vocabulary from different classes The categories must be meaning, not grammar, based For example, one class of mine responded to the challenge ―put these 30 unconnected words into different columns‖ with the incredibly creative categories ‗Cats like‘, ‗Cats hate‘ and ‗Cats don‘t understand‖ When the groups have sorted out their vocabulary, they can then go around the class guessing which categories the other groups have come up with 2) ‘Any Which Way Matching’: In pairs, students are given a group of vocabulary cards One student lies down the card, asking a question using a fixed form given by the teacher, e.g ‗Why were you……‘ and the word or expression on one of their cards e.g ‗Why were you (hitting a chimpanzee at the zoo the other day)‘ The other student must give a possible (if bizarre) answer using one of their cards, e.g ‗Because (he had stolen my prescription from my pocket)‘ Students score one point for each answer accepted by their partner This is always great fun, and you‘d be amazed at what students with ‗no imagination‘ come up with 35 3) ‘Strangers on the train’: Students write a sentence for one of the Word Bag words or expressions This is then handed to someone on the other side of the room In pairs, students have to pretend that they have just met each other on a long train journey and are trying to make conversation During their conversation, they must try to slip the sentence they have been given naturally into the conversation When the teacher stops the game, they have to guess what their partner‘s sentence was It is worthwhile discussing strategies for starting conversations before you start the activity 4) ‘Taboo’: For a class that has already played Paul‘s defining game and have plenty of confidence, this is a nice variation Each student takes three or four slips of paper from the Word Bag On a slightly larger piece of paper they write the Word Bag word and words that the person defining the word will not be allowed to say when defining it E.g for banana the words could be ‗yellow‘, ‗fruit‘, ‗slip‘ and ‗skin‘ As well as being more challenging, this variation also means that students are thinking about the meaning very closely as they make up the taboo cards * Encouraging students to develop their self- studying in order to become active learners In the author's opinion, the greatest difficulties in learning ESP of the students reflected in the study are the lack of ESP vocabulary and terminologies and the lack of appropriate learning method In order to help students overcome these difficulties, it is an important responsibility of the teacher to help students to become self- studiers It can be seen that, student autonomy and individual learning have become increasingly significant in their learning process The teacher trains their students to become selfstudiers as they have specialized knowledge and English language ability If they can self- study effectively, they are eager to learn and they are more interested in exploring further materials for ME Therefore, their vocabulary, grammar, and background knowledge are also improved much more There are several ways for students to make progress in their vocabulary learning such as using dictionary, making vocabulary notebook by organizing your vocabulary into themes and carry it with them all the time, using websites related to vocabulary (www.english-at-homecom; www.vocabulary.com, etc.) Besides, teacher should show students how to explore all the expressions related to a word, look for examples in which it is used, how to interpret its pronunciation and stress Moreover, the teacher should give exercises, games frequently so that students in their free 36 time have chance to practice what they have learnt and hence reinforce their specialized knowledge, games also involve friendly competition keep students interested, help them learn vocabulary from one another, and enhance students' use of English in a flexible, communicative ways If students become self- studiers and develop their autonomy in learning, not only students‘ difficulties will be overcome but also teacher's heavy task in lecturing will be reduced Beside above strategies, the teachers should guide their students how to use dictionaries quickly and effectively * Improving students' learning vocabulary interest and motivation According to Garner and Lamberd (1972: 48), there are two types of motivation: instrumental and integrative Instrumental motivation is the refection of an external need that may derive from a variety of source Integrative motivation, on the other hand, comes from a desire on the part on the learners to learn a language in order to be a members of the speech community Thus, English can be seen as a means to achieve some practical and professional purposes The students of ME Department at BVC think that English is not a compulsory subject They have to learn to pass the exams Therefore, they are instrumentally motivated Teachers should improve students' learning vocabulary interest and motivation by encouraging them to take part in vocabulary activities in class, especially in warm- up activities and using games Games are highly motivating and entertaining (Hansen, 1994: 118) By using games, students remember things faster and better (Wierus and Wierus, 1994: 218) Zdybiewska believes games to be a good way of practicing language, they provide a modal of what learners will use the language for in real life in the future (1994: 16) However, in order to achieve the most vocabulary games, it is essential that suitable games should be chosen Whenever a game is to be conducted, the number of students, proficiency level, cultural context, timing, learning topic, and the classroom settings are factors that should be taken into account (Nguyen and Khuat, 2003) 4.1.2 Assigning and checking students' fulfillment of homework It is clear that when students are consistently given a reason to learn within the time available, they will begin to form a habit of study The teacher may prepare a variety of vocabulary exercises with different forms and levels of difficulty such as matching (pictures to words, parts of words to other words, words to words), filling in cross words, 37 grids or diagrams, multiple choice or translation, etc These exercises may be given to students after each lesson They may be checked as a warm-up activity in about 10 minutes By doing this, can the teachers review and recycle the words their students have learnt so that the students can remember them better In short, the diversification of task types plays a key role in arousing students' interest in learning vocabulary Also, assigning and checking the fulfillment of homework can help to give feedback to their students' mistakes 4.2 Teachers 4.2.1 Improving teachers' classroom techniques for teaching vocabulary in particular and teaching methodology in general As the result of the study, one of the student's difficulties is ESP terminologies remembering and pronunciation Moreover, both teachers and students are deeply influenced by traditional methods which make their teaching and learning ineffective and boring Thus, some suggestions are offered below There are activities that teachers can use to teach vocabulary to the same class However, teachers should choose the most suitable ones to their students basing on characteristics of different groups of students so that students will find it interesting to learn the new words And teaching techniques such as using pictures, playing games seem to be effective ones to students For example: Through using pictures Teacher should use photographs, paintings or pictures to present the meanings of difficult words, especially, the words that the students have never heard of or seen before, even in their language Indeed, new words to be taught can be embedded in pictures or graphs to help students recognize and memorize the meanings easily One of the important things is that the teacher can easily get visual aids from many sources such as newspapers or internet Besides, the teacher can design simple pictures themselves so that they make use of their sources of visual aids repeatedly in class 38 For example: *Through using pair work (Word – arrangement)” Aim: Develop the students' observation skill to find quickly the form of words leant in unit and rewrite them correctly words Time 10-15 minutes Source: designed by the researcher to check the taught words in unit Procedure: - The teacher can divide the class into pairs After that, each pair will be given a list of words with the jumbled orders Both of them have to work together to find out the original words For example: in order to check words such as Energy / Furnace / Potential Energy / Metal / Nuclear Power Plant, the teacher gives each pair a list of words which the letters of each word are in the wrong order l Y,G,E,E,R,N -> ENERGY R,N,F,A,U,C,E P,T,O,L,T,A,E,I,N -> FURNACE I,R,N,E,E,G T,M,L,E,A U,N,L,A,E,R,U O,E,P,W,R -> POTENTIAL ENERGY -> METAL L,T,N,A,P -> NUCLEAR POWER PLANT All pairs are expected to give the original words 4.2.2 Improving specialized knowledge for ESP teachers Basing on the finding in the previous part, obviously the most challenging of the teachers of English for ME at BVC is their poor knowledge of ME There has been much discussion on this aspect According to Ellis, M & Johnson, C (1993: 31) "it is really misconception that teacher needs to be expert in the subject matter" and added "It is learners who have the 39 specific content knowledge and who are able to bring that knowledge to the classroom." (1994: 26) However, the ESP teacher, in order to teach vocabulary or ESP lessons effectively and makes right questions to student, "must know something about the subject matters of ESP materials" (Hutchinson and Waters, 1987: 161) Some suggestions offered below are from the experience in teaching ESP of the teaching staff here In order to prepare to teach English for ME, the ESP teachers had to self- study the books on ME written in Bilingual (both in English and in Vietnamese) to enrich their basic knowledge on the subject matter and achieve necessary vocabulary and terms Then they carefully studied the course book Before each lesson, they had to prepare lesson plans carefully, looking at difficulties issues, preparing expected questions from students If they had still any problems, they could discuss with ESP colleagues and teacher of ME major for their help Moreover, the teacher should try to create more exercises/ games for students to after each lesson On one hand, the lesson becomes more attractive and efficient, the students are more interested in the lesson as they are involved in more activities, they have chance to practice their knowledge On the other hand, the teacher while creating further exercises can improve their specialized knowledge, look into difficult issues and then may avoid unexpected problems in teaching 4.2.3 Equipping teaching facilities As mentioned in the previous chapter, the equipment in classroom is very simple and traditional Thus, beside the existing teaching facilities like chalk, board, cassette player, course book, it is necessary to equip classroom with modern facilities such as over- head projector, or project The modern facilities will make the lecture more effective as the teacher can explain the subject matter lively and efficiently and save a lot of time in writing down everything on board as usual Saving more time in this stage, the teacher may arrange time to provide students with more exercises and activities In addition, it is very important to equip the library with various reference books on ESP written both in English and in Vietnamese The library is not only useful for students but also for the ESP teachers as they can read in free time, improve their specialized knowledge as well as English language 40 PART 3: CONCLUSION In this last part of the paper, an overall picture of the study is provided with a brief description of the study as well as the findings and conclusion In addition, there are some suggestions for solutions for both ESP teachers and students of ME Finally, the limitations of the study are notified and some recommendations for further study are suggested Summary of the study This study is aimed at finding difficulties of teachers of English for ME at BVC and then offers some suggestions to overcome those difficulties The study was carried out in terms of both theory and practice The study started with some concepts on ESP teaching, and especially vocabulary teaching in ESP, and terminology, methodology in vocabulary teaching The next chapter described important features about the context of learning and teaching vocabulary of ME at BVC including teaching staff and teaching methods, students and their background, the teaching materials, and teaching facilities In order to find out the problems, several instruments are employed to collect the data: survey questionnaires to students, a list of interview questions to the target teachers The goal of these instruments is to find out difficulties that the ESP teachers of ME are coping with in teaching vocabulary to students of ME In addition, the difficulties of the students are also presented as they may be in any relation with their teacher's teaching The students, as being indicated in the findings, have some problems related to ESP vocabulary and terminologies However, parts of students' difficulties are due to the teacher's specialized knowledge and ESP method The findings have shown that some difficulties ESP teachers face with including The lack of specialized knowledge with numerous terms, complicated structures and countless expressions, the lack of various teaching technique, and the lack of teaching aids and reference materials Based on the study's finding, some solutions are suggested to overcome those difficulties including encouraging students to develop their self- studying in order to become active learners, improving learning vocabulary interest and motivation, improving specialized knowledge for ESP teachers, improving teacher's activities in teaching vocabulary, and equipping teaching facilities In conclusion all the aims of the study have been achieved and it is hoped that the study will make some contributions to better the current situation of teaching and learning vocabulary in Mechanical Engineering to the second year students at BVC 41 Limitations and suggestions for further study Although the paper has accomplished the objectives set at beginning, the researcher cannot avoid some limitations Firstly, the study is limited to only one specific part in teaching a foreign language: vocabulary, especially vocabulary for ME, and one course book designed by teachers at the college The target subjects of the study are also limited to nd students of ME Department and teachers of English for ME at Foreign language group, BVC Besides, the author's practical experience in teaching vocabulary of ME and knowledge of this field is limited The suggestions to overcome difficulties are likely to be subjective Secondly, due to the shortage of time and knowledge, the study cannot deal with other factors affecting the vocabulary learning such as learners‘ general intelligent, personal feeling, language aptitude, etc These call for further study Finally, the study merely focuses on problems in teaching and learning vocabulary in ME at BVC Further research on other language elements like grammar or language skills as reading or speaking seems to be of great usefulness And exercises for practising other skills and vocabulary activities should be designed to supplement the ESP materials at BVC 42 REFERENCES Allen, V.F.(1983), Techniques in teaching vocabulary, Oxford University Press Davies, P (2000), Success in Language Teaching, Oxford University Press Doff, A.(1988), Teach English: A training course for teachers, Cambridge University Press Dudley-Evans, T.& St John M.J (1997), Development in English for Specific Purposes, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Ellis, G & Sinclair B (1989), Learning to learn English, A course in learner training Teacher‟s Book, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Ellis,Mand Johnson, C (1994) Teaching business English, Oxford University Press Ewer, J.R (1976), “Teacher training for science and technology: The specialized training of teachers and programme organizers” in Richards, J (ed), Teaching English for Science and technology Singapore University Press Gairns R & Redman, S (1990), Working in 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Printing 43 19 Nunan, D (1992), Research methods in Language Learning, Cambridge Cambridge University Press 20 Oxford, R (1990), Language Learning Strategies What every Teacher Should Know, Boston: Heinle Publishers 21 Pettigrew, J (2005), Teaching Vocabulary: Two Dozen Tips and Techniques 22 Rom Forseth & Carol Forseth (1995), Methodology Handbook for English Teacher in Vietnam English Language Institute America 23 http://people.bu.edu/jpettigr/articles and presentation/vol.htm.36k 24 Pyles, T & Algeo, J (1970), English – An Introduction to language, New York: Harcourt, Brace 25 Strevens, P (1988), “ESP after twenty year: a Pre-appraisal‖ in Makhan Tickoo (ed), ESP: State of the art, SEAMEO Regional Language Center 26 Swales, J (1990), Writing Scientific English, Nelson 27 Taylor, L (1990), Teaching and learning Vocabulary, New Your: Prentice Hall 28 Texas Reading Initiative/Texas Education Agency (2000) Promoting Vocabulary Development Austin, TX: Texas Reading Intiative/Texas Education Agency 29 Ur, P (1996), A course in Language teaching – Practice and theory, CUP 30 Widdowson, H.G (1982), Learning Purpose and Language use, OUP 31 Wilkins, D.A (1972), Linguistics in Language Teaching London, Edward Arnold 32 Wright (1987), Principles of Teaching, CPU 33 http://www.teachingeglish.org.uk/think/vocabulary/collocation2.html I APPENDICES Appendix 1: INTERVIEW QUESTIONS FOR THE TEACHERS How important is vocabulary teaching in language teaching? a Very important b Rather important c Not very important d Not important at all What are your difficulties in teaching vocabulary in Mechanical Engineering? (More than one choice is accepted) a Encountering too many new terminologies b Understanding the nature of new terminologies c Finding Vietnamese equivalence d Having limited reference books in Mechanical Engineering e Others (please specify) Do you need more time for further training on Mechanical Engineering for teachers of English at BVC? What difficulties you find from your students' vocabulary learning when teaching English to students of Mechanical Engineering? a Students have difficulties in understanding and remembering the new words and terminologies b Their vocabulary is too poor c The number of words in course book is too large d They lack sufficient practice of vocabulary e They cannot pronounce correctly Are you satisfied with the course book (you are using) with regard to the teaching of English for Mechanical Engineering? What techniques and activities you use to present new words? a Translating all the words into Vietnamese b Using visual aids c Using mines, gestures and facial expressions d Using target language to define the new word II e Saying the words clearly one by one and writing them on the board f Using word guessing g Using synonyms and antonyms h Other ways (please specify ) What techniques and activities you usually use to help students to consolidate and remember the taught words? a Filling the gaps b Completing sentences c Making sentences with given words d Using synonyms and antonyms e Matching words f Reordering words g Discussing h Asking and answering questions i Playing games j Other ways (please specify…) What teaching equipment does your college provide with? a A cassette player and tapes b A video and CDs c English books d A language lab e Any other English teaching equipment (please specify)…………………… III Appendix 2: QUESTIONNAIRE FOR THE LEARNERS What you think of the role of vocabulary in learning a foreign language? a Very important b Important c Not important Why you think that learning vocabulary in Mechanical Engineering is important? (More than one choice is acceptable) a Because of reading specialized materials in Mechanical Engineering b Because of enriching my vocabulary with technical terms c Because of communicating with foreigners about Mechanical Engineering d Because of passing the exams How would you deal with a new word of Mechanical Engineering? a Try to guess its meaning from the context b Look it up in the dictionary c Ask/wait for the teacher to explain it d Ignore it e Others (please specify) Which way of practising new words you like most? a Repeating loud b Asking and answering questions concerning new words c Doing vocabulary exercises such as multiple choice, gap filling, matching, etc d Describing pictures, naming or drawing pictures e Playing vocabulary games How would you describe new words of ME in your course book? a Difficult b Useful c Relevant What methods you often use when you learn English vocabulary of Mechanical Engineering? a Write the words in English and Vietnamese b Make sentences with them c Read them aloud IV d Connect the words with pictures e Write the words in English many times f Write the words and meaning, their synonyms or antonyms g Other ways (please specify ) Which ways of presenting new words are you interested in? a Translating all the words into Vietnamese b Using visual aids c Using mines, gestures and facial expressions d Using target language to define the new word e Word guessing f Using synonyms and antonyms g Other ways (please specify ) What cause you the most trouble when dealing with an English word? a Spelling rule b Stress c Pronunciation d Collocation e Other