Developing ESP supplementary reading exercises for second year students at faculty of nursing, phu tho medical college

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES PHAN THỊ THU HÀ DEVELOPING ESP SUPPLEMENTARY READING EXERCISES FOR SECOND-YEAR STUDENTS AT FACULTY OF NURSING, PHU THO MEDICAL COLLEGE XÂY DỰNG CÁC BÀI TẬP ĐỌC BỔ TRỢ TIẾNG ANH CHUYÊN NGÀNH CHO SINH VIÊN NĂM THỨ HAI TẠI KHOA ĐIỀU DƯỠNG, TRƯỜNG CAO ĐẲNG Y TẾ PHÚ THỌ MINOR PROGRAM THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 601410 HANOI, 09-2012 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES PHAN THỊ THU HÀ DEVELOPING ESP SUPPLEMENTARY READING EXERCISES FOR SECOND-YEAR STUDENTS AT FACULTY OF NURSING, PHU THO MEDICAL COLLEGE XÂY DỰNG CÁC BÀI TẬP ĐỌC BỔ TRỢ TIẾNG ANH CHUYÊN NGÀNH CHO SINH VIÊN NĂM THỨ HAI TẠI KHOA ĐIỀU DƯỠNG, TRƯỜNG CAO ĐẲNG Y TẾ PHÚ THỌ MINOR PROGRAM THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 601410 Supervisor: Dr Dương Thị Nụ HANOI, 09-2012 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS - ESP: English for Specific Purposes - PTMC: Phu Tho Medical College - EMP: English for Medical Purposes - L2: Second Language - U.S: United States - U.K: United Kingdom - EFL: English as a Foreign Language - T: Teachers - S: Students - N: number of the teachers/ students - P: percentage of the teachers/ students LIST OF TABLES Table 1: Exercises believed to be suitable to develop ESP reading skills (Grellet, 1981: 4-5) Table 2: Exercise types in ESP reading skills (Kenedy and Bolitho, 1991: 74-84) Table 3: Types of reading exercises in each unit in the currently used teaching coursebook Table 4: Teachers and students’ perception of students’ difficulties in terms of reading exercises Table 5: Teachers and students’ perceptions of the effectiveness of using supplementary exercises in reading lessons Table 6: Teachers and students’ perceptions of exercise types to be included in the ESP supplementary reading exercises Table 7: The proposed supplementary reading exercises LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: Teachers and students’ perceptions of the reading exercises in the currently used teaching coursebook Figure 2: Teachers and students’ perceptions of the necessity of ESP supplementary reading exercises Figure 3: Teachers and students’ perceptions of exercise types accompanying the reading texts in the currently used teaching coursebook Figure 4: The frequency of the teachers and students in using supplementary reading exercises Figure 5: Teachers and students’ perceptions of the place of using supplementary reading exercises TABLE OF CONTENTS Page DECLARATION i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ………………………………………………… ii ASTRACT ………………………………………………………………… iii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ………………………………………… iv LIST OF TABLES ………………………………………………………… v LIST OF FIGURES ………………………………………………………… vi PART A: INTRODUCTION Rationale of the study …………………………………………………… Objectives of the study…………………………………………………… Research questions……………………………………………………… Scope of the study………………………………………………………… Research Methodology…………………………………………………… Significance of the study ………………………………………………… Design of the study……………………………………………………… PART B : DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 1.1 An overview of English for Specific Purposes (ESP) and English for Medical Purposes (EMP) ………………………………………………… 1.1.1 ESP …………………………………………………………………… 1.1.2 EMP ………………………………………………………………… 1.2 An overview of materials development in language teaching 1.2.1 Materials and materials development……………………………… 1.2.1.1 Definition of materials……………………………………………… 1.2.1.2 Materials development ………………………………………… 1.2.2 Materials evaluation and its criteria ………………………………… 1.2.3 Supplementary materials ……………………………………………… 1.3 An overview of reading comprehension in teaching ESP 1.3.1 Definitions of reading and reading comprehension…………………… 1.3.1.1 What is reading? 1.3.1.2 What is reading comprehension? 10 1.3.2 Types of ESP reading exercises…………… ………………………… 11 1.4 Summary 13 CHAPTER 2: THE STUDY 2.1 Settings 14 2.2 The study 15 2.2.1 The subjects 15 2.2.2 Instruments for collecting the data 15 2.2.3 Data collection procedures 16 2.2.4 Data analysis and major findings 17 2.2.4.1 An overview of the currently used teaching textbook 17 2.2.4.2 Class observation 19 2.2.4.3 Data from survey questionnaires 20 2.2.4.4 Major findings 31 2.3 Summary 33 CHAPTER 3: RECOMMENDATIONS 3.1 Suggested exercises for the ESP supplementary reading 34 3.2 Guidance for the teachers and students 36 3.2.1 Guidance for the teachers 36 3.2.2 Guidance for the students 37 3.3 Summary 37 PART C: CONCLUSION Recapitulation 38 Conclusions 38 Limitations of the study 39 Suggestions for further study 40 REFERENCES I APPENDICES III APPENDIX III APPENDIX VI APPENDIX X PART A: INTRODUCTION Rationale of the study It is undeniable that English now is one of the most commonly used languages throughout the world In Vietnam, with the changes and the development of the economy and society, as well as the implementation of the open-door policy, English has been used more and more widely Importantly, it has influenced on our education curriculum as a compulsory subject In recent years, there has been a global increase in the number of language teachers who are required to teach English to students from various fields such as engineering, information science, medicine, accounting, etc to enable them to cope with their academic work This type of English is called English for Specific Purpose (ESP) Since ESP was introduced, it has attracted the attention of many language instructors Furthermore, the idea of ESP has been welcomed by staffs of universities who have seen the great benefits of learning ESP In addition, it is to meet the learners’ needs for better reading of specialized books in English and for more successful job performance in the future The English language program at Phu Tho Medical College (PTMC) is designed to be composed of two major stages The first stage is called English for General Purposes, focusing on developing students’ ability to communicate in English at a very simple level The second stage is ESP, emphasizing the development of students’ linguistic skills that are linked to their future occupational purposes After having taught English at PTMC for years, the researcher finds that although the currently used teaching coursebook for ESP has shown a great deal of improvement, it still has some problems with reading exercises Some are too easy for students whereas some make students bored Therefore, it does not help students improve their reading skill much In this case, the main task for the teachers is developing teaching materials to improve students’ reading skill In order to this, the teachers need to evaluate every unit to see what the problems are and then, try to think of the ways to improve them There are many things that the teachers can to improve the units They can be looking for supplementary materials from different sources, changing the procedures of teaching, designing activities to motivate the students, etc One of the effective ways is developing supplementary materials The above mentioned reasons lead me to my choice of the study: Developing ESP Supplementary Reading Exercises for second-year students at Faculty of Nursing, Phu Tho Medical College Objectives of the study The study aims to: - develop a theoretical framework which is appropriate for the development of ESP supplementary reading exercises for second-year students of nursing, PTMC - investigate and analyze the needs of ESP students of nursing and ESP teachers, PTMC to serve as a practical base for developing ESP supplementary reading exercises - propose ESP supplementary reading exercises for second-year students at Faculty of Nursing, PTMC, which can meet both teachers and students’ needs Research questions On carrying out the research, the following research questions are to be answered: - What are the reading needs of the nursing students at PTMC? - Which reading exercises should be supplemented for second-year students at Faculty of Nursing, PTMC? Scope of the study As the current coursebook is compulsory, this study is intended to focus on supplement only In the scope of this study, only ESP supplementary reading exercises, which are suitable for the local situation of PTMC, are proposed Moreover, they are intended for only the second-year students of nursing Research Methodology The study is based on a survey research, which involves a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods to obtain its objectives To begin with, an research questions raised in the Introduction For the first question, “What are the reading needs of the nursing students at PTMC?” the researcher found out two needs The first need was that the students wanted to improve their reading skill Having more reading exercises such as “fill in the table with the information from the reading passage, identify the main ideas within paragraphs or in reading texts, scan the text for specific information presented by teachers before reading and summarize the text” to practice was the second need Two needs above greatly require the ESP teachers at PTMC to find out the solutions to improve it One of solutions is developing supplementary reading exercises As for the second question “Which reading exercises should be supplemented for second-year students at Faculty of Nursing, PTMC?”, the researcher has a satisfactory answer by giving the proposed supplementary reading exercises in chapter Finally, it can be seen that materials in general play a very important role in language teaching and learning However, it is also clearly known that there is no “one size fits all material” to use for all types of students Each material has its own strong and weak points, and teachers’ task is to find out and make use of the strong points and develop them That is why we have to study and develop materials Although the current ESP coursebook used for the second-year students of nursing at PTMC is considered good, it does not contain enough reading exercises for the nursing students to practice They want to practice various types of reading exercises that are not included in the currently used teaching coursebook So, the need of developing ESP supplementary reading exercises for the second-year of nursing at PTMC is very essential Limitations of the study No matter how much attempt has been made, the study cannot avoid certain limitations The first shortcoming is that the study is impossible to focus on all the students at PTMC It only focuses on the students of nursing In addition, the researcher did not have a chance to evaluate the effectiveness of the application of the supplementary exercises Last but not least, though the best effort has been made, the study is not very diversified due to time limitation and the lack of knowledge in materials development Therefore, the researcher would be very thankful for any critical comments on the study to make it perfect Suggestions for further study All what the researcher has been mentioning and trying to explicate in this study, though very humble, like the grain of sand in the desert, for the reason of restriction, is just my initial basic understanding of this field Hopefully, some aspects that need further investigation, such as research to investigate students’ use, evaluation of the ESP supplementary reading exercises for the currently used teaching coursebook or developing the supplementary reading exercises into supplementary material, will be done in the future Moreover, supplementary reading exercises for other areas also needed to be improved or developed by other researchers REFERENCES Aebersold J A & Field L M (1997), From Reader to Reading Teacher, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge Anderson R.C., & Pearson P.D (1984), A schema-theoretic view of basic process in reading, In P.D Pearson, R Barr, M.L Kamil, & P Mosenthal (Eds.), Handbook of reading research, White Plains, NY: Longman Brown J.D (1995), The elements of language curriculum: A systematic approach to program development, Heinle & Heinle Publishers, Boston Cunningsworth A (1984), Evaluating and selecting EFL teaching materials, Heinemann Educational Books Ltd, London Dudley-Evans T & St John M J (1998), Developments in English for Specific Purposes: A multi-disciplinary approach, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge Goodman K.S (1971), “Psycholinguistic Universals in Reading Progress”, In the psychology of second language learning, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, p.135 Grellet F (1981), Developing reading skills: A practical guide to reading comprehension exercises, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge Gylys B A., & Wedding M E (1983) Medical terminology, F.A Davis Co, New York Harris T L., & Hodges R E., (1995), The literacy dictionary: The vocabulary of reading and writing, International reading association, Newark, DE 10 Harmer J (1989), The practice of English language teaching, Harlow, Longman 11 Hutchinson T., & Waters A (1987), English for specific purposes: a learningcentred approach, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 12 Kennedy C., & Bolitho R (1991), English for Specific Purposes, Macmillan Press Ltd , London & Basingtoske 13 Nuttal C (1982), Teaching Reading Skills in a Foreign Language, Heinemann, London 14 Rubin J., & Thompson I (1994), How To Be a More Successful Language Learner, Heinle and Heinle Publisher, New York 15 Strevens P (1988), ESP after twenty years: A re-appraisal, In M Tickoo (Ed.), ESP: State of the Art (pp 1-13), Seamco Regional Centre, Singapore 16 Tomlinson B (1998), Materials development in language teaching, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 17 Ur P (1991), A course in language teaching, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 18 Yang M N (2005), “Nursing Pre-professionals’ Medical Terminology Learning Strategies”, Asian EFL Journal Press, Volume (01), pp.137-154 19 William, D (1983) “Developing criteria for textbook evaluation”, ELT Journal, Volume 37 (03), p.p.251-255 APPENDICES APPENDIX SAMPLE SUPPLEMENTARY READING EXERCISES FOR UNIT Exercise 1: Scan the text and answer the following questions Which systems are mentioned in the text? Which is the most important system? Exercise 2: Match the phrases in column A the phrases in column B to complete the definitions of human systems A B The circulatory system a is a system that has a function to pick up The respiratory system oxygen, providing oxygen and removing The digestive system carbon dioxide out of the body The muscular system b is a system that serves to breed The nervous system c is a system that has a function to keep the The urinary system body from disease, spreading nutrients and ox The reproductive system ygen throughout the body, and carried the rest The integumentary system of the substances outside the body d is a set of organs and that are responsible for the same function in your body: getting rid of waste e is a system that serves to make the process so that food can be absorbed and used by the cells of the body as a physical or chemical f is a system that has a function to receive and respond to stimuli g is the body’s system that has fungi like to tool, storing glycogen and determine posture h is the system including the skin and the related structures that cover and protect the body Exercise 3: Fill in the table with the information from the text Words related to each system The circulatory system: heart, atria, ventricles, blood, cardiac muscles The digestive system: _ The skeletal-muscular system: The nervous system: The integumentary system: _ Exercise 4: Label the figures 12 10 11 The main bones of the legs are the _(1) _, _(2) _ and _(3) _ The bone that is at the middle of the leg is the _(4) _ When you breathe out, your _(5) , the muscle under your chest, moves up to squeeze air out We have about 300 million alveoli (air sacs) in each _(6) _ At the shoulder, there are two bones that form the shoulder joint: the _(7) _ and the scapula Most people have 12 pairs of _(8) _ Your _(9) _ is the strongest muscle The largest gland in the body is the _(10) _ The _(11) _ secretes insulin into the blood 10 The _(12) _ communicates with the rest of the body through the spinal cords and nerves Exercise 5: Complete the summary The human body is a _(1) _ complex and _(2) _ machine It takes in and _(3) _ oxygen through the _(4) _ system Then the _(5) _ enriched _(6) _ is distributed through the _(7) _ system to all _(8) _ The _(9) _ system converts digestive food to energy and disposes of the rest The _(10) _ system gives form to the body And covering almost the entire mass is the _(11) _, the largest organ of the body The skin and its associated structures make up the _(12) _ system Liquid wastes are eliminated through the _(13) _ system Closely associated with the urinary system is the _(14) _ system, by which human life is carried on to future generation However, the most important system in human body is the _(15) _ system It controls all other systems and bodily movements APPENDIX QUESTIONNAIRE FOR ESP TEACHERS The only purpose of this questionnaire is to gather the ideas of ESP teachers at Phu Tho Medical College to develop ESP supplementary reading exercises for second-year students at Faculty of Nursing Your answers to the questions will be of great significance to develop this ESP supplementary reading exercises So, please response to each question and fulfill all of them as frankly as possible All the information you give will be used for research purposes only Thank you very much for your kind co-operation! Section I: Difficulties in terms of reading skills (Please put a tick (√) in the appropriate boxes The term “N/A” used in this section means “not applicable” It is a suitable answer if you have never had your students a certain kind of exercise.) How difficult your students find in terms of reading exercises? 5- Very easy 4- Easy No 3- Normal 2- Difficult 1- Very difficult Reading exercises 1.1 Choose key words or sentences relating to the topics of each Skimming paragraph 1.2 Choose one of the titles that fit the text best Scan the text for specific information Scanning Identify the Identify the main ideas within main ideas paragraphs or in reading texts presented by teacher before reading Recognizing 4.1 Rearrange the paragraph text 4.2 Choose and put the phrases/ organization sentences to where they fit in a text Inferring Identify the information that is not 0- N/A explicitly stated in a paragraph/ text Utilizing text Fill in the table with the information information from the reading passage Comprehensi 7.1 Multiple choice questions on questions 7.2 Short answer questions 7.3 Long answer questions Other 8.1 Summarize the text exercises 8.2 True or false 8.3 Translate the text into Vietnamese Section II: Opinions on developing ESP supplementary reading exercises for second-year students In your opinion, the reading exercises in the currently coursebook used for the ESP course is A interesting B difficult C relevant D boring E others (please specify) _ Do you think it is to develop ESP supplementary reading exercises for the second-year students at Faculty of Nursing? A very necessary B necessary C not very necessary D unnecessary E others (please specify) _ What you think about the exercise types accompanying the reading texts in the current coursebook? A various B useful C inadequate to improve reading skills D monotonous (repeated patterns) E others (please specify) _ To improve your students’ reading comprehension skills, how often you use supplementary exercises? A always B often C sometimes D never Where you use supplementary exercises? A at class B at home What you think of the benefits of using supplementary exercises in reading lessons? Don’t Strongly Supplementary reading exercises agree Agree know Strongly Disagree disagree make the reading lesson less boring help improve students’ reading skills give students more worldwide knowledge improve students’ motivation for reading Section III: Exercise types to be included in the ESP Supplementary reading exercises Please tick exercise types that you think should be practised with supplementary reading exercises enhance your students’ reading ability and add more of your own if according to you it is necessary No Reading exercises 1.1 Choose key words or sentences relating to the Skimming topics of each paragraph 1.2 Choose one of the titles that fit the text best Scan the text for specific information presented by Scanning Identify the main Identify the main ideas within paragraphs or in ideas reading texts teachers before reading 4.1 Rearrange the paragraph Recognizing text 4.2 Choose and put the phrases/ sentences to organization where they fit in a text Identify the information that is not explicitly stated Inferring in a paragraph/ text Utilizing text Fill in the table with the information from the information reading passage 7.1 Multiple choice questions Comprehension 7.2 Short answer questions questions 7.3 Long answer questions 8.1 Summarize the text Other exercises 8.2 True or false 8.3 Translate the text into Vietnamese Others (please specific) APPENDIX PHIẾU HỎI Ý KIẾN (DÀNH CHO SINH VIÊN) Mục đích phiếu hỏi nhằm thu thập ý kiến sinh viên năm thứ hai trường CĐYT Phú Thọ phục vụ cho việc xây dựng tập đọc bổ trợ tiếng Anh chuyên ngành phù hợp với mục tiêu đào tạo nhà trường đáp ứng nhu cầu sinh viên năm thứ hai khoa Điều Dưỡng Những ý kiến đóng góp em góp phần quan trọng nghiên cứu Xin chân thành cảm ơn hợp tác em! Phần I: Những khó khăn kỹ đọc (Em đánh dấu (√) vào ô tương ứng dạng tập đọc hiểu Kí hiệu “N/A” đươ ̣c sử du ̣ng có nghiã là chưa đươ ̣c làm Nó câu trả lời thích hợp nế u em chưa từng làm loa ̣i bài tâ ̣p đó ) Em cho biết ý kiến em dạng tập đọc hiểu 5- Rất dễ 4- Dễ 3- Bình thường 2- Khó 1- Rất khó 0- Bài tập chưa làm Các dạng tập đọc ST T 1.1 Chọn câu tóm tắt câu chủ Đọc lướt để đề thích hợp với đoạn lấy ý 1.2 Chọn chủ đề thích hợp với khóa Đọc lướt để 2.2 Đọc lướt khóa để lấy lấy thông tin thông tin cụ thể giáo viên yêu cụ thể cầu trước đọc Nhận biết ý Nhận biết ý đoạn văn khóa Nhận biết cấu 4.1 Sắp xếp lại trật tự đoạn trúc đọc khóa 4.2 Chọn cụm từ câu điền vào chỗ thích hợp đọc Suy luận Xác định thông tin khơng nói rõ Sử dụng thơng tin có khóa Điền vào bảng với thơng tin khóa Các loại câu 7.1 Câu hỏi nhiều lựa chọn hỏi đọc hiểu 7.2 Câu trả lời ngắn 7.3 Câu trả lời dài Các dạng tập khác 8.1 Tóm tắt khóa 8.2 Chọn câu trả lời sai 8.3 Dịch khóa sang tiếng Việt Phần II: Ý kiến xây dựng tập đọc bổ trợ tiếng Anh chuyên ngành cho sinh viên năm thứ hai Theo ý kiến em, đọc giáo trình sử dụng cho học phần tiếng Anh chuyên ngành A thú vị B khó C phù hợp D nhàm chán E ý kiến khác (đề nghị ghi rõ) _ Em có nghĩ để xây dựng tập đọc bổ trợ tiếng Anh chuyên ngành cho sinh viên năm thứ hai Khoa Điều Dưỡng? A cần thiết B cần thiết C không cần thiết D không cần thiết E ý kiến khác (đề nghị ghi rõ) _ Em nghĩ dạng tập kèm theo đọc giáo trình tại? A phong phú B hữu ích C khơng phù hợp để cải thiện kỹ đọc D đơn điệu (lặp lặp lại) E ý kiến khác (đề nghị ghi rõ) _ Để cải thiện kỹ đọc hiểu của, em có thường xuyên sử dụng tập bổ trợ không? A luôn B thường thường C D không Em sử dụng tập bổ trợ đâu? A lớp B nhà Em nghĩ lợi ích việc sử dụng tập bổ trợ học đọc? Các tập đọc bổ trợ Hồn tồn đồng ý Đồng ý Khơng Khơng Rất khơng biết đồng ý đồng ý làm cho đọc đỡ nhàm chán giúp cải thiện kỹ đọc sinh viên cung cấp cho sinh viên nhiều kiến thức giới cải thiện động lực đọc sinh viên Phần III: Các dạng tập cần thiết phải có tập bổ trợ tiếng Anh chuyên ngành Vui lòng đánh dấu vào dạng tập em nghĩ nên thực hành với việc đọc bổ trợ để nâng cao khả đọc bản thân em Bổ sung thêm ý kiến riêng em em cho cần thiết Các dạng tập đọc STT 1.1 Chọn câu tóm tắt câu chủ đề thích Đọc lướt để lấy ý hợp với đoạn 1.2 Chọn chủ đề thích hợp với khóa Đọc lướt để lấy thơng 2.2 Đọc lướt khóa để lấy thông tin cụ tin cụ thể thể giáo viên yêu cầu trước đọc Nhận biết ý Nhận biết ý đoạn văn khóa 4.1 Sắp xếp lại trật tự đoạn Nhận biết cấu trúc đọc khóa 4.2 Chọn cụm từ câu điền vào chỗ thích hợp đọc Suy luận Xác định thơng tin khơng nói rõ Sử dụng thông tin Điền vào bảng với thơng tin có khóa khóa 7.1 Câu hỏi nhiều lựa chọn Các loại câu hỏi đọc 7.2 Câu trả lời ngắn hiểu 7.3 Câu trả lời dài 8.1 Tóm tắt khóa Các dạng tập khác 8.2 Chọn câu trả lời sai 8.3 Dịch khóa sang tiếng Việt Ý kiến khác (vui lòng _ ghi rõ) _ ... reading exercises for second- year students of nursing, PTMC - investigate and analyze the needs of ESP students of nursing and ESP teachers, PTMC to serve as a practical base for developing ESP supplementary. .. and students 3.1 Suggested exercises for the ESP supplementary reading The ESP supplementary reading exercises are for the second- year students of nursing who want extra practice in reading exercises. .. necessary) thought that ESP supplementary reading exercises were of great importance Optimistically, all the students also saw the importance of ESP supplementary reading exercises 60% of the students