Dificulties in memorizing ESP vocabulary in the couse book english for finance faced by the second year non english major students at the academy of finance and some suggested solutions

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ***************** PHẠM THỊ TÂM DIFICULTIES IN MEMORIZING ESP VOCABULARY IN THE COURSE BOOK “ENGLISH FOR FINANCE” FACED BY THE SECOND-YEAR NON-ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT THE ACADEMY OF FINANCE AND SOME SUGGESTED SOLUTIONS ( Những khó khăn mà sinh viên năm thứ hai không chuyên tiếng Anh học viện tài gặp phải ghi nhớ từ vựng tiếng Anh chuyên ngành số giải pháp) M.A MINOR THESIS Field: English Linguistics Code: 602215 Ha Noi – 2012 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ***************** PHẠM THỊ TÂM DIFICULTIES IN MEMORIZING ESP VOCABULARY IN THE COURSE BOOK “ENGLISH FOR FINANCE” FACED BY THE SECOND-YEAR NON-ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT THE ACADEMY OF FINANCE AND SOME SUGGESTED SOLUTIONS ( Những khó khăn mà sinh viên năm thứ hai khơng chun tiếng Anh học viện tài gặp phải ghi nhớ từ vựng tiếng Anh chuyên ngành số giải pháp) M.A MINOR THESIS Field: English Linguistics Code: 602215 Supervisor: Le The Nghiep, M.A Ha Noi - 2012 iv LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS Tables: No Title Students‟ opinion on the language in Students‟ opinion on their teachers‟ Students‟ opinion on their own voca No Students‟ vocabulary memorizing st Title The comparison between used strate v LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AOF: Academy Of Finance EFL: English as a Second Language EOP: English for Occupational Purposes EAP: English for Academic Purposes ESP: English for Specific Purposes L2: second language C.O.D: cash on delivery S.W.I.F.T: Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications GHQ: General Headquarters LBO: leveraged buyout vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Candidate‟s statement ……………………………………………………………………… i Acknowledgements …………………………………………………………… ii Abstract…………………………………………………………………………… iii List of tables and charts …………………………………………………… iv List of abbreviations………………………………………………………………………… v Table of contents…………………………………………………………………………… vi PART A: INTRODUCTION The rationale of the study The aims of the study Research questions The scope of the Study The method of the Study The design of the Study .2 PART B: DEVELOPMENT .3 CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW .3 1.1 Vocabulary in second language learning and teaching 1.1.1 Definitions of vocabulary 1.1.2 The status of vocabulary in language teaching and learning 1.1.3 Main characteristics of vocabulary in business context 1.2 Vocabulary memorization 1.2.1 Memorization 1.2.2 Vocabulary memorizing 1.2.3 Factors afecting ESP vocabulary memorizing 11 1.2.3.1 Word related factors 11 1.2.3.2 Learner-s related factors 12 1.2.3.3 Teacher- related factors 13 1.2.3.4 Learning context 13 CHAPTER 2: THE INVESTIGATION .15 2.1 The context of teaching and learrning ESP vocabulary in “Englisf for Finance” at the AOF 15 2.1.1 A description of the course book and the syllabus 15 2.1.2 The second-year non-English major students 16 2.1.3 The teachers and their methods of teaching 17 vii 2.2 Research methodology 17 2.2.1 Research questions 17 2.2.2 The participants .18 2.2.3 Data collection instruments .18 2.2.4 Data collection procedure 18 2.2.5 Data collection procedure 18 2.3 Data analysis and discussion 19 2.3.1 Discussion of the results 19 2.3.1.1 The results collected by questionnaire on the target language input 19 2.3.1.2 The results collected by questionnaire on the teachers’ vocabulary teaching methods 21 2.3.1.3 The results collected by questionnaire on students’ vocabulary learning 23 2.3.2 Major findings 29 2.4 Some suggested solutions 30 2.4.1 Material writers and curriculum developers 30 2.4.2 Teachers 30 2.4.3 Students 31 PART C: CONCLUSION .32 Conclusion 34 Limitations of the study 35 Suggestions for further study 35 REFERENCES………………………………………………………………………………I APPENDIX…………………………………………………………………………………IV APPENDIX 1……………………………………………………………………………… V APPENDIX 2……………………………………………………………………………….VII APPENDI 3……………………………………………………………………………… VIII APPENDIX 4……………………………………………………………………………… XII APPENDIX 5…………………………………………………………………………… XIII APPENDIX 6…………………………………………………………………………… XVI PART A: INTRODUCTION The rationale of the study More and more Vietnamese people are becoming aware of the importance of English, which is due to the increasingly global communications in the English language However, it is known that words play an indispensable role in human communication Without words, the language would be inane, just as a building cannot be constructed without bricks The methods for learning and teaching English vocabulary well are always heatedly discussed in Vietnam on purpose of helping teachers and students teach, learn and then acquire English vocabulary at an ease, for example, Quach Thi Mai (2007), Nguyen Thu Huong (2008) and many other authors It is still quite a problem Learners face difficulties in vocabulary learning in general and memorizing in particular Memorizing vocabulary has been discussed a lot in the foreign context, however, in Vietnam it is still a potential to exploit Many Vietnamese students experience considerable difficulties in learning vocabulary because of word nature, lack of time, learning strategies, motivation and so on Having worked with the course book “English for Finance” by Cao Xuan Thieu, the Financial Publishing House (2008) and examined many oral final tests of the secondyear non-English major students at the AOF for several years, the researcher has noticed a number of problems faced by students here These problems still exist in the process of learning ESP vocabulary when many of the students could not even give a simple answer or speak a simple sentence They find it hard to remember, to correctly pronounce and use vocabulary Many students confide to the researcher that they spend lots of time learning vocabulary but they can remember only few words they have learnt As a result, English vocabulary becomes very challenging and threatening for them in learning English for specific purposes at university These reasons urge the researcher to find out the difficulties in memorizing ESP vocabulary faced by the second-year non-English major students at the AOF and the possible solutions to help students improve their vocabulary memorization 2 The aims of the study The study aims at finding out the difficulties in memorizing ESP vocabulary faced by the nd year non-English major students and then suggesting some solutions to help the learners memorize ESP vocabulary better Research questions The study is done to find out the answers for the two research questions: (1) What are the nd year non-English major students’ difficulties in memorizing ESP vocabulary in the textbook “English for Finance”? (2) What are the possible solutions to help the learners memorize ESP vocabulary better? The scope of the Study The study limits itself to the investigation of difficulties in memorizing ESP vocabulary faced by the second-year non-English major students at the AOF when working with the course book “English for Finance” by Cao Xuan Thieu and his colleagues at the English faculty of the AOF (2008) It also tries to seek for possible solutions to the current problems The method of the Study The study adopts the combination of both qualitative and quantitative research methods This means that all comments, findings and suggestions given in the thesis are based on firstly analyzing the results of questionnaire obtained from 100 second-year non-English major students at the AOF, secondly on analyzing the information gathering from formal interviews with 16 teachers from the English faculty of the AOF The design of the Study The study is composed of three parts The first part, Introduction, provides the rationale, aims, scopes, and method of the study, which offers readers an overview of how the research idea is generated, what its goals are, and what research methodology is adopted The second part, Development, is divided into two chapters The first chapter, Literature Review, provides the theoretical background for the study It focuses on the second language vocabulary learning, and some factors affecting vocabulary memorizing The second chapter, Investigation, is the main part of the study It reports the collection and analysis of the data and major findings of the study The last part, Conclusion, summarizes the findings, draws teaching implications, states the limitation of the research, and offers suggestions for further research III 39 Thornbury, Scott (2002) How to Teach Vocabulary Longman Dictionaries: Longman Business English Dictionary (2007), Longman Longman Dictionary of Language Teaching & Applied Linguistics, (1999), Longman Oxford Business English Dictioary (2005), Oxford University Press Tu Dien Kinh Te – Kinh Doanh Anh – Viet (2000), Nguyen Duc Dy & et al, Science and Technics Publishing House IV APPENDIX QUESTIONNAIRE FOR STUDENTS This survey questionnaire is designed for my study on Difficulties in memorizing at the Academy of Finance and some suggested solutions” I hope you will take into consideration and answer all questions seriously Your opinion will be helpful for my study and then help students memorize ESP vocabulary better Thank you very much for your help Please, answer the following questions by circling suitable answers or writing if necessary I Personal information Sex: ………… Age: … ………… Residence: Major: …………………………… A Countryside Did you learn English before entering at AOF? B City A Yes B No If no, which language did you learn? ………………………………………… II Students’ opinion on ESP vocabulary in the course book Topics of reading texts are… to your own knowledge A unfamiliar B familiar C very familiar According to you, reading texts contain… new vocabulary items There are….phrases, compounds in each unit New vocabulary items are…repeated in the next units Meanings of vocabulary items are… A very familiar B familiar C unfamiliar There are….vocabulary practice exercises in each unit Vocabulary practice exercises in each unit are… A interesting B neutral C boring III Students’ opinion on their teachers’ vocabulary teaching Your teacher spends……… time presenting new vocabulary items A much B sufficient C little V Your teacher………teaches you to pronounce new vocabulary items A often 10 B sometimes C rarely Your teacher… tests your learned vocabulary items A often B sometimes C rarely 11 Your teacher trains you in memorizing new Vocabulary items? 12 Your teacher‟s vocabulary presenting ways are…… A very interesting 13 B interesting C boring What techniques for presenting new words does your teacher often use? (you can choose more than one option) A using visual aids B saying the words clearly and writing them on the board C translating all the words into Vietnamese D using mimes, gestures, and facial expressions E using target language to define the new words F other ways (please specify)……… IV Students’ opinion on their own vocabulary learning 14 You feel it……….to study ESP vocabulary A interesting 15 B neutral C boring You are…in learning vocabulary during class lessons 16 You… use new vocabulary items to discuss and communicate during class and after- class time A often 17 B sometimes C rarely Memorizing ESP vocabulary items is… A difficult B neutral 18 You learn ESP vocabulary at home… A everyday B after each lesson C sometimes (example, before tests) 19 Which vocabulary strategies you often use to memorize vocabulary? A Connect words to personal experience C easy VI B Use synonyms or antonyms C Connect new words with known words D etc Group words on topics such as: kinds of banks, branches of economics, E Make sentences with new words F Write down all new words in a notebook and learn them G Rote- learn words and their Vietnamese equivalents H Review new words periodically I Do word test J Study and practice the meaning through group work (e.g test each other‟s vocabulary) K Others (specify)………… 20 Your most effective strategies are………… (write the letters on the twentieth question)…………………………………… Thank you! VII APPENDIX QUESTIONS FOR TEACHERS’ INTERVIEW nd What problems you have when teaching ESP vocabulary to the - year students at the AOF? What you think about ESP vocabulary in the course book “English for Finance” in terms of:- relevance to students‟ major - number of vocabulary items - vocabulary practice exercises What problems you find from your students‟ vocabulary memorization when working with the book “English for Finance”? What techniques and activities you often use to present new words? a using visual aids (objects, pictures,…) b saying the words clearly and write them on the board c translating all the words into Vietnamese d using mimes, gestures, and facial expressions e using target language to define the new words f other ways (please specify)………………………………… What techniques and activities you often use to help your students to review and memorize the taught words? a making sentences with words b completing sentences c filling in the gaps d choosing the words that have the nearest meaning to the given words e matching words f reordering words g asking and answering questions h discussing i playing games j other ways (please specify)…………………………………… What recommendations should be made to improve your students‟ vocabulary memorizing? VIII APPENDIX Some suggested activities for teachers’ applying to teaching vocabulary (Adapted from Ur (1996), Gairns, R and Redman, S (2004), Kate Kinsella (2005), Steven Stahl & Barbara Kapinus, 2001) Brainstorming round an idea - introduce new vocabulary or check learnt vocabulary items Goal: Procedures: - Write a single word in the centre of the board - Ask students to brainstorm all the words they can think of that are connected with it - Ask several students come to the board and write down the words they think/ call as many students as possible at random say out the words and write down as example above with the word price Identifying words we know Goal: to introduce the vocabulary of a new reading passage Procedures: - Give students new texts (or texts in the course book) IX - Ask students to underline or mark with fluorescent pens all the words they know - Then ask students work in pairs or in three to compare: a student who knows something not known to his friends teaches it to them Then they try to get the meanings of the remaining unmarked items - Bring the class together to hear the results, check guesses and teach new items where necessary Random items Goal: for students‟ vocabulary revision Procedures: - Write on the board a number of vocabulary items (learnt items in previous lessons) - Jumble the words (not appear in categories) - Ask students to work alone to categorize the items into or groups (more effective if teacher lets students make their own decision on which categories and then explain their choices) Word Card Activities Procedures: - Sort the word cards by category (e.g., words related to people, words related to things) - Find words that have certain connotations such as positive and negative, good and bad, desirable and undesirable - Sort words by part of speech (e.g., N, V, Adv, Adj) - Make sentences using pairs of words - Group words and then explain basis of groupings Filling gaps Goal: Help review vocabulary and summarize the contents of the reading texts Procedures: - Write down on the blackboard the chart - Ask students close their books and this one in several minutes - Ask one students come to blackboard to fill in X - Ask another one to stand in front of the class and make a presentation on money basing on that information Money - Ask these others listen to and then correct information - Give students comment on their work and then correct the table - Ask the other one using the correct information to make another presentation Hints: - This kind of activity should be used at the beginning to check old lessons or at the end of the lesson to consolidate the information Money Word Form Chart Goal: help students consolidate and build more vocabulary with its origin - Give students a verb, noun or adjective of each word and then ask them to find out the other related words origin from the given word to fill in the chart - Ask them to work in pairs and then compare - Ask them to explain the meanings of the words in English to their partners - Call students to blackboard to fill in - Call several students to explain meanings of the words during their friend‟s work XI on blackboard - Then correct the information and ask students chorally pronounce the words Noun Bankruptcy Supply supplier Investment Investor Finance Economics Economy Economist Four-Square Vocabulary - Dictate the word to be taught and have students record in square - Describe the word - Have students suggest examples of the word and record a number of examples - Have students provide non-examples of the concept and record of number of non-examples - Finally, have students write a definition of the concept XII APPENDIX English vocabulary test (30 minutes) I For each of the following words, write a sentence that makes its meaning clear (3 pts) fiscal policy stock exchange contractionary deposit equity venture capital …………………………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………………………… …………… II Match the words on the left with their definitions on the right (3 pts) Pension Inheritance tax Disability allowance Child benefit Saving account Interest III Teacher dictates these following words, the students write down (2 pts) profitability, permanent, fluctuation, inventory, over- stringent, negotiate IV Teacher dictates these following Vietnamese words, the students write down English words (2 pts) Tiền gửi không kỳ hạn, trung gian tài chính, thâm hụt thương mại, sách tài khóa thắt chặt, kinh tế tồn cầu, tài sản, ban giám đốc, thị trường chứng khoán thứ cấp The end! (Adapted from Cambridge University Press 1996 in “A course in language teaching Ur, P (1996 XIII APPENDIX VOCABULARY-TESTING TECHNIQUES Example Choose the letter of the item which is the nearest in meaning to the word in italics: He was reluctant to answer a unprepared b unwilling c refusing d slow Example Choose the letter of the definition which comes closest in meaning to the word elated a Ready and willing b Tending to talk a lot c Tense and excited d In high spirits Example Draw lines connecting the pairs of opposites A B brave awake female expensive cheap succeed asleep cowardly male fail Example Which of the prefixes in column A can combine with which of the words in column B? Write out the complete words A B Over human Trans national Super flow Dis form Inter infect Example Underline the odd one out: shareholder, stock, ownership, security, demand XIV Example For each of the following words write a sentence that makes its meaning clear Financial intermediary Fiscal policy Benefit deposit Example (The teacher dictates the words from Example 6, the students write them down.) Example (The teacher dictates the mother-tongue equivalent of the words in Example 6, the students write down the target-language versions.) Example 9: Match the definitions in column B to the words in column A: A Salary Asset Depreciation Cash flow Tax accounting Cost accounting Profit XV Internal audit Example 10: Complete the gaps with one of the words from this box: dumping, competitive, employment, quotas, competition, employ, unemployment People are worried about the rise in ……………………………………… The new factory has provided opportunities of……………… for local people Government………………….limit the import of luxury cars to just 200 each year We can‟t compete with their prices; they must be…… their goods to put us out of business Our prices are no longer…………… ; we have to cut costs somehow Example 11: (Students are given sentences in the mother tongue to translate into the target language or vice verse) Các doanh nghiệp thường có báo cáo tài hang năm Báo cáo thu nhập cho biết khoản chi tiêu khoản kiếm Bảng cân đối tình hình tài cho biết tình hình tài công ty thời điểm cụ thể, thường ngày cuối năm tài khóa Loại báo cáo thứ 3, báo cáo thay đổi tình hình tài chính, cho biết luồng tiền vào doanh nghiệp Example 12: Finish the following sentences: I feel depressed when… I never have an appetite when… It was a great relief when… (Adapted from Cambridge University Press 1996 in “A course in language teaching Ur, P (1996)”) XVI APPENDIX VOCABULARY MEMORIZING STRATEGIES Oxford (1990) presents techniques for the retention of language input: a) b) grouping language material into meaningful units; associating new language information to concepts already in memory; c) placing new words into a context, such as meaningful sentences; d) using semantic mapping; e) using keywords with auditory and/or visual links; f) representing sounds in memory for link with a target language word; g) reviewing the target language material in carefully spaced intervals; h) acting out a new target language expression; i)using mechanical techniques, such as writing words on cards Schmitt (2000) adds some suggestions for memory strategies that have, according to the author, been shown effective: a) pictures - pairing L2 words with pictures; b) imagery - associating L2 words with images created by the learner, usually associated with a personal experience; c) etc; d) related words, with sense relationship, such as synonymy, antonymy, unrelated words that rhyme; e) grouping of words that belong to each meaning category, such as animals, etc; f) word‟s orthographical or phonological form; g) structural analysis such as word‟s affixes; h) paraphrasing, since it improves recall of the word due to the manipulation effort involved; i) analysis of the individual words of the multi-word chunks; j)physical action; k) semantic feature grids that illustrate the meaning or collocational differences between sets of similar words ... CHAPTER THE INVESTIGATION 2.1 The context of the teaching and learning ESP vocabulary in ? ?English for Finance? ?? at the AOF 2.1.1 A description of the course book and the syllabus ? ?English for Finance? ??... description of the study together with the findings and some suggested solutions for second-year non -English major students? ?? better ESP vocabulary memorizing when working with the course book ? ?English for. .. memorizing faced by the second-year non -major students when working with the course book ? ?English for Finance? ?? at the Academy of Finance It was conducted in the light of qualitative method combined