Factors affecting ESP vocabulary learning by the second year students at university of fire fighting and prevention

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES  PHẠM THỊ THẢO FACTORS AFFECTING ESP VOCABULARY LEARNING BY THE SECOND-YEAR STUDENTS AT UNIVERSITY OF FIRE FIGHTING AND PREVENTION (Những yếu tố ảnh hưởng đến việc học từ vựng tiếng Anh chuyên ngành sinh viên năm thứ hai trường Đại học Phòng cháy Chữa cháy) M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111 Hanoi – 2016 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES  PHẠM THỊ THẢO FACTORS AFFECTING ESP VOCABULARY LEARNING BY THE SECOND-YEAR STUDENTS AT UNIVERSITY OF FIRE FIGHTING AND PREVENTION (Những yếu tố ảnh hưởng đến việc học từ vựng tiếng Anh chuyên ngành sinh viên năm thứ hai trường Đại học Phòng cháy Chữa cháy) M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111 Supervisor: Dr Nguyêñ Huy Ky Hanoi – 2016 DECLARATION This paper is submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for The Degree of Master of Arts in English Teaching Methodology I confirm that this is my own research, and that it has not been published or submitted for any other degrees Hanoi, 2016 Phạm Thị Thảo i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First and foremost, my sincere thanks are due to Dr Nguyễn Huy Kỷ, my supervisor for his continual, invaluable support, encouragement, guidance and ideas I am grateful to all lecturers and the staff of the Faculty of Post-Graduate Studies at University of Languages and International Studies-VNU for their useful lecturers and guidance during my study I must also express my most sincere appreciation to my colleagues and students at University of Fire Fighting and Prevention, who have assisted me with data analysis and useful advice Lastly, my heartfelt gratitude goes to my beloved parents and husband whose constant support and patience have encouraged me through the most difficult times ii ABSTRACT Vocabulary plays an important role in learning a foreign language, especially in learning English for Specific Purposes How to learn vocabulary efficiently is a question to every learner as well as teacher at University of Fire Fighting and Prevention This research was carried out in order to help our students improve their English for Specific Purposes vocabulary learning The aims of this study are to identify factors affecting students‟ English for Specific Purposes vocabulary learning at University of Fire Fighting and Prevention and suggest solutions to teach and learn English for Specific Purposes vocabulary more effectively The study was undertaken with 100 second-year students and teachers On the basic of data analysis, the findings show that the major factors affecting students‟ English for Specific Purposes vocabulary learning of fire and rescue are the intralexical factors, factors from students and teaching methods Some solutions are suggested to deal with these factors including encouraging students to develop their self- study, providing students with different vocabulary learning strategies, and improving teachers‟ techniques in teaching English for Specific Purposes vocabulary It is hoped that the results of this study will help students and teachers at University of Fire Fighting and Prevention learn and teach vocabulary of fire and rescue better iii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ESP: English for Special Purposes EFL: English as a Foreign Language ESL: English as a Second Language GE: General English L1: First Language L2: Second Language UFFP: University of Fire Fighting and Prevention iv LIST OF CHARTS & TABLES Chart 1: Students‟ attitude towards vocabulary learning Chart 2: Students‟ evaluation on learning of ESP vocabulary Chart 3: The element that students find the most difficult in learning fire and rescue vocabulary Chart 4: Students‟ difficulties in learning fire and rescue vocabulary Table 1: Intralexical factors that affect vocabulary learning Table 2: Students‟ purposes of learning ESP vocabulary Table 3: Students‟ ways of learning a new word Table 4: Students‟ ways of learning ESP vocabulary Table 5: Teachers‟ ways of presenting new words Table 6: Students‟ interest in ways of presenting new words Table 7: Students‟ interest in ways of practicing new words Table 8: Students‟ suggestions for better effects on learning fire and rescue vocabulary v TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION………………………………………………………………… i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ………………………………………………………ii ABSTRACT……………………………………………………………………….iii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS…………………………………………………….iv LIST OF CHARTS AND TABLES ………………………………………………v TABLE OF CONTENTS…………………………………………………………vi PART I: INTRODUCTION 1 Rationale Scope of the study Objectives of the study Research questions Methods of the study Design of the study PART II: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 An overview of ESP 1.1.1 Definition of ESP 1.1.2 The roles of ESP teachers 1.2 Vocabulary and ESP vocabulary 1.2.1 Definition of vocabulary 1.2.2 Classification of vocabulary and ESP vocabulary .7 1.2.3 Aspects of word knowing 1.3 Terminology 11 1.3.1 Definition of terminology 11 1.3.2 Characteristics of terminology 11 1.4 Some factors affecting vocabulary acquisition 12 1.4.1 Intralexical factors 12 1.4.2 The influence of first and other languages 13 vi 1.4.3 Vocabulary learning task 1.4.4 Contextualization 1.4.5 Vocabulary learning strategies CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY 2.1 Setting of the study 2.1.1 Students and their background 2.1.2 Teachers and their teaching methods 2.1.3 Teaching materials and facilities 2.2 Participants 2.3 Data collection instruments 2.4 Procedures of data collection and analysis CHAPTER 3: DISCUSSION AND FINDINGS 3.1 Data analysis and discussion of students‟ que 3.2 Data analysis and discussion of teachers‟ inte 3.3 Major findings PART III: CONCLUSION Summary of major findings Concluding remarks Pedagogical implications Limitations of the study Suggestions for further study REFERENCES APPENDIX 1: QUESTIONNAIRE APPENDIX 2: INTERVIEW vii PART I: INTRODUCTION This part provides the background to the study and statement of the problem, the objectives, the research questions, and the scope of the study as well as the methods of the study It also outlines the organization of the thesis Rationale It is undeniable that English is a means of international communication in the fields of science, technology, culture, education, economy, etc It is not only the native language of about 300 million of speakers around the world but also the official language in many countries as well as second/ foreign language in many nations in the world In Vietnam, where people are carrying out the modernization and industrialization, English is becoming more and more important In teaching and learning English as a foreign language in our country, English for Specific Purposes has recently received a great deal of attention In Vietnam, English seems to be taught and studied in non-English environment hence reading is an important means to get knowledge As the result, ESP materials used at most of the universities now are often reading materials with topics in the specific areas and ESP textbook of University of Fire Fighting and Prevention (UFFP) is not an exception “Vocabulary learning has long had a synergistic association with reading; each activity nourishes the other.” (Coady and Huckin, 1997:2) and “Knowing words is the key to understanding and being understood.” (Vermeer 1992: 147), therefore, if one wants to read ESP materials well he needs to learn ESP vocabulary Vocabulary, which is considered as the base of a high building, is indispensable in language learning Teachers who have been teaching English in general and English for Specific Purposes in particular must bear in mind that at the beginning or in the end, vocabulary is always one of the biggest problems At UFFP, teaching and learning ESP vocabulary are really challenging Vocabulary of fire and rescue has long been considered a difficult and boring subject by many students at the university For ESP teachers, correspondingly, it is a difficult task to Finally, my research only applied to my own university context with small number of subjects Thus, its result is not completely universally true Suggestions for further study Teaching and learning English vocabulary in general and fire and rescue vocabulary in particular is a complex process which depends on a lot of other factors So future researchers 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 42 REFERENCES Blum, S and Levenston, C (1978) Lexical Simplification in Second Language Acquisition Cambridge University Press (CUP) Brown, J D., & Rodgers, T S (2002) Doing second language research Oxford: Oxford University Press (OUP) Cabré, M (1999) Terminology: Theory, Methods and Applications John Benjamins Publishing Company Coady, J and Huckin, T (1997) Second Language Vocabulary Acquisition Coady, J and Huckin, T (1999) Incidental vocabulary acquisition in a second language: A review Studies in second Language Acquisition Davies, P and Pearse, E (2000) Success in English Teaching Hong Kong: OUP Decarrico, J S (2001) Vocabulary learning and teaching In Celce-Murca (Ed.), rd Teaching English as a second or foreign language (3 (pp.285 - 300) Dudley-Evans, T., & St John, M (1998), Developments in ESP: A multidisciplinary approach Cambridge: CUP Ellis, R (1994) The Study of Second Language Acquisition Hong Kong: OUP 10 Fraser, S (2005), The Lexical Characteristics of Specialized Texts Retrieved April 22, 2010 from jalt-publications.org/archive/proceedings/2004/E115.pdf 11 Hedge, T (2000) Teaching and Learning in the Language Classroom Hong Kong: OUP 12 Hutchinson, T & Waters, A (1987) English for Specific Purposes CUP 13 Intaraprasert, C (2004) ETAS Students and Vocabulary Learning Strategies: A Preliminary Investigation Unpublished Research, Suranaree University of 14.John, R (2000), Assessing vocabulary, CUP 15 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) 43 16 Litterwood, W (1981), Language Teachers at work, Oxford University Press 17 Lyons, J (1968) Introduction to Theoretical Linguistics London: CUP 18 Nation, P (2001) Learning Vocabulary in Another Language CUP 19 Nguyen, T G (1998) Vietnamese Lexicology Hanoi: Educational Publishing House 20 Nunan, D (1989) Designing Tasks for the communicative Classroom Oxford: OUP 21 Nunan, D (1992) Research methods in language learning Cambridge: CUP 22 Oxford, R (1990) Language Learning Strategies What every Teacher Should Know, Boston: Heinle Publishers 23 Richards, J and John Platt (1992) Longman Dictionary of Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics Essex: Longman 24.Richarts, J & C Lockhart (1994) Reflective Teaching in Second Language Classrooms Cambridge: CUP 25 Ringbom, H (1987) The Role of the First Language in Foreign Language Learning Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters 26 Robinson, P.C (1991), ESP today: A Practitioner‟s Guide New York: Prentice Hall 27 Schmitt, N and McCarthy, M (1997) Vocabulary: Description, Acquisition and Pedagogy UK: CUP 28 Schmitt, N (2000) Vocabulary in Language Teaching Cambridge: CUP 29 Selinger, H.W., and E Shohamy (1989) Second Language Research methods OUP 30 Ur, P (1996) A course in Language teaching – Practice and theory CUP Brace 31 Willing, K (1989) Teaching How to Learn: Learning Strategies Sydney: National Center for English Teaching and Research 32 Williams, M and Robert L Burden (1997) Psychology for Language Teachers: A Social Constructivist Approach CUP 44 APPENDIX 1: QUESTIONNAIRE (ENGLISH VERSION) My name is Pham Thi Thao I am currently conducting my research entitled “Factors affecting ESP vocabulary learning by the second-year students at University of Fire Fighting and Prevention” 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 ● Personal information Sex: □ Female □ Male Age: ………… Live in: ● □ Countryside □ City Did you learn English before entering the university? If yes, when did you start to learn English? If no, which languages did you study? ● In your first year, what is your grade in General English course? How many specialized subjects did you learn before entering ESP course? Question 1: What you think about the role of vocabulary in learning ESP? □ Very important □ Important □ Not important Question 2: What you think about learning vocabulary of fire and rescue? □ Very difficult □ Difficult □ Not difficult Question 3: Why you think that learning vocabulary of fire and rescue is important? □ Because of reading specialized materials in fire and rescue □ Because of enriching vocabulary with technical terms □ Because of communicating with foreigners about fire and rescue I □ Because of passing the exams Question 4: How would you deal with a new word of fire and rescue? □ Try to guess its meaning from the context □ Look it up in the dictionary □ Ask/wait for the teacher to explain it □ Ignore it □ Others Question 5: What methods you often use when you learn ESP vocabulary? □ Using visual aids □ Store new words in notebook and read them everyday □ Write the words in English and Vietnamese □ Write the words in English many times in pieces of paper □ Using words to make sentences □ Write the words and meaning, their synonyms or antonyms □ Other ways (games, internet, TV, radio programs…) Question 6: Which element is the most difficult when learning a new word? □ Its meaning □ Its usage □ Its collocation □ Its pronunciation □ Its stress □ Its spelling Question 7: What you think makes learning fire and rescue vocabulary difficult to you? □ Difficulty in remembering all new words □ Difficulty in finding Vietnamese equivalents □ Difficulty in using words in contexts □ Difficulty in pronouncing correctly II Question 8: How often does your teacher use these following ways to present new words? 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 target language to define the new word Encouraging students guessing the meaning in context Introducing new words in context and giving examples Question 9: Which ways of presenting new words are you interested in? □ 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 target language to define the new word □ Encouraging guessing the meaning in context □ Introducing new words in context and giving examples Question 10: Which way of vocabulary practice you like most? □ Asking and answering questions concerning new words □ Making sentences with the given words □ Filling in the gap □ Completing sentences □ Describing pictures, naming or drawing pictures □ Matching III □ Playing vocabulary games □ Reordering words Question 11: What are your suggestions for better effects on learning vocabulary of fire and rescue? Suggestions Background knowledge of fire and rescue should have been better-equipped before starting the ESP course Class hours for ESP course should be longer Topics of the ESP reading texts should be more related to our future job There should be more post-reading activities to help students with the process of new lexical item recycling and acquisition New vocabulary should be applied in the real context to make it easy to remember Teachers should use various techniques in teaching vocabulary Teachers should provide students with strategies to learn new vocabulary of fire and rescue efficiently Thank you very much for your time and co-operation! IV APPENDIX 2: INTERVIEW A: Interview Questions Question 1: In your opinion, what problems your students encounter when learning ESP vocabulary? Question 2: What factors make teaching and learning vocabulary of fire and rescue difficult? Question 3: Which techniques and activities you usually apply to teach vocabulary? Question 4: What you suggest to better the current vocabulary teaching and learning situation? B: Interview Transcript Teacher (T1) Interviewer: In your opinion, what problems your students encounter when learning ESP vocabulary? Interviewee: I think the first problem they face is that they not have time to learn vocabulary because they concentrate on their specialized 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 Interviewer: What factors make teaching and learning vocabulary of fire and rescue difficult? Interviewee: The first factor is students‟ vocabulary learning strategies When learning new words, they still use traditional ways such as write words with meaning in Vietnamese then learn by heart Students only focus on meaning and spelling while collocation, word usage are not paid attention The second factor is teachers‟ method Teachers don‟t apply various techniques and activities in teaching ESP vocabulary, which may have negative effects on students‟ vocabulary acquisition V Interviewer: What techniques and activities you often apply to teach ESP vocabulary? Interviewee: For presenting new words, I 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 For practice, 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 teach students how to guess meaning of words 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 Teaching facilities of the university should be upgraded 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 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 specialized knowledge Interviewer: What factors make teaching and learning vocabulary of fire and rescue difficult? VI Interviewee: In my opinion, the most common factor is vocabulary learning strategies of students They just learn by heart new words and don‟t spend time on learning word usage, pronunciation and word collocation They aren‟t active and seem to be passive in vocabulary lessons because they don‟t self-study before going to class, depend on teachers for explaining new words Class size is another factor that affects students‟ ESP vocabulary learning There are too many students in one class so it is very hard for teachers to manage and teach them all We need more time to practice vocabulary but big class size is the factor that needs to take into consideration Interviewer: What techniques and activities you often use to teach ESP vocabulary? Interviewee: I often present new words by: Asking students to read new words after them, and then translating into Vietnamese - Using 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 helping students remember words for a long time 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 and number of students in class should be reduced Teacher (T3) Interviewer: In your opinion, what problems your students encounter when learning ESP vocabulary? VII Interviewee: One of the first difficulties that students encounter when learning ESP is that they lack the background knowledge about the specific fields since they have just been introduced a little before the ESP course Hence, the number of glossary challenges them a lot There are some words that they don‟t even understand their literal meanings, let alone their meanings in ESP How to remember and use new vocabulary in different contexts is another problem that students claim when they learn ESP They find it really challenging when translating the text from English into Vietnamese and vice versa Interviewer: What you think makes teaching and learning vocabulary of fire and rescue difficult? Interviewee: In my opinion, the first reason to mention is that there are a bunch of difficult words or terms of fire and rescue fields which challenge a person with a good command of English without knowing about the specific fields The second reason is from the learners themselves They don‟t really have a right strategy for learning vocabulary They just learn the words separately without putting them into the sentences to really understand the way to use them in the contexts Moreover, not many students care about the pronunciation but the meanings of the words A majority of students are passive in their learning They just wait for the teachers to introduce the words without self-studying before or after class Interviewer: Which techniques and activities you usually apply to teach vocabulary? Interviewee: When introducing new words, I often provide them with the meanings of the words as well as giving examples to illustrate Students are asked to say the words after my instruction for pronunciation Sometimes, I also have them guess the meanings of the words in contexts so that they not have to depend on dictionary all the time Students are asked to the vocabulary exercises such as gap-filling, sentence building, matching, or play vocabulary games or even the extensive reading to widen their range of vocabulary VIII Interviewer: What you suggest to better the current vocabulary teaching and learning situation? Interviewee: My first suggestion is about the teachers ourselves We need to make a survey and analyze each class before a teaching method which is considered suitable is decided to be applied, which is possible to increase motivation among students in the vocabulary learning process Students should be supplied with some kinds of different strategies to learn vocabulary effectively, which makes it easier for them to self-study at home Time allocation for the ESP course should be extended so that both teachers and students have more time to study and practice vocabulary as well as other skills Teacher (T4) Interviewer: In your opinion, what problems your students encounter when learning ESP vocabulary? Interviewee: One of the most common problems of ESP students in learning ESP vocabulary is their lack of real-life knowledge In other words, they lack their experience and knowledge in the particular fields; hence they cannot access the true meaning of the word by themselves Another problem comes when students have to deal with loads of vocabulary topics, they may be overloaded, and not find out the appropriate ways of learning Interviewer: Which factors make teaching and learning vocabulary of fire and rescue difficult? Interviewee: At first, fire and rescue should be considered the engineering field Honestly, the vocabulary in this field is often seen too tough for even a very good English user People who are able to communicate well in English may not be very bad at one particular aspect of life such as technology, medicine, or economics Therefore, for someone who finds no passion to the field would not be interested in learning this ESP vocabulary Besides, our students don‟t have appropriate ways of learning, improper vocabulary learning strategies, so they seem to be passive in class and depend on teachers IX Interviewer: Which techniques and activities you usually apply to teach vocabulary? Interviewee: When presenting new words, I often translate them into Vietnamese then write them on the board or show on slides I think it is necessary for students to understand and remember those words Sometimes, I use mind map, it is a useful tool to activate the students‟ prior knowledge and connect the events as well as broaden students‟ mind For practice, I give students vocabulary exercises like matching, gap filling or sentence completing Interviewer: What you suggest to better the current vocabulary teaching and learning situation? Interviewee: The vocabulary teaching and learning situation is mostly affected by the perception and professional skills of teachers Though the methods of teaching are diverse, the problem is WHAT and HOW ESP teachers really in class I suggest the teachers shouldn‟t separate the vocabulary from other skills Hence, their students can find more motivated when they learn vocabulary X ... for the second- year students, as a result, the title of the minor thesis goes as: ? ?Factors affecting ESP vocabulary learning by the second- year students at University of Fire Fighting and Prevention. ”... Scope of the study The study mainly focuses on the investigation of factors most affecting ESP vocabulary learning by the second- year students at University of Fire Fighting and Prevention, and then... investigating the situation of students' ESP vocabulary learning and acquisition at UFFP, we can come to a conclusion that 36 teaching and learning ESP vocabulary of fire and rescue at UFFP is