Faculty of Foreign Language

Faculty of Foreign Language

Le Thi Bich Ngoc D06K52 Faculty of Foreign Language Ha Noi University of Technology

should be written at the end of each of lesson to help students understand lesson moreand easier And finally, some methods should be done to check student’s lessoncorrectness

Literature Review

ESP subjects, especially EEE are becoming concerned issues Many people wantto learn it, but they found it really boring and the reading section in some books did notmeet their demand According to Duc Lam (2009), EEE is really difficult The readingsection in book is too basic; they were not up-to-dated They only dealt with issues suchas phenomenon’s related to magnet, or magnetic flux… but it doesn’t explain why theyoccur like that That is the reason why EEE is really boring

According to Anh Kien (2008), in his opinion, the simple method to learn ESP wellis to read many ESP related documents The more they read, the better your ESPknowledge is Moreover, according to DKC05 (2009), learning General English welldoes not mean that learning ESP will be well If one person, who learns English verywell, does not read any catalogs or ESP related books, he / she will not be able tounderstand it well The main reason is that the terms in ESP subjects are very differentfrom the words in the general English In his opinion, learning general English well isonly the foundation for learning ESP well

In other word, people who want to learn ESP subjects well have to spend a lot of timeon reading ESP documents and studying on it ESP subject is not the general English.Their grammar is the same but the vocabulary of ESP subject is more difficult than thegeneral English Therefore, to learn ESP subjects better, learners should have the basicknowledge of general English It is really useful for learn ESP subjects effectively andhelp learns to save more their time

And according to the course requirements in textbook of English for ElectricalEngineering, FOFL’s students have to consolidate and prepare the lesson at homebefore going to school

Furthermore, there is a fact that although students in D06 have mastered thegeneral English, they did not study EEE well Most of them sometimes or never followthese above requirements They seldom read or repair lesson before going to class Theydid not spend a lot of time on studying it From these facts, they could not understandall things learned in class and then, they got bad mark in final test.]

the answers they chose After being designed, this questionnaire survey was tested outon a scale of all students in another FOFL’s class, and 2 pre-coded questions need to beimproved And then, each of students in d06 completed one copy of the questionnaire.After collecting necessary information, the results were analyzed and evaluated Andfinally, the researcher plotted information in diagram and explained in the report

Questionnaire survey is really useful for collecting information which was used forsupporting topic By using this method, researcher can investigate the commondifficulties and advantages students had during the fifth term when they studied EEE.Moreover, the main reason of getting bad mark in the final test will be found quicklyand easily

1 The course requirements in textbook of English for Electrical Engineering:

Before the lesson

- Students are required to prepare for the lesson by doing homework and tasks theirteachers ask them to do

-Students are expected to find materials related to each lesson’s topic to support thelesson

During the lesson

- Students are expected to take full and active participation in all class activities

After lesson

- Students should revise previous lessons regularly

- Students are encouraged to keep their own vocabulary book for EEE terms

- Students should search for materials in different EEE fields to consolidate theirlanguage skills and their EEE knowledge

2 Whether or not student in d06 met difficulties when studying EEE?

Difficulty in studying EEEAlways Sometimes Never No opinion

Chart 2.1

The total of score is: 10 + 12+ 0+ 0 =22

Dividing by the number of respondents, the mean score is: 22: 16 = 1, 375

The Mode = 1

The results of the questionnaire used for ensuring that if the students had difficulties inlearning EEE or not are presented in the chart 2.1 The mean score and the mode arecalculated (SEEE appendix for decoded meanings)

3 Advantages in studying EEE:

chart 3.1

Q4aQ4bQ4cQ4dQ4e

Chart 3.1 illustrates the advantages or interest of learning EEE Q4b and Q4e show the highestlevel of advantages while Q4a makes up the lowest level What Q4a, Q4b or other codes standfor is listed in Summary of Questionnaire Survey attached at the end of the report

4 Difficulties in studying EEE:

chart 4.1

020406080

5 Why students did not get good marks in final test

This chart 5.1 shows the main reason causing the bad marks of students for EEE Theyellow piece shows the highest percentage However, the lowest percentage is invisiblebecause it is 0 % In this chart, yellow is used for Q6a, violet for Q6b, and green is forQ6c SEEE the Summary of Questionnaire Survey attached at the end of the report willshow what stand for Q6a, Q6b…, and other codes

Analysis and discussion :

K52 in FOFL-HUT is the first course applied the credit-based training It meansthat students can choose the subjects they like to learn and shorten their training time

chart 5.1

62.5%

for term of 4.5 years However, they cannot avoid studying ESP subjects Although ESPsubjects including EEE are one of the compulsory subjects, many students, especiallystudents in d06, k52, found EEE difficult The Mean score: 1.375 shows that most ofstudents in d06, k52 found that they always meet difficulties in studying EEE

To help students study EEE well, the material facilities in FOFL have beenimproved, for example, air-conditioner, projector… were installed in some classes Thepurpose of this is to supply students with better environment for studying Beside theadvantages of material facilities, other factors making students interested in EEE arethat teacher is very enthusiastic and EEE connects to their future jobs With 37.5 %students in chart 3.1, it is fact that teacher’s role and future job are really importantfactors building the student’s interest in some subjects including EEE Because EEE is adifficult subject, if students do not find the interested feeling from teacher or otherthings, they will feel bored quickly and do not want to learn it any more

In spite of these above advantages, most students still have many difficulties instudying EEE such as difficult exercises… However, the main difficulties seem thatstudents lack of basic knowledge and there are many terms in each lesson Many peoplethink that FOFL’s students learn ESP subjects very well because they have mastered thegeneral English This ideal is totally wrong General English and ESP subjects havemany differences with each other Their grammar is the same, but their vocabulary isdifferent The term in ESP subjects is much more difficult than one in the generalEnglish, it is not as popular as general English is And it can be said that GeneralEnglish only is the foundation for studying ESP subjects well Moreover, the programFOFL’s students are trained is focused on studying linguistic subjects, therefore, it is

reasonable when they did not have the basic knowledge and met difficulties in studyingterms in EEE However, with the figures in the chart 4.1 (75%), this situation is really aworried problem for quality of training EEE in FOFL, HUT

When being asked how they learnt EEE at home, many students gave variousanswers From the chart 5.1, 43.75% students only learnt it until the test, 31.25% learntit when they had free time and 37.5% only learnt it before one day These figures showthat students in d06, k52, FOFL, HUT did not spend a lot of time on studying EEE.According to the above literature review, ESP subjects are the special one which requirea lot of time to learn If students want to learn it well, they have to read manydocuments related to the ESP subjects It is one of the most effective ways to study EEEwell However, most of students in d06 did not follow this And as a result, they couldnot understand issues or lessons deeply and did not get good marks in the test Theirstate of learning EEE at home is the main reason causing bad score of students

EEE is the difficult subject Although students study in good environment, withthe help from the enthusiastic teacher, they still get difficulties in studying it such aslack of basic knowledge or difficult terms Moreover, in spite of the compulsorysubject, EEE is not spent a lot of time for studying by students

From these facts, some recommendations are given that Faculty or teachershould have solutions for help students consolidate their basic knowledge learned inhigh school Doing homework is very important, therefore, some methods should beapplied to check the students’ correctness of previous and new lesson at home strictly

ESP subjects, especially EEE are very important If students master it well, theywill easily approach the modern science and technology in the world

During the process of conducting this research, the researcher cannot avoid somedifficulties as well as limitations:

 Firstly, the scale of this report is too small It is only studied on thestudents in D06, K52, in FOFL, HUT Therefore, the result of this reportcannot illustrate the situation of learning EEE of all students in FOFLexactly.

 Secondly, the researcher only investigates the advantages , disadvantagesand reasons causing bad marks The solution for this situation is not found.

Therefore, this report is expected to be used for the foundation for the futureresearches which will be studied on another topics which will investigate the solution for thesituation of learning EEE in FOFL, HUT

References

 Pham Thanh Duong, MA; Luong Trung Kien, MA English for Electrical

Engineering Course requirement Ha Noi, 2005, pp ii

 Duc Lam , Phương pháp học ngành Điện, http:

Advantages of studying EEE

Q4a: easy to understand Q4b: enthusiastic teacher Q4c: reality connected content Q4d: attractive context

Q4e: connect to future job

Difficulties in learning EEE

16 10 6 0 0 1 6 4 2

62.5 37.5 0 0

62.5 37.5 25 12.5

Q5a: lack of basic knowledge Q5b:unthusiastic teacher Q5c: many terms

Q5d: difficult exercises Q5e: less homework Q5f: laziness

Q5g: lack of time

learn EEE at home:

Q6a: learn suddenly Q6b: learn when free Q6c: learn before one day Q6d: only learn until the test

Gender:

Male Female

6

12 0

12 5 2 8 1 0 5 6 7 9 7

37.5 75 0 75 31.25 12.5 50 6.25 0 31.25 37.5 43.75 56.25 43.75

2 Table 1: Score of the finale EEE test

Q1: Your score of final EEE test?

e) Connect to future / expected job

Q4: which difficulties did you meet when studying EEE?

a) Lack of basic knowledge

g) Laziness

h) Others:…

Q5: how did you learn EEE at home?

a) Learn suddenly

b) Learn when free

c) Learn before one day

d) Only learn until the test

Q6: Your gender:

a) Male M

b) female F