Khó khăn trong việc đọc hiểu tài liệu khóa học tiếng anh chuyên ngành của nhóm sinh viên năm ba khoa tài chính ngân hàng đại học kinh tế quốc dân

ĐẠI HỌC QUỐC GIA HÀ NỘI TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ KHOA SƯ PHẠM TIẾNG ANH KHÓA LUẬN TỐT NGHIỆP KHÓ KHĂN TRONG VIỆC ĐỌC HIỂU TÀI LIỆU KHÓA HỌC TIẾNG ANH CHUYÊN NGÀNH CỦA NHÓM SINH VIÊN NĂM BA KHOA TÀI CHÍNH NGÂN HÀNG, ĐẠI HỌC KINH TẾ QUỐC DÂN Giáo viên hướng dẫn : Thạc sĩ Nguyễn Thanh Thủy Sinh viên : Nguyễn Đức Trung Khóa : QH2016.F1.E1 Hà Nội, 2020 ACCEPTANCE I hereby state that I: Nguyễn Đức Trung, QH16E1, being a candidate for the degree of Bachelor of Arts (TEFL) accept the requirements of the university relating to the retention and use of Bachelor’s graduation paper deposited in the library In terms of these conditions, I agree that the origin of my paper deposited in the library should be accessible for the purposes of study and research, in accordance with the normal conditions established by the librarian for care, loan or reproduction of the paper Signature May 11th 2020 i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS In completion of this study, first of all, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Ms Nguyen Thanh Thuy Without her, this thesis would not have been completed Ms Thuy did not only give me valuable and professional suggestions, but she also showed endless mental support to help me accomplish this thesis I will appreciate this invaluable opportunity of working with her forever My sincere appreciation also goes to all the staff, teachers at the Faculty of English Language Teacher Education, University of Languages and International Studies for their fast updates and professional services I also want to acknowledge the enthusiastic participation of the students and the lecturers Despite this pandemic, they were still willing to spend their time sharing their invaluable perceptions Last but not least, I am immensely grateful to receive so much heartwarming support from my family, friends and classmates of 16E1, which motivated me to persist doing this thesis ii ABSTRACT In Vietnam, reading comprehension in ESP in tertiary education is still a newly investigated field in the big scheme of ELT In this study, the researcher aimed to investigate the difficulties in reading comprehension faced by junior students majoring in Banking and Finance at National Economics University (NEU), identify the causes and suggest practical solutions, based on the perspectives of the students who have finished this course recently and the lecturers in charge of teaching this course To achieve these objectives, the researcher used a combination of two data collection instruments, namely questionnaire and semi-structured interviews with the focus on the interviews The researcher received the responses from 35 voluntary students and successfully conducted interviews with five students and three lecturers The findings show that during the ESP course, the top five common difficulties belonged to the areas of vocabulary and motivation Moreover, the majority of the participating students did not struggle in the area of grammar and materials Causes of the common difficulties suggested strategies and solutions were offered and discussed to facilitate the students‟ ESP reading iii TABLE OF CONTENT ACCEPTANCE i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii ABSTRACT iii LIST OF FIGURES vi LIST OF TABLES vi LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS vii CHAPTER INTRODUCTION I Statement of the problem and rationale of the study II Aims and research questions of the study III Scope of the study IV.Significance of the study V Methodology of the study VI Organization of the paper CHAPTER LITERATURE REVIEW I Key concepts English for Specific Purposes 1.1 History of ESP 1.2 Classification of ESP Reading and reading comprehension in ESP 10 2.1 Reading 10 2.2 Reading comprehension process 11 2.3 Models of Reading comprehension 13 2.4 Factors contributing to the development of reading comprehension 15 II Related studies 16 Review of related studies on elicitation 16 Review of related studies in Vietnam 17 CHAPTER METHODOLOGY 20 I Research setting 20 II Participants 22 III Data collection instruments 23 Questionnaire 23 1.1 Reasons for choosing questionnaire 23 iv 1.2 Format and content 23 1.3 Procedure 25 Interview 25 2.1 Reasons for choosing interview 25 2.2 Format and content 26 2.3 Procedure 27 IV Data collection procedure 27 V Data analysis procedure 29 VI Ethical consideration 29 CHAPTER FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 30 I Research question 1: What are the difficulties in comprehending the reading materials in the ESP course as perceived by the students? 30 II Research question 2: What are the difficulties in comprehending the reading materials in the ESP course as perceived by the course lecturers? 39 III Research question 3: What are the causes of difficulties in reading comprehension encountered by students in the ESP course? 41 IV Research question 4: What are the suggested solutions to such difficulties as proposed by the students and the course lecturers to improve reading comprehension of the reading materials in the ESP course? 42 CHAPTER CONCLUSION 44 I Major findings of the study 44 II Pedagogical implications 46 III Contributions of the study 46 IV Limitations of the study 47 V Suggestions for further studies 48 REFERENCES .viii APPENDICES .xiii APPENDIX ESP course book‟s table of content xiii APPENDIX Questionnaire for Students xvii APPENDIX Interview questions for students xxvii APPENDIX Interview questions for teachers xxix v LIST OF FIGURES Figure ESP Classification by experience Figure Types of ESP (Hutchinson, 1987, p.16) Figure ESP Classification by professional areas Figure A Heursitic for conceptualizing about reading comprehension 12 Figure Expanded Reader-Text-Activity-Context model 13 Figure Level of processing in reading comprehension 14 Figure Sources of reading comprehension 16 Figure Six areas of reading comprehension (Tran and Duong, 2017) 19 Figure Difficulties in the area of vocabulary 30 Figure 10 Difficulties in the area of text coverage 32 Figure 11 Difficulties in the area of background knowledge 32 Figure 12 Difficulties in the area of text structure 33 Figure 13 Difficulties in the area of grammar 34 Figure 14 Difficulties in the area of motivation 35 Figure 15 Difficulties in the area of timing 36 Figure 16 Difficulties in the area of materials 37 Figure 17 Top five most common difficulties in ESP reading comprehension 38 Figure 18 Top five least common difficulties in ESP reading comprehension 39 LIST OF TABLES Table Table of content of Part in the course book 21 Table Content of the survey 25 Table Timeline for data collection procedure Error! Bookmark not defined vi LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS EAP English for Academic Purposes EBE English for Business and Economics EFL English as Foreign Language ESP English for Special/ Specific Purposes EOP English for Occupational Purposes NEU National Economics University vii CHAPTER INTRODUCTION This initial chapter describes the research problem rationale for the study followed by the research objectives, scope and significance of the paper Specifically, four research questions are identified as the guideline for the whole study The chapter concludes with an overview of the paper’s organization I Statement of the problem and rationale of the study Globalization has made an impact on every aspect of contemporary society, creating the pressing need for a common language of communication to eliminate the interlingua and intercultural barriers among nations Undoubtedly, English has become such language or the "lingua franca" of global communications in all fields (Lehtonen, 2004) Acknowledging the ongoing process of globalization, thousands of multinational corporations are expanding their influence and presence in developing countries and creating more job opportunities Consequently, more working situations require the use of English in various domains, especially economics In an attempt to tackle the problem of language barriers, ESP courses have been designed to satisfy the needs of learning English for such occupational situations and also to the continually changing requirements of the labour market Moreover, ESP courses aim to fulfil learners‟ ever-changing needs and the working requirements of their professions and academics environments (Basturkmen, 2010) In the context of Viet Nam, ESP courses have become in high demand, and one of the pioneers in teaching ESP is National Economics University (NEU) At NEU, a variety of ESP courses are offered for students from different domains, namely business, accounting, finance, and banking Among all the ESP courses in NEU, English for Banking and Finance course is a mandatory course as well as the only ESP course that all students majoring in English for Banking and Finance have to enrol before starting their internship in their senior year This ESP course is expected to equip students with essential aspects of Banking and in English, with the hope to prepare for their internship as well as their career Understanding the importance of this ESP course, the research was curious about the perspectives of students who have just finished their semesters in the first semester of the school year 2019-2020 As believed by a lot of researchers, reading is the most important skill of all four skills (Carrel, Devine, & Eskey, 1998; Richards and Renandya, 2002) To facilitate this skill, like any other ESP course, the “English for Banking and Finance” course provides many academic reading texts with a variety of topics related to Banking and Finance with a view to helping students gain a broader range of knowledge about their major, in the global English language However, several students whom the researcher interacted with confessed that they found it very daunting to fully understand the reading texts in their ESP coursebook despite various efforts In other words, they struggled in comprehending the ESP texts in the coursebook, which hindered them from successfully achieving the learning goal of the course Besides, in terms of research, few attempts have been made to address the difficulties in reading comprehension of students in ESP courses in tertiary education in Viet Nam, especially at NEU Recent ESP studies that have been conducted in NEU mainly focus on different aspects of an ESP course such as course evaluation rather than reading comprehension (Chu, 2018) All the conditions, henceforth, have offered the researcher a chance to conduct the study on the “difficulties in reading comprehension in ESP course of a group of third-year students majoring in Finance and Banking in National Economics University.” II Aims and research questions of the study First of all, the study aims to investigate the difficulties faced by a group of third-year students in their English for Banking and Finance course at National Economics University Moreover, through the findings revealing the challenges students experienced in terms of comprehending reading materials, the study hopes to propose some recommendations for Terminology References UNIT 2: PARTICIPANTS IN SECURITIES MARKET Reading Exercises Translation Terminology References PART 7: INSURANCE UNIT 1: INSURANCE BUSINESS Reading Exercises Translation Terminology References UNIT 2: INSURANCE PRODUCTS Reading Exercises Translation Terminology References TERMINOLOGY LIST OF REFERENCES xvi APPENDIX Questionnaire for Students My name is Nguyen Duc Trung I am a senior student from class 16E1 – Faculty of English Language Teacher Education (FELTE), University of Language and International Studies For my graduation thesis, I am currently conducting a study, which investigates difficulties that Banking and Finance-majored students encountered in reading comprehension of English materials in their “English for Banking and Finance” course at National Economics Universities (NEU) I would like to ask for your help by answering the following questions The study focuses on the reading texts in the course book of “English for Banking and Finance” course at NEU and does not include the reading texts in the additional materials provided by the lecturers due to the fact that different classes were provided with different extra materials designed by each lecturer This is not a test, so there are not “right” or “wrong” answers Please give your answers sincerely as only your honesty will guarantee the success of the investigation Results of this survey will be used for research purposes only, so your personal information will be kept confidential The contact information will only be used to contact you to schedule an interview for more details about the challenges you faced If you have any further questions or clarification on this study, please contact me through this email: trungulis98@gmail.com Thank you very much for your support! xvii Part Background information Name: ……………………………………………………………………… Email: ……………………………………………………………………… Facebook: ………………………………………………………………… Contact: …………………………………………………………………… Class: ……………………………………………………………………… Which level of English proficiency would you judge yourself to be at? a Beginner – Pre-intermediate (A1 – A2 levels) b Intermediate (B1 level) c Upper-intermediate – Advanced (B2 – C1 levels) How much time ON AVERAGE you spend reading the texts in the course book of “English for Banking and Finance” course and other English texts related to your major of Banking and Finance? a one to three hours a week b three to five hours a week c five to seven hours a week d more than seven hours a week xviii Part Difficulties in comprehending texts of the course book in the ESP course Read each statement For each statement, circle the number (1, 2, 3, or being equivalent to never, rarely, sometimes, usually, always) which applies to you (Note: All the items below refer to your reading of ESP texts in the course book of the English for Banking and Finance course.) What were your difficulties when comprehending texts in the course book of the English for Banking and Finance? Statements Never Rarely Someti mes Usually Always Difficulties in the area of vocabulary The terminologies was strange to me I COULD NOT guess the meaning of unknown words or phrases I think I did not have enough vocabularies to understand a text I think I did not have enough vocabularies to translate a text Any other difficulties in the area of vocabulary? How often? (Please specify if any) Difficulties in the area of text coverage I COULD NOT generalize the main idea of a paragraph I COULD NOT generalize the main idea of the whole text Any other difficulties in the area of text coverage? How often? (Please specify if any) Difficulties in the area of topics and background knowledge I COULD NOT explain the meaning of the passage/ the process because I did not understand the CONTEXT I did not know much about the content of the reading texts because of my limited background knowledge xix of the topic of the reading texts Any other difficulties in the area of background knowledge? How often? (Please specify if any) Difficulties in the area of text‟s structure I could not identify the structure of the reading texts The text was complex to understand because of the organization of the paragraphs Any other difficulties in the area of text‟s structure? How often? (Please specify if any) Difficulties in the area of grammar The text had many tenses in each paragraph that I did not know The tenses were too complex The text had many complexstructured sentences that I did not know The usage/ meaning of linking words in the reading texts was different from what I learnt 5 I felt confused to determine the pronouns in the sentences I felt confused to determines reference words in the sentences Any other difficulties in the area of grammar? How often? (Please specify if any) Difficulties in terms of motivation I think these ESP texts were not useful to me xx The course book did have interesting or useful topics to encourage my reading The lessons were boring for me to keep up I could not understand the teacher‟s instruction on how to deal with ESP texts in my lessons 5 I didn‟t have a purpose when I read a text When a text became difficult, I didn‟t want to read it Any other difficulties in the area of motivation? How often? (Please specify if any) Difficulties in terms of timing The time to read a text in class was short My reading speed was slower than my friends I spent a lot of times looking up the meanings of unknown words and terminologies in the glossary and dictionary when I read texts in the coursebook Any other difficulties in the area of timing? How often? (Please specify if any) Difficulties in terms of materials The font size was too small for me to see The illustrations of the texts were complicated to understand The illustrations of the texts were strange to understand Any other difficulties in the area of materials? How often? (Please specify if any) xxi Part Reading strategies Read each statement, circle the number (1, 2, 3, or 5) which applies to you Each number means the following: What strategies have you applied to overcome the difficulties in reading comprehension in reading comprehension in ESP texts of the courseook of the English for Banking and Finance course? „1‟ means „never or almost never‟ „2‟ means that „only occasionally‟ „3‟ means that „sometimes.‟ (About 50% of the time.) „4‟ means that „usually‟ „5‟ means that „always‟ Statements Never Occasionally Sometimes Usually Always Strategies for difficulties in the area of vocabulary I checked my understanding when I came across new information When I read, I guessed the meaning of unknown words or phrases I used reference materials (e.g., a dictionary, glossary) to help me understand what I was reading I paraphrased (restated ideas in my own words) to better understand the new words and terminologies Any other strategies for difficulties in the area of vocabulary? How often? (Please specify if any) xxii Statements Never Occasionally Sometimes Usually Always Strategies for difficulties in the area of text coverage I used features like bold face and italics to identify key information I read slowly and carefully to make sure I understand what I was reading I reviewed the text first by noting its characteristics like length and organization When reading I decided what to read closely and what to ignore 5 I critically analyzed and evaluated the key information presented in the text I tried to guess what the content of the text is about when reading I checked with classmates or lecturers to see if my guesses about the text are right or wrong I tried to visualize information to help remember what I was reading I went back and forth in the text to find relationships among ideas in it 10 I asked myself questions about the content of the text 11 I based on questions at the end of the passages to understand the content of the text When reading, I thought about information in both English and my mother tongue 12 Any other strategies for difficulties in the area of text coverage? How often? (Please specify if any) Statements Never Occasionally Sometimes Usually Always Strategies for difficulties in the area of topics and background knowledge xxiii I used reference materials in English to help me understand the topics of the reading texts I used reference materials in Vietnamese to help me understand what I read I paraphrased (restate ideas in my own words) to better understand the topics of the reading text I used context clues to help me better understand what I am reading Any other strategies for difficulties in the area of topics and background knowledge? How often? (Please specify if any) Statements Never Occasionally Sometimes Usually Always Strategies for difficulties in the area of text‟s structure I tried to visualize the structure to help remember what I was reading I tried to make a detailed outline of a text to understand its structure Any other strategies for difficulties in the topics and background knowledge? How often? (Please specify if any) Statements Never Occasionally Sometimes Usually Always Strategies for difficulties in the area of grammar I used reference materials (e.g., grammar book) in English to help me understand the different tenses xxiv of the texts I used reference materials (e.g., grammar book) in Vietnamese to help me understand the different tenses of the texts I highlighted linking devices that I didn‟t know I tried to guess the meaning of reference words (e.g what does the word “they” in line… refer to?) Any other strategies for difficulties in the area of grammar? How often? (Please specify if any) Statements Never Occasionally Sometimes Usually Always Strategies for difficulties in the area of motivation When text became difficult, I paid closer attention to what I was reading I tried to identify a purpose before reading a text I asked my classmates or lecturers for advice I asked the lecturers for advice Any other strategies for difficulties in the area of motivation? How often? (Please specify if any) Statements Never Occasionally Sometimes Usually Always Strategies for difficulties in the area of timing I adjusted my reading speed according to what I was reading xxv I tried to focus important parts of the text to save the time I tried to guess the meaning of new words, terminologies instead of looking them up in a dictionary to save the time Any other strategies for difficulties in the area of timing? How often? (Please specify if any) Did you use any other strategies when reading academic materials to have a better understanding of the texts in the course book of your ESP course? Please specify (if any): _ _ _ _ _ Would you be willing to participate in a follow-up interview after this survey? If yes, please leave your contact details in the space below Email/Facebook/Phone number: _ Thank you very much for your help! xxvi APPENDIX Interview questions for students Below are guiding questions for the interview Since this is a semi-structured interview, the researcher can improvise some questions if necessary The follow-up questions were also varied, depending on the responses of each interviewee The follow-up questions listed below were the most common one that the researcher asked during the interviews Did you often encounter difficulties comprehending the texts in the course book of the “English for Banking and Finance” course? If yes, what were the problems specifically?  Follow-up question 1: The survey showed that you usually had problems in the area of vocabulary, especially in guessing the meaning of the unknown words and terminologies Can you elaborate more? What hindered you from successfully identifying the meaning of those words and terminologies  Follow-up question 2: The survey showed that you didn‟t think the lessons were interesting enough, so you weren‟t motivated to read the course book Can you elaborate more?  Follow-up question 3: According to your answers of the questionnaire, it showed that timing was also a big issue that affected your reading Can you elaborate more on this? In your opinion, what causes your difficulties when reading the provided texts in your course book? Did you try seeking for your lecturer‟ advice on how to improve the situation? If you had, what advice did you receive from your lectures? Could you see any improvement after taking that advice?  What you think were the reason why the advice of your lecture was/wasn‟t effective? Had you applied any strategies or learning tips in order to overcome the difficulties in guessing the meaning of the new words in the reading texts of the course book? xxvii If yes, what were the strategies particularly? Are there any other strategies that you know but you did not apply to your reading?  Follow-up question 1: The survey showed that besides the strategies that you applied in your reading, you also acknowledged that there were other strategies Why didn‟t you apply those other strategies to your reading?  Follow-up question 2: What strategies did the lecture gave you when you asked him or her for advice? xxviii APPENDIX Interview questions for teachers Below are guiding questions for the interview Since this is a semi-structured interview, the researcher can improvise some questions if necessary The follow-up questions were also varied, depending on the responses of each interviewee The follow-up questions listed below were the most common one that the researcher asked during the interviews How many years of experience you have in the field of teaching ESP for students of School of Banking and Finance at NEU? What teaching method and teaching procedure that you often applied during these ESP courses?  Follow-up question 1: Do you think that the teaching method that you applied facilitated your students‟ reading ability in class? Over years of teaching the ESP course for students of Banking and Finance at NEU, what were the problems that your students often encountered when comprehending the reading texts in the course book of the “English for Banking and Finance” course? What was the level of English proficiency of students who frequently encountered difficulties in reading comprehension in your ESP courses? In which topics/units of the course book (among 15 topics/units in total) did they often had difficulties? Why did they often have difficulties in those topics/units? What you think were the causes leading to those problems of reading comprehension among students majoring in Banking and Finance at NEU?  Follow-up question 1: A considerable number of students thought that the activities should be more interesting and diverse to motivate them to read Do you agree with them?  Follow-up question 2: Some students confessed that they were not given enough time for reading activities in class so they couldn‟t fully understand the reading texts Do you agree with them? xxix What are your recommendations/strategies for students to apply in order to enhance their reading comprehension? What sources of references would you recommend to your students to help them overcome the difficulties in comprehending the reading text in the course book of this ESP course? xxx ... for Banking and Finance course, faced by a group of 35 third-year students majoring in Finance and Banking at NEU The problems were explored based on the participating students and teachers‟ background... finance, and banking Among all the ESP courses in NEU, English for Banking and Finance course is a mandatory course as well as the only ESP course that all students majoring in English for Banking... will motivate lecturers to gather data from students‟ feedback after each English for Finance and Banking course and consider learners‟ feedback thoroughly in order to adjust the reading materials