Using information technology in teaching and learning reading skill of english for biology for 2nd-year students

Using information technology in teaching and learning reading skill of english for biology for 2nd-year students

INTRODUCTION1 Rationale

Since computers were invented, they have increasingly been used for multi

purposes to assist people all over the world As a result, information technology (IT) has

become an essential part in all aspects of our life Thanks to IT, everything is nowbecoming faster, more convenient, more comfortable and more effective Vietnam hasrecently integrated itself into the whole world in applying IT in all walks of life, includingeducation When Vietnam joined WTO in 2006, our opportunities to push the totaldevelopment of education have been increasing with IT.

IT has, in fact, contributed greatly to the renovation of teaching and learning inVietnam Teachers and students are now encouraged to update the information of theirinterests by searching on the Internet Their knowledge, thus, is much broader For the pastyears, schools and universities have launched the movement of renovating the methods ofteaching and learning IT, then, has proved its role.

The teachers and students in the field of foreign languages also take part in themovement of renovating the methods of teaching and learning in Vietnam The Faculty ofEnglish at Hanoi National University of Education (HNUE) have lately renovated themethods of teaching and learning by using IT However, the effect remains limited.

As a lecturer at the Faculty of English, the author has been studying an aspect inteaching English for Specific Purposes (ESP) for non-English-major students with the

assistance of IT: Using IT in teaching and learning Reading English for Biology for2nd-year students at HNUE.

2 Aims of the study

The thesis focuses on studying the extent to which IT can facilitate teaching andlearning reading English for Biology at HNUE In details, it aims at:

 Discovering how IT influences foreign language teaching and learning (generally)and reading English for Biology teaching and learning (particularly) and the extentto which IT can assist reading English for Biology teaching and learning;

 Synthesizing the real situation of teaching and learning reading English for Biologyusing IT at HNUE by analyzing students’ questionnaire, teacher interview; and Investigating certain recommendations for administrators and teachers for applying

IT to improve the quality of reading English for Biology teaching and learning atHNUE.

3 Scope of the study

Due to the limited time, the researcher only focuses on using computers topromote 2nd-year students’ reading English for Biology at HNUE because of some

Thirdly, the Faculty of English at HNUE have taught ESP for non-English-majorstudents in order that they are able to read the professional materials in English andtranslate them into Vietnamese for study.

4 Research questions

This thesis is accomplished for finding the answer to the question: How effectivelyis IT exploited to improve reading English for Biology teaching and learning atHNUE? More specifically, it deals with the following smaller questions:

i How has IT been used in teaching and learning foreign languages at HNUE?

ii To what extent have lecturers of The Faculty of English and students of The Faculty ofAgro-biology raised the quality of teaching and learning reading English for Biologywith IT recently?

5 Methods of the study

The author has used the following main methods to do the research:

 Consulting books, journals and newspapers on applying IT in teaching and learningforeign languages or ESP;

 Searching information on the Internet ;

 Doing a survey on 2nd-year students of the Faculty of Agro-biology;

 Interviewing lecturers of the Faculty of English who have taught English forBiology; and

 Analyzing the data collected quantitatively and qualitatively to find out the realsituation of teaching and learning reading English for Biology at HNUE with IT.

6 Significance of the study

As I have mentioned above, the movement of methods of teaching and learningrenovation has been launched in HNUE, including the Faculty of English The lecturers ofEnglish have often used IT to teach English-major students However, they only sometimesteach non-English-major students with IT Last year, they started to teach ESP for 2nd-yearnon-English-major students Therefore, the idea of using IT to teach ESP is fairly fresh.

The author, who has taught English for Biology at HNUE, have thought of how toapply IT to raise the quality of teaching and learning English for Biology and the idea has,in fact, worked well Students were fascinated in learning reading English for Biology withIT in class However, due to certain reasons, such lessons with IT cannot be donefrequently.

The researcher has acted her mind about the situation in order that IT will beapplied more often and more efficiently for teaching and learning reading English forBiology promotion in the coming time If that comes true, ESP in general and English forBiology in particular will definitely interest non-English-major students and lecturers ofEnglish.

7 Organization of the study

This brief study is divided into three main parts: Introduction, Development andConclusion.

The first part, INTRODUCTION consists of seven subparts: Rationale, Aims ofthe study, Scope of the study, Research questions, Methods of the study, Significanceof the study and Organization of the study.

The second part, DEVELOPMENT has three chapters: Literature Review, Thestudy and Recommendations.

The second part is by far the most important of the whole thesis It contains the realfact and data synthesis and analysis to answer the research questions with specifictechniques, different types of exercises designed for drill as vivid illustrations.

The final part, CONCLUSION summarizes all the ideas expressed throughout the

research, analyzes limitation of the paper and suggests further research orientations.

CHAPTER ONE LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter gives an overview of the literature on computers in English as aforeign language (EFL) teaching and learning and computers in ESP teaching and learning.

I.1 Theoretical backgrounds of computers and EFL teaching and learningI.1.1 Introduction

This section starts with the introduction about the educational technology in foreignlanguage teaching and learning to create a portrait of the field Next, we look into aspecific branch of technology, computer technology To provide a deeper view, history ofcomputer-assisted language teaching and learning and computer uses in EFL teachinglearning are investigated.

I.1.2 Educational Technology and EFL teaching and learning

Thanks to the achievements of international science and technology, the methods ofteaching and learning have undeniably been changing year by year Now it is time for us to

make up the general scenery of technology in foreign language classroom or “educationaltechnology” (Harmer 2001, p.134).

The grammar-translation method has usually been the most popular method ofteaching with chalk, blackboards, pens, paper and textbooks These go with educationaltechnologies Warschauer, M & Carla Meskill (2000) said nearly every type of foreignlanguage classroom teaching is supported by its own technologies The blackboard can beconsidered a perfect tool for grammar-translation method The teacher uses the board for alot of purposes, such as note pad, explanation aid, picture frame and so on However, allthe educational technologies above sometimes do not work well.

In Vietnam and in the world, the traditional educational technologies are currentlyused by teachers or educators To make the matter better, such modern media as radios,cassette players, recorders, movies, televisions, computers, projectors, etc have contributedto the renovation in teaching and learning According to Nguyen Lan Trung (2002), theyhave changed classroom structures and have assisted learners’ acquisition of knowledge.Foreign language classroom activities have been much more fascinating and

understandable to both teachers and learners, which is due to the usage of modern media.Learners learn foreign languages when they listen to CDs/tapes, watch films/programmes,or see images projected from computers’ screen

Of all the means of modern media, undeniably, computer is now quite a usefulmulti-purpose tool for foreign language education A newly established branch called

Information Technology (IT) started the actual revolution of innovating methods in

foreign language education Within this thesis, the researcher would like to discuss a

central component of IT, computers

I.1.3 Computers and EFL teaching and learning

I.1.3.1 Definition of CALL (Computer-assisted Language Instruction)

To start this research, it is necessary to mention and explain the term CALL

(Computer-assisted Language Instruction) CALL is a comparatively new way to acquire

foreign languages Hence, not many people have given adequate definitions of CALL.Having collected and consulted relevant materials, the author would like to discuss

the definition of CALL on the website Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia

Computer-assisted language learning (CALL) is an approach to language

teaching and learning in which computer technology is used to aid to the presentation,reinforcement and assessment of material to be learned, usually including substantialinteractive element.

Computer is the key for successful CALL Teachers and learners discover thelanguage with the assistance of computer technology The teachers use computers to showtheir lectures on the computer screen; the learners look at the lectures during their listeningto the teachers and take note.

Then, learners do not have to write too much As well, they tend to be fond of thelectures They can both study foreign language and improve their computer experience.

I.1.3.2 History of CALL

Up to now, CALL has already had a history of approximately fifty years So manychanges in CALL are due to the achievements of science and technology revolution.

CALL began in the 1960s, but only on big mainframe computers CALL becamemore widely available in 1976 with the appearance of a Prime 300 “minicomputer” The

microcomputer was invented in late 1970s The seminal work “The mighty micro”

published in 1979 clarified how to use a microcomputer The 1980s marked themicrocomputer boom In 1980 schools in the UK embraced the BBC Micro Then, BBCbegan to reach the masses During the 1980s, the professional associations CALICO(1983) and EUROCALL (1986) were established IALL (International Association forLearning Labs) goes back to 1965, initially focusing on language labs IALL is now knownas IALLT (International Association for Language Learning Technology) and focuses onlanguage learning technology in general The 1990s witnessed the advent of the Webwhich became available in 1993 EUROCALL became a recognised professionalassociation (1993) The First World CALL conference took place in Melbourn, Australia in1998 From 2000 to now, Broadband has become more widely available, opening up newpossibilities for delivering audio and video materials via the Web Blogs and podcasts haveappeared.

Since CALL was applied by learners or teachers, learning and teaching foreignlanguages have been much more fascinating, vivid and efficient The writer has usuallyused CALL in her daily acquiring and teaching English, which has brought aboutsurprisingly good results

I.1.3.3 Computer uses for language teaching and learning

Over the past few years, people have exploited the uses of computers for teachingand learning (in general) and teaching and learning FL (in particular) As far as this studyis concerned, certain applications of computers in teaching and learning FL are going to belisted.

 Firstly, computers are widely used for reference Teachers and students can

easily search for any information of language teaching and learning with the help ofCD/DVD-ROMs and Internet CDs/DVDs of FL have continuously been programmed andproduced to meet the enormous needs of FL teaching and learning The two mostdistinguishing programmes to count are Encyclopedia and FL Dictionaries TheEncyclopedia such as Encarta, Grollier, Hutchinson contains knowledge of all fields,

including maps, photos and films To those who teach and learn FL, FL Dictionaries can beused as a perfect tool for reference They are available on CD-ROM or Internet.

Undeniably, Internet is now the most convenient source of materials “As a vast virtuallibrary the Internet offers a seemingly endless range of topics to choose from, all in onehandy location.” (Dede Teeler and Peta Gray, 2001, p.36) Google, Yahoo, Alta Vista, etc

have been the most popular searching engines Only with a key word, a teacher or studentcan find a vast amount of information related.

 The second use of computers is for Computer-mediated communication

(CMC) People use computers to exchange information through Internet E-mail, electronicbulletin boards or electronic newsgroups facilitate their online communication The trendof applying IT in education encourages using CMC for FL teaching and learning Theresearcher now would like to quote the two most common CMC forms used for FLteaching and learning, e-mail exchanging and instant messaging

 E-mail

exchanging is currently of

great use E-mail is morewidely known as a methodof sending messages fromone computer to another.

“The most obvious benefitof using e-mail is speed.”

(Dede Teeler and Peta Gray,2001) Additionally, e-mailis cheap, simple, efficient

and versatile Messages can be sent anywhere in an instant Transmission can cost nothingor very little It is easy to use after initial set-up Sending to a group can be done in oneaction Pictures or other files can be attached to the notes typed and sent.(http://www.logintolearn.com/uti/section3_2.html) Thus, the teacher and students canshare necessary materials for study However, e-mail users are able to encounter somerisks like Spam or Virus

 Instant messaging (IM) is the most popular means of talking online with

such websites as Yahoo Instant Messenger, Skype, etc According to Wikipedia, the freeencyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instant _messaging), “IM is a form of real-time

communication between two or more people based on typed text The text is conveyed viacomputers connected over a network such as the Internet.”

A screenshot of PowWow, one of the first instant messengers with a graphical user interface

IM applications began to appear in the 1970s on multi-user operating system such asUNIX Since then, IM has always been made use of by people from all walks of life ForFL teaching and learning, the teacher and students exchange information online at any timewithout meeting face to face

 Web sites People surf web sites every hour all over the world “The Web has

become both a widespread and legitimate source of information retrieved” (Paul

Stapleton, ELT Journal, volume 59/2, April 2005) Importantly, FL students and FL

teachers make great use of web sites in FL as authentic materials for research or reference.

Each Web page is identified by a unique address called URL (Uniform Resource Locator).

text and images Some browsers also have access to sounds and videos.” A variety of web

sites are designed specifically for FL students and FL teachers to search information,exchange emails, do exercises, play games, etc Here is an example of this kind of websites: http://eltj.oxfordjournals.org Articles on ELT teaching and learning are available onthe Web page Information is various on the Web sites, so the problem is how to select

suitable information to search If we can do that, web sites are beneficial enough for us tolearn and teach FL

 Word-processor Nowadays, computers have been exploited in a lot of ways;

however word-processor is by far the most common computer software in FL teaching andlearning Without it, we are not able to have materials for learning and teaching FL Alison

Piper (1987, cited in Harmer, J., 200, p.150) said that “the most successful educational useof computer at that time was a word-processor” Word-processor is typically useful for

teachers to prepare materials for their lectures in advance in the current age of IT It ispossible that a lecture with IT cannot be done without word-processor.

I.1.4 Summary

The above section of this chapter is an overview of IT and computer, the commonapplication of IT and the way it has been exploited in FL teaching and learning Thefollowing section will focus on theoretical backgrounds of computers in ESP teaching andlearning.

I.2 Theoretical backgrounds of computers in ESP teaching and learningI.2.1 Introduction

In FL teaching and learning, computers have been used efficiently for educators,teachers and students’ numerous purposes Moreover, people can teach and learn ESP withcomputers in the world and in Vietnam So far as this section is concerned, the writerwould like to discuss such main ideas as (1) computers in academic setting, (2) computersand ESP

I.2.2 Computers in academic setting

Computers with Internet and word processing programmes have been used forsearching, selecting and preparing materials in teaching and learning reading ESP Bothteachers and students need to equip themselves with basic computer skills In Vietnam,students are taught basic computer skills during their 1st-year studying at university, whichfacilitates them when they study ESP As a result, they can use word processing or accessthe Internet for ESP course

However, because some students do not possess computers, they find it ratherdifficult to use computers Thus, teachers should spend some periods instructing them howto use word processing and Internet to search and prepare materials for their coming ESPlessons.

Nowadays, students easily get used to surfing the Internet for chatting, e-mailexchanging, seeing web pages, playing games or listening to music They often useInternet as a means of entertainment, not for study Some do not know how to search andselect the information of a topic

Although they are taught basic computer skills such as using word processing, theydo not frequently practice typing and dealing with documents Consequently, theircomputer skills are relatively not good enough to type long and complicated documents.

All in all, teachers and students have to improve their computer skills if readingESP is taught with IT.

I.2.3 Computers and reading ESP

I.2.3.1 Possible applications and advantages of using computer in reading ESPteaching and learning

Three ideas will be mentioned and discussed: (1) model of teaching ESP readingwith computers, (2) programmes used in reading ESP teaching and learning and (3)advantages of using computers in reading ESP teaching and learning.

I.2.3.1.1.Model of teaching ESP reading with computers

Some models of using computers in teaching FL can be applied for the past fewyears They are one-computer classroom, several-computer classroom and networkedclassroom The author only mentions one of them for teaching ESP reading within this

thesis, one-computer classroom model.

For this model of classroom, only one computer is used while teaching In Vietnam,most teachers use their laptop connected with a LCD Projector to show their lectures on abig white screen in front of all the students in the classroom This model of teaching isquite common in Vietnam recently

LCD Projector

For teaching ESP reading, teachers use the above model so that all their preparedmaterials and lectures can be seen by the students clearly and vividly on the big whitescreen They read words and see pictures or films, then do reading ESP exercises withoutlooking in the textbooks Hereinafter is the photo of the combination of a computer and aLCD Projector in a classroom.

A classroom with a computer and a LCD Projector

I.2.3.1.2 Programmes used in reading ESP teaching and learning

There have been a lot of computer programmes designed for FL education; Forexample, word-processing, email exchanging, Web pages, Microsoft Powerpoint,Microsoft Encarta These programmes were designed for multi-purposes FL teachers andlearners have taken advantage of their good points in order to make the study and teachingmore interesting and effective Some useful programmes are going to be introduced below.

provides information of all topics for them to search and select Frequently, theinformation is the latest.

Second, we talk about email exchanging Teachers email their requirements forreading exercises beforehand for

students to prepare and collectmaterials For instant, theteacher requires groups ofstudents to collect short texts ofcertain ESP topics and assignsthe task for each group throughemail The students, respondingthe teacher’s requirements, emailher/ him the texts they havecollected so that she/ he checkswhether their texts areappropriate or not for the cominglesson Email exchanging is,indeed, an effective tool ofinformation exchanging betweenESP teachers and students.

* Microsoft Encarta Microsoft Encarta 2006

This software is updated yearly so that the information is the latest and varied It isconsidered as an encyclopedia since it contains information (in some languages) of allfields The information is in the form of articles, photos, maps, exercises and games Ateacher or student only needs to type some key words to search the information they want.The information is simplified for all readers to understand easily Thus, ESP teachers andstudents can copy quite a vast amount of information from Microsoft Encarta if they knowhow to exploit it Then, the information can be used as extra reading texts or designed withreading exercises

* Word processor

The uses of word processor have been discussed by Scott (1996), Cunningham(2000), Harmer (2001), Jones, C and Sue Fortescue (1991), Keiser (1999), Morgan (1997),Johnson (2004), etc This software helps us show our thoughts on the screen with wordsand documents We can easily move around the document, edit, change and add asthoughts occur These things seem impossible with pen and paper or even with atypewriter.

For ESP teachers and students, they can use word processor to type texts, exercisesand answers for required tasks This software is especially useful to the teachers who teachESP reading To prepare for their lectures, they type reading texts and accompaniedexercises on Microsoft Word or Microsoft Powerpoint documents In class, they show thelectures on a big screen with a LCD projector Importantly, they can edit the documentsanytime they want

* Microsoft Powerpoint

This is the most common software used in teaching and studying nowadays inVietnam The teachers who are good at IT often use the software to prepare their lectures.Instead of writing on the blackboard, teachers type what they want the students read andnote down on the screen of Microsoft Powerpoint, then show it with a LCD projector Ifthe teacher knows IT well, his/ her lecture on Microsoft Powerpoint is vivid, colourful,realistic and informative He/ she can type words of all types and colours, insert pictures,add films to make the lecture easily understood Students, therefore, find the lectureextremely fascinating and understandable

ESP teachers can do the same as other teachers with Microsoft Powerpoint If theytake time to search pictures and films, their lectures naturally interest students They havesuch a vast source of materials – ESP texts, photos, films from the Internet, MicrosoftEncarta, etc.

I.2.3.1.3 Advantages of using computers in reading ESP teaching and learning

Using a computer with a LCD projector brings about a lot of advantages for thosewho teach and learn ESP reading It has continually proved to be advantageous for the pastfew years.

Teachers do not have to write a lot on the blackboard while teaching Instead, theyshow their lectures for students to look and note down important points Their main job isto explain about the points appearing on the screen As a result, they have much more timeto explain because they do not waste time writing a lot on the blackboard anymore

Apart from this, teachers’ computer skills are much better when they often usecomputers to prepare their lectures The skills are word processing, searching information,pictures and films, displaying ideas in the documents (Microsoft Word or MicrosoftPowerpoint) For example, they change the font face, font style, font colour, highlight keywords, etc for the documents.

Additionally, exercises for ESP reading are designed variedly and fascinatingly onthe computer A task is the combination of words, pictures, sounds or even films Theexercise, thus, looks more attracting and understandable

Last but not least, students tend to be especially interested in the lectures Instead oflooking at the blackboard, they look at the screen of a computer with colour, vivid picturesand films They will become more hard-working and understand the lectures easily andpositively

I.2.3.2 Variables that can affect computer-aided ESP reading

In order that a lesson of computer-aided ESP reading is done effectively, somefactors should be noticed Pennington (1993) said there are three variables affecting theeffectiveness of computer-aided writing I have read and found that these factors also affect

ESP reading The factors are the students, the teacher and the setting

Firstly, it is the student The students need to get used to the new method of

teaching: Instead of looking at the board, they now look at the computer screen shown infront of them with a LCD projector If they want to take note, they need to be very quickbecause the words on the screen can run very fast

Secondly, the teacher is the most important variable The teacher can only have a

computer-aided ESP reading lesson with a LCD when he/she owns good knowledge andskills of computers He/she has to apply a new method of teaching, too He/she not onlyshows their prepared lecture on the computer screen but also explains for the points tomake students interested in the lesson and understand the lecture more quickly and easily

Thirdly, the setting contributes to the success of a computer-aided ESP reading

lesson The computer and LCD projector needs to work well during the lesson All thesoftwares used for the lesson have to be checked in advance in case there are suddenmistakes

I.2.3.3 Considerations of computer-aided ESP reading teaching and learning

There are some considerations to be borne in mind for teaching and learning ESPreading with a computer.

For teaching, the teacher should be dynamic, flexible and knowledgeable ofcomputer skills so that he/she can deal with all the unexpected incidents during the lesson.A common incident is the technical errors with the computer or the LCD projector.

Moreover, the teacher should know how to interest students to cooperate with theteacher properly and effectively The teacher can instruct them how to learn with IT inclass in advance.

For learning outside the class, the teacher should guide students about working withthe Internet, searching information and assign them tasks to do Then, students know whatthey have to do outside the class

The students should ask the teacher questions if they do not know how to do thetasks at home They should also improve their computer skills to be able to accomplish at-home tasks with computers.

CHAPTER TWO THE STUDYII.1 The setting of the study

II.1.1 Information technology in FL education at HNUE

For the past few years, the Faculty of English and the Faculty of French have beenestablished at Hanoi National University of Education Even though these are such newfaculties of HNUE, they have always taken part in all the movements and activitiesorganized by the university The Faculty of English has recently established for about 5years now However, the lecturers and students of this faculty have always kept up withother faculties on IT in education

Recently, HNUE has launched the movement of teaching with the assistance of ITor of innovating the methods of teaching The managing board of HNUE has supplied eachfaculty with modern equipment including LCD projectors and computers to innovate themethods of teaching The lecturers from the Faculty of English have taken advantage of theequipment so that students are able to have interesting lectures with IT Two classroomsare equipped with LCD projectors Thus, the two rooms are frequently occupied bylecturers and students from the Faculty of English

On the contrary, students from other faculties rarely have chances to study FL withIT for the absence of LCD projectors There is a LCD projector available for HNUEactivities; however, it cannot meet the needs of all faculties including FL faculties Onlyfor short-term time of some competitions, lecturers from the Faculty of English and theFaculty of French teach non-English-major students with IT Naturally, the students feelextremely excited with such lectures.

As a result, to lecturers from the Faculty of English, teaching non-English-majorstudents with IT is not as frequent as teaching English major students

II.1.2 ESP teaching and learning at HNUE

It is increasingly necessary to study ESP for individuals’ occupation People needESP to understand English documents so that they can update the latest information Forthat need, HNUE started teaching ESP two years ago Lecturers from ESP group, theFaculty of English have been responsible for teaching ESP for non-English-major students.

They have collected and edited appropriate ESP materials to teach students Theydo not have much experience in teaching ESP; they have little professional knowledge ofother subjects – natural or social sciences They, consequently, have had to study quite alot about other subjects before they taught ESP They sometimes ask their students aboutthe students’ professional knowledge if they do not understand It was really difficult atfirst for both lecturers and students Students had to accept the fact that their lecturers donot know everything; the students sometimes became their lecturers’ teacher to explaintheir professional knowledge Later, everything got easier.

One advantage of teaching and studying ESP is that students have felt interested inthe subject They have a thirst for acquiring ESP to facilitate their future job They haveworked hard when learning ESP They have chances to discuss their professionalknowledge in English class They love their professional knowledge, indeed

Noticeably, the lecturers have worked as guides to students when they teach ESP.ESP has been taught to supply students with basic ESP vocabulary; having mastered theESP course, students then can read ESP materials for their own research.

For the years to come, the lecturers need to reedit their ESP materials so that ESP isbecoming an interesting subject at HNUE to all students

II.1.3 Using computers in ESP teaching and learning at HNUE

As a lecturer of ESP group from the Faculty of English, the researcher has taughtESP for two years Therefore, the author knows the real situation of teaching and learningESP with IT at HNUE.

Although IT has been applied in teaching and learning at HNUE for certain time,ESP has not been taught with IT It is because it takes time and money to prepare ESPlectures with IT The cause is partly the shortage of LCD projectors A lecture with ITcannot be done without a LCD projector Lecturers can borrow laptops but it is hard toborrow LCD projectors

ESP should be taught with IT because lecturers can show students colorful photosor films related to their professional topics to make the lectures much more exciting andup-to-date The writer, thus, has done this short research for the future

Nowadays, almost all students know how to surf the Internet Internet has beenused for various purposes including learning Students can learn ESP by searching andcollecting professional information on the Internet Then, they read and translate thematerials to update professional information However, it is a little difficult for non-English-major students to collect and translate ESP materials because of their limitedproficiency of English At HNUE, the non-English-major students rarely search ESPinformation on the Internet for study; they often search their professional information inVietnamese.

Hopefully, the students at HNUE are becoming interested in searching ESPmaterials with their lecturers’ assistance and ESP lectures are being taught with IT Then,ESP is likely to be an attracting subject.

To prepare for the lectures, the writer collected photos and films and typed herlectures with Microsoft Powerpoint software The materials sources were the Internet,newspapers, magazines and books

The students were assigned to search and collect information of the two topics(Animals and Human heart) in groups in advance Then, they took the collected materialsto class for discussion.

After the two lessons, the students were asked to answer some survey questions sothat the result and efficiency of the lessons are then evaluated.

II.2.1.2 Methods of data collection

The researcher has collected data by two ways: - students’ questionnaires

- teachers’ interviews

The students’ questionnaire has got 10 multiple choice questions There are three

parts in the questionnaire: personal information, teaching and learning The questionnairewas designed to facilitate later data analysis

The students’ questionnaire is the more important because it is the main way toevaluate the efficiency of teaching and learning reading ESP with IT The studentsthemselves assess the efficiency of teaching and learning ESP truthfully

The teachers’ interviews contribute to the efficiency assessment of teaching and

learning reading ESP with IT The teachers or lecturers who have taught reading Englishfor Biology were interviewed about the efficiency of teaching and learning reading ESPwith IT If the efficiency is very good, the teachers should teach reading ESP with IT; ifthe result is not very good, they should manage to make it better The teacher is the firstfactor for the success of the lessons She prepares the lesson and does the teaching in classwith her own method of teaching

Both the students and teachers were asked so that the research is done objectivelyand the result is right for common situations

II.2.2 Data analysis

II.2.2.1 Data analysis of the students’ questionnaire

The students’ questionnaire was for collecting students’ opinions of teaching andlearning reading English for Biology with IT

II.2.2.1.1 Students’ personal information

The total number of students in this research was 45 and all of them were in thesame class Among them, only 6 were male; the other 39 were female Their ages werefrom 20 to 23 They had from 2 to 11 years experience in learning English

The following are the tables with details of the students’ gender and learningexperience.