Language problems of esp students in reading comprehension at the university of natural sciences

'I.' / J - MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRA INING VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY HOCHIMINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES TRUONG THI TUYET HANH LANGUAGE PROBLEMS OF ESP STUDENTS IN READING COMPREHENSION AT THE UNIVERSITY OF NATURAL SCIENCES A Thesis in Master's Programs Major: English Teaching Code Number: 5.07.02 Submitted in partia l fulfilment of the requirements F;lfVT·;.; I;: i;.~ '1 i t , , i~ : ":! ' I r- " LA : -' '"'J C for the Degree of Master ofTESOL ' ~_: ~ : ~:.:~::":' :.: ' SUPERVISOR : D0 HUY TH!NH, Ph.D HOCHIMINH CITY - 2002 CERTIFICATE OF ORGINALITY I hereby certify my authorship of the thesis submitted today entitled: A SURVEY OF LANGUAGE PROBLEMS WHILE READING OF ESP STUDENTS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF NATURAL SCIENCES in terms of the statement of Requirements for Thesis in Master's Programs issued by the Higher Degree Committee Ho Chi Minh City, November 22 nd, 2002 TRUONG THI TUYET HANH RETENTION AND USE OF THE THESIS I hereby state that I, Truong Thi Tuyet Hanh, being the candidate for the degree of Master of TESOL, accept the requirements of the University relating to the retention and use of Master 's Theses deposited in the Library In terms of these conditions, I agree that the original of my thesis deposited in the Library should be accessible for the purposes of study and research, in accordance with the normal conditions established by the Library for care, loan and reproduction of theses Ho Chi Minh City, November 22nd, 2002 TRUONG THI TUYET HANH 11 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS A great many people need to be thanked for their help In sharing their experiences for my thesis First of all, I am very grateful to my supervisor, Dr Do Huy Thinh, who spent a lot of time reading my draft with great care, counseled and guided throughout with valuable advice while my thesis was carried out I especially thank teachers and students who were willing to participate in the interviews and questionnaires, gave their permission to use their information and their own experiences My special thanks go to my best friend Le Thi Thu Huong, who checked and corrected my mistakes in spelling and grammar; my cousin Nguyen Thi Thanh Van, who typed a remarkable number of pages in a short time and did so with admirable patience and good humour; my student Van Chi Nam, who was enthusiastic to design the thesis for me, helped more than I can say All that remains is to thank my husband, who always encouraged and supported me during the time I did my thesis; my parents and my younger brother, who were dedicated to look after my baby so that I could devote all my time to complete my thesis 111 ABSTRACT This study aims at investigating the problems in grammar and vocabulary that the third-year students majoring in Information Technology often encounter while they study English at the University of Natural Sciences, from which it leads to seeking an efficient method of teaching and learning reading comprehension to enable students to have greater self-confidence and to learn English more successfully both in the final years at the University of Natural Sciences and for their jobs afterwards About 100 third-year students majoring in Information Technology will be given questionnaires which directly get information about their own problems while reading Besides, five teachers who teach English for Information Technology will also be interviewed to consider their perceptions about students' difficulties and solutions they adopt to help students learn English more effectively The findings of this study emphasize that although nearly all of the students have learned English at schools as well as the first stage of the university, (1) their English knowledge is quite inadequate for them to understand what is expressed in the texts, (2) students have troubles with complex sentence structures, connectors, articles and modals, (3) students have a lot of difficulties in vocabulary such as inability to pronounce new words and lack of words while reading IV TABLE OF CONTENTS Certificate of Orginality i Retention and Use of the Thesis ii Acknowledgements III Abstract IV Table Of Contents v OfF·Igures • VIII List List Of Tables CHAPTER ix : INTRODUCTION • 1.1 Background 1.2 Statement of purpose 1.3 Research questions 1.4 Significance of the study 1.5 Definition of terms 1.6 Assumptions 1.7 Delimitations 1.8 Limitations 1.9 Methodology 1.10 Organization of the remainder of the study CHAPTER : LITERATlJRE REVIEW 2.1 The role of Grammar and vocabulary 2.2 Vocabulary in ESP 11 2.3 Technical vocabulary 12 2.3.1 Semi-technical vocabulary 14 2.3.2 Students' difficulty and the teaching of vocabulary in ESP 15 2.4 Grammar in ESP 18 v 2.4.1 Verbs and tenses 19 2.4.2 Voices 19 2.4.3 Modals 20 2.4.4 Articles 21 2.4.5 Nominalisation 23 2.4.6 Logical connectors 24 2.5 Summary 25 CHAPTER : OVERVIEW OF THE ENGLISH TRAINING AT THE HoCmMINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF NATURAL SCIENCES 26 3.1 The teaching / learning time 27 3.2 The teaching / learning materials 28 3.3 The teaching / learning situation • •• •• ••• ••• • 28 3.3.1 The role of English in the country 28 3.3.2 Students' reasons and needs for learning English 29 3.3.3 The learning time 29 3.3.4 Class size - students' age, level, and ability 30 3.3.5 Students ' learning condition 30 3.4 The learners 30 3.4.1 Psychological features: 30 3.4.2 Langua ge-learning experience: 30 3.4.3 Role: 31 3.4.4 Learning style: 31 3.5 The teachers 31 3.5.1 Role: 31 3.5.2 Education: 31 3.6 Summary CHAPTER 31 : DESIGN AND METHODOLOGy 32 4.1 Research setting 32 4.2 Research design 32 4.2.1 The observation 33 4.2.2 The questionnaire 33 4.2.3 The interview 35 vi 4.3 Summary 36 CHAPTER : FINDINGS A.ND ANALySIS •.• • •• 37 5.1 Findings 37 5.1.1 Questionnaires to students : 37 5.1.2 Interviews with teachers: 48 5.2 Analysis 53 5.2.1 Students ' background information 53 5.2.2 Students' difficulties in vocabulary 55 5.2.3 Students' difficulties in grammar 60 5.3 Summary 62 CHAPTER 6: SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS, AND RECOMMENDATIONS ••••••••••• 64 6.1 Summary 64 6.2 Conel usions ••••••••••••••• • • • • •• • •••.••••••••••••••• •• ••• •• •• 65 6.3 Recommendations 66 6.3.1 To the students: 66 6.3.2 To the teachers : 68 BIBLIOGRA.PHY • • 74 ApPENDIX A 78 ApPENDIX B 82 ApPENDIX C 86 ApPENDIX C 86 VB LIST OF FIGURES Figure : Nation's decision chart for dealing with low frequency words in specialized texts (cited in Jordan , 1997: 152) 13 Figure : Flow chart for choosing the right article 22 Figure : Use of flow chart with sample noun phrases (as cited in Selinker, Tarone and Hanzeli, 1981: 1985) 23 Figur e : The place students come from 38 Figure 5: The students' learning English time 39 Figure : Students' reading comprehension 40 Figure : Students' assessment of ESP program 41 Figure 8: The reason why ESP for IT is difficult for students 42 Figure : Some aspects students want to be equipped with 43 Figure 10 : Students' problems with vocabulary 44 Figure 11 : Students' methods in learning vocabulary 45 Figure 12 : Students' ideas about grammar 46 Figure 13 : Students' needs of grammar points 47 Figure 14 : Students' ideas about teachers ' using English in class 48 V1ll Summary, Conclusions, and Recommendations 6.3.2.10 Ask students to write complex sentences In order to help students with complex sentences, the best way is to get them accustomed to this kind of sentences by writing sentences from the least to the most difficult such as practice in writing simple sentences first; next, compound sentences, and finally complex ones Because if students just merely read this grammar point in the text and listen to teachers' explanation without really analyzing and practising it, they can never overcome their problem Additionally, to help students become aware of the variety and complexity of structure, teacher should have them built sentences of their own Starting with a simple subject- verb- object skeleton, students can be taught to stretch the sentence by adding adjective or adverb modifiers, appositives, participial and prepositional phrases, and clauses Thus, ways to build more mature sentence patterns can be explored Also, students can learn to manipulate these patterns, change order of placement, relationships, and meaning as well 6.3.2.11 Encourage students to read extra materials In order to enlarge the knowledge of vocabulary and grammar, teachers should recommend some related and suitable English books or materials for students ' extra reading As for the better readers, teachers should provide them with opportunities to grow To this, teachers recommend books in the library which will be a real challenge to them By encouraging these students to read these books and giving them chances to report to the class the results of their reading, teachers will find that this is beneficial both for the student doing extra reading and for the rest of the class as well It provides a change of pace from the usual classroom routine As for poorer readers, teachers must carefully consider to recommend something which is not too difficult, for students might get discouraged and also not too easy, for students might feel bored The extra reading must be at their reading level and interesting enough to make students love to read 72 Summary, Conclusions, and Recommendations 6.3.2.12 Translate the text into Vietnamese For most teachers in the survey, translating the text into Vietnamese while teaching reading comprehension is a wrong method However, in order to complete their graduation thesis in Vietnamese, students need to read a lot of books, documents in English For this reason, translation should be mentioned as a skill training students about how to have Vietnamese paragraphs well translated from English Translating the text into Vietnamese can be assigned as homework for students to in groups In this way, teachers can not only save a lot of time in class but also supply students with translation skill 6.3.2.13 Speak Vietnamese if necessary Teachers should adjust their using of English and Vietnamese in class Speaking Vietnamese so much makes students feel bored and not have chances to practise English, especially, in listening and speaking skills In contrast, it maybe difficult for non-English-majored students to understand the lesson if the teacher speaks English all the time though (s)he does his(her) best to simplify his(her) English for students 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An Empirical Study, TESOL Quarterly, Vo1.31, No 1, 1997 77 Appendix A APPENDIX A Bang cau hoi danh cho sinh vien lJl giup toi hoan tluinh vi~c nghien cuu nhiing kho khan vi til' v'!ng va ngir phtip kid hoc man d!Jc hilu cua sinh vien khoa Cting ngh~ Thong tin, xin cdc ban danh it phut tra lUi nhiing diu hoi sau day Cam on s{r c9ng tdc nhi~t tlnh cua cdc ban BI;lIl nr dau d€n? o o o Thanh ph6, thi xii Nang than Vung sau, vung xa Ban h9C tieng Anh baa lau r6i? o o o o Til 10 d€n 12 nam Tren nam d€n nam Til nam d€n nam Duoi nam Khi d9C mot bai d9 C giao trinh chuyen nganh Co ng ngh e thong tin, ban co thehi @u baa nhi eu ph~n tram? o 100% o Tren 80% o Til 50 % d€n 80% o Duoi 50 % Thea ban, chu ang trinh Anh van chuyen nganh ban dang thea h9Ctai tnrong Dai H9C Khoa H9C Tv Nhien co phil hop voi ban kh6ng? 78 Appendix A Ban o o o o Qua kho o o o Kho g~p Phu hQ'P voi trinh cua ban D~ kho khan gi doc Anh van chuyen nganh ? Tir VIJI1g Ngir phap Bai t~p y ki~n khac: Khi hoc Anh van chuyen nganh Cong nghe thong tin, cac ban nghi rkg minh cAn hoc v~ : o o o o Cac v~n d~ ngfr phap nhu : thi, diu dieu kien, cau bi dong Tir VIJI1g co lien quan d~n chu d~ dang hoc Cach di~n dat cua bai doc The loai bai doc y ki~n khac: Cac ban co cho ding nr VIJI1g dong vai tro quan trong viec hoc t6t Anh van chuyen nganh Cong nghe thong tin khong? o o Co Khong Ban cho ran g hoc Anh van chuyen nganh Cong nghe thong tin, ban gap r~c r6i v~ nr VIJI1g la v6n tir cua ban qua it: o o Co Theo ban, nr VIJI1g kho la do: o o o Qua moi , ban it gap Ban khong biet each phat am B~ phai hoc qua nhieu nr moi mot bai 79 Khong Appendix A o o B~ khong co di€u kien sir dung thirong xuyen nen ban d~ quen Co nhieu ngfr Y kien khac: 10 De h9C nr vung giao trinh ban dang sir dung, cac ban : o o o TI)' h9C nr nhirng word list co s~n sach Duoc giao vien giai thich nr moi Phai nr tra tir dien 11 Ban co cho r~ng nhirng gioi tir di kern theo met s6 d(>ng nr, tinh ru, danh nr hi quan trong? o o Co Khong 12 Va vi di€u nay, tir vung kho hoc d6i voi ban vi ban phai nhc them eli gioi tir ? o o Co Khong 13 Cac ban co thay dn thiet phai hoc van pham tieng Anh thi moi hoc Anh van chuyen nganh Cong nghe thong tin t6t khong? o o Co Khong 14 D6i voi ban, ngfr phap tai lieu ban dang sir dung kho la (Ban co the chon nhi€u diu tra loi): o du true ngfr phap phirc tap o Nhi€u du true ngir phap moi o Cau qua dai Ykien khac : 15 Trong doc Anh van chuyen nganh Cong nghe thong tin, ban dn hoc nhfrng v~ d€ ngtr phap nao (Xin xep theo thir nr : 1,2 ,3 theo rmrc dQ tir dn thiet nhat den it dn thiet): o ro n6i (Connectors) o Mao tir (Articles) 80 Appendix A o Thi va th~ (Tense and voice) o f)(>ng nr (Verbs) o Dong nr th~ each (Modals) o Ykien khac: 16 Theo ban, lop giao vien nen o o N6i tieng Anh N6i tien g Anh , d6i !