Some problems in teaching and learning esp at ho chi minh city vocational college of technology a case study of it english in it department m a 60 14 10

HOCHI MINH CITY NATIONAL UNIVERSITY UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LINGUISTICS AND LITERATURE SOME PROBLEMS IN TEACHING AND LEARNING ESP AT HO CHI MINH CITY VOCATIONAL COLLEGE OF TECHNOLOGY: A CASE STUDY OF IT ENGLISH IN IT DEPARTMENT A thesis submitted to the Department of English Linguistics and Literature In partial fulfillment of the Master’s degree in TESOL By PHAM NGUYEN HOAI PHUONG Supervised by PHAN THI KIM LOAN, M.A HO CHI MINH CITY, MAY 2011 CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY I certify my authorship of the thesis submitted today entitled: SOME PROBLEMS IN TEACHING AND LEARNING ESP AT HO CHI MINH CITY VOCATIONAL COLLEGE OF TECHNOLOGY: A CASE STUDY OF IT ENGLISH IN IT DEPARTMENT In terms of the statement of Requirements for Theses in Master’s Programs issued by the Higher Degree Committee Ho Chi Minh, May 10 th , 2011 PHẠM NGUYỄN HOÀI PHƯƠNG i RETENSION AND USE OF THE THESIS I hereby state that I, Pham Nguyễn Hoài Phương, being the candidate for the Master’s degree in 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 purposes of study and research, in accordance with the normal conditions established by the Library for care, loan or reproduction of theses Ho Chi Minh, May 10 th , 2011 PHẠM NGUYỄN HOÀI PHƯƠNG ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my sincere thanks to my supervisor, Ms Phan Thi Kim Loan, M.A for her great help and kindness Without her support and advice, this study could not have been completed I am also very grateful for helpful comments given by Dr Le Hoang Dung, Vice Dean of the Department of English Linguistics and Literature at the HCMC University of Social Sciences and Humanities In addition, I would like to thank all the English teachers in the Department of Basic Sciences at HCMC Vocational College of Technology and the IT second-year students at this college They have provided me with important data and given me constructive suggestions for my study I have benefited a great deal from the two-year Master program in TESOL at HCMC University of Social Sciences and Humanities These courses have helped to form a solid foundation for this study I would like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude to all the teachers who have taught me in these two years Last but not least, my deepest gratitude and special thanks go to my friends and my family who greatly encouraged and supported me during the time that this thesis was being carried out iii ABSTRACT ESP teaching has gained much of the linguists and language teachers’ attention and interests However, in recent years, there have been many newspapers raising some alarming problems of the teaching and learning of ESP at universities in Vietnam English for IT, a branch of ESP, has also got into the same situation as ESP From the general circumstance and the ineffectiveness of the IT English course at HVCT, the ideas of the study were developed The study is intended to investigate the current teaching and learning of IT English at HVCT in terms of the syllabus, the coursebook, the methodology and the assessment Recent researches on ESP have helped to provide the basis for IT English research The aim of the study is to examine some of the problems of the IT English course and then to make a number of constructive suggestions for students, teachers and educational administrators Quantitative and qualitative research methodologies were both applied to conduct this study and the research instruments included observations, questionnaires and interviews The classroom observations were made in four IT classes during the sixty-period course in IT English The questionnaires were delivered to 164 IT students in which 126 students filled in the questionnaires The interviews with four teachers of English and the Dean of the IT Department also provided important data for the current IT English course The findings of the study are that there are many problems arising in the current IT English course and possible changes should be made to improve the teaching and learning of IT English at HVCT iv TABLE OF CONTENTS CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY i RETENTION AND USE OF THE THESIS ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS iii ABSTRACT iv TABLE OF CONTENTS .v LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS .ix LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES x LIST OF CHARTS xi Chapter I: INTRODUCTION .1 I.1 Background to the study I.1.1 Description of the IT English course at HVCT .2 I.1.2 Description of the current teaching and learning IT English at HVCT I.2 Rationale .6 I.3 Statement of purpose I.4 Research questions I.5 Significance of the study .7 I.6 Limitations and Delimitations I.7 Organization of the study Chapter II: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Overview of ESP .9 2.1.1 The origins of ESP 2.1.2 Definition of ESP 2.1.3 Classification of ESP 11 2.2 Some factors affecting ESP course design 12 v 2.2.1 Needs analysis 13 2.2.2 Syllabus 15 2.2.2.1 Definition of Syllabus .15 2.2.2.2 Reasons for having a syllabus 15 2.2.2.3 Approaches to syllabus design .16 2.2.3 Materials 16 2.2.3.1 Procedures for evaluating materials .17 2.2.3.2 Principles for writing materials 18 2.2.3.3 A materials design model 18 2.2.4 ESP methodology 19 2.2.5 Assessment 21 2.2.6 The roles of ESP learners and teachers .21 2.3 Some problems with ESP teachers in ESP teaching 22 2.3.1 The lack of an orthodoxy to provide a ready-made guide……………… 23 2.3.2 The new realms of knowledge the ESP teacher has to cope with 23 2.3.3 The change in the status of English Language Teaching 24 2.4 Some problems with ESP students in ESP learning 26 2.5.1 Students’ experience in specialism 26 2.5.2 Specific lexis 26 2.5.3 Reading skill .26 2.5 Related studies 27 2.6 Summary 29 Chapter III: DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY 30 3.1 Research questions .30 3.2 Research design 30 3.2.1 Research setting 30 3.2.2 Subjects .31 3.2.3 Instruments 33 3.2.3.1 Observations .33 vi 3.2.3.2 Questionnaires 34 3.2.3.3 Interviews 36 3.2.4 Data collection procedures 37 3.2.4.1 Data collection procedures of observations .37 3.2.4.2 Data collection procedures of questionnaires 38 3.2.4.3 Data collection procedures of interviews 38 3.3 Summary 38 Chapter IV: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 39 4.1 Results from observations 39 4.1.1 Observation setting 39 4.1.2 Problems noticed and suggestions 40 4.2 Results from questionnaires .47 4.2.1 Students’ responses 47 4.2.2 Analysis of students’ responses 47 4.3 Results from interviews 68 4.3.1 The schedule of the interviews 68 4.3.2 English teachers’ opinions 69 4.3.2.1 The current IT English syllabus .69 4.3.2.1.1 In terms of the technical terms and concepts 69 4.3.2.1.2 In terms of English skills 69 4.3.2.1.3 In terms of the learning time 69 4.3.2.2 The Coursebook 69 4.3.2.2.1 In terms of the technical terms 69 4.3.2.2.2 In terms of the grammatical structures .69 4.3.2.2.3 In terms of the layout .70 4.3.2.2.4 In terms of the reading texts .70 4.3.2.2.5 In terms of the visual texts 70 4.3.2.2.6 In terms of the exercises 70 4.3.2.3 The methodology .70 vii 4.3.2.3.1 In terms of the concept of IT English teaching 70 4.3.2.3.2 In terms of the teaching method 70 4.3.2.3.3 In terms of the English skills 71 4.3.2.3.4 In terms of the teaching activities 71 4.3.2.3.5 In terms of the teaching techniques 71 4.3.2.3.6 In terms of the teaching aids .71 4.3.2.4 In terms of the assessment .72 4.3.2.5 Suggestions for better IT English teaching 72 4.3.3 The opinions of the Dean of the IT department .73 4.3.3.1 In terms of the technical terms and basic concepts in IT 73 4.3.3.2 In terms of the English skills .73 4.3.3.3 In terms of the time allocation for the IT English course 74 4.4 Findings .74 4.5 Summary 78 Chapter V: RECOMMENDATIONS AND CONCLUSION 79 5.1 Recommendations 79 5.2 Conclusion 89 BIBLIOGRAPHY 92 APPENDIX 1A: Questionnaire for students in English 97 APPENDIX 1B: Questionnaire for students in Vietnamese 102 APPENDIX 2A: Interview questions for English teachers in English 107 APPENDIX 2B: Interview questions for English teachers in Vietnamese 109 APPENDIX 3A: Interview questions for the Dean of IT department in English 111 APPENDIX 3B: Interview questions for the Dean of IT department in Vietnamese .112 APPENDIX 4: Class observation 113 APPENDIX 5: Class observation 116 APPENDIX 6: Class observation 119 APPENDIX 7: Class observation 121 viii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS EAP: English for Academic purposes EBE: English for Business and Economics EIT: English for Information Technology ELP: English for Legal Purposes ELT: English Language Teaching EMP: English for Medical Purposes EOP: English for Occupational purposes ESP: English for specific purposes ESS: English for the Social Sciences EST: English for Science and Technology EVP: English for Vocational Purposes GE: General English HVCT: Ho Chi Minh city Vocational College of Technology IT: Information Technology TEFL: Teaching English as a foreign language TESOL: Teaching English to Speaker of Other Languages VESL: Vocational English as a Second language ix APPENDIX 2B CÂU HỎI PHỎNG VẤN GIÁO VIÊN Lĩnh vực có Các mục vấn Câu hỏi vấn liên quan Xin thầy/cô cho biết chương trình tiếng Anh CNTT trường có cung cấp Các thuật ngữ cho sinh viên thuật ngữ khái niệm thực tế bên ngành CNTT ñể phục vụ việc học bên chuyên ngành em Chương trình khơng? Theo thầy/cơ, chương trình tiếng Anh Các kỹ tiếng Anh CNTT có cung cấp ñủ kỹ tiếng Anh cần thiết cho sinh viên không? Thời lượng chương Theo thầy/cô, thời lượng chương trình trình 60 tiết có phù hợp không? Số lượng hiệu Theo thầy/cô, số lượng từ vựng chuyên từ vựng chuyên ngành ngành giáo trình nào? Số lượng hiệu Theo thầy/cô, số lượng cấu trúc ngữ cấu trúc ngữ pháp pháp giáo trình nào? Q thầy/cơ có hài lịng với bố cục Bố cục giáo trình khơng? Có cần thêm bớt phần khơng? Theo thầy/cơ, đọc có mang tính Giáo trình Các đọc chun sâu bên ngành học sinh viên khơng? Thơng tin có cập nhật? Số lượng hiệu Theo thầy/cô, hình ảnh minh họa hình ảnh minh họa sách nào? Page 109 Theo thầy/cô, tập sách có Các tập tạo cho sinh viên hứng thú học tập không? Quan niệm dạy tiếng 10 Thầy/cơ có quan niệm dạy tiếng Anh Anh chuyên ngành chuyên ngành CNTT q trình truyền đạt cho sinh viên kiến thức bên ngành CNTT tiếng Anh thay tiếng Việt khơng? Phương pháp dạy 11 Thầy/ cô sử dụng phương pháp để dạy tiếng Anh chun ngành CNTT? Phương pháp Kỹ tiếng Anh 12 Khi dạy, quý thầy / cô tập trung vào kỹ giảng dạy tiếng Anh nào? Các hoạt ñộng dạy học 13 Qúy thầy / sử dụng hoạt động để dạy tiếng Anh CNTT? Các kỹ thuật dạy 14 Quý thầy /cô sử dụng kỹ thuật dạy gì? Phương tiện dạy học 15 Quý thầy /cô sử dụng phương tiện dạy học nào? Các vấn ñề khác 16 Các vấn ñề khác ảnh hưởng đến việc lớp học giảng dạy thầy/cơ? Lớp đơng? Lớp trình độ khơng đều? 17 Thầy/cơ nghĩ nên kiểm tra nội ðánh giá Nội dung kiểm tra dung ñể ñánh giá kết học tập sinh viên? Giải pháp cho chương 18 Theo quý thầy/cơ, để việc dạy học Giải pháp trình tiếng Anh tiếng Anh chuyên ngành CNTT ñạt kết tốt hơn, nên thay đổi mặt nào? Page 110 APPENDIX 3A INTERVIEW QUESTIONS FOR THE DEAN OF IT DEPARTMENT Areas of Items in the Interview Interview questions concern What technical terms and concepts The technical terms and of IT should IT English syllabus IT English basic concepts of IT provide for students? Syllabus What English skills should the IT English skills English syllabus provide? Listening, speaking, reading and writing? Is it reasonable for IT students to The allocation time take IT English syllabus in the second year (semester 3)? Page 111 APPENDIX 3B CÂU HỎI PHỎNG VẤN PHỎNG VẤN TRƯỞNG KHOA CÔNG NGHỆ THÔNG TIN Lĩnh vực có Các mục vấn Câu hỏi vấn liên quan Theo q thầy/cơ, chương trình Chương trình Các thuật ngữ khái tiếng Anh công nghệ thông tin nên tiếng Anh niệm bên ngành CNTT cung cấp cho sinh viên thuật ngữ chuyên ngành khái niệm mảng Công nghệ bên ngành CNTT? thơng tin Theo q thầy/cơ, chương trình tiếng Anh công nghệ thông tin nên Kỹ tiếng Anh phát triển kỹ tiếng Anh cho sinh viên ngành CNTT? Nghe, nói, đọc, viết? Theo q thầy /cơ, đến học kỳ (năm hai) sinh viên CNTT có đủ kiến Thời điểm học thức bên chun ngành ñể học tiếng Anh chuyên ngành không? Page 112 APPENDIX Observation report Class (Teacher 1) Class: CD09 QTM Date: Observer Start time Number of Students: 42 Length of observation Teacher arrived at class about 15 minutes late on three out of five days observed during the course On day 1, the first day of the course, the teacher briefly introduced the course in both English and Vietnamese and got students to some ice-breaking activities such as “Cinquain” or “Eight nouns” to introduce themselves and to know each other On two different days out of five days observed, the teacher called random students to check the previous lesson before starting the new lesson for minutes On two other days, the teacher asked students to open the books to start the new lesson after greeting In general, the researcher took some notes on the teaching reality of class on five days observed as follows: Teaching procedure The aim of the lesson To start the lesson, the teacher asked students some questions about the topic in English for discussion and then the teacher stated the aim of the lesson Take an example, on starting unit 1, the teacher asked students a question about computers in English such as “which machine you often use in learning IT?” some students in class said “computer”; she continued with another question “so, what is a computer?” but they failed to answer in English Some students answered in Vietnamese to express their knowledge of computers After a few simple questions for class discussion to warm students up, the teacher briefly stated the aim of the lesson by saying: “Today we are going to study lesson one which is about the definition of Page 113 computers By the end of this lesson, we will be able to know about different definitions of computers and their basic capabilities Furthermore, some technical terms and basic concepts in this lesson will help you understand the next lessons better and improve your reading skill as well” The teacher wrote the title of the lesson clearly on the board Her writing was large enough for students at the back of the class to see She talked and kept eye contact with the class as she wrote She divided the board into two parts: vocabulary and grammar points The stages of the lesson Presentation: She wrote new words and equivalent Vietnamese meanings of all new words on the board Besides the technical terms, there were a lot of unfamiliar general words to students They quietly wrote down the new words into their notebooks The teacher pronounced the new words and asked students to repeat in chorus The teacher wrote some basic grammatical points on the board and explained how to translate them into Vietnamese To check students’ understanding, she sometimes paused to ask students: “Do you understand what I am saying?” Practice: Teacher did not let students interact with new words or structures Students had to learn new words and grammatical points by heart Reading and translation: There were not any pre-reading activities for students to arouse their interest in the topic and made them want to read the text The teacher did some activities concerning reading comprehension First the teacher read the passages while students were listening Then she asked each student to read the passages of the lesson in silence to guess the main idea of the lesson The teacher divided the class into five groups including five students in each group to the translation Then she called any student in each group to read the text aloud and translate some sentences in the paragraph into Vietnamese The teacher corrected Page 114 students’ pronunciation after they finished reading aloud Three students out of five could not translate the sentences well when they dealt with a compound noun or complicated phrase Teacher asked some short questions about the texts Most of students could not answer Wh-questions raised by the teacher in English They just looked at the book and read aloud the answers Presenting new words and translating the text occupied most of the time • The use of teaching aids: The teacher did not use any pictures or models to show the meaning of new words She used chalk and blackboard to present new words and structures • The management of the class: The teacher encouraged students to use English in real-life situations The students did not participate actively in the lesson They wrote down into their notebooks what the teacher wrote on the board The frequency of interaction between the teacher and students was not high While working in groups, some students did not pay much attention to the lesson The teacher walked around the class to control the class while students were working in groups • The teacher’s personality: The teacher sometimes smiled when students gave the right answers The teacher seemed to be interested in the lesson She was rather friendly with students • The command of English: Her pronunciation was clear but she did not speak English naturally Her IT knowledge was limited in that a student asked her to explain the sentence “computers have a means of communicating with the user” in paragraph of unit 1, she could not explain clearly Furthermore, her technical terms were limited when she could not explain the technical term “CRT display screen” satisfactorily Page 115 APPENDIX Observation report Class (Teacher 2) Class: CD09 QTM Date: Observer Start time Number of Students: 40 Length of observation Teacher came to class on time on five days observed during the course On day 1, the first day of the course, the teacher briefly introduced the course and got students to some ice-breaking activities to introduce themselves and to know each other On four other days, the teacher asked students to open the books right after greeting The teacher started the new lesson without checking the previous lessons In general, the researcher took some notes on the teaching reality of class on five days observed as follows: Teaching procedure The aim of the lesson The teacher did not start the lesson by asking some questions concerning about the topic but mentioned the topic directly The teacher did not state the aim of the lesson clearly For instance, to start lesson 3, the teacher said: “Today we are going to study lesson three which talks about the characteristics of computers By the end of this lesson, we will be able to know about the characteristics of computers to use them effectively in many aspects in our life This lesson helps to improve your reading skill by providing practical technical terms” She wrote the title of the lesson clearly on the board Her writing was large enough for students at the back of the class to see She talked and kept eye contact with the class as she wrote She wrote: “New vocabulary” on the left of the board The stages of the lesson Page 116 Presentation: She wrote new words on the board She asked students to check the meanings of general words at home and she only provided the Vietnamese meanings of technical terms There were a lot of unfamiliar general words to students Some students who did not read the text at home had to ask other students for help The teacher pronounced the new words and asked students to repeat in chorus Practice: Teacher did not let students interact with new words or structures Students had to learn new words and grammatical points by heart Reading and translation: There were not any pre-reading activities for students to arouse their interest in the topic and made them want to read the text First the teacher read the passages once while students were listening Then she asked each student to read the passages of the lesson in silence to guess the main idea of the lesson Teacher did not use pair work or group work in reading activities like answering the questions and guessing the main idea The teacher divided the class into six groups including five or six students in each group to the translation Then she called any student in each group to read the text aloud and translate some sentences in the paragraph into Vietnamese The teacher corrected students’ pronunciation while they were reading aloud Students had difficulty in translating a noun phrase such as “specially prepared pieces of information” because they could not identify the head noun in the noun phrase; they had problem with the word order The teacher translated the text again Then she asked the whole class to guess the main idea of each paragraph in the text Students could not summarize the main idea of each paragraph in their own words They read some sentences in the book to answer teacher’s questions No communicative skills were used during the lesson The whole lesson was boring to the students All in all, the class was based on the reading material presented in the classroom The teacher was an authority in the classroom and the students were passive Presenting new words and translating the text occupied most of the time Page 117 The use of teaching aids: She used chalk and blackboard to present new words and structures The management of the class: The teacher did not encourage students to use English in real-life situations The students did not participate actively in the lesson The frequency of interaction between the teacher and students was not much Some students did not pay much attention to the lesson The teacher sat at the desk while students were working in groups The teacher’s personality: The teacher looked rather serious She rarely smiled The command of English: Her pronunciation was clear but she did not speak English naturally Her IT knowledge was still limited For example, in unit 3, she did not give another example of the three basic concepts of input, processing and output beside the example in the course book Page 118 APPENDIX Observation report Class (Teacher 3) Class: CD09 QTM3 Date: Observer Start time Number of Students: 41 Length of observation Teacher arrived at class 20 minutes late on four out of five days observed during the course After saying “Good afternoon, everybody!” to students, the teacher started explaining the reason of his delay in Vietnamese The teacher made use of the first language to communicate with students, even the simplest orders like “stand up” or “open the books” The classroom environment was rather friendly and joyful On the first day of the course, the teacher introduced the course and talked about himself a lot in Vietnamese and then he got students to introduce themselves On four other days, the teacher did not check the previous lessons He asked students to open the books to start the new lesson after greeting In general, on five days observed, the researcher took some notes on the teaching reality of class as follows: Teaching procedure: The aim of the lesson The teacher did not ask any questions about the topic The teacher wrote the title of the lesson on the board and then he gave the Vietnamese meaning The teacher did not state the aim of the lesson The stages of the lesson Presentation: The teacher wrote new words on the board and then he provided the Vietnamese meanings of these words There were a lot of unfamiliar general words to students The teacher pronounced the new words and asked students to repeat in chorus Then he called some students to stand up and pronounced the words again Page 119 Practice: Teacher did not let students interact with new words Students had to learn new words by heart Reading and translation: There were not any pre-reading activities for students to arouse their interest in the topic and made them want to read the text Teacher did not use pair work or group work in reading activities like answering the questions, guessing the main idea The teacher read the passage and then asked the whole class to repeat after him Next he called each student to read the passage, interrupting the students’ reading to correct their pronunciation mistakes The teacher divided the class into six groups including five or six students in each group to the translation Then he called any student in each group to read the text aloud and translated some sentences in the paragraph into Vietnamese Finally, he translated the text word by word and the students wrote these translations The teacher was an authority in the classroom and students were passive The teacher asked students to close their books and then he asked some short questions about the main points in the text The questions were rather easy for students to answer Presenting new words and translating the text occupied most of the time The use of teaching aids: She used chalk and blackboard to present new words and structures The management of the class: The teacher did not encourage students to use English in real-life situations Some students did not pay much attention to the lesson, they relied on others The teacher walked around the class while students were working in groups The teacher’s personality: The teacher looked rather serious He rarely smiled The command of English: The teacher’s pronunciation was clear His intonation was natural but he spoke Vietnamese a lot even the simplest English command in class like “open the books”, “work in groups of seven” His IT knowledge was rather good He gave examples outside the course book to draw students’ attention Page 120 APPENDIX Observation report Class (Teacher 4) Class: CD09 SCMT Date: Observer Start time Number of Students: 41 Length of observation Teacher came to class on time on five days observed during the course On day 1, the first day of the course, the teacher briefly introduced the course in both English and Vietnamese and got students to some ice-breaking activities such as “Real questions” or “Name game” to introduce themselves and to know each other On three days out of five days observed, the teacher called random students to check the previous lesson before starting the new lesson for minutes On two other days, the teacher asked students to start the new lesson after greeting In general, on five days observed, the researcher took some notes on the teaching reality of class as follows: Teaching procedure The aim of the lesson The teacher used pictures on two out of five days observed The teacher showed the pictures concerning the topic to students and then raised some questions for them to answer The teacher stated the aim of the lesson after the warm-up activity For example, the teacher showed students some pictures about hardware and software and then raised a number of questions to arouse students’ interest in the topic The teacher said: “Everybody, look at this picture What are there in the picture? Some students said: “a mouse and a keyboard” The teacher said: A mouse and a keyboard are input devices which are called “hardware” What we use to control the activities of the hardware?” Students did not understand the question The teacher continued: “We use Page 121 programs to control computer hardware The programs are called software Then she briefly stated the aim of the lesson: “Today we are going to study lesson five which talks about hardware and software By the end of this lesson, we will be able to know more about hardware and software Furthermore, some practical technical terms and basic concepts of computers will be acquired to improve your knowledge and reading skill.” The teacher wrote the title of the lesson clearly on the board Her writing was large enough for students at the back of the class to see She talked and kept eye contact with the class as she wrote The stages of the lesson Presentation: The teacher wrote new words on the board There were a lot of unfamiliar general words to students The teacher pronounced the new words and asked students to repeat in chorus The teacher called some students to stand up and pronounced the new words Practice: Teacher did not let students interact with new words or structures Students had to learn new words and grammatical points by heart Reading and translation: First the teacher read the passages once while students were listening Then she asked each student to read the passages of the lesson in silence to guess the main idea of the lesson Teacher did not use pair work or group work in reading activities The teacher divided the class into six groups including five or six students in each group to the translation Each group was composed of at least one good student to help the other students The teacher called any student in each group to read the text aloud and translate some sentences in the paragraph into Vietnamese The teacher corrected students’ pronunciation after they finished reading aloud Students had difficulty in translating noun phrases such as “the physical, electronic, and electromechanical devices” or long sentences because they could not identify the head noun in the noun phrase Also, they had problem with the word order Grammar Page 122 points were emphasized through the whole lesson The teacher translated the text again Then she asked the whole class the main idea of each paragraph in the text Students could not summarize the main idea of each paragraph in their own words in English They read some sentences in the book to answer teacher’s questions All in all, the class was based on the reading material presented in the classroom After the lesson finished, the students were asked to answer the comprehension questions based on the lesson but they were not completely able to answer them all Therefore, the teacher interrupted and helped the students answer them Scarcely did the teacher allow them to get engaged in solving the problems Presenting new words and translating the text occupied most of the time The use of teaching aids: The teacher did not use any pictures or models to show the meaning of new words She used chalk and blackboard to present new words and structures The management of the class: The teacher did not encourage students to use English in real-life situations The students did not participate actively in the lesson The frequency of interaction between the teacher and students was not much Some students did not pay much attention to the lesson The teacher sat at the desk while students were working in groups The teacher was an authority in the classroom and the students were passive The teacher’s personality: The teacher was rather friendly with students She smiled often The command of English: Her pronunciation was clear and she spoke English naturally Her IT knowledge was still limited She did not provide the relevant IT knowledge outside the coursebook for students Association of LSP Teachers ISSN: 1854-2042 Page 123 ...CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY I certify my authorship of the thesis submitted today entitled: SOME PROBLEMS IN TEACHING AND LEARNING ESP AT HO CHI MINH CITY VOCATIONAL COLLEGE OF TECHNOLOGY: A CASE STUDY. .. of a teacher, a syllabus designer, a material writer, a researcher, a collaborator and an evaluator ESP learners are usually adults who already “have some familiarity with English language and. .. ? ?Problems and prospects of ESP in multilingual Learning- contexts: An alternative approach” examines some of the problems which are faced by teachers and students in the teaching and learning of