The results collected by questionnaire on the targ- 123docz.net

2.3. Data analysis and discussion

2.3.1.1. The results collected by questionnaire on the target language input

Questions Options

Sts’ answers (%) Topics of reading texts are…to your own knowledge.

A. unfamiliar 61

B. familiar 27

C. very familiar 12

According to you, reading texts contain…new vocabulary items.

A. many 63

B. average 35

C. few 2

There are…phrases, compounds in each unit.

A. many 67

B. average 29

C. few 4

New vocabulary items are…repeated in the next units.

A. usually 0

B. sometimes 62

C. rarely 38

Meanings of vocabulary items are…

A. very familiar 5

B. familiar 17

C. unfamiliar 78 There are…vocabulary practice exercises in each unit.

A. many 15

B. average 34

C. few 51

Vocabulary practice exercises in each unit are….

A. interesting 7

B. neutral 35

C. boring 58

Table 1: Students‟ opinion on the syllabus and ESP vocabulary in the course book Regarding students‟ opinion on the syllabus and ESP vocabulary, table 1 shows that:

In terms of topics of the reading texts, 61% consider they are strange while only 27% feel familiar to their background knowledge when they have finished their course

(LUAN.van.THAC.si).dificulties.in.memorizing.ESP.vocabulary.in.the.couse.book.english.for.finance.faced.by.the.second.year.non.english.major.students.at.the.academy.of.finance.and.some.suggested.solutions(LUAN.van.THAC.si).dificulties.in.memorizing.ESP.vocabulary.in.the.couse.book.english.for.finance.faced.by.the.second.year.non.english.major.students.at.the.academy.of.finance.and.some.suggested.solutions(LUAN.van.THAC.si).dificulties.in.memorizing.ESP.vocabulary.in.the.couse.book.english.for.finance.faced.by.the.second.year.non.english.major.students.at.the.academy.of.finance.and.some.suggested.solutions(LUAN.van.THAC.si).dificulties.in.memorizing.ESP.vocabulary.in.the.couse.book.english.for.finance.faced.by.the.second.year.non.english.major.students.at.the.academy.of.finance.and.some.suggested.solutions

on these topics in Vietnamese. Evidently, it is a challenge for students to memorize what they do not know in their target language.

The option that reading texts contain many new vocabulary items accounts for the largest portion, 63%. There are only 2 % choose option C (few). The rest choose option B (average). Thus, there are too many new vocabulary items, which students are not able to remember all of them after each unit. Besides, 67% say there are many phrases, compounds in each unit. This also contributes to the students‟ worry and difficulty in memorizing new vocabulary items.

The next question shows that no one thinks new vocabulary items are usually repeated in the next units, while 62% students say “rarely”, the rest choose “sometimes”.

This reveals that students have few chances to come across new vocabulary items so that they can review and put them in their long- term memory.

In terms of meanings, only 5% students think meanings of vocabulary items in the book are very familiar, while 15 more times than that number (78%) are in favor of the option C (unfamiliar). It is difficult for student to memorize general English;

however, it is even much more difficult for them to memorize ESP vocabulary items that have numerous special meanings and many others overlap with general English, which results in students‟ meaning confusion.

More than a half (51%) of the students think there are few vocabulary practice exercises in each unit. However, more than a half (58%) think those exercises are boring. This indicates that although a large number of students want to do more vocabulary practice exercises while they are not interesting enough. This prevents the students from consolidating and then memorizing vocabulary items.

1.3.1.2. The results collected by questionnaire on the teachers’ vocabulary teaching methods

Teachers play important roles in helping students acquire language knowledge in general, and vocabulary in particular. However, the figures in table 2 indicate that teachers at the AOF still cannot help students much in their vocabulary memorizing.

Questions Options

Sts’ answers (%) Your teacher spends….time presenting

new vocabulary items.

A. much 48

B. sufficient 39

C. little 13

Your teacher…teaches you to pronounce new vocabulary items.

A. often 17

B. sometimes 34

C. rarely 49

Your teacher… tests your learned vocabulary items.

A. often 11

B. sometimes 34

C. rarely 55

Your teacher trains you in memorizing new vocabulary items.

A. Yes 5

B. No 95

Your teacher‟s vocabulary presenting ways are…

A. very interesting 13

B. interesting 21

C. boring 66

What techniques for presenting new words does your teacher often use?

(you can choose more than one)

A. using visual aids 9

B. saying the words clearly and writing them on the board

34 C. translating all the words into

Vietnamese

72 D. using mimes, gestures, and

facial expressions

5 E. using target language to

define new words

17 Table 2: Students‟ opinion on their teachers‟ vocabulary teaching methods

Forty eight percent of the students confirmed that their teachers spend much time presenting, explaining new vocabulary items. What teachers give students are meanings, part of speech and sometimes the connotation of the vocabulary items in Vietnamese.

Pronunciation is not paid much attention to when 49% of the students revealed that their teachers rarely teach them how to pronounce vocabulary and the rest (35%) chose sometimes”. Students‟ bad pronunciation is one of reasons for their poor vocabulary memorizing.

Asking students to do and then correcting for them vocabulary exercises also help students in consolidating and reviewing what they have learnt; however, just 11%

of the students admitted their teachers often ask them to do and correct vocabulary exercises, 34% chose “sometimes” and the rest with largest portion (55%) chose

“rarely”. This makes students inactive in their vocabulary practicing and reviewing.

Students themselves do not know how to apply memory strategies effectively if their teachers do not instruct them. However, 95% confessed that their teachers do not instruct them memory strategies, only very small portion (5%) said their teachers do it.

This is also a great difficulty for students to memorize vocabulary.

With techniques for presenting new words, more than a half (66%) do not like their teachers‟ vocabulary presentation when they chose the option c (boring) while techniques like writing on the board or translating all the words into Vietnamese take the largest proportions (34% & 72%). These data show that the teachers‟ ways of presenting new vocabulary are no longer interesting to students.

2.3.1.3. The results collected by questionnaire on students’ vocabulary learning

Questions Options

Sts’ answers (%)

You feel it….to study ESP vocabulary.

A. Interesting 23

B. Neutral 36

C. Boring 41

You are…in learning vocabulary during class lessons.

A. Passive 81

B. Active 9

You...use new vocabulary items to discuss and communicate during class and after- class time.

A. Often 5

B. Sometimes 17

C. Rarely 78

Memorizing ESP vocabulary items is…

A. Difficult 68

B. Neutral 29

C. Easy 3

You learn ESP vocabulary at home…

A. Everyday 16

B. after each class lesson 31 C. sometimes (ex: before tests) 53 Table 3: Students‟ opinion on their own vocabulary learning

Whether vocabulary memorizing is effective or not most depends on students‟

own vocabulary learning. However, as can be seen from table 3 above, many problems are revealed from students‟ own learning.

With students‟ interest in studying ESP vocabulary, only 23% feel interesting, 36% feel neutral, while 41% feel boring. This is low motivation for students to learn vocabulary. Moreover, most students (81%) realized that they are very passive in learning vocabulary. This figure also cognates with the number of students (78%) who admitted they rarely use vocabulary to discuss or communicate what they have learnt during-class as well as after-class time.

For memorizing vocabulary, 68% students consider it difficult. However, just only 16% students spend time learning at home every day, while 53% sometimes learns vocabulary at home. They only learn them before the tests. Students‟ laziness and feeling of difficulty in memorizing vocabulary contribute to students‟ vocabulary memorizing difficulty.

As mentioned above, learning strategies are always important elements of language learning success and vocabulary is not an exception. Table 4.1 below shows vocabulary strategies which are often used and the most effective ones.

Options Sts’ answer %

Which vocabulary strategies do you often use to memorize vocabulary?

A. Connect words to personal experience 18

B. Use synonyms or antonyms 37

C. Connect new words with known words 11

D. Group words on topics such as: kinds of banks, etc. 42

E. Make sentences with new words 5

F. Write down all new words in a notebook and learn them 49 G. Rote- learn words and their Vietnamese equivalents 74

H. Review new words periodically 25

I. Do word test 9

J. Study and practice vocabulary through group work (e.g. test each other‟s vocabulary)

Your3 most effective strategies are…

A. Connect words to personal experience 5

B. Use synonyms or antonyms 16

C. Connect new words with known words 6

D. Group words on topics such as: kinds of banks, etc. 28

E. Make sentences with new words 4

F. Write down all new words in a notebook and learn them 15 G. Rote- learn words and their Vietnamese equivalents 27

H. Review new words periodically 19

I. Do word test 7

J. Study and practice vocabulary through group work (e.g.

test each other‟s vocabulary) 11

Table 4.1: Students‟ vocabulary memorizing strategies used

From figures shown on table 4.1 above, the comparison between question 19 and 20 is made in chart 1 below:

Chart 1: The comparison between used strategies and effective ones

As can be seen, the most often used strategy is Rote- learning words and their Vietnamese equivalents accounts for 74% while 27% consider it an effective one to them (the rate is ≈ 1/3). The second most often used strategy is grouping words on topics such as kinds of banks, branches of economics, etc. (42%) while 28 students consider it an effective strategy (the rate is 1/2). Making sentences with new words, doing word test, and studying and practicing new vocabulary through group work (e.g. test each

other‟s vocabulary) are least frequently used. However, most of students (4; 7; 11) use these strategies find that they are effective ones to study new vocabulary. From this analysis, problems revealed that students still use strategies, which are not effective to them because they do not know other ones. This also causes difficulties for students in memorizing vocabulary.

2.3.1.4. Discussion of the results collected by interviews

When being asked the first question, What problems do you have when teaching ESP vocabulary to the second- year students at the AOF?, most of the teachers (13/16) agreed that they are the teachers of general English. They are neither trained officially to become teachers of English for business nor provided with knowledge of the subject matter they are going to teach. Therefore, the gap of content knowledge seems to be problematic. For example, they have to explain difficult terms or structures in the reading texts that they can neither find the correct Vietnamese equivalence nor understand them properly. This makes teachers confused and not confident in certain situations. One more thing all teachers agreed is the overcrowded classes, which include from 39 to 75 students. This is difficult for teachers to help students practice vocabulary effectively as well as check students‟ vocabulary learning.

In addition, 11/16 teachers added that students‟ attitudes towards ESP vocabulary learning are also in consideration. Most of them do not pay enough attention to learning and practicing vocabulary in particular and learning English in general. They show little interest in language learning although they know the importance of English in this society.

With question 2, what do you think about ESP vocabulary in the course book

“English for finance” in terms of:

Relevance: According to 8/ 16 teachers, their students have difficulties in learning many terms, which are not in their background knowledge. For example, accounting students have to learn many terms related to banking.

Number of vocabulary items: with this category, 10/16 teachers admitted that there are so many new vocabulary items that most students can hardly learn all of them.

Moreover, their students no longer remember what they have learned in the course book

“Business Basics” by David Grant and MC Cathy (2001) before. Reading texts become more challenging to students to understand.

Vocabulary practice exercises: all teachers (16/16) admitted the importance and necessity of vocabulary practice exercises in helping students consolidate and review known vocabulary items. Whereas 69% of them confessed that they do not have enough time for this part.

With the third question, what do you think about your students’ ESP vocabulary learning?, all teachers unhappily admitted there are about 10% of their students seriously studying because of their interest. More than a half of their students thus study because of their duty. They are present in class only because of their teachers‟ regularity checking. Students‟ vocabulary memorizing is therefore not good enough. About 60%

students cannot answer their teachers‟ questions of old lessons because they do not understand their teachers‟ questions. They cannot also translate the texts into Vietnamese although they are provided with all new vocabulary in the last lessons. 56%

(9/16) teachers admitted about 75% students can remember the taught words in written forms and what they mean, while they cannot pronounce and use the known words to communicate. 14/16 teachers say that about 25% of their students each year cannot say anything in the oral tests at the end of the courses although they can write a lot in their draft during their 5- minute preparation before being tested. According to these teachers, this is because their students do not know how to pronounce the words.

In respond to question 4, what techniques and activities do you often use to present new words?, there is a strong trend of teachers‟ translating all the words into Vietnamese (14/16), saying the words clearly and writing them on the board (11/16) and using synonyms and antonyms (10/16). According to those teachers, these techniques are used because it is neither difficult nor time- consuming to apply when all teachers claimed that they often lack time for each unit in three 45-minute periods. Moreover, it is not easy to present business vocabulary by using visual aids or using mimes, gestures, etc. Students‟ passive learning habits also prevent teachers from using other techniques.

32% (6/16) teachers use target language to define new words. However, they found it not effective to present new words in English because most of students do not understand what their teachers say.

For helping students review and memorize the taught words, 8/16 teachers often ask students to answer their questions, 13 teachers ask students to summarize the main ideas of the previous units. Making sentences with words is preferred by 4 teachers.

Discussing and playing games are least chosen by the teachers.