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

LANGUAGE PROBLEMS OF ESP STUDENTS IN READING COMPREHENSION AT THE UNIVERSITY OF NATURAL SCIENCES A Thesis in Master's ProgramsMajor: English Teaching Code Number: 5.07.02 Submitted in pa

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRA INING VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY

HOCHIMINH CITY UN IVERSITY OF SOC IAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES

TR UONG THI TU YET H ANH

LANGUAGE PROBLEMS OF ESP STUDENTS

IN READING COMPREHENSION

AT THE UNIVERSITY OF NATURAL SCIENCES

A Thesis in Master's ProgramsMajor: English Teaching

Code Number: 5.07.02

Submitted in partialfulfilment of the requirements

F ;l fVT · ; i I; : i; ~ ' 1 for the Degree of Master ofTESOL

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C ' ~_:~ :~:.:~::":' :.: ' SUPERVISOR :D0 HUY TH!NH ,Ph.D

HOCHIMINH CITY-2002

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 ofRequirements for Thesis in Master's Programs

issued by the Higher Degree Committee

Ho Chi Minh City, November 22nd, 2002

TRUONG THI TUYET HANH

I hereby state that I, Truong Thi Tuyet Hanh, being the candidate for thedegree of Master ofTESOL, accept the requirements of the University relating totheretention 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, inaccordancewith the normal conditions established by the Library for care,loan andreproductionof theses

Ho Chi Minh City,November 22n , 2002

TRUONG THI TUYET HANH

A great many people need to be thanked for their help In sharing theirexperiences for my thesis.

First of all, I am very grateful to my supervisor, Dr Do Huy Thinh, who

throughout with valuable advice while my thesis was carried out

I especially thank teachers and students who were willing to participate inthe interviews and questionnaires, gave their permission to use their informationand their own experiences

My special thanks go to my best friend Le Thi Thu Huong, who checked and

Van, who typed a remarkable number of pages in a short time and did so with

enthusiastic to design the thesis for me, helped more than I can say

All that remains is to thank my husband, who always encouraged andsupported 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 tocomplete my thesis

This study aims at investigating the problems in grammar and vocabularythat the third-year students majoring in Information Technology often encounterwhile they study English at the University of Natural Sciences, from which it leads

to seeking an efficient method of teaching and learning reading comprehension toenable students to have greater self-confidence and to learn English moresuccessfully both in the final years at the University of Natural Sciences and fortheir jobs afterwards About 100 third-year students majoring in InformationTechnology will be given questionnaires which directly get information about theirown problems while reading Besides, five teachers who teach English forInformation Technology will also be interviewed to consider their perceptions aboutstudents' difficulties and solutions they adopt to help students learn English moreeffectively

The findings of this study emphasize that although nearly all of the studentshave learned English at schools as well as the first stage of the university, (1) theirEnglish knowledge is quite inadequate for them to understand what is expressed inthe texts, (2) students have troubles with complex sentence structures, connectors,articles and modals, (3) students have a lot of difficulties in vocabulary such asinability to pronounce new words and lack of words while reading

1.10 Organization of the remainder of the study 6

3.3 The teaching / learning situation • •• •• ••• ••• • 28

CHAPTER 5 : FINDINGS A.ND ANALySIS •.• • •• 37

5 1.2 Interv iews wi th t eachers: 48

Figur e 1 : Nation's decision chart for dealing with low frequency words in specialized

Figure2 : Flow chart for choosing the right article 22

Figure 3 : Use of flow chart with sample noun phrases (as cited in Selinker, Tarone and

Figure8: The reason why ESP for IT is difficult for students 42

Figure 9 : Some aspects students want to be equipped with 43

Figure 11 : Students' methods in learning vocabulary 45

Figure14 : Students ' ideas about teachers ' using English in class 48

Table 1:Item 1 " Where do you come from? " 38

Table2 : Item 2 " How long have you learned English?" 39

Table 3 : Item 3 "How much can you comprehend the reading texts for Information

Tabl e4 : Item 4 : "Is the ESP program you are le arning suitable for you ?" 40

T able5: Item 5 : " What problems do you h ave when reading ESP te xts? " 41

Tabl e 6 : Item 6 "What do y ou want to focus on when learn ing En glish For Information

Tabl e 7: Item 9 : "Why is voc abulary difficult to y ou?" 43

Tabl e8 :Item 10: " How do y ou learn v ocabulary?" 44

Tabl e9 : Item 14: " Why is grammar difficult to you?" 45

Tabl e 10: Item 15 " Wh ich grammar points do you want to be mentioned?" 46

Tabl e 11: Item 16: "How much of Vietnamese do you want y our teacher to use in class ?" 47

CHAPTER 1 : INTRODUCTION

Like in many other Vietnamese colleges and universities, English is nowconsidered one of the main subjects in the University of Natural Sciences Althoughnearly all of the students have learned English at schools and at the first stage in thisuniversity, they are still supplied with basic English through "Headway -Elementary and Pre-intermediate" textbooks by Liz & Soars; then English forSpecial Purposes is especially taught at the second stage in which the reading skill

is crucially focused Learning to read, students are carefully trained a related group

of distinct reading skills such as skimming, scanning, surveying, predicting,generalizing, summarizing, inferring, and concluding Nevertheless, studentsmajoring in Information Technology in their third year still have a lot of difficultieswhen reading Information Technology texts in English partly because they are notwell-equipped with leaming-how-to-leam strategies in order to improve their self-study and partly because they lack knowledge of English, which results in theirinability to comprehend the texts The fact that students have troubles with Englishthrough observations of English teachers at the University of Natural Sciencesreally needs a fully empirical research once it is said that so much time and efforthave been spent on teaching reading in high schools and colleges where grammarand vocabulary are two aspects mainly mentioned

1.2 STATEMENT OF PURPOSE

The purpose of this study is to investigate: (1) the difficulties that studentsmajoring in Information Technology may face when reading English texts inInformation Technology;and (2) solutions teachers adopt to help students overcometheir problems in their English training

The survey of these issues is based on: (1) observations on learning Englishreading comprehension of students majoring in Information Technology; (2) aquestionnaire asking third-year students majoring in Information Technology at theUniversity of Natural Sciences about their problems in grammar and vocabulary;and (3) interviews with teachers of English at the University of Natural Sciences onthe various difficulties that students often face and methods teachers use to helpstudents overcome these problems.

1.3 RESEARCH QUESTIONS

The study is guided by the following questions:

./ What are the problems in grammar and vocabulary that the third-yearstudents majoring in Information Technology often encounter while theystudy English at the University of Natural Sciences?

./ What can be done to enable students to overcome their Englishproblems?

The study will also consist of discussions of discourse which has a veryimportant role in presenting words and structures in the written texts to considerwhether it might be useful to equip students with the cohesion, coherence andinformation structure while teaching grammar and vocabulary in the reading text

1.4 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

The Internet and publications in English have become so popular that reading

in English has become an indispensable demand for students especially thosemajoring in Information Technology Living in the Age of Information, studentsmajoring in Information Technology, more than whoever else, are the ones whohave to endlessly update their knowledge by reading not only the traditional kind ofEnglish texts in paper like books, documents, newspapers, and magazines butanother new kind of text such as electronic texts through e-mail and the Internet as

First, the study alms at helping many students - who have already

vaguely aware of what their problems are and how to address them - identify theirproblems and search for specific and ultimate solutions to improve their knowledge

which the study leads to seeking an efficient method of teaching and learningreading comprehension in the hope of enabling students to be more successful in

well-equipped for their jobs afterwards

Last but not least, the study supplies teachers and researchers with necessary

suitable ESP courses for students at universities and do research in the similar field

at other institutions, colleges or universities

./ EST: English for Science and Technology

./ EFL: English as a Foreign Language

./ L2: a target language or a second language

1.6 ASSUMPTIONS

First, the sample students and teachers represent the majority ofstudents and teachers at the University of Natural Sciences

Second, the research methods are valid and reliable, and the process ofcollection and analysis of data is reliable and appropriate

Third, the responsive informants are interested in these issues andwilling to cooperate in sincerely responding to the questions and giving trueinformation

1.7 DELIMITATIONS

investigating the non-English-majored students and teachers of English in full-time

discusses some students' language problems, not all of the aspects in detail about their problems in learning reading.

1.8 LIMITATIONS

institutions such as the University of Social Sciences and Humanities.

1.9 METHODOLOGY

This study, which was a descriptive research in which data were typicallycollected through observations,a well-structured questionnaire,and semi-structuredinterviews, was done at the HoChiMinh City University of Natural Sciencesconsisting of approximately 1,500 students majoring in Information Technology.Although the failing rate in English tests of these students is lower than that ofstudents majoring in other subjects such as Chemistry,Biology, Physics, it tends to

Being a combined qualitative-quantitative method, the study aimed atachieving triangulation in action, which improved the validity of research In thequantitative paradigm, the questionnaire was used to get real information about

English classes was to determine which aspects were the most important to students

at the advanced level - for both grammar and vocabulary - in order to establish

proper methods within the ESP curriculum

In addition to the quantitative, the qualitative paradigm with observationsand interviews was also carried out Students' difficulties could be observed inEnglish classes and in homework assignments This was particularly suitable forperceiving reading difficulties, and for noting students who lacked confidence and

who might need extra help The researcher had observed both her own Englishclasses - the researcher as a complete participant - and other English classes - theresearcher as a complete observer - during four semesters of the academic years of1999-2000 and 2000-200 I.With this method, "researcher has firsthand experiencewith informants,researcher can record information as it occurs,unusual aspects can

be noticed during observation and it is useful in exploring topics that may be

uncomfortable for informants to discuss" (Creswell, 1994:150)

Along with observations, individual and group face-to-face interviews withEnglish teachers were necessary and significant in getting more reliable, truthful,

and helpful information because firstly, this helped to gain additional insights intostudents' difficulties Secondly, this kind of work allowed the researcher to makediscoveries about the teachers' attitudes and teaching methods which were of greatimportance for students' learning improvement

While doing the research,the researcher was working as a teacher of English

at the University of Natural Sciences Therefore , the researcher was also theresearched one

1.10 ORGANIZATION OF THE REMAINDER OF THE STUDY

The study is divided into six major segments Besides chapter I presentingthe introduction,chapter II reviews the relevant literature and research to the study

Chapter III focuses on the specific circumstances for carrying out the study Chapter

IV describes the research design and methodology Chapter V discusses and

conclusions and implications for the learning and teaching of English at the

University of Natural Sciences in particular,and at other universities in general

CHAPTER 2 : LITERATURE REVIEW

Alderson (2000) says that in second- and foreign-language reading, it hasalways been assumed that learners have to first acquire language knowledge beforethey can read For this reason, a great deal of time has been spent on teachingreading in which grammar and vocabulary are two major aspects mainly focused(Nunan, 1999)

Testing several hypotheses about the role of language and skills, Alderson(1984) shows that poor reading in a foreign language is due in part to poor reading

in the Ll, together with an inadequate knowledge of the foreign language He,consequently, reveals that learners need to reach a threshold level of languageknowledge before they are able to transfer any Ll skills to their L2 reading tasks.Since language is one of the first and essential elements in any successful languageexperience,Alderson (2000) is not far from the truth when saying that,for second-language readers, an important component in developing reading ability must beincreasing language proficiency, and that what learners need to know in order toread texts in their subject disciplines is knowledge of the language of that discipline:initially lexis,and then later syntactic and rhetorical features

2.1 THE ROLE OF GRAMMAR AND VOCABULARY

Grammar and vocabulary play a very significant role in learning a foreignlanguage H Douglas Brown (1994) comments that the teaching of grammar andvocabulary has always been a central aspect of foreign language teaching Forcenturies, in fact, the only activity of language classrooms has been the study ofgrammar and vocabulary

However, which one IS more important - grammar or vocabulary ?Wilkins, one of the principal architects of communicative approaches to

language teaching, points out that acquiring the grammatical system of the targetlanguage is of central importance because an inadequate knowledge of grammarwill severely constrain linguistic creativity and limit the capacity of communication:

A notional syllabus , no less than a grammatical syllabus , must seek to ensure that the grammatical system is properly assimilated by the learner.

(Wilkins, 1976: 66)

In other words, grammar exists to enable to "mean", and without grammar, it

is impossible to communicate beyond a very rudimentary level (Nunan, 1991)

However, mastering grammar structures is not the most important aspect oflearning a foreign language, moreover, the success is measured in terms of learners'ability to use what they have learned to communicate in the language

In details, it is said that

grammar becomes the means to an end; knowing the grammar rules and memorizing the forms is not the goals Learners, therefore , should not view grammar only as an objects of study and manipulation Rather, they should view grammar as a way to express meaning, interact , and communicate.

(James & Bill, 1994: 144)Similar to grammar, vocabulary is also a central field in learning a foreignlanguage To some people, vocabulary is even more important than grammar Agood comment of grammar can not ensure good communication because we needwords to put in the structures to express ourselves (Harmer 1991)

Having a large amount of vocabulary enables learners to acquire grammarsuccessfully, Lee & Vanpatten (1994) say that while learners are reaping thebenefits of vocabulary acquisition from the input they are exposed to, they are alsoacqumng grammar

It is clear that, as with grammar, learners need opportunities to usevocabulary to communicate information

Only in this way can they work on those process responsible for the development of fluency and accuracy in second language speech

(James F.Lee & Bill Vanpatten, 1994: 131)Indeed, in reality, as part of the language system, vocabulary is intimatelyinterrelated with grammar Nunan (1999) notes that in terms of the subsystems oflanguage, in most language teaching approaches, vocabulary plays second fiddle togrammar According to him, foreign language learning will be most effective iflearners concentrate their efforts on mastering the basic sentence patterns of thelanguage Once these patterns have been memorized, new vocabulary can be

"slotted in" (Nunan, 1999: 103) Furthermore, the early development of extensivevocabulary can enable learners to "outperform their competence" (Nunan, 1999:103) In other words, if one has an extensive vocabulary, it will be possible toobtain meaning from spoken and written texts even though (s)he does not know thegrammatical structures in which the texts are encoded

Sharing the same experience, Rivers (1983), as cited in Nunan (1991),believes that the acquisition of an adequate vocabulary is essential for successfulsecond language use because, without an extensive vocabulary, we will be unable touse the structures and functions we may have learned for comprehensiblecommunication

Also, according to Bowen and Marks (1994), grammar teaching is oftenthought of as teaching the operation of "grammatical" or "structural" words such asthe ones referring to number, gender, definiteness, aspect, tense and modality Butall words have grammatical restrictions and grammatical implications Grammar isgeneralization about how words and groups of words behave So grammar plays aninevitable role in teaching and learning vocabulary In other words, grammarteaching and vocabulary teaching are two sides of the same coin

In brief, grammar plays a vital role in communication Through increasingcontrol over grammar, learners can progressively extend and refine their ability to

their ability to interpret other speakers' meaning more accurately Together withgrammar, a rich vocabulary is an important factor in the acquisition of a secondlanguage We can say that grammar and vocabulary are not mutually exclusive butcomplementary to enhance comprehension in communication.

2.2 VOCABULARY IN ESP

The importance of vocabulary in general English as well as in ESP is nowwidely acceptable (Swales, 1983, as cited in Dudley-Evans and St John, 1998).Therefore, in order to measure reading ability, Alderson (2000) suggests thatbecause it is clearly important to comprehend the vocabulary in a text, the simplestadvice is to guard against only test in lexical knowledge and that if estimates ofvocabulary size or quality are available, one may be able to estimate vocabularyeffects in the final reading score

The significant role of vocabulary suggests the need for its developmentwhich is not a specific study skill but it relates to all language learning Jordan(1997 : 149) mentions two reasons for this demand: firstly,students always expressthe desire to expand their amount of vocabulary, considering it as "a yardstick oftheir language improvement." Secondly, once it seems not to be a primary aspect ofconcern in EAP courses, "there is a tendency for it to become incidental to readingcomprehension "

In order to meet their reading needs at the university level,students require acertain amount of needed vocabulary Therefore, calculating a realistic minimumvocabulary size for these learners is very useful However, the suggestion ofstudents' vocabulary size is different among the scholars For example, many ofthem take for granted that learners should know at least 95 per cent of the runningwords in a text in order to read independently (Read, 2000: 83) or in other words,

"on average only one word in twenty will be unfamiliar to them" Meanwhile,Quinn (1968) holds the view that learners need less than 1000 words;Nation (1990)

and Laufer (1992) propose the necessary number of word families reaching 3,000;and Nurweni and Read (1999) recommend a number of 1,200 words on average.

Carter (1987) has agreed with Nation when maintaining that the vocabularyappropriate for students following EAP courses should clearly be more advancedthan the core 2,000-3,000 words that provide the basis of about 80 per cent of thewords likely to be encountered

Itcan be said that there are two main kinds of vocabulary in ESP: technicaland semi-technical

2.3 TECHNICAL VOCABULARY

Discussing the teaching vocabulary of ESP, Hutchinson and Waters (1987),Higgins (1966), Nation (1990) contend that teaching technical vocabulary, orspecialist vocabulary is the responsibility of the subject matter teachers, not that ofEAP teachers who should be given to the teaching of semi-technical or corevocabulary Also, Dudley- Evans and St John (1998:81) take the view that

While in general we agree that it should not be the responsibility of the ESP

understand the technical vocabulary in order to do the exercise.

To help students learn technical vocabulary efficiently, Compion and Elley(1971), and Nation (1986) have compiled word lists for academic vocabulary inwhich two types of frequency counts of university texts are stressed: the first is acore vocabulary of about 2,000-3,000 words and counts words outside this basiclist The second is only those words in the university texts causing difficulties foroversea students Nation (1990) says that such specialized word lists can be used:

(1) as a guide and focus for teachers in different activities; and (2) as a check list

word you meet that you don't know" and assisted in deciding which words to learn

by a chart for low-frequency words

low-frequency words

technical

(learn it as part of your subject)

containing known parts

learn it, the known parts will help

you remember it)

Figure 1: Nation's decision chart for dealing with lowfrequency words in specialized texts (cited in Jordan,

1997: 152)

Having the same intention with Nation in aiding students to learnvocabulary, Dudley-Evans and St John (1998) also divide technical vocabulary intotwo kinds: the first consists of terms which are cognate with the equivalent ones inthe students' first language and therefore, it will not cause difficulties for studentsexcept the difficulty with pronunciation, for example, the word 'cycle' ispronounced in English/saikl/while in most other languages it is pronounced /si:kll.The second kind comprises terms which are not cognate and are unfamiliar.Theseterms then may need to be introduced and explained before the exercise is tackled.

If there is a one-to-one relationship between the terms in English and the leamer's

Ll, it will be enough to translate each term into the Ll after a brief explanation.And finally,Dudley-Evans and St John (1998 : 82) suggest that:

In som e situations , le arners start ing a ne w academ ic cour se or prof essional training programme will need help w ith technical vo cabulary that i s completely new to th em One way to prepa re learners for su ch a situation is for the language teacher and the s ubject e xpert to prepare a glo ssary of new terms w ith stra ightforward explanation of the terms.

2.3.1 Semi-technical vocabulary

Another kind of vocabulary in ESP, besides specialist words, is variouslycalled semi-technical,sub-technical or academic,and consists of words which occuracross a number of disciplines (Jordan, 1997)

Although teaching this kind of vocabulary IS a must, there are manydefinitions of the concept For example, Martin (1976, as cited in Jordan, 1997:152-153) divides academic vocabulary into three groups:

a ) The research pro cess: the v ocabulary is primarily ve rbs and nouns and i s

" presented in a context w hich d iscuss the fi ve step s of research: formulat ing,

in vestigating , anal yzing, drawing conclusions and reporting r esults".

b ) The v ocabulary of anal ysis : i i ncludes high- frequency and two-word verbs needed " in order to present information in an organ ized sequence ", e g consist

of , group, result from , derive , base on , be noted for.

c ) The v ocabulary of v aluation : it i ncludes adjecti ves and ad verbs that occur in reviews, critiqu es and some reports , e g exhaustive , controversial , coherent,

indispensable, comprehensive, distinctive, pervasive , substantive; subjective, implicit-explicit , inductive-deductive, significant-insignificant.

objective-While Baker (1988: 92) suggests six categories of vocabulary They are:a) Items which express notions general to all specialized disciplines ;

b) General language items that have a specialised meaning in one or more disciplines;

c)Specialised items that have different meanings in different disciplines ;

d)Generallanguage items that have restricted meaning in different disciplines;

e) General language items that are used to describe or comment on technical processes or function in preference to other items with the same meaning, for example occur rather than happen ;

f)Items used to signal the writer 's i ntentions or evaluation of material presented Semi-technical vocabulary is also defined by Yang (1986); Xue and Nation(1984); Lyne (1983); Ghadessy (1979); West (1953); Hindmarsh (1980); and McArthur (1981) When mentioning the teaching / learning semi-technical vocabulary,Jordan (1997 : 153) says that:

There can be different attitudes towards the teaching / learning of sub-technical vocabulary One attitude is that students need to be aware of and learn the general meaning of the words - such as : function, factor, point - as they are more likely to know a specialist meaning from their own studies The other approach is that the meaning / use of the word needs to be learned in its ESAP context as this is the most frequent need the students will have for using it It can be argued that both approaches are valid : it will depend on the students' needs

2.3.2 Students' difficulty and the teaching of vocabulary in ESP

When reading their subject textbooks,students usually meet unknown wordsand phrases and they often identify their difficulty with English as not knowingenough words In addition to this problem, in an Experiment in Team-teaching ofOverseas Postgraduate Students of Transportation and Plant Biology, St John andDudley-Evans (1978) find out that subject-lecturers often assume that technicalterms are familiar to students and consequently, when checking students'comprehension, there are terms or groups of terms students do not fully understand

Hewings (1990) points out that vanous straightforward study skills and

techniques can help in different ways.For example,

scanning headings and sub-headings , and skimming through text can g ive an overview and set the scene Using the index to a book and find ing a word 's

initial occurrence could often lead to finding a definition or explanation Failing that , the ex istence of suitable glossari es or subject dictionaries could be brought

to t he students ' attention.

(Jordan,1997: 147)

While Hewings notes on the different strategies in learning new words,Melka (1997) focuses on students' "increasing degrees of knowledge or familiaritywith a word" Itmeans that,

when they first encounter a new word , learners have limited knowledge of it and

ma y not remember it until they come across it again It is only a fter they gain more knowledge of its pronunciat ion, spell ing , grammar , mean ing , range of use and so on that they are able to use i t themselve s

(Read,2000: 154)

It can be said that, there are different techniques to help students learn

vocabulary efficiently When researching in the influence of second languageacquisition towards learning vocabulary, Channell (1988, as cited in Jordan, 1997:

154) has well said "learning is the process,acquisition is the end result" and noted

"learners gain receptive control of new words before active control." Her researchfinally results in the primary implications for classroom practice:

I Since the lexicon appears to be an ind ependent entity in proc essing, there is

ju stification for teaching approache s wh ich make vo cabulary work a separate learning act ivity It i s not essent ial al ways to i ntegrate vocabulary with general communication.

2 Presentation of v ocabulary should p ay spec ific attent ion to pronunciation , in

p articular word stress So visual presentation and reading may not be the best ways to introduce new vocabulary.

3 Learners should be encourag ed to m ake their o wn le xicon as sociations when the y are ac tively learn ing new v ocabulary

4 Semantic links play an important role in production This suggests the use o f

semantic field based presentation methods on the lines of that exemplified.

Whenever encountering a new word, learners are advised to use twoquestions which Channell (1981, as cited in Jordan,1997: 154) addresses "in thecontext of semantic theory and its relevance to vocabulary learning."

1 How does it relate to other words with s imilar meaning?

2 Which other words can it be used with , and in which contexts?

Before suggesting the learning techniques for students, Dudley-Evans and StJohn (1998 : 84) carefully emphasize that "different learners favour differenttechniques, and it is important that teachers encourage learners to find out whatworks best for them." And after that,they suggest three ways gathering vocabulary

to facilitate cognitive processing:

I Situational , semantic and metaphor sets in which the word meaning can be presented according to topic , chains of association and metaphor.

(Established by Nattinger, 1988;Henderson, 1982)

2 Collocation and the use of corpora which pro vides the opportunity to draw up lists of key lexical items and the opportunity to examine the context i n which a lexical item occurs, its collocation.

(Built up by Scott and Johns, 1993; Carter and Me Carthy, 1988)

3 Lexical phrases wh ich are as chunks of language learners store instead as of ind ividual words.

(Researched by Nattinger and De-Carrico, 1992; Peters, 1983:

Henry, 1996)Similarly, Jordan (1997 156-159) also shows three ways in teaching andlearning vocabulary They are:

1 Grids are used by Harvey (1983): in volving the students in devising the grid, deciding on categories and discussing the allocation of words to slots.

2 Word networks are used by Elli s and Sinclair (1989) as s ensitizing activities for extending vocabulary.

3 Context is used by Kruse (1979) to aim at teaching word build ing skills and guessing word meanings from context clues; then by Sim and Laufer -Dvorkin

(1984) to practise in developing reading skills; next by Dunmore (1989) to examine reading / vocabulary course books.

Finally, he concludes that although there are different methods for students

to learn vocabulary,the best and the most effective way for them is to be 'centrallyinvolved in the learning process.'

2.4 GRAMMAR IN ESP

It can be said that grammar, like vocabulary, is fundamental to all languagelearning However, some people take the view that ESP teaching is not concernedwith grammar While much of the skills-oriented work in EAP or EBP does notconcentrate on grammar in itself, it is incorrect to consider grammar teaching asoutside the remit of ESP As Dudley-Evans and St John (1998 : 74) have aptly put it

Where students have grammatical difficulties that interfere with the essentially productive skills of speaking and writing, or the essentially receptive skills of listening and reading, it is necessary to pay some attention to those difficulties How much priority is paid to grammatical weakness depends on the learners' level in English and whether priority needs to be given to grammatical accuracy

or to fluency in using the language If priority is given to accuracy, then direct teaching of grammatical forms to express particular meanings will be required.

In fact, according to Todman and Payne (1981), grammar in scientificstatements does not appear to differ from that in the general language,although theinterpretation of some grammatical structures is different from, and in some casesmore precise than the interpretation considered normal in the general language.Nevertheless, second- and foreign-language students always express their needs forgrammar.For example:

"John (1994), in the context of describing classroom concordancing or driven Learning notes the popularity of remedial grammar classes among overseas postgraduates at Birmingham University He concludes that their preference for grammar is often 'a plea for help in overcoming confusion ' Support for this view is given by Leki and Carson (1994) who conducted a follow-up survey of NNS students at two American universities They found that among the students who had attended EAP writing classes, there was 'a particular need for more language-related training focused especially on vocabulary and grammar.

Data-(Jordan,1997 : 173)

For reading, where the learners' grammatical weaknesses interfere withcomprehension of meaning, the relationship between meaning and form can betaught or revised in context through analysis and explanation Dudley-Evans and StJohn (1998) suggest that grammar teaching in scientific and technical Englishshould be included some key grammatical forms such as verbs and tense, voice,modals, articles, nominalisation, and logical connectors.

2.4.1 Verbs and tenses

Researching on Some Verb Forms and Functions in Six Medical Texts,Wingard (1981) also argue the importance of finite and nonfinite verbs in theSimple Present tense, Simple Past tense, Present Perfect tense, Present PerfectContinuous tense in medical papers His findings show that nonfinite verbs areimportant in these papers and function to a considerable degree as alternatives tofinite verbs and that in the type of scientific English represented by these researchpapers both the Present and Past are important

Generally, the simple present tense is used in scientific texts not onlybecause it expresses a large amount of definitions but also it makes action sounddefinite.Some scholars claim that:

Because information texts are intended to tell the reader about "the nature of

th ings" or "how things are" , these types of text tend to use present-tense verb forms couched in statements about present " reality"

(Carter,Goddard, Reah, Sanger and Bowring, 1997: 97)

2.4.2 Voices

Itis said that in technical writing the passive voice is mainly used and moreimportant than active voice However, Wingard's research (1981, as cited inSelinker, Tarone and Hanzeli, 1981: 59)in medical texts shows that both active andpassive are equally important In fact, the proportion of active forms (60%), ishigher than of passive forms (40%) as shown in the following table:

Pa ssive vo ice more frequentl y than s ome other types of wri ting

the predominant tense i s the pre sent s imple and the pass ive v oice is used much more frequentl y t han in Gen era l E nglish , but not more frequently than the act ive v oice

2.4.3 M odals

especia l and important meaning and use,therefore, students need to understand thedegree of certainty if a writer's commitment to a statement or claim From brief

"may is used most often to make guarded or tentative statements, while can is used

to indicate more definite possible." Additionally,the use of a reporting verb such as

suggest, appear to, seem to, tend to in order distance the writer from the statement

that (s)he is reporting.Such means of expressing is known as hedging

professional and business genres and to manipulate its actual linguistic devices.

non-unique referent;

uniqueness is dictated by the context; (c) The uniqueness is implied.

And finally, they suggest some effective ways to learn articles by flow charts

- , i · :: ~ '- " f ' 1 :-1

: : j ~ 4 21

Enter noun +any

(1) : continuing depletion of domestic fossil fuels

modifiers

•

(2) : solar energy(3) : decisions

cited in Selinker, Tarone and Hanzeli, 1981: 1985)

2.4.5 Nominalisation

Mason (1990), as cited in Dudley-Evans and St John (1998) hold thatnominalisation which is the use of verbal nouns usually endings in suffixes such as _

by academic writers The use of nominalisation (or nominal phrase) enablescomplex information to be packaged into a phrase that is simple from grammatical

point of view Students, therefore, need to know the different between the use ofmeaning in the nominal phrase and the verb phrase The former is usually used informal language, especially, in academic contexts while the latter is used to transferthe main meaning in informal language For example:

(Chrispeels and Sadava, 1977,as cited in Dudley-Evans & St John,

1998:78)The meamng key is packaged in the nominal phrase "a high primaryproductivity" while the informal language, the verb phrase is often used to conveythe meaning such as "the crop produces a large amount."

Explaining the use of nominal phrases is also well-said by Carter, Goddard,Reah,Sanger and Bowring (1997: 138)

actions or entities.

2.4.6 Logical connectors

The understanding of the "small" words, those words are considered "empty"words but which are indispensable to any language, should be developedsystematically The so-called coordinators or connectors separated by themselves,have little meaning, but in context often carry "the major burden of precisemeaning" (Robinson and Rauch, 1966: 76) Additionally, the provision ofexperience and direct teaching of the meaning of the correlatives such as "both "

"and", "not " " only ", " but " "also ", "either" "or" is vital Robinson andRauch (1966: 76) suggest the following structure words:

(I) cause and effect - " because," " since," "so that ,"

(2) tho se which suggest condition - "if ," "unless, " "although ,"

(3) those that indicate contrast - "whereas ," "while ,"

(4) those that state time relat ion ships - "as ," " before," " when," "a fter ,"

" during," " while ,"e ct.,

(5) those which introduce parallel ideas - "however, " " therefore ,"

"nevertheless," "hence," "accordingly," " similarly," "on the other hand," "in conclusion ," and so on.

Dudley-Evans and St John (1998) maintain that logical connectors such as

mor eover, ho wever, and th erefore, are generally seen as a key to understand thelogical relationship in texts, and therefore, relevant to the teaching of reading,listening and writingin EAP

This chapter has discussed the role of vocabulary and grammar, students'difficulties of these two crucial aspects in learning English in general, and inreading ESP in particular.Learning ESP,students have to cope with a large amount

kinds As for grammar in ESP, although it is said not much different from grammar

in general English, students need to be equippedwith many keygrammatical pointssuch as verbs and tense, voice, modals, articles, nominalisation and connectors,those which form the precise and succinct style in scientific writing Itcan be saidthat learning and teaching vocabulary and grammar have attracted increasedinterestforyears and there havebeen more and more researchesrelating to these issues

CHAPTER 3 : OVERVIEW OF THE ENGLISH

TRAINING AT THE HOCHIMINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF NATURAL SCIENCES

The study was carried out at the University of Natural Sciences of

Information Technology As a rule, entering this university,all of the students have

to study during four years through two major stages: at the first stage, they areprimarily learned basic subjects and then, at the second stage, they are specially

subject which becomes a great need in the field of studying,researching as well asworking - is accordingly taught into two stages During the first stage, students ofall faculties are provided with general English in which " Headway - Elem entary

and Pr e-intermediate " coursebooks by Liz & John Soars are carefully taught withfour simultaneous language skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing Theseall are equally important and essential for the students whose purpose is to enhancetheir English in order to go further in their study first and after that in theiroccupation However, in addition to this kind of general English, students are alsoequipped with another special kind of English for their own field of study Inreality, all the four language skills are of great significance for students, but, as theirinevitable needs are to read a good deal of English books and documents relating totheir professional field, English for Special Purposes in which reading skill ismainly emphasized is taken into teaching

Since the study merely mentioned students' reading problems in grammar

considered

3.1 THE TEACHING / LEARNING TIME

The teaching and learning time chosen for this study was in the academic

was of great importance for the researcher because during this period, the researcherwas taking the Master course in TESOL which supplied her with extremely

from the course made her teaching methods change a lot and nurtured a topic in her

acted as the center in class However, at the beginning of the TESOL course, sheknew that in any case, good teaching would not take place unless it brought about

The teacher works as either a guide or a director who helps students (who play their

actors play well depends very much on the director's guidance and skills Thedirector, therefore, not only creates confidence in the actors and gives themopportunities to act creatively but tries her best to raise a high sense of the actors'

most of the students failed to read the specialised texts, which led to bad results in

in English urged the researcher to work out her cherished wish of finding what thestudents' problems were so as to improve their reading ability Therefore, having

collected about her students' problems from the beginning of TESOL course (in1999) till now (2002) becomes invaluable data for this empirical research.

3.2.THE TEACHING / LEARNING MATERIALS

For Information Technology students, before being taught English for theirspecialised field, they started with scientific texts in " Between the lines " textbook

by Faust, Johnston and Atkinson in two terms in which they were trained bothreading skills and learning strategies.The grammar book " Understand i ng and using English Grammar" by Azar was utilized to provide students with grammar and

structure during this period Finally, the ESP textbook "Oxford English for

to enforce students' grammatical knowledge, "Advanced English Practice" by

Graver was used in these final terms

3.3. THE TEACHING / LEARNING SITUATION

3.3.1 The role ofEnglish in the country

Together with the government's open policies about the diplomatic relations,economics, politics, culture as well as education, a large number of people arelearning English for their further study, their job and even for their entertainment

listen to news on the radio or television, and write long essays or document papers

in English

English has been a main subject in secondary schools,high schools, collegesand universities in the whole country and has become one of the major testingsubjects in many important examinations such as graduation examinations insecondary schools, high schools, colleges and universities

3.3.2 Students' reasons and needs for learning English

There are several reasons why learning English has become so necessary.First, since English is an obligatory subject at the university, students have to learn

it for their exams Second, at the university level, most of the books which scientificstudents - especially IT students - must read including up-to-date specialised booksare in English because "a little translating has been done, but translation as a large-scale policy is not feasible because of the cost and the fact that many texts would beout of date before the translation could be made available" (Higgins, edited inSwales, 1985: 30) Third, for good students who wish to enter a competition forforeign scholarships, mastering English is an indispensable and decisive factor to becompetent and confident enough for the challenged oral test conducted byforeigners Fourth, living in the booming era of SCIence, technology andinformation, students' demands for communicating through the e-mail andaccessing the Internet are so big that English is considered a "golden key" to helpthem enlarge their knowledge of specialised subjects Moreover, they immediatelyupdate the latest information for their major Finally, English, unquestionably, isone of the unavoidable requirements that both foreign and state-owned companiesrequire of programmers, analysts, specialists as well as scientists of computers.Therefore, a good English capacity can also bring about a good job for newgraduates

In brief,with a lot of significance as discussed above,IT students, more thanwhoever else, have a very high motivation in learning English

3.3.3 The learning time

For the first stage at the university, students have six English periods perweek to learn general English while for the second one, they have only four periodsfor ESP per week Very few of them take extra courses in language centers butgenerally, they follow the English program at the university and self-study at home