Khóa luận tốt nghiệp a study on accounting and business management students difficulties in learning esp vocabulary at vietnam national university of agriculture

VIET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURE FACULTY OF EDUCATION AND FOREIGN LANGUAGES BA THESIS A STUDY ON ACCOUNTING AND BUSINESS MANAGEMENT STUDENTS’ DIFFICULTIES IN LEARNING ESP VO

VIET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURE

FACULTY OF EDUCATION AND FOREIGN LANGUAGES

BA THESIS

A STUDY ON ACCOUNTING AND BUSINESS MANAGEMENT STUDENTS’ DIFFICULTIES IN LEARNING ESP VOCABULARY AT VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURE

NGHIÊN CỨU NHỮNG KHÓ KHĂN CỦA SINH VIÊN NGÀNH KẾ TOÁN VÀ QUẢN TRỊ KINH DOANH TRONG VIỆC HỌC TỪ VỰNG TIẾNG ANH CHUYÊN NGÀNH TẠI HỌC VIỆN NÔNG NGHIỆP VIỆT NAM

Student : VU THI MAI Major : ENGLISH Supervisor : NGUYEN THI NGOC THU, M.A

Hanoi – 2021

CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY

I, the undersigned, hereby certify my authority of the study project report

entitled A study on Accounting Business Management students’ difficulties in

learning ESP vocabulary at VNUA submitted in partial fulfillment of the

requirementsfor the degree of Bachelor in English Language Except where the reference is indicated, no other person’s work has been used without due acknowledgement in the text of the thesis

Hanoi, 2021

Vu Thi Mai

Approved by SUPERVISOR

(Signature and full name)

Date:………

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY i

TABLE OF CONTENTS ii

LIST OF ABBREVIATION……… iv

ABSTRACT iv

LIST OF TABLES vii

Part 1: INTRODUCTION 1

1 RATIONALE FOR THE STUDY 1

2 AIMS AND OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY 3

3 RESEARCH QUESTIONS 3

4 SCOPE OF THE STUDY 3

5 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY 3

6 DESIGN OF THE STUDY 4

Part 2: DEVELOPMENT 6

Chapter 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 6

1.1 REVIEW OF PREVIOUS STUDIES (AT HOME/ABROAD) 6

1.2 REVIEW OF THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 7

1.2.1 Statement of theoretical framework chosen 7

1.2.2 Review of theoretical preliminaries employable as tools for conducting the thesis 12

Chapter 2: METHODOLOGY 14

2.1 RESEARCH GOVERNING PRINCIPLE 14

2.1.1 Research questions 14

2.1.2 Research hypothesis 14

2.1.3 Research types: 14

2.1.4 Principles/ criteria for data collection and data analysis 15

2.1.5 Data analysis 16

2.2 RESEARCH METHODS 17

Chapter 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS 18

3.1 QUESTIONNAIRE FOR TEACHERS……… .18

3.2 QUESTIONNAIRE FOR STUDENTS……… … .20

3.3 DIFICULTIES……… 32

3.3.1 Subjective reasons from the students' side……… .33

3.3.2 Objective reasons from the environment and other issues……… 35

3.4 FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS……… 36

3.4.1 Findings and discussions to the teachers……… 36

3.4.2 Findings and discussions to the students……… 38

3.4.3 Findings and discussions to the Vietnam Universities, Vietnam Ministry of Education and Training, Vietnam State and Authorities Universities…38 3.5 SUMMARY……… 39

PART 3: CONCLUSION 40

1 RECAPITULATION 40

2 CONCLUDING REMARKS 40

3 LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY 41

4 SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER STUDY 41

REFERENCES 43

APPENDIX 45

LIST OF ABBREVIATION

ESP: English for Specific Purposes

EFL: English as a Foreign Language

ESL: English as a Second Language

EST: English for Science and Technology

EBE: English for Economics and Business

ESS: English for Social Sciences

EAP: English for Academic Purposes

EOP: English for Occupational Purposes

VNUA: Vietnam National University of Agriculture

ABSTRACT

Nowadays, with the development of globalization and economic integration, economics and related issues have become one of the most talked about topics all over the world Therefore, English for Specific Purposes (ESP) is a promising branch of English Language Teaching The purposes of the ESP course are to provide learners with the English language used in the specialty, often presented

in jargon While much effort has been focused on teaching vocabulary, the difficulty for students of Accounting and Business Management in learning ESP vocabulary has not been sufficiently drawn to attention By highlighting the lack

of related studies in ESP establishment in Vietnam, this paper is one of the first studies on ESP vocabulary of Accounting and Business Management students in Vietnam National University of Agriculture through difficulties, causes and solutions Thanks to a flexible combination of quantitative and qualitative methods, valid results can be obtained from the research The questionnaire was used as a data collection tool to identify the most common challenges during the three weeks of understanding, memorization, and application 119 students majoring in Accounting and Business Management were selected as study participants The reason for their difficulty is classified into subjective causes and objective causes Solutions proposed by students and teachers are also provided

in the study

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1: The difficulty of ESP vocabulary under the teacher's assessment 18

Table 2: Teacher's assessment of students' current situation of learning ESP vocabulary in Accounting and Business Management 19

Table 3: Assessing English vocabulary is difficult for student 20

Table 4: Where do students come from? 21

Table 5: The time when students seriously study English 21

Table 6 Students' scores at the end of the first semester of the academic year 2020-2021 for the general English 1 (or English 2) course 22

Table 7: Favorite level of learning English vocabulary for Accounting and Business Management 23

Table 8: Do Accounting and Business Management’s students find it difficult when learning ESP vocabulary 25

Table 9: Students' ability to remember vocabulary 25

Table 10: How often students learn English vocabulary in high school? 26

Table 11: Students' stress levels before and during the ESP vocabulary lesson 28 Table 12: Difficulties of students when learning ESP vocabulary 29

Table 12.1 Lack of vocabulary 29

Table 12.2 Don't know the meaning of the word 29

Table 12.3 Improper pronunciation 30

Table 12.4 Afraid to speak for fear of being wrong 31

Table 12.5 Don't know how to write words 32

Part 1: INTRODUCTION

1 RATIONALE FOR THE STUDY

In the general development of the world, the trend of globalization and development cooperation is inevitable Accordingly, English is considered an international language and a means of international communication commonly used in the world Like a useful means, a bridge connecting each individual to the world, English makes anyone feel more confident in a challenging life in the market economy development as present Vietnam is a developing country and English is an effective support tool for the integration and cooperation to access the world's advanced working environment and technology Since 2015, the ASEAN community has been deployed, this is an opportunity as well as a challenge for Vietnam After 2015, national barriers were removed, replaced by the multicultural international integration environment of the countries in the community, leading to problems of freedom of movement and the need to find jobs in the community many areas

At the Accounting and Business Management at Vietnam National University of Agriculture, ESP is an important subject in order to provide Accounting and Business Management students with specialized English terms and help students consolidate and strengthen professional knowledge through lessons with major-related content in English Based on the characteristics of the future career, the faculty has developed appropriate goals for the subject of English majoring in accounting and selected the textbook "English for Accounting and Business Management" to use for teaching the subject The curriculum mainly focuses on reading comprehension (theory) and writing skills (practical exercises) The curriculum is used to teach 119 Accounting and Business Management students, after completing two basic English modules 1 and 2 according to the school's common program

Although specialized ESP has been taught at the Accounting and Business Management for a long time and the teachers are stable, in the teaching process for different courses, the lecturers face certain difficulties Those difficulties may come from the teachers or may come from the students that the teachers did not anticipate On the part of the teachers, the feed instructors are all teachers who are trained in the English major, but not formally trained in the Accounting and Business Management major, so the teachers' knowledge of accounting is mainly through the form of self-study and learn from teachers specializing in Accounting and Business Management in the department On the student side, each student course has different qualifications and learning sense, so the acquisition of subject knowledge is also completely different From the actual teaching and learning results, it is shown that learning ESP vocabulary of students in general and students of Accounting and Business Management in particular is still difficult to understand, improve and deal with problems in English processing Really, it is necessary to have possible solutions to improve the quality of learning the ESP vocabulary for Accounting and Business Management students in this critical period and context For students, to get a job as desired in all fields, one of the "prerequisites" is to have foreign language capital - English This has also been contributing to promoting the teaching and learning of ESP vocabulary in VNUA which has always become "hot" over the past time In particular, the graduate job of Accounting Business Management students is to communicate with foreigners, listen to customers speak, read English documents and write reports in English Therefore, it is essential to improve students' foreign language proficiency so that after graduation students with knowledge of accounting and auditing will easily find jobs and meet strict requirements of employers

2 AIMS AND OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

The aim of the study is to investigate Accounting and Business Management students’ difficulties in learning ESP vocabulary at VNUA From there, we find out the possible reasons that affect learning ESP vocabulary of Accounting and Business Management students and propose some possible solutions for students to learn ESP vocabulary more easily From the aim above,

i find out how ESP is approached at VNUA as well as Accounting and Business Management students’difficulties in learning ESP vocabulary, discover the factors that influence them on learning ESP vocabulary, therefore, to offer some suggestions for studying ESP at VNUA in order to heighten the effectiveness

3 RESEARCH QUESTIONS

The research is carried out with an attempt to find out answers to the following research questions:

1 What are Accounting and Business Management students’ difficulties

in learning ESP vocabulary at VNUA?

2 What are the possible solutions for Accounting and Business Management students in learning of ESP vocabulary at VNUA?

4 SCOPE OF THE STUDY

The study investigated difficulties of 119 Accounting and Business Management students learning ESP vocabulary in second term at school year

2020 – 2021 at VNUA And then some suggested solutions are given to learn

ESP vocabulary more effectively

5 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

Theoretically, this study helps to uncover Accounting Business Management students’ obstacles in learning the ESP vocabulary A clearer look into the reasons for these difficulties are also be gained, and some suggested solutions are drawn out

Practically, it suggests some certain ways in learning vocabulary to help the students overcome these difficulties so that they can be confident not only in learning ESP vocabulary but also in using these words for their future jobs Teachers, after going through this research is more aware of the difficulties facing these students, and are able to help them gradually overcome these difficulties For educational administrators, the study provides them with a close view into the current situation, which may then reveal some pedagogical suggestions The findings hopefully contribute to the improvement of students in learning terms Last but not least, with regards to researchers who have the same interest in the topic, could find fundamental, and useful information to develop their studies

Stemming from the above reasons, we conduct research on the thesis: “A study on Accounting Business Management students’ difficulties in learning ESP vocabulary at VNUA”

6 DESIGN OF THE STUDY

This study consists of three parts:

Part 1 entitled “INTRODUCTION” provides the reason why the topic is

chosen It then provides the aim and objectives of the study It is also in this section that we are concerned with the scope and the design of the study

Part 2 named “DEVELOPMENT” deals with the main contents of the

study

Chapter 1 “Literature review” can be considered a slight overview of some previous research on the same subject both in English and Vietnamese It begins with a number of previous works that have done research related to this topic Next is to introduce the concepts of ESP, vocabulary, ESP vocabulary, ESP learners

Chapter 2 starts with the survey procedures, referring to the research approach and questionnaire method to collect data and analyze the collected data using SPSS software to achieve the results best in research

Chapter 3 focuses on presenting the research results and discussions The discussion took place after the statistical results were available It is the basis of the following conclusions

Part 3 “CONCLUSION” presents a summary of the main ideas, causes of

difficulties and some measures to overcome them

The study is closed with references and appendices

Part 2: DEVELOPMENT Chapter 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

1.1 REVIEW OF PREVIOUS STUDIES (AT HOME/ABROAD)

In our country, there are a number of studies on students' difficulties in learning ESP vocabulary, studies or focusing on a few specific difficulties, or

mentioning all of the student's difficulties In the Science Project Difficulties in

teaching and learning specialized English at the Vietnam Academy of Agriculture and solutions of information and communication technology application, March

2018 International Conference by author Nguyen Thi Minh Tam, Nguyen Thi Bich Ngoc, Vietnam National University of Agriculture, the authors said that learning ESP still faces many difficulties and limitations, because students are not students

in English major In addition, students who are not self-motivated and active in learning, and spend a lot of time in after-hours activities also negatively affect students' learning of specialized English

In the seminar article Study on difficulties of the students of Animal Science

when studying English for Special Purposes at Vietnam National University of Agriculture (2020), this study was conducted to find out the real situation of the

difficulties students of the courses belong to Knowledge of English in particular and specialized English in general is very necessary for students after graduation and for future work, so the author hopes this study will help teachers Students and students understand and identify their own difficulties thereby helping them improve their study of specialized English as well as specialized vocabulary in Animal husbandry

Scientific research An investigation into classroom vocabulary learning

activities at Dong Son I secondary school in Thanh Hoa by Bui Thi Thao also

analyzed clearly: I certify that the thesis entitled “An investigation into

classroom vocabulary learning activities at Dong Son I secondary school in

Thanh Hoa” is the result of my own research and the substances of this thesis

has not, wholly or in part, been submitted for a degree to any other university or institution

It is common knowledge that vocabulary is a very important language element However, the teaching and learning vocabulary at Dong Son I secondary school in Thanh Hoa is far from satisfactory

This study focuses on investigating how effective are currently used classroom vocabulary learning activities at Dong Son I secondary school This study also attempts to find out the most effective classroom vocabulary activities

to improve vocabulary teaching and learning at this school

I tried to find previous studies abroad but due to the limited time and confidentiality of the documents, I could not produce any foreign studies I will try to earn and supplement later

Thus, it can be seen that up to now, there have been a number of research projects directly related to students' difficulty in learning ESP, but there are no works for learning ESP vocabulary of Accounting and Business Management students of VNUA

1.2 REVIEW OF THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

1.2.1 Statement of theoretical framework chosen

1.2.1.1 Definition and classification of ESP

"ESP" stands for English for Specific Purposes Different authors have defined this term so far Some people described ESP as simply being the teaching of English for any purpose than could be specified Others, however, were more precise, describing it as the teaching of English used in academic studies or the teaching of English for vocational or professional purposes According to Hutchinson and Waters (1997), ESP is one important branch of EFL/ESL system that functions as the main branch of English language teaching ELT Specifically, Streven (1988:1) stated: "ESP is a particular case of the

general category of special purpose language teaching" Author Widdowson again sets the special goals of ESP course design in close relationship with training “ESP is essential training anatomy to provide learners with a limited capacity to create ability for them to face certain clearly defined tasks These tasks constitute the special purposes for which the ESP course is designed” (1983:6) In the diagram of English language teaching, author Hutchinson (1987:16) divided ESP into 3 categories based on the general nature of learners' characteristics EST, EBE and ESS Each ESP category includes two different types of ESP based on learners' requirements: EAP or English for Employment/Training (EOP/EVP/VESL) In the view of Robinson (1991:2) and Munby (1978:55), there is a major distinction between EOP and its relevance to needs EAP related to academic research needs The above views clearly show that ESP is in the category of Business English and it is also a kind of Academic English The course content is designed based on training objectives, characteristics and needs of students majoring in Accounting and Business Management

1.2.1.2 Vocabulary

Learning a new language cannot be separated from vocabulary Meaning that in learning a new language people have to know its vocabulary Vocabulary can be defined in various ways Experts have proposed some terms about vocabulary According to Richards and Renandya (2002: 255), vocabulary is a core component of language proficiency and provides much of the basis for how learners speak, listen, read and write Without an extensive vocabulary and strategies for acquiring new vocabulary, learners often achieve their potential and may be discouraged from making use of language learning opportunities around them such as listening to the radio, listening to the native speaker, using language in different context, reading or watching television The other definition of vocabulary states from Hatch and Brown (1995: 1), they say that

vocabulary refers to a list or set of words for a particular language or a list or set

of words that individual speakers of language might use Hatch and Brown (1995:1) also state that vocabulary is the only system involved of alphabetical order Ur (1994: 60) defines vocabulary as the words we teach in the foreign language In addition, Brown (2001: 377) views vocabulary items as a boring list of words that must be defined and memorized by the students, lexical forms are seen in their central role in contextualized, meaningful language Richard in Schmitt (1997: 241) also states that knowing a word meaning knowing how often it occurs, the company it keeps, its appropriatness in different situations, its syntatic behavior, its underlying form and derivations, its word associations, and its semantic features Vocabulary is central to second language (L2) acquisition As McCarthy (1990: 140) states that without words to express a wider range of meanings, communication in an L2 just cannot happen in any meaningful way Nation in Schmitt (2000: 5) proposes a list of the different kinds of knowledge that a person must master in order to know a words: the meaning of word, the written form of the word, the spoken form of the word, the grammatical behavior of the word, the collocations of the word, the register of the word, the association of the word, and the frequency of the word Hebert and Kamil (2005: 3) define vocabulary is the knowledge of meanings of words The term vocabulary has a range of meanings For example, some teachers use the term to mean sight-word vocabularies, referring to students’ immediate recognition of words in print, others teachers refer to words students understand

as their meaning vocabularies Still other teachers use the term to mean listening vocabularies, ỏ students’ understanding of words that they hear in the spoken language Content teachers use the term academic vocabulary to refer to content-specific words Within this section, we use the term vocabulary to refer to students’ understanding of oral and print words Vocabularies include conceptual knowledge of words that goes well beyond a simple dictionary

definition Students’ vocabulary knowledge is a building process that occurs over time as they make connections to other words, learn examples and non-examples of the word and related words, and use the word accurately within the context of the sentence (Snow, Griffin, & Burns, 2005)

Based on those statements, it can be assumed that vocabulary is a list of words as a basic component of language proficiency which has a form or expression and contains of aspects, they are meaning, use of word, form (pronunciation and spelling)

1.2.1.3 The Importance of Vocabulary

Vocabulary learning is very important for people who learn English both as foreign language and as second language Tozcu and Coady (2004: 473) point out learning vocabulary is an important aspect of language two and foreign language acquisition and academic achievement and is vital to reading comprehension and proficiency, to which it is closely linked Moreover, Heubener (1965: 88) states that learning of vocabulary is based on the formation of spesific habits Since this involves the association of symbols and their meaning, it is clear that an enrichment

of the meaning of the word is as important as its frequent repetition In addition, according to Grauberg (1997: 15) the process of learning vocabulary involves four stages:

a Discrimination

This is the basic step It involves the ability to distinguish sounds, letters from those next to them, and from the sounds and letters of similar words when listening and reading; to keep them distinct when speaking and writing As will

be seen later, failure to discriminate is a frequent source of error

b Understanding meaning

This means understanding the concept of the foreign word or phrase Often this is straightforward because the word can be related to its referent by direct association or because there is equivalent word in English

c Remembering

The next step after intoducing and explaining new material is to ensure its retention Once learners have found out the meaning of a word, they have no reason to attend to it any more, and it will be forgotten

d Consolidation and extension of meaning

Learning new words is not an instantaneous process if it were, and if presentation were the only critical variable involved, then words would not be forgotten and need to be relearned As it is, however, it seems that words are absorbed slowly overtime, and that only gradually do they become fully integrated into the learner‟s personal stock of words, when he can use them with the same sort of fluency that characterizes the words he uses in his native language (Meara as cited in Grauberg (1997: 22) Achieving lexical command is

a slow process If one tries to analyze this process by relating it to linguistic description of vocabulary learning, pronunciation and spelling are probably acquired first, after the understanding of meaning, control over morphological forms and syntatic links comes next and full semantic knowledge is last

According to researchers Dudley- Evans & Hutchinson (1998): ESP is about language teaching, so all content and teaching methods come from the reason of language teaching They pointed out that “there is no such thing the differences between basic English and ESP are only different in the content of instruction The process of teaching English should be to teach Basic English first, then teach to ESP Teaching ESP is language teaching based on the needs

of learners, which will save time and money for learners, and benefit learners in professional development "

1.2.1.5 Student studying ESP

Dudley- Evans and St John (1998) states that students taking ESP courses are students at universities or colleges, or are already working Students taking the ESP course should have an intermediate level of basic English or at least beginner level

It was a surprise that there was a coincidence with studies from countries such as Iran, Taiwan, China, and Korea: students who learn ESP better than learn basic English because students have high motivation to learn and learn basic English easier when you have some specialized knowledge

Thus, a successful ESP learner must be someone who knows how to apply knowledge and skills to their work; can stand alone books, letters or answer the phone, talk to others in environments where English is used for work, or have foreign elements in some fields of work Studies by Zhang (2007) and Bouzidi (2009) have shown that learning ESP must be derived from the practical needs

of students, from the need to use language to perform job functions at office

1.2.2 Review of theoretical preliminaries employable as tools for conducting the thesis

The current requirements of employers for candidates is to not only master professional knowledge but also ensure foreign language requirements, especially English, for 4 skills such as listening, speak, read, write and have vocabulary But now Accounting and Business Management students are having difficulty learning ESP vocabulary By studying this research, we find out what difficulties students are facing From there, we propose solutions for students to overcome the above difficulties and improve their learning results

Factors that affect learning ESP vocabulary of Accounting and Business Management include subjective and objective factors

Subjective factors: student perception of the role of learning ESP vocabulary in post-graduate learning and job search results, lack of interest and motivation, and distribution of study time studying and after-school time is not reasonable, does not belong to the vocabulary, does not remember the meaning and writing of the word

Objective factors: Most students in the hometown have quite poor English proficiency, crowded classes, physical conditions, environment to meet Accounting and Business Management students' requirements for learning vocabulary ESP during class time, VNUA is not a school specializing in language training, studying goals and strategies of VNUA, university regulations about evaluatingAccounting and Business Management students in using ESP vocabulary

In fact, many Accounting and Business Management students do not understand the value of learning ESP vocabulary as well as have appropriate learning methods, so during their university years, in addition to professional knowledge, Accounting and Business Management students do not improving and training the use of ESP vocabulary in listening, speaking, reading and writing English- something employers highly recommend

2 Unfeasible solution for Accounting and Business Management students

in learning ESP vocabulary at VNUA

2.1.3 Research types:

Both qualitative and quantitative methods are employed to implements the feature of a case study in which the writer has investigated students' difficulties and factors that cause difficulties in learning ESP vocabulary The data collection tool used in this study is the questionnaire It is made to know the types and factors that students have difficulty in learning vocabulary and possible solutions In this study, the researcher selected 119 students of Accounting and Business Management at VNUA and 3 English teachers

2.1.4 Principles/ criteria for data collection and data analysis

High, students' answers are recorded by questionnaire

The questionnaire is designed for students to find out the following key points:

- What difficulties do they have when learning ESP vocabulary?

- Their suggestions to overcome difficulties

In this method, questionnaires are distributed to students with questions and answers already available Students read and answered sample questions The first questionnaire consisted of 5 questions for lecturers and the remaining questionnaire consisted of 10 questions for students The questions are designed from general questions to specific questions Questionnaires for students are written in Vietnamese and instructions in Vietnamese so that students can understand almost exactly what they are answering, avoiding confusion Questionnaires are distributed to 5 to 10 students to see if they are suitable If the questionnaire matches, it is distributed to 119 students to get the survey results

In addition to multiple-choice questions, the survey also uses questions that require respondents to score on a five-point scale (very difficult, difficult, normal, not difficult, not difficult) to reveal the perception of respondents Join about the difficulty of learning ESP vocabulary The other questions are divided

into three groups to answer the difficulties and reasons in each ESP vocabulary learning process, i.e the process of understanding, remembering and applying The basic steps in the questionnaire design process:

Step 1: Based on the existing theory and research to make the initial questionnaire Step 2: The questionnaire is consulted by the instructor to supplement and complete the questionnaire

Step 3: The questionnaires are completed and design of the online questionnaire

2.1.4.4 Credibility/reliability of data

The questionnaire distributed to 119 Accounting and Business Management students The students are instructed to fulfill all the questions freely and trustfully The statistics are collected at the end of the class

In addition, three teachers are invited to take part in the other questionnaire The answers to the questionnaires are collected, synthesized, categorized, described and interpreted to draw out relevant comments and conclusions The information was presented in percentage in the tables and chart The data gained was synthesized, summarized and grouped according to each question

2.1.5 Data analysis

Data obtained from questionnaires, after collecting survey results, collected data are entered into SPSS software, then researchers use percentage statistics to process and analyze data Raw data is transformed and illustrated in tabular form for easy understanding and comparison For the data provided from the questionnaire, the researcher recorded their answers and opinions, then summarized in writing and analyzed the answers

2.2 RESEARCH METHODS

This study is based on a literature review on foreign language education in Vietnam and some countries in Southeast Asia in recent years In addition, I also conducted a survey of students and teachers in VNUA Therefore, the data is accurate and up-to-date To find out the difficulties of Accounting and Business

Management students in learning ESP vocabulary at VNUA, a study was conducted with 3 English teachers and 119 students (2020 - 2021) of the Faculty

of Accounting and Business Management at Vietnam University of Agriculture from March 1, 2021 to June 30, 2021

Sampling strategies (theory & practice): The questionnaire is distributed to

119 Accounting and Business Management students and 3 English teachers are invited to participate in another questionnaire I got 122 valid answers included

119 answers of students and 3 answers of teachers Students gave comments on

a scale of 1 to 5 for each question (1-Very difficult; 2-Hard; 3-Normal; 4-not very difficult; 5-not difficult) The data collected from the survey questionnaire was coded and entered using SPSS data analysis software to facilitate data analysis, thereby highlighting the situation

Chapter 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS

3.1 QUESTIONNAIRE FOR TEACHERS

I invited three English teachers at VNUA to participate in answering this questionnaire so that I can learn more about the difficulties that students are facing when learning specialized English vocabulary The questionnaire has 5 questions:

- Question 1 wants to ask teachers how to rate the difficulty of ESP vocabulary

- Question 2 for teachers to make an assessment of the current ESP vocabulary learning situation of Accounting and Business Management students

- Question 3 for teachers to objectively assess the difficulty of ESP vocabulary with students of Accounting and Business Management

- Question 4 for teachers to point out the difficulties that students of Accounting and Business Management face when learning ESP vocabulary

- Finally, question 5 for teachers to offer possible solutions to improve ESP vocabulary for students majoring in Accounting and Business Management

Question 1 How do you rate English vocabulary for Accounting and Business Management?

Table 3.1: The difficulty of ESP vocabulary under the teacher's assessment

Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative

From table 3.1, we can see that 3 teachers have typed out words in different ways The teachers said that ESP vocabulary is very difficult 33.33%, normal 33.33%, not difficult 33.33% So, in general, this is just an assessment of the subject from the point of view of someone who has taught for many years and has extensive knowledge But teachers are not subjective in how to teach and impart knowledge, but always follow students closely, suggest learning methods and urge students Students need to have a more objective view, cooperate with teachers to get the best results from learning ESP vocabulary

Question 2 How do you evaluate students' current situation of learning English vocabulary for Accounting and Business Management?

Table 3.2: Teacher's assessment of students' current situation of learning ESP

vocabulary in Accounting and Business Management

Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative

Question 3: According to you, is English vocabulary for Accounting and

Business Administration difficult for students?

Table 3.3: Assessing English vocabulary is difficult for student

Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative

3.2 QUESTIONNAIRE FOR STUDENTS

The questionnaire for students is a self-made researcher based on the opinions of Accounting and Business Management students shared previously This questionnaire was distributed to two classes, a class of 60 students and a class of 59 students during the 3 weeks 5,6,7 of the 2nd semester of 2020-2021

at VNUA 119 students participated in answering a student questionnaire for the researcher to find out the difficulties that students face when learning ESP vocabulary The questionnaire consists of 10 questions and the data obtained are listed in each of the questions below:

Question 1 Where are you from?

Table 3.4: Where do students come from?

Frequency Percent Valid

Percent

Cumulative Percent

Question 2 How long have you been seriously studying English?

Table 3.5: The time when students seriously study English

Frequency Percent Valid

Percent

Cumulative Percent

Table 3.5 reveals information on the time when students seriously study

English From an overall perspective, there was a significant difference between

the number student seriously study English Out of a total of 119 students, 35

students have never taken English seriously, this number accounts for 29.4%

Nevertheless, there are 31 students who seriously study English for less than 1

year with the rate of 26.1%, respectively Besides, the number of students who

are serious about learning English for more than 1 year is 26 students,

accounting for 21.8% Finally, there are 27 students who seriously study English

for more than 3 years, accounting for 22.7% Thus, from the above data table,

we can see that students are not really serious about learning English The

difference in qualifications of Accounting and Business Management students in

the same faculty has a negative impact on ESP vocabulary learning For

example, students with a good background in English will do better than

students who have lost their English roots This leads to students being timid and

passive when participating in learning vocabulary on ESP; and do not see the

ESP vocabulary as important to their future work Therefore, the English

learning results of these students are often not good

Question 3 Your score at the end of the first semester of the academic year

2020-2021 for your general English 1 (or English 2)?

Table 3.6 Students' scores at the end of the first semester of the academic year

2020-2021 for the general English 1 (or English 2) course

Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative

2) course From an overall perspective, there was a significant difference between

the score at the end of the first semester of the academic year 2020-2021 of the student's general English 1 (or English 2) Out of 119 students, 7 students got A, constituting 5.9% Nevertheless, there are 11 students with B+ scores, this number makes up 9.2% In addition, the number of students who got B in English was 5 students, accounting for 4.2% With the rate of 16%, there are 19 students with C+ grades in previous English 1 or English 2 courses Surprisingly, the number of students with C scores is 43 students, accounting for 36.1% There are 33 students got D+ score, made up 27.7% Interesting to note that the students achieving D score apprear to be by far the lowest one, with only 9.2% Thus, from table 3, we see that the number of students with low scores in English 1 or English 2 is quite high So that, students did not have a good background before learning ESP vocabulary However, because English 1 and English ESP (especially vocabulary) are not the same, many students when learning ESP vocabulary with a subjective attitude, do not attach importance to the subject, so the results are not as expected

Question 4 What is your favorite level of learning English vocabulary for Accounting and Business Management?

Table 3.7: Favorite level of learning English vocabulary for Accounting and

Business Management

Frequency Percent Valid

Percent

Cumulative Percent

accounting for 13.4%) Also because this negative attitude leads to the students' lack of motivation when studying and considers the subject to be stressful, thus the learning efficiency is not high Therefore, students should review their motivation and goals, take better measures so that learning ESP vocabulary is no longer a fear of themselves

Question 5 Is English vocabulary for Accounting and Business Management difficult for you?

Table 3.8: Do Accounting and Business Management’s students find it difficult

when learning ESP vocabulary

Frequency Percent Valid

Percent

Cumulative Percent

Table 3.8 reveals information on the Accounting and Business

Management’s students find it difficult when learning ESP vocabulary Overall,

out of 119 students participating in the survey, the majority of students find ESP vocabulary difficult and very difficult These figures are 61 students with 51.3% and 25 students accounting for 21% respectively In addition, there are 27 students who think that ESP vocabulary is normal, accounting for 22.7% Surprisingly, only 6 students felt that ESP vocabulary was not very difficult, this number accounted for 5% Thus, most of the students feel that the ESP Vocabulary is difficult, thereby creating a fear of this subject leading to poor results Therefore, this study will show several methods to make learning vocabulary easier for each student These measures will be covered in the findings and discussions