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 T hesis in Master's Programs Major: English Teaching Co de N umber: 5.07.02 Submitted i

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRA INING VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY

HOCHIMINH CITY UN IVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES

TRUONG THI TU YET HANH

LANGUAGE PROBLEMS OF ESP STUDENTS

IN READING COMPREHENSION

AT THE UNIVERSITY OF NATURAL SCIENCES

A T hesis in Master's Programs Major: English Teaching

Co de N umber: 5.07.02

Submitted in partia l fulfilment of the requirements

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

t , , i ~ : " :! ' I

r- " L A : - ' ' J

C ' ~ _: ~ : ~:.: ~: :": ' - - :.: ' SUPERV ISOR : 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 of Requirements for Thesis in Master 's Programs

issued by the Higher Degree Committee

Ho Chi Minh City, November 22 nd , 2002

TRUONG THI TUYET HANH

I hereby state that I, Truong Thi Tuyet Hanh , being the candidate for the degree of Master of TESOL, accept the requirements of the University relating to the retention and use of Master 's Theses deposited in the Library.

In terms of these conditions , I agree that the original of my thesis deposited

in the Library should be accessible for the purposes of study and research, in accordance with the normal conditions established by the Library for care, loan and reproduction of theses.

Ho Chi Minh City, November 22 n , 2002

TRUONG THI TUYET HANH

11

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

First of all, I am very grateful to my supervisor, Dr Do Huy Thinh, who spent a lot of time reading my draft with great care , counseled and guided throughout w ith valuable advice while my thesis was carried out.

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

My special thanks go to my best friend Le Thi Thu Huong, who checked and corrected my mistakes in spelling and grammar; my cousin Nguyen Thi Thanh Van, who typed a remarkable number of pages in a short time and did so with admirable patience and good humour; my student Van Chi Nam , who was enthusiastic to design the thesis for me, helped more than I can say.

All that remains is to thank my husband, who always encouraged and supported me during the time I did my thesis ; my parents and my younger brother , who were dedicated to look after my baby so that I could devote all my time to complete my thesis.

111

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

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

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

IV

1.10 Organization of the remainder of the study 6

2.1 The role of Grammar and vocabulary 8

2.4 1 Verbs and t enses 19

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

4.3 Summary 36 CHAPTER 5 : FINDINGS A.ND ANALySIS •.• • •• 37

5 1.1 Quest ionnaires to students : 37

5.2 2 Student s ' difficult ies in v ocabulary 55

LIST OF FIGURES

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

Figure 2 : Flow chart for choosing the right article 22

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

Figure 8: 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

Figure 14 : Students ' ideas about teachers ' using English in class 48

V1ll

LIST OF TABLES

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

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

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

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

T able 5: 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 e 8 : Item 10: " How do y ou learn v ocabulary?" 44

Tabl e 9 : 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

IX

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

of distin ct reading skills such as skimming , scanning , surve ying, predicting , generalizing, summarizing , inferring , and concluding Nevertheless , students majoring in Information Technology in their third year still have a lot of difficulties when reading Information Technology texts in English partly because they are not well-equipped with leaming-how-to-leam strategies in order to improve their self- stud y and partly because they lack kno wledge of English, which results in their inability to comprehend the texts The fact that students have troubles with English through observations of English teachers at the University of Natural Sciences really needs a fully empirical research once it is said that so much time and effort have been spent on teaching reading in high schools and colleges where grammar and vocabulary are two aspects mainly mentioned

1.2 STATEMENT OF PURPOSE

The purpose of this study is to investigate: (1) the difficulties that students

Information Technology ; and (2) solutions teachers adopt to help students o vercome their problems in their English training.

1

The survey of these issues is based on: (1) observations on learning English reading comprehension of students majoring in Information Technology; (2) a questionnaire asking third-year students majoring in Information Technology at the University of Natural Sciences about their problems in grammar and vocabulary ;

and (3) interviews with teachers of English at the University of Natural Sciences on the various difficulties that students often face and methods teachers use to help students 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-year students majoring in Information Technology often encounter while they study English at the University of Natural Sciences?

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

The study will also consist of discussions of discourse which has a very important role in presenting words and structures in the written texts to consider whether it might be useful to equip students with the cohesion, coherence and information 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 those majoring in Information Technology Li ving in the Age of Information, students majoring i n Information Technology, more than whoever else, are the ones who have to endlessly update their knowledge by reading not only the traditional kind of English texts in paper like books, documents, newspapers, and magazines but another new kind of text such as electronic texts through e-mail and the Internet as well Thus, this study of language problems is significant for several reasons.

2

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

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

which the study leads to seeking an efficient method of teaching and learning reading 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.

1.6 ASSUMPTIONS

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

Second, the research methods are valid and reliable, and the proces s of collection and analysis of data is reliable and appropriate.

Third , the responsive informants are interested in these issues and willing to cooperate in sincerely responding to the questions and giving true information.

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.

4

1.9 METHODOLOGY

This study , w hich was a descripti ve research in which data were typicall y

collected through observations , a well-structured questionnaire , and semi-structured

consisting of approximately 1 ,500 students majoring i n Information Technology

Although the failing rate in English tests of these students is lower than that of students majoring in other subjects such as Chemistry , Biology, Ph ysics, it tends to

failing rate of the students has regularly increased (1 % in which from 1999-2000 to

2000 -2001: 0 ,4% and from 2000-2001 to 2001-2002: 0 ,6%), the average rate of the students has slightl y increased (from 1999-2000 to 2000-2001 : 0 ,3%) and rapidly

increasing number of students fails to comprehend the text s, which leads to bad results in their reading comprehension tests , this research was done by distributing a

Technology about their language obstacles and by structured interviews with 5 English teachers who have directly been teaching English for Information Technology at the University of Natural Sciences about their solutions to students' problems.

Being a combined qualitative-quantitative method, the study aimed at achieving triangulation in action , which improved the validity of research In the quantitative paradigm , the questionnaire was used to get real information about students' language issues Another purpose for distribut ing questionnaires among

5

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 addit ion to the quantitati ve, the qualitati ve paradigm with observations and interviews was also carried out Students' difficulties could be observed in

English classes and in homework assignments This was particularly suitable for perceiving reading difficulties, and for noting students who lacked confidence and who might need extra help The researcher had observed both her own English classes - the researcher as a complete participant - and other English classes - the researcher as a complete observer - during four semesters of the academic years of 1999-2000 and 2000-200 I With this method, "researcher has firsthand experience with informants , researcher can record information as it occurs , unusual aspects can

be noticed during observation and it is useful in exploring topics that may b e uncomfortable for informants to discuss " (Creswell , 1994 : 150).

Along with observations, individual and group face -to-face interviews with English teachers were necessary and significant in getting more reliable, truthful , and helpful information because firstly , this helped to gain additional insights into students' difficult ies Secondly , this k ind of work allowed the researcher to make discoveries about the teachers' attitudes and teaching methods which were of great importance for students' learning improvement.

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

at the Uni versity of Natural Sciences Th erefore , the researcher was also the researched one.

1.10 ORGANIZATION OF THE REMAINDER OF THE STUDY

The study is divided into six major segments Besides chapter I presenting the 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

6

IV describes the research design and methodology Chapter V discusses and analyzes the research findings And finally , chapter VI consists of a summary, conclusions and implications for the learning and teaching of English at the

Un iversity of Natural Sciences in particular , and at other uni versities in general.

7

Literature Review

always been assumed that learners have to first acquire language knowledge before

Since language is one of the first and essential elements in any successful language

read texts in their subject disciplines is knowledge of the language of that discipline:

2.1 THE ROLE OF GRAMMAR AND VOCABULARY

Grammar and vocabulary play a very significant role in learning a foreign

vocabulary has always been a central aspect of foreign language teaching For

8

Literature Review language teaching, points out that acquiring the grammatical system of the target language is of central importance because an inadequate knowledge of grammar will 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 of learning 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 foreign language To some people, vocabulary is even more important than grammar A good comment of grammar can not ensure good communication because we need words to put in the structures to express ourselves (Harmer 1991)

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

It is clear that , as with grammar, learners need opportunities to use vocabulary to communicate information.

9

"slotted in" (Nunan, 1999: 103) Furthermore, the early development of extensive vocabulary can enable learners to "outperform their competence" (Nunan, 1999: 103) In other words, if one has an extensive vocabulary, it will be possible to obtain meaning from spoken and written texts even though (s)he does not know the grammatical 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 successful second language use because, without an extensive vocabulary, we will be unable to use the structures and functions we may have learned for comprehensible communication.

Also, according to Bowen and Marks (1994), grammar teaching is often thought of as teaching the operation of "grammatical" or "structural" words such as the ones referring to number, gender, definiteness, aspect, tense and modality But all words have grammatical restrictions and grammatical implications Grammar is generalization about how words and groups of words behave So grammar plays an inevitable role in teaching and learning vocabulary In other words, grammar teaching and vocabulary teaching are two sides of the same coin.

In brief , grammar plays a vital role in communication Through increasing control over grammar, learners can progressively extend and refine their ability to express and communicate meanings clearly and in keeping with their intentions, and

10

Literature Review their ability to interpret other speakers' meaning more accurately Together with grammar, a rich vocabulary is an important factor in the acquisition of a second language We can say that grammar and vocabulary are not mutually exclusive but complementary to enhance comprehension in communication.

2.2 VOCABULARY IN ESP

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

The significant role of vocabulary suggests the need for its development which 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 express the desire to expand their amount of vocabulary, considering it as "a yardstick of their language improvement." Secondly, once it seems not to be a primary aspect of concern in EAP courses, "there is a tendency for it to become incidental to reading comprehension "

In order to meet their reading needs at the university level , students require a certain amount of needed vocabulary Therefore, calculating a realistic minimum vocabulary size for these learners is very useful However, the suggestion of students' vocabulary size is different among the scholars For example, many of them take for granted that learners should know at least 95 per cent of the running words 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)

11

Literature Review 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 vocabulary appropriate for students following EAP courses should clearly be more advanced than the core 2 ,000-3,000 words that provide the basis of about 80 per cent of the words likely to be encountered.

It can be said that there are two main kinds of vocabulary in ESP: technical and 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, or specialist vocabulary is the responsibility of the subject matter teachers, not that of EAP teachers who should be given to the teaching of semi-techn ical or core vocabulary 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 voc abulary efficiently , Compion and Elley (1971) , and Nation (1986) have compiled word lists for academic vocabulary in which two types of frequency counts of university texts are stressed: the first is a core vocabulary of about 2,000-3,000 words and counts words outside th is basic list The second is only those words in the university texts causing difficulties for oversea students Nation (1990) says that such specialized word lists can be used:

12

Literature Review (1) as a guide and focus for teachers in different activities ; and (2 ) as a check list and aim for students For technical vocabulary , students are advised to "learn every 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)

repeated (learn it, it's useful and the repetition will

nontechnical

not containing known parts

nonrepeated (may be ignored)

Figure 1: Nation's decision chart for dealing with low frequency words in specialized texts (cited in Jordan, 1997: 152)

13

Literature Review Having the same intention with Nation in aiding students to learn vocabulary, Dudley-E vans and St John (1998) also divide technical vocabulary into two kinds: the first consists of terms which are cognate with the equivalent ones in the students ' first language and therefore , it will not cause difficulties for students except the difficulty with pronunciation, for example, the word ' cycle' is pronounced in English / saikl/ w hile in most other languages it is pronounced / si:kll The second kind comprises terms which are not cognate and are unfamiliar These terms 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:

stra ightforward explanation of the terms.

2.3.1 Semi-technical vocabulary

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

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

" 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".

14

Literature Review

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 Mc Arthur (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 words and phrases and they often identify their difficulty with English as not knowing enough words In addition to this problem , in an Experiment in Team-teaching of Overseas Postgraduate Students of Transportation and Plant Biology, St John and Dudley-Evans (1978) find out that subject-lecturers often assume that technical terms are familiar to students and consequently, when checking students' comprehension, there are terms or groups of terms students do not fully understand.

15

Literature Review

Hewings (1990) points out that vanous straightforward study skills and techniques can help in different ways For example,

initial occurrence could often lead to finding a definition or explanation Failing

(Jordan , 1997: 147) While Hewings notes on the different strategies in learning new words, Melka (1997) focuses on students' " increasing degrees of knowledge or familiarity with a word " It means that,

(Read , 2000 : 154)

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

v ocabulary efficiently When researching in the influence of second language acquisition 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 research finally results in the primary implications for classroom practice:

ju stification for teaching approache s wh ich make vo cabulary work a separate

communication.

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

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

16

Literature Review

Whenever encountering a new w ord, learners are advised to use two questions which Channell (1981 , as cited in Jordan , 1997 : 154) addresses " in the context of semantic theory and its relevance to vocabulary learning "

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

to facilitate cognitive processing:

(Established by Nattinger , 1988 ; Henderson, 1982)

lexical item occurs, its collocation.

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

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 and learning vocabulary They are:

deciding on categories and discussing the allocation of words to slots.

for extending vocabulary.

(1984) to practise in developing reading skills; next by Dunmore (1989) to

17

Literature Review

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

involved in the learning process.'

2.4 GRAMMAR IN ESP

learning However, some people take the view that ESP teaching is not concerned with grammar While much of the skills-oriented work in EAP or EBP does not concentrate on grammar in itself, it is incorrect to consider grammar teaching as outside 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

level in English and whether priority needs to be given to grammatical accuracy

In fact, according to Todman and Payne (1981) , grammar in scientific

Nevertheless, second- and foreign-language students always express their needs for

Support for this view is given by Leki and Carson (1994) who conducted a

vocabulary and grammar.

18

Literature Review For reading, where the learners' grammatical weaknesses interfere with comprehension of meaning, the relationship between meaning and form can be taught or revised in context through analysis and explanation Dudley-Evans and St John (1998) suggest that grammar teaching in scientific and technical English should 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 the Simple Present tense, Simple Past tense , Present Perfect tense, Present Perfect Continuous tense in medical papers His find ings show that nonfinite verbs are important in these papers and function to a considerable degree as alternatives to finite verbs and that in the type of scientific English represented by these research papers both the Present and Past are important.

Generally , the simple present tense is used in scientific texts not only because it expresses a large amount of definitions but also it makes action sound definite 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

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

19

Simpl e Present Active including is/are 28% 40%

Simple Past Active including was/were 22% 7%

20

Literature Review

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

LA 1 l; 2 ~

,

21

Literature Review

(1) : continuing depletion of domestic fossil fuels

modifiers

•

(2) : solar energy (3) : decisions

Figure 3: Use of flow chart with sample noun phrases (as cited in Selinker, Tarone and Hanzeli, 1981: 1985)

2.4.5 Nominalisation

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

ation , -ition, -ity, -ment or -ness is a major feature of the abstract language favoured

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

23

Literature Review point of view Students, therefore, need to know the different between the use of meaning in the nominal phrase and the verb phrase The former is usually used in formal language, especially, in academic contexts while the latter is used to transfer the 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 primary productivity " while the informal language, the verb phrase is often used to convey the 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 developed systematically The so-called coordinators or connectors separated by themselves, have little meaning, but in context often carry "the major burden of precise meaning " (Robinson and Rauch , 1966: 76) Additionally, the provision of experience and direct teaching of the meaning of the correlatives such as "both "

"and", "not " " only ", " but " "also ", "either" "or" is v ital Robinson and Rauch (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 ,"

24

L iterature Review

( 4) tho se that state time r elat ion ships - " as ," " before," " w hen," "a fter ,"

" during," " while ," e ct , (5) thos e which introduc e parallel ideas - "howe ver, " " 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 generall y seen as a ke y to understand the

This chapter has discussed the role of vocabulary and grammar, students'

25

Overview of the English Training at the HoChiMinh C ity Univers ity of Natural Sciences

TRAINING AT THE HOCHIMINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF NATURAL SCIENCES

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

working - is accordingly taught into two stages During the first stage, students of

and Pr e-intermediate " coursebooks by Liz & John Soars are carefully taught with

all are equally important and essential for the students whose purpose is to enhance their English in order to go further in their study first and after that in their

equipped with another special kind of English for their own field of study In reality, all the four language skills are of great significance for students, but, as their inevitable needs are to read a good deal of English books and documents relating to their professional field, English for Special Purposes in which reading skill is mainly emphasized is taken into teaching.

26

Overview of the English Trainingat the HoChiMinh City University of Natural Sciences

Since the study merely mentioned students' reading problems in grammar and vocabulary, teaching and learning specialised English were carefully considered.

3.1 THE TEACHING / LEARNING TIME

The teaching and learning time chosen for this study was in the academic years of 1999-2000 , 2000-2001 and 2001-2002 The reason for this choice of time was of great importance for the researcher because during this period, the researcher was taking the Master course in TESOL which supplied her with extremely precious knowledge of teaching and researching methods What she had learned from the course made her teaching methods change a lot and nurtured a topic in her.

It can be said that formerly, the researcher had a misconception that the teacher acted as the center in class However, at the beginning of the TESOL course, she knew that in any case, good teaching would not take place unless it brought about good learning , and that she was not the center of her class but it was her students The teacher works as either a guide or a director who helps students (who play their roles as actors) perform their learning as perfectly as possible Whether or not the actors play well depends very much on the director's guidance and skills The director, therefore, not only creates confidence in the actors and gives them opportunities to act creatively but tries her best to raise a high sense of the actors' central role to help them make progress as well Caught i n the thorny problem that most of the students failed to read the specialised texts, which led to bad results in their reading tests , the researcher could not stand still without doing anything to lessen their troubles The increasing amount of students failing at every examinat ion

in English urged the researcher to work out her cherished wish of finding what the students' problems were so as to improve their reading ability Therefore, having just taken the TESOL course, the researcher had intention of observing students '

learning situation and taking notice of her students ' problems in learning reading and had done man y small researches during the TESOL course What she has

27

Overview of the English Training at the HoChiMinh C ity University of Natural Sciences

collected about her students' problems from the beginning of TESOL course (in 1999) till now (2002) becomes invaluable data for this empirical research.

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

by Faust, Johnston and Atkinson in two terms in which they were trained both reading 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.

3.3.1 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 are learning English for their further study, their job and even for their entertainment Many of them have had good knowledge of English; they can read books , newspapers, and magazines , make themselves understood through communication, 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, colleges and universities in the whole country and has become one of the major testing subjects in many important examinations such as graduation examinations in secondary schools, high schools, colleges and universities.

28

Overview of the English Training at the HoChiMinh City University of Natural Sciences

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 scientific students - especially IT students - must read including up-to-date specialised books are 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 be out of date before the translation could be made available" (Higgins, edited in Swales, 1985: 30) Third, for good students who wish to enter a competition for foreign scholarships, mastering English is an indispensable and decisive factor to be competent and confident enough for the challenged oral test conducted by foreigners Fourth, living in the booming era of SCIence, technology and information , students' demands for communicating through the e-mail and accessing the Internet are so big that English is considered a "golden key" to help them enlarge their knowledge of specialised subjects Moreover, they immediately update the latest information for their major Finally, English, unquestionably, is one of the unavoidable requirements that both foreign and state-owned companies require of programmers, analysts, specialists as well as scientists of computers

Therefore, a good English capacity can also bring about a good job for new graduates.

In brief , with a lot of significance as discussed above , IT students, more than whoever 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 per week to learn general English while for the second one, they have only four periods for ESP per week Very few of them take extra courses in language centers but generally, they follow the English program at the university and self-study at home.

29