(LUẬN văn THẠC sĩ) teaching ESP vocabulary to students majoring in heat and refrigeration engineering at industry university of ho chi minh city difficulties and suggestions for solutions

Chart 3: Teachers’ difficulties in teaching ESP vocabulary Chart 4: Teachers’ techniques in presenting new words Table 2: Teachers’ ways to ask students to practice vocabulary Chart 5:

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Language Teaching Methodology Code: 60 14 10

Hanoi – 2013

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Language Teaching Methodology Code: 60 14 10

Supervisor: MA Phan Thị Vân Quyên

Hanoi – 2013

IUH: Industry University of Ho Chi Minh City

Chart 3: Teachers’ difficulties in teaching ESP vocabulary

Chart 4: Teachers’ techniques in presenting new words

Table 2: Teachers’ ways to ask students to practice vocabulary

Chart 5: Teachers’ recommendations to overcome difficulties in teaching ESP vocabulary

Chart 6: Students’ difficulties in learning ESP vocabulary

Chart 7: Problems influenced on students’ motivation and interest

Chart 8: Students’ solutions to a new word

Chart 9: Ways of presenting vocabulary students are interested in

Table 3: Ways of learning English vocabulary of HRE

TABLE OF CONTENT

Declaration………

Acknowledgement………

Abstract………

List of abbreviations………

List of figures and tables………

Table of content………

PART A: INTRODUCTION………

1 Rationale………

2 Aims of the study………

3 Research questions………

4 Scope of the study………

5 Method of the study………

6 Design of the study………

Part B: Development ………

Chapter 1: The Theoretical Background………

1.1 English for Specific Purposes………

1.1.1 Definition of ESP………

1.1.2 Classification of ESP………

1.1.3 Teachers‟ roles and challenges in teaching ESP ………

1.1.3.1 The roles of ESP teachers………

1.1.3.2 Challenges for the ESP Teacher………

1.2 ESP vocabulary………

1.2.1 What is ESP vocabulary?

1.2.2 Terminology………

1.2.2.1 Definition of terminology………

1.2.2.2 Characteristics of terminology………

1.2.3 General vocabulary and ESP vocabulary teaching and learning…………

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1.2.3.1 Vocabulary and its role in language teaching and learning…………

1.2.3.2 What need to be taught?

1.2.3.3 Techniques in presenting new vocabulary………

1.2.3.4 ESP vocabulary teaching………

1.3 Heat and Refrigeration Engineering English (HREE)………

1.3.1 Introduction ………

1.3.2 Vocabulary in Heat and Refrigeration Engineering English ………

1.3.3 HREE vocabulary teaching and learning ………

1.4 Previous Research on teaching ESP vocabulary………

1.5 Conclusion………

Chapter 2: Methodology………

2.1 Context of the study………

2.1.1 Textbook………

2.1.2 Students and their background………

2.1.3 Teaching staff and teaching methods………

2.2 Method of study………

2.2.1 Research questions………

2.2.2 The participants………

2.2.3 Data collection instruments………

2.2.4 Data collection procedure………

2.2.5 Data analysis………

Chapter 3: Findings and discussion………

3.1 Findings………

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3.1.1 Questionnaire for teachers………

3.1.2 Questionnaire for students………

3.2 Discussion of findings………

3.3.Conclusion………

Chapter 4: Suggested Solutions………

4.1 Towards contextual problems………

4.2 Towards the students………

4.3 Towards the teachers………

4.3.1 Improve teachers‟ ESP knowledge ………

4.3.2 Making use of visual aids ………

4.3.3 Improving teacher's activities in teaching vocabulary………

Part C: Conclusion……….

1 Conclusions………

2 Limitations of the study………

3 Suggestions for further research ………

References………

Appendices………

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Part A: Introduction

1 Rationale

Nowadays English has become an international language of various industrial and trade fields Therefore, there are more opportunities for our students to make use of not just their ´general´ English knowledge but they also can study their specialized subjects

in English or to perform qualified work abroad Obviously, the students should also have certain knowledge of specialized English (ESP) vocabulary related to their field Their knowledge of ESP vocabulary will help them to adapt easily to changing working environment and meet the requirements of the present day world “ESP must be seen as

an approach not as a product ESP, then, is an approach to language teaching in which all decisions as to content and method are based on the learner‟s reason for learning”(Hutchinson and Waters 1987:19)

However, teaching and learning vocabulary in general, ESP (English for specific purposes) vocabulary in particular is a difficult task for the teachers and students Besides vocational knowledge, teachers need to carry out researches in teaching vocabulary so as to open their views and instruct students later In my opinion, ESP vocabulary in Heat and Refrigeration Engineering (HRE) is very interesting but teaching and learning it successfully are extremely hard Factually, both teachers and learners have faced many difficulties in teaching and learning ESP vocabulary

Facing such problems, the teachers of English of Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City (IUH) want to do something to change the ways of teaching and learning vocabulary in order to improve the students' learning effectiveness to help them succeed

in their future job Therefore, I have conducted a research to find out the main difficulties in teaching HRE vocabulary at IUH and then to offer some solutions to these problems

2 Aims of the study

The study aims at:

- Finding out difficulties that ESP teachers and learners at IUH are facing in teaching and learning English for HRE vocabulary

- Suggesting some solutions to teaching HREE vocabulary effectively

3 What are solutions to improving HRE vocabulary teaching at IUH?

4 Scope of the study

The study limited itself to the investigation of difficulties in teaching and learning ESP vocabulary to students of HRE at IUH The solutions are also provided to help to improve teaching and learning English in general, teaching and learning HREE vocabulary in particular at IUH

5 Methods of the study

The research is carried out using both qualitative and quantitative methods The main data collection instruments are survey questionnaires and informal interviews The informants are students at HRE Department and English teachers at IUH The questionnaire was designed in such a way that both closed and open- ended questions to ensure deep data One questionnaire is designed for the students and the other is designed for the teachers The informal interview to teachers is to get more information to support the study.

6 Design of the study

This study is organized into 3 main parts:

Part A: Introduction: in this part the rationale, the aims, the research questions, the

scope, the method, and the design of the study is presented

Part B: Development: It consists of four chapters

Chapter 1 provides the theoretical background, which is relevant to the purposes of the study

Chapter 2 presents an introduction on the context of learning and teaching vocabulary

of HRE at IUH, the context of the study, the subjects, and the data collection methods and data collection procedure

Chapter 3 is the main part of the study In this chapter, the data will be analyzed and the finding will reveal teachers' difficulties in teaching vocabulary to students of HRE at IUH

Chapter 4 includes some solutions in teaching and learning based on the findings

Part C: Conclusion: This part offers conclusions, limitations of the study and some

suggestions for further study

Part B: Development

Chapter 1: Theoretical Background

In this chapter, the author addresses some theoretical angles from which she views her ideas Firstly, definition of ESP, classification of ESP, teachers‟ roles and challenges in teaching ESP are given in English for Specific Purposes Secondly, in ESP vocabulary, it includes definition and characteristic of terminology, general vocabulary and ESP vocabulary teaching and learning Thirdly, to regard with Heat and Refrigeration Engineering English (HREE), introduction, vocabulary in HREE and HRE vocabulary teaching are presented in turn Finally, some research of abroad and domestic researchers is mentioned in brief

1.1 English for Specific Purposes 1.1.1 Definition of ESP

To understand the term ESP correctly, we will ponder on certain following clarifications The first one is that of Hutchinson and Waters (1987: 19) They define ESP as „an approach to language teaching in which all decisions as to content and method are based on the learners‟ reason for learning‟ This elucidation emphasizes that ESP should pay suitable attention to the learners and their motions for studying it

In an understandable way, Martin (1992: 16-23) has explained the E, S and P elements of ESP The „S‟ element is inclined to mean „specifiable‟ For the „E‟ of ESP, there is a general field of „languages for specific purposes‟ (LSP) The „P‟ in ESP refers

to the learner‟s purpose, which was defined as „a combination of determined or selected goal and ongoing intentionality and motivation‟ This definition of ESP shows

pre-us a simple segregation of the three elements and explanation of each one We can see that the learner‟s purposes on learning specific English have been mentioned clearly

As a teacher of ESP, the author shares the opinions that ESP serves the learner‟s needs This determines the learner‟s motivation, attitude and effort in learning ESP For vocational learning purposes, ESP may be a particular English language environment in which learners study both the specific knowledge represented in this foreign language and the communicative language skills needed for each specific field

1.1.2 Classification of ESP

It can be seen that, language varies according to the context of use Thus, there are many types of ESP Traditionally; ESP has been divided into two main areas Kennedy and Bolitho (1984: 4) defined the types of ESP: "English for Occupational Purpose (EOP) is taught in a situation in which learners need to use English as a part of their work or profession" Meanwhile, “English for Academic Purpose (EAP) is taught generally within educational institutions to students needing English in their studies" This division of ESP plays a very important role in affecting the degree of specificity that is appropriate to the course However, according to Hutchinson (1987: 16) " This is not a clear- cut distinction: people can work and study simultaneously, it is also likely that in many cases the language learnt for immediate use in a study environment will be used later when the student takes up, or returns a job"

According to Hutchinson, there are three categories basing on nature of the learners' specialism English for Science and Technology (EST), English for Business and Economic (EBE) and English for the Social Science (ESS) Whereas, English for Heat and Refrigeration Engineering belongs to English for Technician

1.1.3 Teachers’ roles and challenges in teaching ESP 1.1.3.1 The roles of ESP teachers

Whether the ESP teacher should master the materials or content of the subject matter seems a debating issue Two points of view will be introduced in this part for typical consideration Hutchinson and Waters (1987: 157) think that „ESP teachers do not need to learn specialist subject knowledge‟ They list three requirements of the ESP teachers as follows:

- a positive attitude towards the ESP content;

- a knowledge of the fundamental principles of the subject area;

- an awareness of how much they probably already know

When mentioning the roles of the ESP practitioner, Evans and St John (1998: 14) claim that „the teacher is not in the position of the „primary knower‟ of the carrier content of the material‟ They also believe that „the teachers have clear objectives for

13-the class and a good understanding of 13-the carrier content of 13-the teaching material ESP teachers also need to have a great deal of flexibility, to be willing to listen to learners, and to take an interest in the disciplines or professional activities the students are involved in

Obviously, the ESP teacher must be flexible and their roles will vary according to type of syllabus and course, teaching and learning environment, etc

1.1.3.2 Challenges for the ESP Teacher

One of the characteristics or even a critical feature of ESP is that a course should involve specialist language (especially terminology) and content In the majority

of cases ESP teachers are not specialists in the students‟ professional fields That is why the primary issue in ESP teaching is the struggle to master language and subject matter Teachers find themselves having to teach with texts whose content they know little or nothing about In addition, the ESP teacher happens to be the syllabus designer and is responsible for the teaching material and evaluation The basic problem in designing a topic syllabus is that the ESP syllabus designer is not a specialist in the specific area (e.g engineering), consequently he/she is not capable of deciding by himself/herself which topics to include in the syllabus to provide the required terminology It is also very difficult for him/her to arrange the topics in the most suitable order

1.2 ESP vocabulary 1.2.1 What is ESP vocabulary?

In addition to ´general´ English vocabulary which include grammatical words, basic lexical words, auxiliaries, “special lexical items appear in most professions, and every field has special vocabulary to cover abstract concepts” (Hatch and Brown, 1995: 312) Kennedy and Bolitho (1984: 56-58) provide the following specialist word categories for teaching purposes:

- Technical Abbreviations – e.g kph, kgf/m2, m3 they usually do not cause a problem, however, learners should listen to them and practice them in note-taking exercises

- Symbols and Formulae – they are the subject matter of the learner‟s specialty, and teacher may explain their function in the text, or if abbreviations are concerned, to demonstrate their transfer from the written form into the spoken version and vice versa

- Sub-technical vocabulary – “words that have one or more ´general´ English meanings and which in technical contexts take on extended meanings (technical, or specialized in some fashion)” (Trimble, 1985: 129) or as the Kennedy and Bolitho‟s definition states

“words which are not specific to a subject specialty but which occur regularly in

scientific and technical texts – e.g reflection, intense, accumulate, tendency, isolate and

dense” (1984: 57-58) Consequently, it is the sub-technical lexis that teacher should

give high priority when teaching ESP vocabulary

- Highly technical vocabulary – these terms are very specific and so may be less comprehensible Every subject has its set of highly technical vocabulary and the gap between the generally known terms and those known just by real specialists is quite wide in some fields Kennedy and Bolitho suggest that these terms “should arise, in context, in the specialist classes and are not normally the teacher‟s responsibility” (1984: 57)

1.2.2 Terminology 1.2.2.1 Definition of terminology

Linguists have stated varieties of definitions of technology In Longman

dictionary of applied linguistics (1985: 290) defines terminology as “the special lexical which occur in a particular discipline” According to Nguyen Thien Giap (1985: 308),

“Terminology, which is understood as a special linguistic unit of a language consists of

word and fixed phrase that provide definitions of objectives that belong to a particular scientific area” Also, Do Huu Chau (1998) states: “Terms are specialist words used

within a scientific field, a procession or any technological field” These definitions

though rose at different times and by different people indicate that there exist “special

words in specialized fields or branches of human knowledge”,

1.2.2.2 Characteristics of terminology

Features of terminology have been mentioned in certain research works since the appearance of this field One of the theories in terminology concentrates on „assigning terms to concepts‟ This research field is „primarily concerned with the relationship between the real objects in the real world and the concepts represent them‟ (Cabré, 1999: 7-8) Terminology also cares about the „nature of things in the real world‟ and the relationships formed in this world (Cabré, 1999: 8) In addition, it is considered as

„closely linked to the special subject fields‟ Subject specialists and terminologists may cooperate to arrange and standardize „the concepts and terms for each special field‟ (Cabré, 1999: 9)

In summary, terminology focuses on the process from the concept to the term It also concerns the features of things in the reality and the relationships in that real world, and may be used for specific subject field

1.2.3 General vocabulary and ESP vocabulary teaching and learning 1.2.3.1 Vocabulary and its role in language teaching and learning

Words are the building blocks in a language By learning the lexical items, we start to develop knowledge of the target language Based on our experience of being a language learner, we seem to have no hesitation in recognizing the importance of vocabulary in L2 learning Meare (1980) points out those language learners admit that they encounter considerable difficulty with vocabulary even when the upgrade from an initial stage of acquiring a second language to a much more advanced level Language practitioners also have reached a high degree of consensus regarding the important of vocabulary The findings in Macaro‟s survey (2003) indicate that secondary language teachers view vocabulary as a topic they most need research to shed light on to enhance the teaching and learning in their classrooms Therefore, it may be claimed that the role

of vocabulary in L2 learning is immediately recognized and implications for teaching

from substantial research are in great demand

1.2.3.2 What need to be taught?

Once we have chosen what words to teach it is also necessary to know what

to teach about each lexical item There are many categories that can be taught to know the word properly

According to Harmer (1991: 158) to know the word involves knowing its:

Meaning (its definition) - meanings in context, sense relations (synonyms, antonyms)

Usage – collocations, idioms and metaphors, style and register

Form – spelling and pronunciation, prefixes and suffixes, parts of speech

Grammar – irregular forms, phrasal verbs, adverbs and adjectives

“The specificity of any individual‟s knowledge about a word depends on the person and his or her motivation, desires, and needs for the word” (Hatch and Brown, 1995: 370)

1.2.3.3 Techniques in presenting new vocabulary

According to Ur 1996:63, there are different ways of presenting new vocabulary In the following, different techniques of presenting the meaning of new vocabulary are shown:

 Concise definition

 Detailed description (of appearance, qualities…)

 Examples (hyponyms)

 Illustration (picture, object)

 Demonstration (acting, mime)

 Context (story or sentence in which the item occurs)

 Synonym

 Opposite(s) (antonyms)

 Translation

 Associated ideas, collocations

Mucia 1991:301-302 lists different techniques used in presenting new vocabulary as follows:

 Visual aids (Pictures, Objects)

 Word Relations (Synonyms, Antonyms)

 Definition, Explanation, Examples, and Anecdotes

 Context

 Word Roots and Affixes

1.2.3.4 ESP vocabulary teaching

“All courses are based on a perceived need of some sort It is often argued that the needs of the General English learner […] are not specifiable In fact, there is always

an identifiable need of some sort.” (Hutchinson and Waters, 1987: 50) What I would like to emphasize here is Hutchinson and Waters‟ suggestion that “it is not so much the nature of the need which distinguishes the ESP from General course but rather the awareness of a need” to communicate in English (1987: 53) According to Hutchinson and Waters (1987: 55) target needs represent what the learner needs to do in the target situation and involve necessities, are lacks and wants, and whereas learning needs

represent what the learner are expected to do in order to learn

When we make decision about what ESP vocabulary to teach, it is necessary to look at the above-mentioned necessities, lacks and wants in more details According to Hutchinson and Waters, necessities can be understood as “what the learner needs to know in order to function in the target situation effectively,” which in terms of vocabulary means to know vocabulary which is “commonly used in the situation identified” (1987: 55)

So far, the objective aspects of the target needs were taken into consideration, but also the learner has his own idea of his needs Since the learner motivation is of high importance in both the learning and teaching process, the learner‟s wants is the area that the teacher has also to pay attention to when teaching ESP vocabulary In short

“if the student does not perceive the vocabulary input to be useful it will be difficult to engage his interest and so effective learning of everything else will also be reduced” (Gairns and Redman, 1986: 60)

1.3 Heat and Refrigeration Engineering English (HREE) 1.3.1 Introduction

In the modern and open-policy society, English, both General English and English for Specific Purposes, plays an essential part in developin g the country and fostering international integration It is very a necessary condition for people to find

a good job Actually, at my university, there are a lot of ESP subjects such as English for business, English for mechanical, English for Electricity, etc Among them, Heat and Refrigeration Engineering English (HREE) is one of ESP subjects which I am responsible for

Heat and Refrigeration language is a special language It is made up of vast pool

of words and terms that is employed by Heat and Refrigeration engineers in translating, communicating, working with each other In fact, Heat and Refrigeration students have various reasons for learning Heat and Refrigeration English Heat and Refrigeration engineers need to learn to read and write mechanical terminology in L2

to understand how to install, operate, function air-conditioners or diagnose some machines‟ problems so that they can repair them if they break down For these Heat and Refrigeration professionals, their first step to access technical language is to learn technical words They also need to read journals and books in Heat and Refrigeration genres, to speak to colleagues on professional visits, to make use of the expanding and increasingly important database available through the Internet The second step, technicians should apply what they have read and studied in English to their real work

1.3.2 Vocabulary in Heat and Refrigeration Engineering English

In the course book “English for Heat and Refrigeration Engineering” edited by Bui Trung Thanh, a lecturer of IUH, there are a lot of technical vocabulary related to installation, repairing, and maintaining cooling, heating, air

handling, humidification, filtering, and refrigeration equipment including motors and machine shafts, main components of air-conditioners Also, vocabulary about electric wiring electronics, hydronics, air conditioning, refrigeration, solar geothermal and

thermodynamics are included in this course book Through learning the technical vocabulary, students can understand energy conservation theory and equipment as well

as energy management techniques and equipment in English Furthermore, this course book consists of the technical vocabulary related to a substantial component of instruction in the physics of heat, fluids and gases, the mathematics of heat gains and losses, and engineering design of heating and cooling systems

1.3.3 HREE vocabulary teaching and learning

The students should be encouraged to think about the importance of the word, therefore the examples in context are highly useful Moreover, ESP teachers should choose methods which must be focused predominantly on learners, each unit has to have clear aims, motivating topics and challenging practical activities The appropriate issues must be presented in the context of the real life, in this case, of the present vocational school, where “young people are given numerous opportunities to follow purposeful learning” (Buchanan 6) As Maehr points out, in this way, teachers can support the naturalness of learning vocabulary, and in such an enriched atmosphere, learners find ideal authentic reasons for learning a foreign language ESP vocabulary can be presented, practiced and consolidated by similar methods and techniques used for practicing and consolidation of general vocabulary Writing tasks can include reports and different instructions for heat and refrigeration, making summaries from technical journals, describing processes and techniques, labeling diagrams and pictures, describing graphs, etc

1.4 Previous Research on teaching ESP vocabulary

ESP vocabulary teaching is carried out by various researchers from different countries Their aims are to find out difficulties in teaching and learning ESP vocabulary, methods or strategies of teachers and students in teaching and learning ESP vocabulary

In reference to teaching and learning ESP, the study by Brikena Xhaferi at South East European University (Macedonia) stated that English for specific purposes

course (ESP) are new trend in English Language Teaching and they include technical

English, scientific English, English for medical in this paper attempts to add to existing studies on the use of ESP vocabulary learning and teaching strategies to deal with difficulties of teachers and students The teachers as well as students should become aware of the importance of language learning and teaching strategies and methods to help them eliminate difficulties and improve the ESP vocabulary teaching and learning

at this university

These findings are further supported by the study conducted by Shigao Zheng

at Foreign Languages School, China University of Petroleum, Beijing “Studies and

Suggestions on ESP Vocabulary Teaching and Learning” finds out that an enhanced awareness of cultural difference, metaphorical competence, and learners‟ autonomy in vocabulary acquisition will effectively facilitate the vocabulary learning Simultaneously, a teaching model is recommended based on the findings of this survey, which incorporates ideas advocated by cognitive linguistics Class instruction on vocabulary learning strategies can help students gain awareness of learning strategies The greater the strategy awareness of learners, the more likely they will be to use task- appropriate learning strategies that help them overcome their general difficulties in learning ESP vocabulary

In the context of Vietnamese universities, there have been some studies on

difficulties in teaching ESP vocabulary to students at universities For example, Vo Mai

Do Quyen (2005) at Thanh hoa teacher’s Training School conducted the study

“Difficulties in teaching vocabulary to students of information technology at Thanh Hoa teacher‟s training school and some solutions” to identify the main problems of teaching and learning ESP vocabulary of both teachers and students Based on the study, the researcher gave some suggestions to help teachers and students at Thanh Hoa teacher‟s training school overcome the difficulties and cooperate with each other to have the best result

1.5 Conclusion

In conclusion, this chapter briefly presents the literature related to the study By presenting the most remarkable features of almost gone over and currently used approaches to teaching and learning ESP vocabulary, the author hoped to make a note that each of those approaches can be adaptable and utilized in a specific teaching condition, rather than being swept away Besides, the author also referred ESP vocabulary teaching and learning are difficult, however, he suggested that a good teacher should be flexible in combine a lot of techniques to present ESP vocabulary lessons with different groups of learners more effectively Moreover, the author also presented the brief analysis of her ESP vocabulary teaching environment, which can be considered as the rational for her hypothesis of the integrated approach in her own teaching context

Chapter 2: Methodology

Textbook, students‟ background, teaching staff and teaching methods presented in the context of the study play an important role in teachers and learner‟s success or failure in teaching and learning a foreign language Besides, in this chapter, in method

of the study, research questions, participants, data collection instruments, data

collection procedure, data analysis are shown clearly

2.1 Context of the study 2.1.1 Textbook

Textbook plays crucial roles in language teaching, which is indicated by different authors in the literature Obviously, the materials provide basic for the content of the lesson, the balance of skills taught, and the kind of language practice students take part

in

The course book “English for Heat and Refrigeration Engineering” is edited by Bui Trung Thanh, a lecturer at IUH and is used as an internal material at IUH to teach college students of HRE in 45 periods, and with the following features:

- “English for Heat & Refrigeration Engineering” for the third year HRE students consists

of 5 chapters The syllabus consists of 45 periods (45 minutes per period) and is delivered

within 9 weeks covering 5 topics as follows: Chapter 1: Classifications of air conditioners –

Chapter 2: Main components of air-conditioners- Chapter 3: Electric Wiring – Chapter 4: Installation – Chapter 5: Troubleshooting" The aims of this course are helping students

read and understand specialized document, enriching vocabulary related to HRE and presenting their specialized knowledge by their own words

- Each chapter is written clearly and understandably Each chapter is divided into 5 parts, and each part focuses on one aspect of air-conditioning For example, in chapter

1, it contains some aspects such as compressor, condenser, evaporator, refrigerant

controllers, metering devices

Each week, teachers of English have to teach 5 periods of 45 minutes The aims and objectives of the ESP curriculum are to help students consolidate, widen and enrich their English competence related to their majors including both language knowledge and skills which they have gained at university From my own experience and other

teachers‟ ideas and through my interviews with a lot of students at my school, the

suitability of the textbook including knowledge points (information and vocabulary

areas) is not very insufficient Furthermore, linguistic competence like listening, speaking, and writing is not covered in this textbook Therefore, it can not help students improve their skills like listening, speaking, or writing except for reading comprehension Furthermore, there are a lot of difficult abbreviations and too many

difficult and long terms, formulas or units in a task e.g 1lbf/ in², H=e.σ.A T³, ft.lb/s,

Btu/lb ºF, Kj/kg.Kº, Counter-flow heat exchanger, latent heat of sublimation, grain batch dryer, counter-flow forced draft cooling tower, PSC, PRC and so on

mixing-Students find it hard to understand the formulas, express their understanding in explaining the positions, functions or operations of the parts of machines by their own words because they lack a great number of vocabulary about the matters Therefore, they have little interest in learning ESP and the teaching English at my university is not satisfactory This is obviously manifested in teaching methods used by most teachers in

my university

2.1.2 Students and their background

Actually, there are 4 classes of HRE, which made up totally 170 students at IUH All of them are male students, aging from 18 to 24 The majority come from different parts of Thanh Hoa province Some are from several cities in Vietnam such as Thai Binh, Tay Nguyen, Vinh, Ha Tinh City The students coming from cities have finished three years or seven years of learning English at secondary schools before entering the IUH Therefore, they have better English than others from the rural or remote areas, where there are no good opportunities for studying English Most of students experienced traditional method of English teaching like “Grammar- translation method” at grade school, which emphasizes the learning of the grammar rules of the language, not the acquisition of language skills Now, most of them want to learn English to read specialized documents rather than to speak English to foreigners Some are under strong pressure to pass exams with high mark; the others prefer enhancing their specialized knowledge to preparing for their future jobs In addition, it helps students feel more confident to interact with teacher in ESP class

2.1.3 Teaching staff and teaching methods

At present, the English Group at IUH based in Thanh Hoa consists of twelve full-time teachers All of the teachers graduated from universities of foreign languages such as University of Languages & International Studies - Vietnam National University, Hong Duc University and Vinh University Eight of them have Master degree in English language teaching None of them has been trained in English speaking countries Two teachers are taking MA courses at University of Languages & International Studies - Vietnam National University The teachers are quite young (aged from 27 to 42) The oldest teacher has more than 17 years of teaching experience and the youngest teacher has 3 years No teachers are trained to specialize in teaching ESP All of the12 teachers are responsible for teaching General English and ESP to nearly 7.000 students of four departments at IUH They even have to teach some different ESP subjects at the same time The teachers have to teach themselves and learn ESP subjects from specialized teachers who are in charge of teaching these subjects in Vietnamese There are 3 teachers are responsible for teaching English for HRE One of them has 5- year experience and 2 other teachers have 3- year experience They are energetic and willing to devote their time and energy to teaching However, they find it difficult to deal with unfamiliar subject matter Therefore, they encounter many difficulties in their teaching process such as the lack of the specialized knowledge, the choice of teaching methods and teaching materials

In terms of methodology, the teachers at IUH are intensively using the Translation method Most of the spoken interaction in English classes is conducted in

Grammar-Vietnamese

As mentioned above, the context of IUH reveals a situation whereby students are required to learn English, but the English they have learned in traditional language classes may not be used effectively in real life It is apparent that student-centered approach has not been widely used in teaching English at IUH The teachers still play the key role in classroom activities and corner the students to be active learners

Therefore, we should apply more appropriate teaching techniques to improve the situation of teaching ESP vocabulary at IUH

2.2 Method of study

2.2.1 Research questions

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

1 What are the difficulties experienced by English teachers in their teaching HREE vocabulary at IUH?

2 What major problems are HRE students facing in learning ESP vocabulary at IUH?

3 What are solutions to improving HRE vocabulary teaching at IUH?

2.2.2 The participants

The participants in these survey questionnaires are both teachers and students The first group consists of 12 English teachers, including 3 teachers who are teaching HREE These 12 teachers of English at the university are chosen for the investigation as all of them have been teaching ESP They are 8 females and 4 males and have at least 3 years‟ experience

in teaching ESP The other group includes 100 students majoring in HRE aged from 19

to 24 and randomly chosen from four HRE classes at IUH based in Thanh hoa They are all male students and have been learning English at least two or three years at IUH

2.2.3 Data collection instruments

In order to collect the information for the study, the researcher uses survey questionnaire given to teachers and students at IUH

Questionnaire

To gain the data for the research, 2 questionnaires were administered to the respondents One was designed for the teachers and the other for the students The question items were both close-ended and open-ended This method is chosen because it is easy to construct, extremely versatile and uniquely capable of gathering a huge amount

of information in a short time (Dornyei, 2003) The questions were asked in order to find out challenges encountered by teachers and students in their teaching and learning HRE

Questionnaire for Teachers: The questionnaire designed for the teachers consists of seven

questions It aims at investigating the teachers‟ attitude, perceptions of teaching HREE vocabulary, challenges for their third year students and their suggestions to improve ESP vocabulary teaching

Informal interview for teachers: Interview questions are taken from the questionnaire for

teachers It aims at reconfirming the attitude, perceptions of teaching HREE vocabulary, challenges for their third year students and their suggestions to improve ESP vocabulary teaching of the very three teachers are teaching HREE

2.2.4 Data collection procedure

In order to collect the data for the analysis, as for students, questionnaires were delivered to the students in their classroom They were encouraged to give their true answers I confirmed to them that the research was carried out to improve their own English learning and teaching in general and their English vocabulary of HRE in particular so all their information is kept secret and only used for research

With regard to teachers, the questionnaires were delivered to teachers individually to ensure that they would give their own ideas without being affected by their colleagues

2.2.5 Data analysis

After tabulating the frequency of responses to each option of every item, the percentages of responses were counted The data of the present study was analyzed

by means of both quantitative and qualitative statistics Then the percentages of the data are shown in charts and tables All the data collected from the instruments were grouped under two main areas: the teachers‟ perceptions towards their problems in teaching HREE vocabulary and students‟ perception towards their problems in learning HREE vocabulary, which served to answer the research questions

Chapter 3: Findings and discussion

This chapter is aimed at providing the results of the study through counting percentage from teachers and students‟ questionnaires First, it is started with analyzing the results collected from teachers‟ questionnaire Then, the process of calculating and discovering the findings from students‟ questionnaire also carried out During the analysis of the results, discussion is integrated and combined logically

3.1 Findings 3.1.1 Questionnaire for teachers

Question 1: What do you think about teaching ESP vocabulary?

Chart 1: Teachers’ opinion about teaching ESP vocabulary

As shown in chart 1 most of the teacher (61%) consider teaching ESP vocabulary a very difficult element in ESP teaching Besides, 15% of the teachers still evaluate ESP vocabulary teaching as a very difficult task Meanwhile, 23% of the teachers find it not very difficult to teach ESP vocabulary Maybe, they are acquainted to this ESP vocabulary teaching and quite master general vocabulary teaching way However, nobody is confident to say that it is easy to teach ESP vocabulary Furthermore, in my

interview, 3 teachers of HREE all find teaching vocabulary difficult T1 said “I do not

often feel satisfied with the teaching methods although I have 10-year experience in teaching English In fact, my students have not paid more attention to my lesson much

or remember and apply vocabulary not well Maybe, my teaching ways have not been very effective.”

Question 2: What do you think of students’ learning ESP vocabulary?

3-D Column 4

Chart 2: Teachers’ evaluation about students’ learning ESP vocabulary

As shown in the result, 77% of the teachers remarked that their students must

remember too much vocabulary in one class As T2 stated “My students always

complain and feel overloaded with learning too much vocabulary in one class As a result, they can not retain them for a long time.” However, only 38.4% of the teachers

realize that the students do not have enough HRE knowledge to understand

terminologies As interviewed, T3 also commented on his students “When I teach my

students, I often ask my students to explain parts I am going to teach in Vietnamese at first so that I check if they know them or not I realize that they can explain them quite well in Vietnamese Obviously, they have enough specialized knowledge to understand the terminologies in English although they can not remember them for a long time.”

However, the main reason which they can not remember new words is their laziness In the result, 92% of the teachers complained that their students are too lazy

Question 3: How do you evaluate the HREE textbook?

1 unclear ( not of good quality)

2 poor/ not enough

53.8%

30.7%

1 too much knowledge is presented

2 too little knowledge is presented

3 sufficient knowledge is presented

2 too few exercises

3 too many exercises

Table 1: Teachers’ comment on the course-book

From the findings in the table 1, we can see that most of the teachers are not satisfied with the coursebook In fact, this main material is designed not very well Firstly, in terms of organization, 76.9% of the teachers commented that it is not very good 15.5% stated it is good and logical Meanwhile, only 7.6% of the teachers chose that it is bad or illogic To regard with visual, more than half of the teachers (53.8%)