Luận văn factors affecting reading comprehension of english for computer science of the second year students at vinh technical teachers' training university

THU FACTORS AFFECTING READING COMPREHENSION OF ENGLISH FOR COMPUTER SCIENCE OF THE SECOND YEAR STUDENTS AT VINH TECHNICAL TEACHERS’ TRAINING UNIVERSITY Những yếu tố ảnh hướng đến việ

'VIETNAM NATIONAL UXIVERSITY-IIANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

Department of POST GRADUATE STUDIES

Dinh Th! THU

FACTORS AFFECTING READING COMPREHENSION OF

ENGLISH FOR COMPUTER SCIENCE OF THE SECOND YEAR STUDENTS AT VINH TECHNICAL TEACHERS’ TRAINING

UNIVERSITY

(Những yếu tố ảnh hướng đến việc đọc hiểu tiếng anh chuyên ngành tin học của sinh viên năm thứ hai ở trường đại học sư phạm kỹ

thuật Vinh)

M.A Minor Programme Thesis

Field: English Teaching Methedolugy Code: 60.14.10

HANOI - 2010

VIETNAM NATIONAL, UXNIVERSITTY-HANOL

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

Department of POST GRADUATE STUDIES

Dinh Th! THU

FACTORS AFFECTING READING COMPRETIENSION OF

ENGLISH FOR COMPUTER SCIENCE OF THE SECOND YEAR STUDENTS AT VINH TECHNICAL TEACHERS’ TRAINING

UNIVERSITY

(Những yéu té anh huéng dén việc doc hiéu tiếng anh chuyên ngành

tin hoc cia sinh vién nam thir hai 6 truéng dai học sư phạm kỹ

thuật Vinh)

M.A Minor Programme Thesis

Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60.14.10

Supervisor: Dr Duong Thi Nu

HANOI - 2010

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

VITTU: Vinh echnical ‘Teachers’ ‘lraimng University

GF General English

ESP: English for Specific Purposes

es: Computer Science

TT Information Technology

Li: The first language

L2: ‘The second language

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES

Figure: Students’ background

Table 1: Students’ attitudes towards ESP reading

Table 2: Students’ preparation lessons hefare going to class

Table 3: Students’ frequency of reading supplementary materials

Table 4: Students’ evaluation of the texis in the current ESP reading material

Table 5: The causes of the students’ difficulties in reading English for CS

Table 6: Activities the teachers ask the students to do at pre’ post-reading stages

1.1.1 Definitions of reading and reading comprehension A 1.1.2 Classificaion ofrending according to purpose oỂreading, Š

1.2.3 Factors in teaching and loaning ESP reading 8

1.3 ESP reading difficultics for foreign language lcarnels TŨ 1.3.1 Reading skills problems

vil

1.3.2 Language problems 1.4 Surry

11

13 Chapter 2; Investigation into the current situation of teaching and learning English for Computer Science at Vinh Technical Teachers’ training University ( VI'TITU )

3.1 Inlroduction of the VITTU

2.2 The teachers and their teaching methods

2.3 The students and their background

3.4 The teaching and loarnity English al VITTU

2.5 The present ESP syllabus and materials

Chapter 3: ‘The study

3.1 Rescarch questions

3.3 PartoipaHfS

3.3 The data collection method

3.4 The data collection procedure

3.5 Data analysÌS

3.5.1 Factors affecting reading English for Computer Science at VITTU

3.5.1.1 The participants’ background 3.5.1.2, Students? attitudes towards ESP reading

3.5.1.3 The reading materials 3.5.1.4 The teacl

4.1.1 Inereasing students’ reading interest and motivation

4.1.2 Applying different approaches to teach vocabulary

4.2 Training sludents io become efficient readars

4.2.1 Training studonts with differont reading stralagics

4.3.3 Encouraging students to develop extensive reading habits

4.2.3 Giving homework and checking the previous lessons frequently

29

4.3 Improving teachers’ background knowledge about CS and teaching methodology

4.4.2, Choosing supplementary reading materials He vee 3S

2 Limitations of the study and Suggestions for Further study 37

References

PART A: INTRODUCTION

1, Rationale

English learning has been popular in Vietnam over the last few decades specially, learning English has became a burgeoning need when Viclnam fosters its international relations, Everyday an increasmg number of people lean and use English for different purposes

In teaching and Icarning English as a forcign language in Vietnam, English for

Specific Purposes (ESP) has recently received a great deal of attention It has been

introduced in the taining curriculum af almosl every universily in Vietnam

At VITTU, after finishing three semesters of GE, the students of IT department

begin to take 60 ESP periods of C8

Being an RSP teacher of CS, the researcher bras always been aware of the importance

of developing the reading skills for IT students If the students read well, they are able to handle subjects related written materials in English and to work with modern technological

cquipments Bul in feel, despite of Ihe effort of the tzachors and students, the roscarcher finds her students’ reading skills disappoinied, which do not meet the requirements af the college and they have a lot of difficulties in rending English for CS

For all the above reasons, ths researcher would like to find out the factors affecting

reading comprchension of English for CS of the second ycar students at VITTU It is

hoped that the study will make some suggestions for teachers and students to improve the quality of teaching and learning English for CS al VTTTU

2, Aims of the study

The study aims to examine the factors affecting reading comprehension of English

the

for Computer Science of the second year students at VITTU To be more spec

objectives of the study are

- To examine the students’ attitudes towards ESP reading

+ To investigate the cwrsnt situation of teaching and learning English for CS at VITTU in order to find out the thetors affecting, reading comprehension of English for CS

of the second year students at VI'TTU

+ To investigate the loarnars? needs in terms of roading matcrisls and methodology

- To give some recommendations to improve the quality of teachmg and leaming English for CS at VITTU

It is hoped that the findings ftom this study will be of some benefits to teachers and students at VTTTU

3 Method of the study

In order to achieve the aims mentioned above, the methodologies adopted for this study are a survey questionnaire with 100 students which is wed as the main method to collect the needed data ftom the learners and informal interviews and discussions with the teachers ax well as (he researcher’s observation during the course

4, Scope of the sluily

The study mainly focuses on the investigaton of factors most affecting reading comprehension of Lnglish for Computer Science of the second year students at VIT'TU,

and then suggests some Lochniques lo help them improve their ESP reading,

5, Organization of the thesis

This minor thesis consists of three parts: Introduction, Development and Conclusion, The first part concludes the rationale for the study, the aims, the methods, and the seope of the study as well as the organization of the thesis

The second part consists of four chapters, Chapler 1 discusses the theoreticat background to the nature of reading and reading comprehension and reading in FSP teaching and learning, Chapter 2 investigates the current situation of teaching and learning English for CS at VI'LI'U Chapter 3 deals with the research methodology which covers

the research questions, the participants, the data collection method, and the data collection

pro

edure as well as the data analysis, findings and some dis ussion of findings Chapter 4 offers some possible suggestions to improve the current situation of teaching and leaning English for Computer Science at VITTU

The last parl- Conclusion - summarizes the main issues of the study, poinls oul the

lumitations and makes some suggestions for further research.

PART B: DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

This chapler involves the theoretical background of the sludy whieh would be a Teview of issues relevant to the thesis topic The review includes an overview on the nature

of reading, in which the definitions of reading and reading comprehension as well as

nssed, Moreover, this chapter also discusses the definition of ESP, reading, skills in ESP, factors in teaching and learning L'SP reading, and L'SP reading difficulties for forsign language learners

1.1 The nature of reading

classification oP reading according lo the purpose of reading are di

1.1.1 Definitions of reading and reading comprehension

So fix, there are mumerous definitions of reading by many perspectives — linguists,

chers Fat

psychologisls, educalors and second language re author defines in a

different way as seen from his own point of view

According to Goodman (1971:135), reading is “a psycholinguisties process by which

the reader, a language user, reconstructs, as best as he can, a message which has heen

encoded by a writer as a graphic display” This act of reconstruction is viewed as “a

cyclical process of sampling, predicting testing, and confirming’

Ilarmer (1989:153) considers reading as a mechanical process that “eves receive the

message and the brain then has to work out the significance of the message’ Harmer

focuses on not only two actions dominated by the eyes and the brain but also the speed of the process: “a reading tert moves at a speed of the reader”, which means it is the reader

who decides how fast he wants to read the text

Sharing the same opirtion, Smith (1985:102) defined: “reading is understanding the

aulhor’s though” Tl means that the readers “read the author's mind not the author's

words”

‘To sum up, it is obvious that attempts to define reading have been various but no definitions can reveal all the features and ideas of what reading is Ilowever, the definitions all focus on the nature of reading thal is the interaction between readers and authors.

Reading comprehension takes an important role in teaching and learning reading It

ible Ther

is the abilily to gel information fom the lext as efficiently as y are three

elements involving in the reading process: the text being read, the background knowledge

of the reader and the contextual aspects relevant for interpreting the text

According 1o Grellet (1981:3), “reading comprehension or understanding a written

Jext means extraciing the required information from if as efficiently as possible” Richard

and ‘homas (1987:9) also stated: “reading comprehension is best described as an

understanding between the author and the reader”

And according to Swan (1975:1)

read accurately and efficiently, so as ta get the maxinnan information of a text with the

“a student is good at comprehension” if “he can

nuininuam understanding’ Aller reading, rcarlers can waster Ihe grarmmolical structures, words pronunciation, understanding the context of the texts and use it in real life as effective as possible

‘Though these ideas are not exactly the same, they all seem that “reading without comprehension is meaningless” (Rarlin and Kartin, 1982:3)

1.1.2 Classification of reading according to purpose af reading

According to purpose of reading, Wood (1985), Williams (1986) and Grellet (1990) categorize reading into intensive, extensive, skinuning, and scanning

Intensive reading means the careful reading of shorler, wore difficull foreign

language texts with the goal of complete and detailed understanding The objective of intensive reading is to understand not only what the text means but also how the meaning

is produced I'rancoise Grellet (1981-41) defined: “Intensive reading means reading short

texts to extract specific inforniation This is an accuracy activity mvolving reading for

detaily” And according to Nuttal (1982:36), “Intensive reading involves approaching the

text under the guidance of a teacher or a task which forces the snident to pay great atlention io the text”, To this kind of reading, readers are required a profound and detailed

understanding of the text ‘hey have to know every idea, every piece of hidden information in the text They also have fo pay allention to the area of the words in the passage through which some hints may be conveyed In short, intensive reading is reading

in detail for a complete understanding of every part of the text

Extensive reading means to read widely and in quantity According †o Grellet

(1981-2), extensive reading means “reading longer texts usually for one's own pleasure

This is a fluency activity, mainly uvolving general understanding” Harmer (1989:497)

also has the same view Ile states “extensive reading would normally start with reading for the main idea or for general comprehension and finally, after much practice, for detailed

comprehension” In fact, most of extensive reading is done silently and out of the

classroom and it gives the students opportunities to use their target language nowledge for their own purposes

Skimming is a very useful reading skill for students to locate a specific item of information that they need Grellet (1981-19) stated: “when skimming, we go through the

reading material quickly in order to get its main points out the intension of the writer, but

nat to find the answer to specific questions”, Because of its nature, the key to skimming is

to know where to find the main idea of different paragraphs and to be able to synthesize them by way of generalization,

Scanning is another uscfil skill to locate a specific item of information that we

need Williams (1986:100) said: “scaruting occurs when a reader goes through a text very quickly in order to find a particular point of information” Yn contrast with skimming,

seanning is far more limited since it only means retrieving needed information This kind

of reading is widely used in reading comprehension

In sum, thers are different ways of reading and they are determined not by the texts

ut by the reader’s reasons for reading In order to understand a text effectively, the readers should not use these ways independently They must know how to use suitable ways to

achieve their reading purpose

1.1.3 Reading in General English and in ESP

In many countries, English is leat by a number of students who may never have

opportunities to converse with native speakers, but may have access to scientific and technical materials written in English, In comparison with other languages skills, reading, once developed, is the one that can most easily be maintained at a high level by the student himself with further help from his teachers, Through reading exercises, he can increase his knowledge and understanding of the speakers? cultura, their way of thinking and their contuibution to différent fields in our everyday life, Reading, therefore, is always considered an important skill in both GE and ESP contexts.

P — an approach not a product- does not involve a

particular kind of language, teaching materials or methodology” In the opinion, ESP is

“not a matter of teaching specialized varieties, not different in kind from other form of language leaching” They slate RSP “és an approach to language teaching in which all decisions as to content und method are based on the learners’ reason for learning” So an

ESP course should differ from a GE course in selection of skills, themes, topics, situations

and fimctions And, all ESP courses should be based on the learners’ needs and meet the

learners’ necds

However, Strevens’ definition of ESP (198%) makes a distinction between four

absolute characteristics and lwo variable characlerislics:

- The absolute characteristics of ESP are as follows:

* designed to meet specific needs of the learners

* related in context (Ihal is in ils themes and topic) Lo particular disciplines, occupations

and activities

* centered on language appropriate to those activities in syntax, lexis, discourse, semantics, and so on, and analysis of the discourse

in contrast with GE

- The two variable characteristics are that ESP:

* may be restricted to skills to be leamed (for example, reading only’

* may not be taught according to any prc- ordained methodology

Robinson’s definition is based on two key defining criteria and a number of characteristics thal are generally found to be true of BSP The key crileria are thal BSP is

“normally goal-directed” and thal ESP courses develop fiom @ needs analysis, which

“aims to specify as closely as possible what exactly us that students have to do through

the mecdium of English” (Robinson, 1991:3)

Irom the definitions above, it is clear that ESP courses are purposeful and aim at the

successfil performance of occupational roles by an individual or a group whose need is considered to be a distinguished feature to those of GE

1.2.2 Reading skills in ESP

According Lo Tlulchinson and Watzrs (1987:19) ESP “is an approach to language

leaching wn which all decisions as fo content und method are based on the learners’ reason

(for learning” An ESP course therefore should differ ftom a GE course in its selection of skills, themes, topics, siluations and fimetions, Whal is more, all courses have a purpase

and aims to achieve Therefore, the reading component of an ESP course requizes a balance between skills and language development Dudley-Evans and St Johns (1998:96) show some of the key skills:

- selecting what is relevant to the current purpose

- using all the features of the texts such a3 headings, layout, typeface

- skimming for content and meaning

- scanning for specific information

- identifying organizational patterns

- understanding relations within a senlences and helween sentences

- predicting, interfering and guessing

- using cohesive and discourse markers

- identifying main ideas, supporting idzas and examples

- processing and evaluating the information during reading

- transfézring or using the information while or after reading

1.2.3 Factors in teaching and learning ESP reading

1.2.3.1 ESP teachers and their roles

Together with students, the teacher is one of the two main necessary slements which create the teaching and learning process In general, the role of the teacher is to provide students with knowledge and the best methods for learning effectively However, it is

obvious thal the work of GE and RSP ta: differs One of the skills an ESP Leacher has

to acquire is the ability to balance content lovel and language level Thorclora, iL is likely that in addition to the normal functions of a GE teacher, The ESP teacher will have to deal with needs analysis, syllabus design, materials writing or adaptation and evaluation

According to Littlewood (1881:51), the language teacher is expected “to perform in a variety of roles separately or simulianeously” As for Wright (1987) and other authors, the roles of the teacher include: an instructor, a manager, a counselor, a facilitator, an organizer, an evaluator, a curriculum developer, a material writer and even a fiend Swales (1985) prefers to use the tern “ESP practitioner” than “ESP teacher” Teacher’s work may only involve teaching whereas practitioner’s work involves much more than teaching

It is true that the role of the teacher will vary according to the type of syllabus and course, and the teaching and Joarning cnviroument (Jordan, 1997) Thus, onc of the most important qualities that an ESP teacher expects to have is flexibility - the flexibility to change from being a general language teacher to being a specific purpose teacher Firstly,

an ESP Izachzr tmust work as a teacher He should help students learn, be willing to Listen

to them, be ready to change tasks in a lesson to take account of what comes up, to think

and respond quickly to events Secondly, an LSP teacher must also work a3 a course

designer and a material provider Moreover, an ESP teacher must know something about the subjcct matters of the ESP materials It docs not mean that the teacher must beeome an expert of the subject matters (though it should be ideal if he is), but rather an interested

should

student of the subject matter, According to Mulchinson and Waters, ESP teach

have three things: (i) a positive attitude towards the ESP content, (ii) knowledge of the fundamental principles of the subject area, (iii) an awareness of how much they probably know Finally, The ESP leacher is an evaluator who lesis and assesses studenis through discussion and on-going needs analysis, negotiation vith students, then evaluates the course and teaching materials

‘To sum up, ths roles of the LSP and GU teacher can hardly be separated, and they vary as circumstances chimge So, iL is necessary to note thal the suecess of am individual teacher depends to a large extent on how flexible and adaptable he is in tackling the actual teaching situations

1.2.3.2 ESP students and their roles

Like teachers, students are also one of two main factors of teaching and leaming process They are ot also the subject bul alse ths object of that process In particutar, in a roading lesson, the studonts ael as readers, They arc involved actively in geHing the right meaning from the text Sometimes, they meet difficulties in interpreting the text because of unfamiliar vocabularies and limited background knowledge or because their reading speed

and comprehension ability are not yet up to the expectation In this case, the students have

to work under the dirzction of their teachers

‘Apart from all above activities in a reading classroom, ESP students also have to become familiar with English used in their specialized field Uaving acquired Basic

1.2.3.3, ESP reading materials and their roles

Materials play an important role in exposing learners to the language, especially in

mi terms of grammar and having heen familiar with reading activilies, these

teaching and Icarning ESP ESP is designed to mect specific purpose of the learners

‘Therefore, selecting reading materials is very important Selecting materials involves making choices and decisions To make good choices, we need lo have good crileria on which to base the decisions These criteria such as factors about the learners, the role of materials, the topies, the language, the presentation have been put forwards for the analysis

of materials amd each of them has validily A good RSP material must contain interesting texts and enjoyable activities which make students think, give them opportunities to use their existing knowledge, skills and content that they and their teachers can cope with; truly reflect what you think and feel about learning process, provide clear and coherent unit structure lo guide the students through various aclivitics 10 maximize the changes of learning; create a balance outlook which both retlect the complexity of the task, yet make at appear manageable, introduce teachers to new techniques and provide models of correct and appropriats language usc (Hutchinson and Waters, 1987:107)

1.3 ESP reading dliticulties for forelgn language learners

Il is undeniable thal reading ina forcign language is of greal importance to personal development, professional success and academic studies However, reading in a language which is not the learners" first language is much more difficult ‘The previous studies by

Jolly (1978), Coady (1979), Yorio (1971) and others indicate that problems in reading for

forcign lear reading skills, language proficiency or cultural

s may be cither in learner

and background knowledge However, in this section I would like to focus on two main

problems that foreign language learners often face with They are reading skill problems and language problems

1.3.1 Reading skill problems

According to Bernhard (1995:17), “reading performance in a second language is

largely shared with reading ahility in a first language” Sharing the save opumon, Sarid

assumed that “the sone reading siralegies iypes accounted for success und failure in both

languages to almast the same extent”

From those above viewpoints, we cam come lo a conclusion Unal roading processas fiom the first language do appear to the foreign language, It can be seen clearly that student’s limited reading skills create many problems Lrequently they read in a foreign language slower than in their first language Moreover they do not know how to read in the appropriate ways They just look at cvcry single word, read slowly fiom the beginning

ta the end and consequently fail to grasp the general meaning of the passage Sometimes, they may encoumlsr a lol of vocabularies, a long text or an unfamnitiar logic, yel they can not concentrate well on the text and when they get to the last paragraph they may not recall what they have read in the first ones

Il is common thal there are new words, new slruclures, and ideas in a reading Lexi lo every language Jeamer If learners do not know how to make use of grammatical, logical and cultural clues and have a guess or predicting ability, they wall read the texts with less comprehension than he might expect And poor reading comprehension may result in disinterest in reading, They may be trapped ina vicious circle

Doesn't read much <- doesn’t enjoy reading 1.3.2 Language problems

Tn contrast, Yerio (1971:108) argues that roading problems of foreign language learners are due largely to the imperfect knowledge of the target language and to mother tongue interference in the reading process In his view, reading involves four factors

knowledge of the language, ability to predict or guess in order to make correct choice, abilily to remember the previous enes, and abilily to make the ne

wiations

ary ass between the different cues that have been selected Therefore, leamers with limited knowledge of the target language might have considerable difficulty when reading in the largel language This view is supported by other researchers (Aldsrson, 1984 and Clarke; 1980) They acknowledge that a lack of appropriate linguistic knowledge constrains the transfer of reading skills and strategies from L1 to L2

Dealing with a reading text, rcadors Have to face various difficulties The first problem is that the readers may have to work with unfamiliar and difficult topics These are called “text problems” ‘The content of the text may be rather strange to the students and grammatical strucures might bz new Tharefare, they can not understand it, The readers will find the text very challenging and might not have any motivation lett to keep onreading

The second but not less important kind of problem is the “vocabulary problems”

As we know, grammatical knowledge accounts for a great deal of competence in reading However, knowledge of vocabulary is a great deal more important as a factor of reading comprehension than awareness of grammatical siruchues (Q' Donnel, 1961:313-316) Readers encounter a lot of difficulties in dealing with proverbs, idioms, synonyms, antonyms, poly-semantic, and sub-technical vocabulary Metaphor, metonymy and other lypes of tamsference of meaning also cause greal difficulty for readers

1.4, Summary

In short, this chapter provides a theoretical framework for the study lrst, it provides an overview on the nature of reading, in which the definitions of reading and reading comprehension as well as classification of reading according to the purpose of reading are discussed What is more, this chapter also discusses the definition of ESP, reading skills in ESP, factors in teaching and lcaming ESP reading, and ESP reading difficulties for foreign language learners

CHAPTER 2: AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE CURRENT SITUATION OF TEACIIING AND LEARNING ENGLISII FOR COMPUTER SCIENCE AT VINII TECHNICAL TEACHERS’ TRAINING UNIVERSITY

‘This chapter will take a close look at the present situation of teaching and learning English for CS al VTTTU The intention of this analysis is lo achieve @ better understanding of the proposed and actual problems affecting the efficiency of ESP teaching and learning, which in tum, will lay the foundation for a discussion of methodology improvement and further racommendations in chaptar A

2.1 Introduction of the VITTU

VITTU has been in operation for 50 years Inifially, it was only a Vocational

School Gradually, i was upgraded and became a Technical Teachers’ Training College in

1996, and then a Technical Teachers’ Training University in 2006, Now its duty is to train students to become upper- secondary school teachers in four major fields: Mechanical Engineering, Mechanical Dynamic Engineering Electrical and Electronics Engineering and Information Technology

‘The students are provided a lot of general educational subjects and different speciativalions like other institutions, of which Finglish has been regarded as a vital component in the program But in fact, the conditions for teaching and learning are not ideal due to the large class-size (usually more than 50 students in total and even more than

70 students), no kinguage environment, ont of date reference documents, lack of facilities for language learning and teaching such as videos, tape recorders, networked computers, multimedia labs, and so on,

2.2 ‘The teachers and thelr teaching methods

cachers of English al VITTU, aged from 28 to 40 Most of them

Thore are Iwal

are M.A, The others are taking M.A course, They have responsibility to teach both GE and ESP They are energetic and willing to devote their time and energy to teaching ITowever, they are inexperienced in teaching ESP because none of thom has becn trained in teaching ESP and they have no specialized knowledge on the subject matter They are unexpectedly required to (sach a subject which is new and unfamiliar with them, Most of them have Tittle chance to access to the Tales! alterations of language leaching methods, So they have to face a lot of difficulties, of which the lack of the professional knowledge and the choice of appropriate teaching methodologies seem to be the major concerns,

‘As far as the methodology is concerned, lšSP tsachers usually employ the traditional

method of teaching in ESP reading Icssons Classes are conducted in the forms of lectures

Most of the time, the teachers play a key role in the lesson, being the main speakers working with the text The teachsrs often explain every word, new structure and even translate the text inlo Vistnarese Students are passive and only ask the tsachers wher they encounter difficult structures or words that they can not find in the dictionary And the success rests on how flexible and adaptable the individual teacher is to respond to the roquiromont of the new teaching situation

2.3 The students and their background

‘The age of the students varies ftom 18 to 25 They come ftom different geographical places, Most of them aro from the rurat or romote arcas, where there are no good opportunities for studying English They are varied 1m terms of English proficiency Most

of them started learning Linglish from zero when they enrolled the university ‘I'he others come ftom cities, who, theoretically, have all finished three or seven years of leaming English at high schools before entering the college, but in thet, their levels are rather mixed, Moreover, their length of Lnglish learning was different Yo some extent, there are some sludenls whose English is very excellent, bul generally the large sludents’ English proficiency is still of low level

In fact, the students come to class with different English hackeround and attitudes, motivation, learning style lowards Isaming the language Therefore, the first thing the teachers have to do is to improve the students’ level of GE before they can deal with subject matters in this language Another problem is that most of them do not have the habit of learning independently and tend to depend on the textbooks and the teachers for knowledge These provide the ESP teachers with the basic understanding of the subject of ESP

2.4 Lhe feaching and learning English af VI'F'U

Duc to the particular tasks of our technical colloge, English at VITTU is allowed to

be non- major and of course not the compulsory subject for entrance exam Like many olter subjects, Engtish is tanght in a formal setting (classroom) withoul language environment and the students have to do lwo English courses: 120-poried GE and 60- penod ESP

Being responsible for teaching English for Computer Science (CS) — a type of LSP

al VITTU, we realize thal caching and learning ESP in general and RCS in particular is really an issue of immediate concern, Problems in teaching and learning that arise as a block to teaching and learning quality There are some actual reasons for the problems Firstly, the teacling and learning are realived on mio theoretical foundation, materials are subjectively selected by the teachers and then compiled into reading materials for students

As a result, different teachers have different self- developed lesson plans with focus on

on any tules, and instructional materials and

despite all efforts made in terms of methodology and materials chosen, the students’

reading competence remains unimproved liven worse, they seem to he unmotivated during the reading lessons

2.5 The present ESP syllabus and materials

As mentioned above, English is taught in two stages with different textbooks But

lo the scope of the study, the syllabus used for the second slage is presented, that is

“English for Computer Science” It is designed and selected randomly by the teachers of

English without any consideration basing on Needs Analysis and syllabus design theory The syllabus was designed concluding 12 units with the slated purposes of providing the

students with an amounts of vocabulary relating to the computer science topics such as History of computer, characteristics and applications of computers, the CPU, memory,

hardware and software, the operating systems, computer graphics and design, programs

and programming languages, databases, data transmission, network, ate and training

reading skills which would be helpful for their future job It focuses on language skills

such as reading, writing and translation The ESP syllabus put greater emphasis on content

teaching- the knowledge of the specific arca than the language skills The texts and the

exercises are designed in the form of content-based syllabus than a †ask-based one Lhe

exercises afler cach lex! are oflen reading comprehension and grammar ones There is a list

of new words and their meanings in Victtarnoso at the ond of cach unl

After some years teaching this matezial, the teachers continvously get feedback fiom the students and make suitable adaptation to improve the course book

CHAPTER 3: TIIE STUDY

‘This chapter deals with the research methodology that has been employed for the achievement of the aims and objectives of the study, Data was obtained by means of a survey quostionmaire, Besides the survey data, additional data was gathered by alher instruments such as informal interview or discussion with teachers and students to provide more in-depth information

3.1 Research questions

As it has been stated, this study was carried out to find out the factors affecting reading comprehension of Lnglish for Computer Science of second year students at VITTU Thus, if was designed in an attempt to sock answers lo the following questions:

1, What are the factors affecting reading comprchension of English for Computer Science of the second year students at VII?

2 Whal are the suggestions Lo help the students innprove their SP reading skills? 3.2, Participants

‘The participants of the study were 100 second — year students of Information Technology Deparlnent al VITTU who finished GE courso lest torm and have jusl finished ESP couse this term, The reason for choosing the second year students is as follows: ‘The students at this university only take the ESP course after finishing a 120- period GE course which was studied in the first year and half of the second year

The 100 students ainong those of Information Technology Deparlincnt were selected

at random to participate in the research It was difficult to select a random sample of individuals since students had already been assigned to different classes In this case, cluster random sampling was more feasible, which means that instead of randomly selecting the individuals, the researcher randomly selected the group or classes for investigation Qracnkel and Wallen, 1996) This approach is more appropriate and convenient for the researcher to observe the participants who filled in the questionnaire in classes Besides, 11 other teachers who were teaching English at the VI'I'I'U were invited

to participate in the study for informal discussion

3.3 The data collection method:

‘To reach the primary purposes of the study, a survey questionnaire has been chosen

as the main method for data collection for this particular rescarch One survey questionnaire with 12 questions was designed for IT students to identify their opinions on reading lessons, the factors affecting their comprehension in an English text for C'S and to find out their expeclation lo achieve beller reading competence Ta make sure thal all the subjects understand the questions properly, the author asks them to answer the questions

truthRlly and trustworthily with the translation from English to Vietnamese ‘he

ialerials The queslionnaire was wrillen in Vielnamese La ensure sludents’ accurale

understanding of all the questions before answering them (See Appendix 1)

3.4 The data collection procedure

To collect data for the study, 100 photocopied copies of the questionaire were delivered to the students during the class time Before giving the questionnaire to the respondents, the researcher explained the purpose of the questionnaire, the requirement for the respondents and answered any questions asked by the respondents, ‘I'he respondents were also encouraged to ask if there was anything they did not understand in the questionnaire Then they were instructed to take as much time as they need to complete the

questionnaire

3.5 Data analysis

Data from the questionnaire was classified into different categories such as students’ background, their altitudes towards ESP reading, their difficulties in the reading mallerials, the loachors and teaching methods and their cxpoelation in terms of ESP materials and the teachers’ methodology

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Then the data was manually analyzed using descriptive statistics (percentage) and interpretations The information was then displayed in forms of tables and figures,

3.5.1 Factors affecting reading English for Computer Science at VITTU

3.5.1.1 The participants’ background

The participants involved in this research are 100 second- year students of

Information Technology Department, who had fulfilled both of their General English

course and the course of English for Computer Science Most of them are from the rural or remote areas, where there are no good opportunities for studying English They are varied

in terms of English proficiency Most of them started learning English from zero when

they enrolled the university

Duration of learning English

before entering college

English before participating

this ESP course

aSaistctoy 5%

As can be seen from the bar charts above, majority of the participants had learnt

English before entering this university but their length of English learning was different:

in which 54% of them had learnt English from 3 to 4 years, 30% started learning at grade 6 (6-8 years), 10% had learnt French or Russian and 6% had never learned any foreign

languages These different starting points of the students made it difficult for them to share

the shame ESP course Furthermore, 82% of the students come from different rural or remote areas of the provinces such as Nghe An, Ha Tinh, Thanh Hoa, Quang Binh and

only 18% of them come from cities Thus, they seem not to be of equal starting level of

English That is the reason why we had made all efforts to bridge the gap between them but

it did not bring about much effect Consequently, figures from the bar chart have shown

that 31% of the students did not pass the final examination of the General English course

And 69% of them were qualified enough for the requirement of the course, in which 53%

of them just passed at the level of satisfactory (they got from 5 to 6 marks), 11% got the

good scores and 5% won the excellent marks The results of the study of the GE course

reveals the fact that it is rather hard work for both of the students and the teachers to rm the English course of Computer Science

3.5.1.2 Students’ attitudes towards ESP reading

Questions 1, 2, 3