Luận văn investigating some problems confronted by teachers and the second year students of hanoi university of sport and physical education in teaching and learning reading esp in sport

VIETNAM NATIONAT, UNTVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES NGUYEN THI HOAI MY INVESTIGATING SOME PROBLEMS CONFRONTED BY ‘T

VIETNAM NATIONAT, UNTVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

NGUYEN THI HOAI MY

INVESTIGATING SOME PROBLEMS CONFRONTED BY

‘TEACHERS AND THE SECOND-YEAR STUDENTS OF HANOL

UNIVERSITY OF SPORTS AND PHYSICAL EDUCATION IN

TEACHING AND LEARNING READING ESP IN SPORTS

(Nghiên cứu đánh giá một số khó khăn mà giáo viên và sinh viên năm Lhứ

hai triờng Đại học SP TDTT Hà Nội phải đối mặt khi dạy và học môn dục

tiếng Anh chuyên ngành Thể thao}

MA MINOR THSIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology

Supervisor: Pham Thj Ngoc Philợng, M.A

TIanai, 2010

VIETNAM NATIONAI UNIVERSITY, HANOT UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTFRNATIONAT STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

NGUYEN THI HOAI MY

INVESTIGATING SOME PROBLEMS CONFRONTED BY TEACHERS AND THE SECOND-YEAR STUDENTS OF HANOI

UNIVERSITY OF SPORTS AND PHYSICAL EDUCATION IN

TEACHING AND LEARNING READING ESP IN SPORTS

(Nghiên cứu dánh giá một số khó khan mà gián viên và sình viên nam thứ bai trl lờng Dai hoc SP TDTT Ha Nội phải đối mặt khi dạy và học môn đọc

tiếng Anh chuyên ngành Thể thao)

MA MINOR THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology

Supervisor: Pham Thi Ngọc Phiợng, XI.A

Hanoi, 2010

iv

LIST OF TABLES

‘Table 1: Students’ perceptions of the texts in the course book

Table 2: Students’ perceptions of vocabulary in the lexis

Table 3: Students’ ways to get the meanings of specialized vocabulary

when reading the texts

Table 4 The difficulties in the areas of reading skills

Table 5: Students’ views of sources of difficulties

‘Table 6: Students’ pre-reading activities

Tal

Table 8: What help students to understand the text

Table 9: Students’ post-reading activities

Students? ways of reading

Table 10: The frequency of the students in using supplementary materials Table 11; The students’ desires from theix teachers in term of methodology

‘Table 12: The students’ expectations in term of materials

1.2 Aims of the study

1.3 Significance of the study

1.4, Scope of the study

1.5 Methodology

1.6 Organization of the study

Chapter 2: Literature review

2.1, Reading comprehension in Moreign language leaming and in LSP

2.1.1 Whal is wading and reading comprehension?

2.1.2 ESP reading

2.1.2.1 What is ESP?

2.1.2.2 Reading comprehension in ESP

3.1.3 Differences between ESP and EGP

2.2 Challenges in ESP reading comprehension

2.2.1 Language problems

Reading skill problems

2.2.3 Methodology and Materials

2.3 The roles of ESP teachers

2.4 The ESP tearners

2.5 Leamers’ learning strategies

2.6 Learner-centeredness in ESP and Learning-Centeredness

3.1 The setting of the study

3.1.1 Purposes of leaching and Icamning reading English in Sports at HUSPE 3.1.2 English language teachers and their methods of teaching

3.1.3 Students and their background knowledge

Chapter 4: Results and Discussion

4.1 Dala analysis and discussion of studouls” survey questionnaires

4.2 Data analysis and discussion of the teachers’ interviews

4.2.1 Teachers” opinions on the course book they are teaching

4.2.2 Teachers” ways to deliver their lessons

4.2.3 Teachers’ difficulties in teaching reading English for Sports

4.2.4, What have you been doing to overcome difficulties?

4.2.5 The frequency of teachers in using supplementary materials in

teaching ESP reading

5.2.1, Training EFL teachers for ESP teaching

5.2.2 Applying different approaches to teach vocabulary

5.1.3 Treating a reading text as meaning first

5.2.4, Making students reading with a purpose

5.2.5 Developing students’ reading skills

5.2.6 Encouraging

52

ents’ achve thinking

Using post-reading activities

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

1.1 Rationale

With the globalization of trade and economy and the contmnuing inerease of international communication in various fields, the demand for English for Specific Purposes is expanding, especially in countries where Fnglish is langhl as a foreign language

Teaching reading comprehension to students plays a very important role in foreign language teaching in general, and in English teaching in particular It is much more imporlanl, iC leaching and Icaning conditions arg out of the large! language environment

In specialized non-language universities students learn English as a school euxicwum subject, not as their future specialty Most of them consider that the aim of their English learning al university is successfully passing term examinations andi it is possible, using English to read their professional materials that do not exist in Vietnamese

At Hanoi University of Sports and Physical Education where I work, English is not considered a major subject but it is a compulsory one in the curriculum It is taught with the purpose that students will use it to communicate basically with others and to fulfill their work in the future and for their future study In English, students have to lear both General English (GM), using “New Ieadway Blemeniary’ book and Tnglish for Specific Purposes (ESP) with ‘Giao tinh tieng Anh chuyen nganh The thao’, ESP plays a very important rele with the objective to enhance students’ specialized knowledge and provide them wilh a system of lems relaled lo Sports in Tinglish In the curriculum of Fnglish for

Sports, we mainly focus on Readiryy skill because il is reading that will be made use af by students m the future work, And if students want to follow the present knowledge explosion, they should learn to read so they can arm their minds with the recent achievements in scicnlific research, Carrell (1989: pl) states that “for many students, reading is by fhr the most important of the four macro-skills, particularly in English as a second foreign language” ESP reading courses offer students a new field, fresh bridge of understanding Unfortunately, while teaching and learning reading, both teachers and theix students may run across many problems, such as new words, difficult sentences, lack of reading skills, inappropriate teaching methods, lack of teaching facilities, lack of reference books relating to sports subject ole In this paper, T woukl tke 10 improve reading command for the students by working out some problems which may negatively influence

their leaming reading English for Sports and then suggest some possible solutions to overcome these problems

1.2, Aims of the study:

‘The study is aimed at:

1.3 Significance vf the study

‘This study is beneficial in shedding lights on the difficulties the teachers and the second- year sludents confronted whils teaching and curning FSP roading for sports al Hanoi University of Sports and Physical Education and to find out the causes for those difficulties, From this result, the study will make some possible suggestions to overcome those difficulties and to improve students’ reading comprehension for English sports In addition to this, these instructions are also hoped to help teachers of English at Hanoi

University of Sports and Physical Education in their teaching careers

1.4, Scope of the study

The study mainly focuses on ESP reading problems confronted by both ESP teachers and

students of Sports at Hanoi University of Sports and Physical Education hen, the

suggestions will be recommended to overcome these abslacles and lo gain better leaching and Icarting reading ESP in the phase

1.5, Methodology

‘The study is carried out in terms of both theory and practice ‘Ihe theoretical background of the shady mainly relics on many published books writion by differen authors famous for ESP teaching and learning

In terms of practice, the major method used in this study is the quantitative one, That is all comment, consideration, suggestions given in the thesis arc bascd on the analysis of the

statistics from the survey questionnaires with the students at Hanoi University of Sports

and Physical Lducation, Besides, the informal interviews are also used to record information from Izachers,

Two approaches to data collection will, hopetully, provide fresh insights into teachers and students’ difficulties in teaching and leaming reading HSP for Sports Based on the results

obtained, the researcher will propose some recommendations to improve students’ reading

comprehension in ESP

1.6 Organization of the study

“This thesis consists of five chapters,

is the rationale, the aims, scope significance, metlodclogy

Chapler |: Introduction, pres

and organization of the study

Chapter 2: Literahwe review provides an overview of the theoretical background of the

sludy Tt is concerned with the issues relsvant to the topic of the roscarch: roading and reading comprehension, ESP reading, differences between ESP and EGP, challenges in

ESP Reading Comprehension, learners’ leaming strategies and learner-centered approach

Chapler 3: Methodology In this chapter, the researcher focuses on the methods used lo gather and analyze data First, the setting of the study is addressed Second, the researcher gives the research questions Then, the instruments for data collection, the subjects of this study and the procedure to carry ont the study are described

Chapter 4; Results and discussion In this chapter, results of questionnaires and the formal interviews are reported and discussed,

Chapler 5: Conclusion This chaglsr summwnizes the major findings, gives recommendations for teaching and leaming, reading ESP for sports at Hanoi University of Sports and Physical Education ‘Ihe researcher also points out some limitations of the study and proposes directions far further study,

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Reading comprehension in Foreign Language Learning and in ESP

2.1.1 What is reading and reading comprehension?

First of all, according to Frank Smith (1985:102) “Reading is to understand the author’s thought” ILis a process through which the reader draws out the fill amounl of information and understands what the writer wants to say through the message William, E (1990: 2) stated that ‘reading is a process whereby one looks at and understands what has been

writer” The prablem still remains low the reader imderslands the mossage In toadling,

we have to put the words into contexts because the meanmgs of a word depend on the

context in which it appears

One more definition of reading is offered by Goodman (1971: 135) In his viewpoint, reading is “a psycholinguistics process by which the reader, a language user, reconstructs,

as best as he can, a message whieh has been encoded by a writer as a graphic display” He considered this act of reconstruction as “a eyclical process of sampling, predicting, testing,

and confizming” Besides, reading is defined as “a developmental process” We loam

reading not only to learn how to read the text, to master grammatical structures, the sound,

ele, butalso to understand the content, expressed in the text or lo develop the ability of re expressing the author’s ideas in our own words

Reading comprehension is the process of constructing meaning from text ‘The goal of all reading instruction is ullinalely targeted al helping a reader comprehend texl Reading comprohonsion involves at least lwo poopls: the reailer aul ths writer The process of comprehending involves decoding the writer's words and then using background knowledge to construct an approximate understanding of the writer's message,

Grefllet (1981: 3) indicated that “reading comprehension or understanding a wrilten Lex! means extracting the required information from it as effectively as possible”,

According to Richards (1992), “reading comprehension is best described as an understanding between the author and the reader” This point of view concentrates on the reader’s understanding of the message based on the individual’s background knowledge

(Swan, 1992: 1) “A student is good at comprehension we mean that he can read accurately

and cflicionlly, so as to gel tho maximum information from a text with the minieum of misunderstanding” The student ean show his understanding by re-expressing the content

of the text in many ways such as summarizing the text, answering questions etc

In short, reading is to comprehend the ideas in the material Without comprehension, reading would be emply and meaningl

English for specific purposes (RSP) is a term thal refers to teaching or studying English for

a particular career or for business in general and it is known as a leamer-centered approach

to teaching English as a foreign or second language It meets the needs of (mostly) adult

asks constilute the specific purposes which the ESP course is designed lo ms:

Tony Dudley-Fvans and Maggic Jo St John (1998) divided charactoristic fealures of ESP

in two groups according to its ‘absolute’ and variable’ atibutes

Absolute Characteristics:

+ ESP is defined lo- meet specific needs of the learners

- ESP makes use of underlying methodology and activities of the discipline it serves

- ESP is centered on the language appropriate to these activities in terms of grammar, lexis, register, study skills, discourse and genre

Variable Characteristics:

- ESP may be related to or designed for specific disciplines

~ FSP may usc, in speoilie leaching siluations, a difforont methodology from thal of GE

- ESP is likely to be designed for adult leamers, either at a tertiary level institution or in a

professional work situation It could, however, be for learners at secondary school level.

- ESP is generally designed for intermediate or advanced students

- Most ESP courses

sume samc basie knowledge of the languagi The definition Dudley-Evans offers is clearly influenced by that of Strevens (1988), although he has improved it substantially by removing the absolute characteristic that ESP

is “in contrast wilh ‘General Fnglish (Tons 1991; 298), and has included more variable

in particular,

is very helpful in resolving arguments about what is and is not LSP From the definition,

characteristics The division of ESP into absolute and variable characteristi:

we can sce thal ESP can bul is not necessarily conecmed with a spzcific dis ipline, nơr does it have to be aimed at a certain age group or ability range ESP should be seen simple

as an ‘approach’ to teaching, or what Dudley-Evans describes as an ‘attitude of mind’ ‘This

is a similar conclusion to thal mado by Hutchinson (1987-19) who state, "ESP is am

approach to language teaching in whuch alll decisions as to content and method are based

on the learner's reason for learning"

2.1.2.2, Reading comprehension In FSP

Reading is a language skill essential to any language lcarners not only for their academic study but also for their future profession The aim of any reading program is “to enable students lo read without help unfamiliar authentic texts al appropriate spaed, silently with adequate understanding” (Nuttal, C, 1982:21) Hence, reading comprehension plays a central role, 'o this kind of reading course, English is not only taught with the purpose of improving the students’ reading skills, bul also farniliariving them with specialized Fingkish language used in many ficlds in lormns of Vocabulary, lorminology and registers In other words, after an ESP course, students are supposed to be able to interpret texts of tha specialized subjects in order to get information for their futher study and‘or their faturs work in the mast, appropriate way Teaching and leaning reading English for Sports al HUSPE is aimed at helping students get acquainted with various vocabulary, terms of Sports and the sports information and events that they read on newspapers or on the Internet For Sports students, reading skill overweighs the other three skills because in the future they will mainly use it for expanding certain Sports concepts as a basis for them to move on along the Sports knowledge highway

2.1.3 Differences between ESP and EGP

ESP can be simply described as the opposite of EGP EGP 1s the language that 1s used

every day for ardinary things in a variety of common situations, therefore LISP is language

used to discuss specialized fields of knowledge

ESP concentrates more on language in context than on teaching grammar and language

structures It covers snbjccls varying from accounting or compuicr science lo tourism and

business management The ESP focal point is that English is not taught as a subject separated from the students! real world (or wishes); instead, it is integrated into a subject

matter arca important to the learners

However, EGP and ESP diverge not only.m the nature of the leamer, but also in the aim of instruction, In fact, as a general rile, while in EGP all four language skills; listening, reading, speaking and writing, are stressed equally, in ESP it is a needs analysis that detcrmines which language skills are most needed by the students, and the syllabus is designed accordingly An ESP program, might, for example, emphasize the development

of reading skills in students who are prepating for gradnale work in business administration, or it might promote the development of spoken skills in students who are studying English to become tourist guides

As a maller of facl, ESP combines subject matter and English langnage teaching Such a combination is highly motivating because students arc able to apply wha they loam in theix English classes to their main field of study, whether it be accounting, business management, economies, computer science or tourism Being able to use the vocabulary and structures thal they learn in a moaningful contoxl reinforces: whal is taught and

increases their motivation

‘The students’ abilities in their subject-matter fields, in tum, improve their ability to acquire English Subject-matter mowledge gives them the context they necd to understand the English of the classroom In the ESP class, students are shown how the subject-matter content is expressed in English ‘The teacher can make the most of the students’ knowledge

nouds and

of the subject malicr, thus helping ther learn English fast, FSP asses

integrates motivation, subject matter and eontent for the teaching of relevant skills

2.2 Challenges in ESP Reading Comprehension

2.2.1 Language problems

Language plays a vilal role in reading in gencral and FSP in particular Its role in reading can be compared to the role of running in the game of soccer or ice-skating in the game of ice hockey One cannot play soccer if one cannot run, and one camnot play ice hockey if one cammol skate One cammol read book in a language unless one knows thal particular language If learner’s knowledge of English is poor, then his reading will be also poor, and naturally also his reading comprehension According to Yorie (1971) “the reader's

From the above viewpoints, problems of forcign language learners in reading process arc mainly caused by the imperfect knowledge of the target language and the interference of the native language

Clarke(1980) and Alderson(1984) also share the same idea, They both agreed that a lack of appropriate linguistics constrains the transfer of reading skills and strategies from L1 to L2 When dealing wilh a reading text, readers nol only fice with imfaniliar topic but also difficultios in vecabulary anil gramutical structures They deal with idioms, proverts, synonyms, antonyms, eve., which can be considered to have an impact on the readers’ motivation, Knowing vocabulary and structures is necessary for getting meaning from a lexl, especially for second or forcign language rzaders who frequenlly say that they need more vocabulary and structures so that they can understand the meaning of the sentences Therefore, when the amount of vocabulary and structures is limited, the readers will cneounter difficulties As a esult, they will be unwilling to explore the text

2.2.2 Reading skill problems

Bembardt and Kamil (1995:17) assume that “reading performance in a second language is largely shared with reading ability in a first language” Sarig’s findings (1987:118) also demonstrated that “the same reading strategies types accounted for success and failure in both languages to almost the same extent.”

Students’ limited reading skills create many problems such as reading slowly, failing to

‘yet they cannot concentrate well on the text and when they get to the last paragraph they carmot recall whal they have read before

Reading is an active skill, involving guessing, predicting It is common that there are new words, new structures, and ideas in a reading text to every language leamers If he does not have a good guessing ability and cannot make full use of grammatical, logical, and cultural clues, he will read the text with less understanding than he might expect, and/or will fecl

frustrated at the text, and it may cause disinterest in reading

2.2.3 Methodology and Materials

Methodokigy

‘There is sometimes a misconception that ESP teaching methodology is completely different from thal for Gsnerat Engtish In facl, there is nolbing specific aboul TSP methodology Hulchiuson and Walcrs (1986:18) wrote: “though the content of tearning may vary there is no reason to suppose that the processes of leaning should be any different for the USP leamers than for the GE leamers.” ‘Therefore, they did not introducs any particular method, which is considered typical of ESP teaching The ESP icacher can well exploit the techniques and skills which are used in the General English classroom

But anyway, ESP teaching methods must be learner - oriented In other words, ESP is

concemed, first and foremost, with satisfying the real neds of the students and not with revealing the knowledge of the teacher ‘I'he intensive and efficient teaching of grammar, -vocatnilary, translation, etc must be scientifically grounded and concentrate only on those lems which students actually need for the purposes specified al the beginning of the university course This is an impoitant statement which in theory is universally accepted but in practice is hardly ever followed,

target language

Using authentic texts without considering the reader’s linguistic knowledge may cause readers to have too many doubts, as well as too much distraction, and may force them to focus on the linguistic code with a consequent overload on memory, hence hindering the reading task, When using texts difficult for readers in terms of high new word density, the problems arising are: the firsl is thal readers may nol have the linguistic knowledge for bottom-up information processing; second, readers may not have enough automatic word recognition, hindering comprehension because of the limitations in working memory resources (Termitch, 1996); third, higher-order knowledge earmot be applied lo compensale for the poor linguistic knowledge (Ridgway, 1997); fourth, students may nol be able to make use of contextual clues for meaning inference

In addition, some texts were written long ago and now they could be ont of date, thus worthless For example, the text about sport svenis, the tules of some sports such badminton, volleyball ete because they have been changed,

Another problem in teaching English for specific purposes is the lack of reference materials ESP tcacher, with the role of course designer and materials provider, should provide students with supplementary materials by “choosing relevant published material, adapting material when published material is not suitable” Jordan (1997) Reference and supplementary tatcrials wilt help students wide readinyg and self-study

2.3 The roles of ESP teachers

Itis difficult to delimitate where ‘General English’ and ESP course starts and ends It is the

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same with the role of the teacher in those two courses ‘Ihe aim of LSP teacher is not only

lo meet the learners’ specific needs in the fidld of particular discipline bul also lo provide satistying learning background (designing course, setting goals and objectives, selecting material ets.) as it was already pointed out above, Studying subject matter in English is in the centre of students’ attention not the language itself how iL is im ‘General English” course that is why the concept of ESP course is adapted to students’ needs On the other hand “ESP teacher should not become a teacher of the subject matter, but rather an

in the specific topics These comments are not intended to suggest that the ESP teacher

should instantly converl into a specialist in Sporls, for this is nol (easible in the mnajority of cases, Still, this kind of inter-departmental cooperation would indeed help the teacher to clarify doubts conceming specific topics and selecting interesting materials Chris Kermedy (1980:122) says this in respect to the above: “Some language teachers are in facl

scicntisks who have “switched? and been rebained as ESP teachers These ‘hybrids’ are rare

and programs cannot be initiated on the assumption that such teachers will be recruited”

7.4 The ESP learners

The students are usually adulls who alrcady lave some acquaintanes with English and arc leaming the language in order to communicate a set of professional skills and to perform particular job-related fimctions They come to the ESP classes with specific interest for Jeaming, subjcct mattcr knowledge, and well-built adult leaning stratcgics They arc in charge of developing English language skills to reflect their native — language knowledge and skills However, sometimes they meet difficulties in interpreting the text because of unfirnitiar vocebularics and limited background knowledge or because their spood and comprehension ability are not yet up to the expectation In this case, the students have to

work in the direction of their teachers.

Apart from all above activities in a reading classroom, LSP students also have to become farriliar with English used in their speciatived ficld Having acquired basic Engliste in

terms of grammar and having been familiar with reading activities, these students attend

ESP reading classes with the hope to improve their reading skills in their specialized field

Furthermore, m reading, the students would tackle fexis which arg full of terminologies

that can be comprehensively understood only in combination with their available

specialized knowledge A statement of a computer requires students’ knowledge on IT

whereas other stufenis need knowledge of sports such foatball or tenms ta understand a

sports article or comment That is, ESP students in reading classes should have ability to

combine their English competence with their background specialized knowledge

Therefore, for vocational purposes, ESP students arc in a more requirement of nol only

English knowledge but also specialized knowledge of the field

2.5 Learners’ learning strategics

Learning strategies are operations employed by the leamer to aid the acquisition, storage,

rctricval, and usc of information To put it more conerete, as Oxford (1990) suggested,

learning strategies are specific actions taken by the learner to make leaming easier, faster,

more enjoyable, more self-directed, more effective, and mors transferable to new

situations Obviously, learning strategies are concerned with actual activities and

techniques, which lead to leaming ‘These definitions, while helpful, remain vague with regard lo the nalure of language learning siralegigs in learner-cenlzred leaching Some key features of language learmng slrategies according to Oxford (1990)

Greater self-direction for learners

Language leaming strategies encourage greater overall self-direction for learners Self- dircetion is particularly important (or language learners because il is essential to the active

development of ability in a new language

Unliks the teacher-dependent mode of learning in teacher-centered classrooms where the

students arc passive, leaner self-direction in lcamer-centered cnvirenment grows, as

students become more aware of their responsibility, Self-directed students gradually gain greater confidence, involvement, and proficiency ‘he implication here is remarkable in Thai the transfer of responsibility provides sindents with more freadom, more opportunities

to choose most appropriate leaning strategies which fit their learning purpose Obviously,

when students take more responsibility, more leaming occurs and that is conducive to

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success in language learning

New roles far the teachers

Traditionally, teachers expect to be viewed as instructor, director, manager, judge, leader, evaluator, controller or just one word-dumper of information In that relation, the students

acl passive tole or in other words they are spoor-fed, The specter of role change has pul the teacher in a new situation with new functions as facilitator, helper, guide, consultant, coordinator, diagnostician, and co-communicator ‘Therefore, new teaching capacities are

required such as “identifying students? loarning stratog

more independance.” (Oxford, 1990)

2.6, Learner-centercdness in ESP and Learning-Centeredness

, and helping learners: become

First and forcmos!, iL is necessary to differentiate the common term “learner-ccntered? from

‘Jeaning-centered’ Hutchinson and Waters (1987; 72) stated that “the leamnet-centered approach is based on the principle that “learning is totally determined by the leaner” This impliss that learning is an intemal process which is erucially dependent upon the knowledge the learners already have and their ability and motivation to usc it, However, in their opinion, the learner is a major factor to consider in the leaming process, but not the only one They further noted that Isarning “is a process of negoliation between individuals

This means the society sets the target and the individuals must do their

best to get as close to that target as possible The leamers determine “the route to the

and society” {p

larget” and “the speed at which they travel the roule” but the targel still “has a determining influence on the possible roule.” Therefore, the term ‘learming-contored approach’ applied for ESP teaching and learmmg at the discretion of Hutchinson and Waters indicates that

“the eonoem is to maximize learning and potential of the leaming situation” (p.72)

Tn a nutshell, teaching and learning environment should be constructed in a way thal helps the leamers build a positive attitude towards leaming and increase their self-esteem which,

in tum, will be strong motives to make them more efficient autonomous leamers Besides,

in light of leamer-centered cducation, the role of teacher as facilitator as welll as mediator

of learning and strategy trainer has become increasingly important in teaching students how to learn and to put it simply, helping them to become more conscious of strategy use and more adept at employing appropriate stratogics which, without doubl, are closcly related to their success m language learning,

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CHAPTER 3 METHODOLOGY 3.1 The setting of the study

3.1.1 Lhe purposes of teaching and learning reading English in Sports at Hanoi University of Sports and Physical Educati

Hanoi University of Sports and Physical Education, in the north of Hanoi, was founded 49

‘years ago The essential function of the college is to train good teachers of physical education, and young cfficienl sportsman and sporlswomen lo moot the demands of renovation in the Vietnam sports domain and bring about a better future for Vietnam sports, and to make worthy contribution to the course of modemizing the country,

Completing a four-year course, students of sports are expected not only to obtain competent sports skills, bul also to have good foreign language knowledge and specializing English language used in the sports field which is very necessary for their future career and studies, Ilence, English is considered to be a vital component in the program although it is not a main subject After Icaring the General English with “New Headway Elementary”

for two terms (90 periods), students will continue with the ESP textbook “Giáo trình tiếng

Anh chuyên ngành Thể thao” (60 periods) which mainly facus on reading skills Thus, the ESP cwriculum at Hanoi University of Sports and Physical Education auns at:

- Providing students with an amount of vocabulary and terms relatmng to the sports topics

- Developing students’ reading skills

- Help students lo be able to read and understand documents wrilten in English,

3.1.2 English language teachers at HUSPE and their methods of teaching,

‘The English teaching staff at our university consists of 4 official teachers and 2 co-teachers

al the ages from 25 Ip 45, All of the leachers are female and three of then used to bs teachers of Russian and one of them graduated fiom Hanoi national university and two other teachers have diploma from the other universities None of them has taken MA courses and has been lo an English speaking country

All of teachers at HUSPE have responsibility to teach both GE and ESP while they are

inexperienced in teaching ESP because none of them has been trained to become an ESP

In terms of methodology, since the SH teachers have difficulty expressing themselves in English, they arc apl lo switch over to their native language, Vielnamese, when explain

things in class Moreover, the material used in class is usually full of specific terms and long, complicated sentences, so that the teachers have to stop and analyze them all the lime, Hence comes the easy conclusion (hal in class they are doing nothing else bul following the traditional method of teaching, grammar-translation method, which is ctiticized to be too teacher-centered, leamer-passive and thus inefficient In class, the

mt genrally Las two [Dong

reading 1 one is word study, which is aflen performed with

the teacher taking out some difficult words or phrases from a text and explaming the meaning by giving the examples or equivalent Vietnamese Students often listen and take noles passively, They mise questions only when they cricourter new words or structures in the text Another focus is study of grammar and translation, which is usually done by the teacher explaining or analyzing some ‘mportant? or ‘difficult? structures usually in Vietnamese After, explaining vocabulary and grammar, teachers usually translate the text

into Victnarncse Therefore, this method makes students have low motivation, be unable to

develop their reading skills ‘To sum up, teachers with their traditional method may lead to unsatisfaclory performance in class To some extent, the success resis on how flexible and

adaptable the individual teacher is to respond the requirement of the new teaching

situation

3.1.3, Students at HUSPE and their background knowledge

Hanoi University of Sports and Physical Education belongs to the graup of aptitnds colleges It is not a scientific or linguiste wuversity, The entrance examinations include aptitude in sports, mathematics and biology Students coming to the college are from different parts of the country Most of therm are country-side youths al the age from 18 lo

23 Every year we have a point-selected class for students fiom remote areas That means, students of this class have a place at the college without the entrance examination The in-

put level of English of our students is extremely different because their length of English

leaming was different: some have learned for 8 years, others for 4 years and the rest has leamt for 2 years Af university, they engage in KSP course after finishing one year of GE

with an allocated timefrarne of 90 class periods (in two lars at the 1* year) usirys Now

Headway Elementary by Liz and John Soars

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In ong hand, after the 1" year with GL, students vocabulary improves but not nmuch ‘They have nol much chance to deal with sports English Therefore, most of them have lo face difficulties when discussing topics related to other sport subjects due to their Linguistes limitations, especially terminologies in sports, which make them leam ineffectively and also creates the leaching problems for teachers,

What’s more, the students are quite passive in learning They tend to depend too much on textbook and their teachers ‘his dependent habit of learning is obstacle to their learning Process,

3.1.4 Materials:

Materials are anything used to teach language leamers Materials can be in the form of a lextbook, a workbook, a cassette, a photocopied handout, a newspaper, a paragraph written

on a white board, etc

It is known that there are two resources of materials in teaching and learning ESP which are published materials and in-house materials, The ESP material which is being currently used for the sceond year students at Hanoi University of Sports and Physical Education

ao trình tieng Anh chuyen nganh The thao” is 4 collection of readings in Sports which has been used for second year sludents all belongs to the Latter type ‘Ihe course book named *

Olympic Games, the Asian Gamss, SEA Games and some sports thal are being laughit al

college The am of this course book is to help students have opportunity to read mere effectively and widen their knowledge and vocabulary about sports However, the texts in the course book arc loo long and diffionlt with a great amount of vocabulary and terms because they are not adapted to fit the language level of the students In addition to this, the difficult and new vocabulary wasn’t extracted from each reading to create a word list with

‘Vietnamese equivalents This makes tcaching and rcading more difficult

3.2 Research questions

In order to achieve the above-mentioned aims, the following research questions were raised inthe sluily

(@ What are teachers’ difficulties of teachmg ESP reading to students of Hanoi

University of Sports and Physical education?

(i) What are the students’ difficulties of leaming ESP reading?

(iii) What are the feasible solutions to avereame those difficulties?

3.3 The participants

‘The subjects chosen for the study include 100 students from 2"! year groups and 3 teachers

who are currently teaching English for Sports al Tanoi Universily of Sports and Physical

Education

100 students, who come from four selected groups, both male and female aged from 19 to

ish

22, ware asked Lo lake part in the study, Of the Ieamers, 32% of them have learnt Engl

for 8 years, 43% have leat English for 4 years; the rest 2 years These students are in the

second semester of the ESP stage and comprise both strong and weak students

3 teachers chosen for the informal interviews have been teaching Enghsh for Sports for the

second-year students at HUSPE Among these three teachers, one is going to finish the MA course on English linguistics soon, and two are holding BA degree They are all young and

enthusiastic They have over three-year experience in teaching English

3.4, The instruments

‘Yo obtain adequate data for the study, two main instruments were employed and described

as followed:

dnterview questions for teachers:

Informal discussions and interviewing can be adopted as follow-up sources of information 1o be conducted individually or in groups Tnformat discussion allows leachers 10 convey their ideas and thoughls sponlancously and does not lake much lime 1o plan or prepare

Selinger and Shohamy (1989) pomt out that the use of interview as a data collection

instrament permits a level of in-depth information, therefore free response, and flexibility that camo be obtained by other procedures Although an inlervicw usually requires

considerable time commitments from the interviewer and interviewees, it is an excellent

way to collect data In other words, interview is an extremely usefill and valuable way to

get in-depth and comprehensive information

In this study, 5 interview questions were carried out with three voluntarily selected teachers to obtain their perceptions on the course book they are teaching, their difficulties that they face in Leaching RSP reading In doing so, tho rescarcher aimed to cxanrine low

teachers tackled those problems The interviews were recorded and taken notes All

interview data were analyzed interpretatively

For all of the above reasons, the author decided to use questionnaires for the research, The ideas for these questionnaires were based on the literature, the difficulties in reading English for Sports and the aulhor’s observation of the studonis during some ycars of teaching at Hanoi University of Sports and Physical Education,

Survey questionnaires designed for students consist of 12 questions and were written im

‘Vietnamese to make sure that all ths subjects understand the questions properly All of thom are multiple choice questions, Investigating students’ opinions on rcading lessons, materials, their difficulties in reading English for Sports and their expectations of the isachers’ methodology and materials is the main aim of the survey

in the percentage of the options chosen

4.1, Data analysis und discussion of students’ survey questionnaires

Question |: According to you, the reading texts in the course book are

‘Comments on the texts ‘Number of students (7%)

They are easy to understand and suitable to me 15%

Table 1: Students’ perceptions of the texts in the course book

As ean be scon from the table, 37% of students claim that the texts ara Long and difficull

and the sceond biggest of the subjects (36%) comment thal they were quile di Mfcull, Whilz

8% of them assume that the texts are too long and difficult The number of students who think that the texts are easy to understand and suitable to them is 15% and that the texts are

very casy is only 4%

From the above data, it can be concluded that the course book creates many difficulties for

the students They are looking forward to proper adjustment of the course book in the near

future so it can contiibute a great deal to the improvement of students” learning motivation

and to the success of the teaching and leaming process at HUSPE

Question 2: According to you, specialized vacabulary in the reading texts is

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Table 2: Students’ perceptions of vocabulary in the texts

Tl can be elzarly sven thal specialist vocabulary in the texts is really a great problem to

students’ comprehension because more than a half of students (5794) claim that vocabulary

is much and difficult and 10% of them assume that it is too much Only 22% of students

find that vocabulary i

Ihe lexis is reasonable for them, The test (11%) says thal there is t00 little vocabulary

‘The size of a student's vocabulary is closely related to his ability to comprehend the things

he Toads One only hope to gel a considerable understanding from the content of a reading material if he can seize more than half of the words that refer to the area, It appears that not many students in a class can do this; the leaming of this kind of vocabulary never take little

time

Question 3: When reading texts, if you encounter specialist vocabulary that you don’t

know, you will

Guess the meaning from the contexts in the reading text 12%

Tgnore them all 3%

Ask the teacher or friends for Vietnamese meaning 47%

Base on the background knowledge of sports 8%

Table 3: Students’ ways to get the meanings of specialized vocabulary when reading the

texks

From the students’ viewpoints, two ways which students use most when encountering new

words are asking their leachers or fiends for Vielnamese meaning (47%) and nsinys

dictionanes to look up the word meaning (26%) It is shown that students usually depend much on teachers in learning (too teacher- dependent) and not practical as the basis for

independent study ‘This leads to the students’ passive learning habits On the other hand,

nol all sports terminologies have VicInamese cquivalenls and they can only be filly understood 1m specific situations Consequently, asking teachers or ftiends for Vietnamese meaning or using dictionaries sometimes doesn’t satisfy to all students and negatively

influences their motivation in reading Morcover, using dictionarics to look up new words