Luận văn a study on students' difficulties in learning english for special purposes at faculty of broadcasting technology of college of broadcasting i

Design of the study Part II: Development Chapter 1: Theoretical Background 1.1 Reading and reading comprehension 1.1.1 The nature of reading and reading comprehension 1.3 Problems in lea

[S* DLFFICULTLES IN LEARNING ENGLISH

TECHNOLOGY OF COLLEGE OF BROADCASTING I

(NGIIÊN CỨU NIIỮNG KIIÓ KIIĂN CỦA SINI VIÊN KHOA KỸ

THUẬT PHAT THANH - TRUYEN Hi NH, TRUONG CAO DANG

PHÁT THANI+- TRUYỀN IïNH1I TRONG VIỆC HỌC TIỀNG ANH

HOANG THI HAI HANH

A STUDY ON STUDENTS’ DITTICULTIES IN LEARNING ENGLISII

FOR SPECIFIC PURPOSES AT FACULTY OF BROADCASTING

TECHNOLOGY OF COLLEGE OF BROADCASTING 1

(NGHIÊN CỨU NHUNG KHO KHAN CUA SLINH VIEN KHOA KY

THUẬT PHÁT TIIANII- TRUYÊN HÌNH, TRƯỜNG CAO ĐĂNG

PHAT THANH- TRUYEN HÌNH 1 TRONG VIỆC HỌC TIỀNG ANH

CHUYÊN NGÀNH)

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: METHODOLOGY

Code: 60 14 10 Supervisor: Duung Thi Nu, D.r

Hanoi, December 2009

2, Aims of the study

3 Scope of the study

4 Methods of the study

5 Design of the study

Part II: Development

Chapter 1: Theoretical Background

1.1 Reading and reading comprehension

1.1.1 The nature of reading and reading comprehension

1.3 Problems in learning ESP reading

1.3.1 Reading skill problem

1.3.2 Language problem

1.4 Previous studies

LS Summary

Chapter 2: The current situation of teaching and learning ESP

reading at College of Broadcasting I (CB-D)

2.1 Introduction aboul CB-T learners

2.2 The objectives of teaching and lzarning reading Englistrin CB-L 2.3 Teachers and method of teaching

2.4 The ESP program at CB-I

3.4.1 Students’ attitudes towards ESP reading

3.4.2 The purpose of reading ESP in the views of the students 3.4.3 Students’ perception of ESP reading difficulties

*In term of grammar

* In term of vocabulary

* In term of discourse

* Interm of reading skills

* Rank order of BSP roading difficullios 3.4.4 The causes of difficulties

* The reading nutcrials

* The teachers

* The learnzrs 3.4.5 Students’ expectations in term of material

3.4.6 Students’ expectations in term of methodology

3.5 Summary

Chapter 4: Some suggestions to improve learning ESP reading in CBI

4-1 Tmproving toachers" classraom lechniques for teaching

Broadcasting Technology reading

4.1.1 Applying different approaches to teach vocabulary

4.1.2 Supplying more grammar stwractures

4.1.3 Increasing students’ reading interest and motivation

4.2.1 Teaching students different rcading strategies

4.2.2 Assigning and checking students’ completion of

homework

4.3 Training teachers

4.3.1 Lmproving Broadcasting Technology background

knowledge for teachers of English

4.3.2 Improving teaching methodology

4.A Developing ESP reading materials

441 De Joping topics

4.4.2 Adapting reading practice exereises

4.4.3 Simplifying highly specialized texts

4.5 Summary

Part Il: Conclusion

1 Summary of the findings

2 Some conclusions

3 Limitations of the study and suggestion for further study

References

Appendices

Appendix 1: Some pictures about mixing desk and recording studio

Appendix 2: Unit 6- Making a recording

Appendix 3: Bảng câu hỏi đành cho sinh viên

Appendix 4: ‘Translated version of the questionnaire for students

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LIST OF ABBREVIATION CB-E: College of Broadcasting I

ESP: English for Specific Purposes

FBT: Faculty of Broadcasting Technology

GE: General English

LIST OF TABLES, FIGURES AND CHARTS Figure 1; Schematization of the To-down approach

Figure 2: ‘he vicious circle of the weak readers

Chart 1: Students’ perception about the importance of'reading skill in ESP reading Chart 2: Students’ views about the role of LSP reading for their fiture job

Chart 3: Students’ interest in ESP reading

Table 1: The difficultics in term of grammar

5: Students’ views of sour

‘Table 3: The difficulties in the term of discourse

Table 4: The difficulties in the term of reading skill

Table ‘he average source of the items in each area of difficulties

Table 6: Students’ expectations in material

Table 7: Students’ oxpoctation in mathodology

to “pain access to the required knowledge that is available, either exclusively or most readily, in English” (Munby, 1978:3) or to serve other different specific purposes, That leads to the coming into being of English for Specific Purposes (ESP)

Being aware of the great demand for English in particularly and the importance of ESP

in specially, officials in CB- I have adapted Gi since 1990 and SP since 1993 as compulsory subject TLis aimed al broadening students’ knowledge and achieving success in [heir caraer Tile

as well,

‘As a teclmical college, one of the requirements for graduates is to be able to read professional documents in their field for further study or future jobs Therefore, ESP was first introduced into the syllabus about 10 years ago However, teachers and students at CB-I still face some of these problems

- There has been little or almost no research work touching upon ESP teaching

methodologios to language students in Vietnam,

- Most Leach at CB-1 lack experience in teaching RSP

- There are no training courses for Icnchcrs o[ ESP,

- Students are not of equal level of English

- The present course book at CB-1 is not effctive and relevant

The foresaid reasons of ESP teaching and learning at CB-I have aroused my interest and made me find out the areas of students’ reading difficulties at CB-I, Once problems have been identified, it will be possible to make suggestions for the teachers and students to improve leaching and learning of ESP reading at CB+T

2 Aims of the study

- to investigate the student attitudes towards ESP reading

- to find out the students’ reading difficulties and their causes

- to investigate the students’ needs in terms of material and methodology

- to offer some recommendations to reduce the difficulties and help students to

improve their reading skills, Hopefully, the study will take some contributions to the dasprovement of tzaching and learning ESP in CB-I

3 Scope of the study

Dealing with ESP leaming difficulties is too broad for a study of this size It is impossible

to cover all aspects of language theory and practice in this study, ‘herefore, the focus of this study is to investigate some linguistic problems and difficulties in ESP reading skill experienced by the second-years students at Faculty of Broadeasting ‘Technology in CB-1 then, recommend some techniques to help them improve them reading

4 Methods of the study

The theorctical background of the study mainly relics on many published books written by different authors on language of technology, communicative language tcaching, English for specific purposes, approaches to ESP teaching and learning

The major method used in the study is the survey one With the aim of finding out the difficulties in USP reading of the second-year students of Faculty of Broadcasting ‘Technology, this thesis uses the analysis of the statistics from the imstrnmenis including one questionnaire, informal intervisws and small talks conducted with the teachers and students at CB-L

5, Design of the study

The study is organized into three main parts: the introduction, the development and the conclusion

The first part introduces the rationale, aims of the study, method, scope of the study as well

as design of the thesis

‘The second part consists of four chapters

Chapter 1 reviews the theoretical background of the research including Reading and reading comprehension, USP reading and problems in learning USP reading,

Chapter 2 discusses the present situation of [caching and tcarning reading Fnglish in Faculty

of Broadcasting Technology at CB- I

Chapter 3 presents the rescarch methodology which focuses on the rescarch questions, the participants, research method including data collection methods, data analysis process and some discussion and findings

Chapter 4 suggests some recommendations to reduce difficulties and to improve the teaching and learning of ESP reading

‘The last part summarizes the issues addressed, presents some conclusions made on the basis

aggestions for further

of the findings, shows the tintitations of the study and rakes sorne

research.

As the study aims at finding students’ difficulties in ESP reading in the field of

broadcasting technology in this chapler, we will lake along , carefidl look at the theorctioal

background of the study which would be a review of issues relevant to the thesis topic

1.1 Reailing and reading comprehension

1.1.1, The nature of reading and reading comprehension

* The nature of reading

According to Anderson et al (1985), the majority of scholars in the field now agree on

the nature of reading: “Reading ty the process of constructing meaning fram written texts It isa

complex skill required the coordination of a number of interrelated sources of information”

Reating is “a psycholinguistics process hy which the reader, a language user,

reconstructs, as best as he can, a message which has been encoded by a writer as a graphic

display” (Goodman, 1971:135) According to Goodman, this act of reconstruction is viewed as

“a cyclical process of sampling, predicting, testing and confirming”

Eddie Williams (1984:2) noted that “a simple definition of reading is that it is a process

whereby one looks at and understand what has been written.” He takes the same view with

Goodman on reading, especially on the act of reconstruction as Goodman

Clearly, there is a great deal of defining reading and no definition can capture all the ideas and fealures of whal reading is Tach researcher reflecls what reading means according Io

his or her own opinions Whal is common between them is that however they have an cfTart to

find out the nature of reading, reading act in which reading, the readers and the text are

emphasized Now it is essential for us to understand thoroughly the definition of reading

comprehension before teaching a reading text

* Reading Comprehension

Grellet (1983: 3) indicated that “reading or understanding a written text means extracting the required information from it as effectively as possible”

Reading comprehension is considered as an important part in teaching and learning

roading a forcign Tanguage, TL can be understood as the ability to altrack the required

information from the text as effectively as possible.

Accarding lo Swan (1975: 1) “a siudent is good at comprehenston, we mean that he can

read accurately and efficiently, so ay to gel the muxinum information of œ text with the

minimum of understanding.” That means reader can show hisfher understanding by re- expressing the content of the text in answering questions, summarizing the text, choosing right answer, etc

Besides, Richards (1992) stated that “reading comprehension is best described as an understanding between the author and the reader” ‘The emphasis is on the reader’s understanding of the text based on the individnal’s unique background of experience

In conclusion, reading comprehension is the pre it which the readers, as they read,

can recognize the graphic form and can understand the relation between the writing and the incaning ft means that aftcr reading reader can understand what is implicd behind these graphic

forms, for example, they can master grammatical structures, word pronunciation, understand

the context, the text and use it in real life as effective as possible

An interactive theoretical model of the reading process depicts reading as a combination

of two types of processing, top-down (reader-based), and bottom-up (text-based)

* Top-down modcls of the reading pracess

‘The top-down process moves from the top, the higher-level mental stages, down to the text itself In fact, in these models, the reading process is driven by the reader’s mind at work

onthe Lex!

In top-down approach, we draw on our own intelligence and cxpericnec-the predictions

we ean make, based on the schemata we lave acptired - to understand the text, Nutiall (£982 16) Camboume (1979:41) provides the following schematization of the approach

Past experience, language Selective aspect Meaning Sound, pronunciation

Figure 1: Schematization of the Tep-Dewn approach

From the diagram, it can be seen that this approach emphasizes the reconstruction of

towards the content of the text Rather than decoding each symbol, or even every word, the

reader uses his general knowledge of the word or of particular text components to make

intelligent guesses about what might come next in the text, or forms hypotheses about text

elements and then the reader samples only enough of ihe text to confirm or reject his/her gmesses, 10 determine whether or not the hypotheses are correct Thus, the reader plays an active role and supplics tore information lo construct inaning than the printed page docs

A strong proponent of the top-down reading models is Smith He believes that “to be able to read, a child must be encouraged to predict, to use prior knowledge or even have non-

visual information provided” (1975:60) Smith (1971-2) emphasizes the role of meaning and of

the reader’s need to predict when reading: reading is less a maiter of extracting sound from print than of bringing meaning to print Ile cites four distinctive and fundamental characteristics

of reading: (1) reading is purposeful, (2) reading is selective; (3) reading 1s based on comprehension; (4) reading is anticipatory Smith gives the reader a central role in

understanding what he or she reads However, one of the shartcontings of the top-down imedcl

is that it sometimes fails to distinguish adequately between beginning rcadcrs and fhicnt onss

* Bottom-up mudels of reading process

In bottom-up reading models, the reader begins with the written text (the bottom) and

constructs meaning ftom letters, words, phrases and sentences found within and then processes the text in a linear fashion Alderson (2000: 16) noted that: in bottom-up approaches, “the readers hegins with the printed ward, recognizes graphic stimuli, decoded them to sound, recognizes words and decodes meanings Each component involves sub-processes which take

plics independontly of sach other, and buitd upon prior sub-processes, Sub-processes highsr up

the chain cannot, however, feed back into components lower down

LaBerge and Sanmets (1974) also emphasizes the role of altention in processing information and the importance of automaticity in the xeading process They assume that the reader’s understanding depends on what appears in the text and that the reader performs two tasks when reading: decoding and comprehending For LaBerge and Samuels, decoding is going from the printed word to some articulatory or phonological representation of the printed stimulus Comprehending is deriving meaning from the decoded materials (Samuels & Kamil,

1984: 197), However, an important shorlcorning of these model

and Kami, 1988: 31), Because of this limitation and together with the advent of Goodman’s top-down view of rcading as a psycholinguistic proccss, the bottom-up view of reading full into

s lack of feedback (Sarmicls

disfavor

In short, bottom-up models tend to be linear as they start with the printed stimuli and proceed to higher-level stages, one step after another ‘The basis for bottom-up processing is linguistic knowledge of the readers There is now a great deal of evidence which points to the inadequacy of the bottom-up reading models

To sum up, the appearan ¢ aud popularity of interactive models show that inleraclive

1nodels can maximize the strengths and minimizes the weaknesses of the separate use of either bottom-up or top-down models

1.1.3, Classification of reading according to the purposes of reading

According to purpose of reading, many researchers categorized reading into four kinds

extensive, intensive, skimaming and scanning

* Extensive reading

Reading extensively means to read widely and in quantity in daily life According to

Grellot (1981: 2), exts

Pleasure This is @ fluency activily, manly involving general understanding.”

sive reading moams “reading longer texts usually for one's awn

Extensive roading gives students opporlumitics lo use their knowledge of the target

language for their own purpose Besides, it provides the valuable reinforcement of language items and struchwe already presented in the classroom, giving students useful practice in inferring meaning from the context when the grammar structures and vocabulary are unfamiliar Moreover, extensive reading is a usefial way for the students to update their language knowledge because students can choose the topic they like and read for enjoyment without consideration for any single item, pressure of time anit need for intensive concentration and total comprehension

This is an effective way for students lo improve their Eanguage reading The teacher should introduce some suitable reading materials to them, as it is usefull for them to fom good habit of reading

* Intensive reading

students to pay great attention to the text.” And Francoise Grellet (1981:41) detined “itenstve

reading means reading short texts to extract specific information This is an accuracy activity

involving reading for details”

‘The objective of intensive reading is to understand a text in details that is contrastive with extensive reading In intensive reading, readers are required a very good understanding in

details of the Lext

In brief, intensive reading does not require a large amount of reading material, but a rich comprehension of a small amount of rcading material which may be cven a few lines or a

passage The readers have to research and try to get to know every idea, and every piece of

hidden information in the text They have to pay their attention to the area of the words in the passage through which some hints may be conveyed Students read intensively when they are

seeking for detailed imstruction for using sound mix machine or video recorder for the first

time, etc

This roading way is very important for foreign langaage Lsarncrs, espacially for students

of Faculty of Broadcasting Technology Therefore, teachers should design more exercises and

to provide more reading Lexts aboul the same topic for the students to develop their reading

ability as well as knowledge

* Skimming

Grellet (1981:19) stated that: “wher skimming, we go through the reading material

quickly in order ta get tts main points or the intention of the writer, but not a find the answer to

specific questions.”

Nutlall said: “By skimming we mean glancing rapidly through a text to determine

whether a research paper is relevant to vour own work or in order to keep ourselves

superficially informed ahout matters that are not of great importance to us”

The purposes of skimming are

- To check relevance of text

- To set the scene for more concentrated effort that is to follow if the text is useful

Skimming is useful to look at chapter’ section headings, summaries and opening

paragraphs, Skimming is very uscful for students Il can hetp aludonts have an overview of what

they arc rcading.

* Scanning: Scanning is another uscfist skill lo Toeate a specific item of informalion thal we need In scamning, we focus our research only on the information that we want, running our yes rapidly along the lings,

Williams (1990:100) said that: “Scanning occurs when a reader goes through a text very quickly in order ta find a particular point of information” Uhis way of reading is widely used in reading comprehension It can be practiced with variety of texts such as dictionary, maps, advertisements, labels, indexes, or references materials, etc, It is necessary and usefull becanse scanning heips the students understand the gist of the text well

In conclusion, when teaching and learning reading: comprcher

different ways of reading which students can choose to use according to students ‘purpose

pm, there are many

However cficctive readers do not usc these ways separately, they mmst know how to usc suitable way to achieve their reading purpose and the text can be best tackled by a combination

Secondly, i terms of content, the Themes and the fopies ofan ESP course are related to

particular disciplines occupations and activitics (Stevens, 1988) stated that “ESP is @ particular

case of the general category of spectal purpose language teaching”

Thirdly, “ESP makes use for the underlying methodology and activities of the disciplines serves” (Dudley-Evans & St John, 1998: 8) The important elements of methodology

and activities determine the success of an ESP syllabus to train the learners how to use the

language and to be skilifud in practicing it

Finally, ESP should be in contrast with GE Learners of ESP usually study English lo parform a role rather than studying for general examination ESP course, thus, have to find out the distinguish ftaturcs of the language in the specific spccialism in its sclection of skills and themes, topics, situations, fimctions language and methodology Only in this way, ESP does its special work

It is clear that all the above definitions originate ftom different time by different researchers: they meet each other at a point that any BSP course mst be based an the learner°s needs

1.2.2 Reading skills in ES?

Reading is always considered an important skill in both GE and ESP teaching, and Icamning, In ESP, English is not only taught with the purposc of improving the students’ reading skills, but also of fhmiliarizing them with the English language used in many specific fields (English for business, English for Medicine, English for computer science ) in terms of vocabulary, terminology, registers ‘hat is, after an ESP reading course, students are supposed

to be able to interpret texts of ther subjects in order to get information for their further studies, their furnee work in the most appropriate way In the field of teaching reading comprehension

researchers have recormneruled a lol of essential reading skills In an ESP course, the learning

of the reading comprehension is the learners’ most important need In sccond language

education, Munby's taxonomy of micro skills bas been hưlucntial in syllabus and omaterial design as well as the design of the language tests Reading involves a variety of skills Munby (1978) distinguishes the nineteen reading micro skills, Dudley-Evans and St Johns (1998:96) show same of the key skills:

- Selecting what is relevant to the current purpose

- _ Using all the features of the text such as headings, layout, typeface

+ Skinning for cantont and meaning

- Scanning for specifics

+ Tdentifyinyg organizational patterns,

- Understanding relations within a sentence and between sentences

- Using cohesive and discourse markers

- Predicting, interfering and guessing

- Identifying main ideas, supporting ideas and examples

- Processing and evaluating the information during reading

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+ Transferring or using the information while ar aller reading

In biet; the above skills are very effective tools to facilitate the reading process and to help readers to achicve different reading purposes Also, to master these reading sub-skills learners need to do many types of reading activities

1.2.3, ESP reading materials

Materials are regarded as an important part in teaching and learning process, especially

in teaching ESP reading ‘hey are considered a source of language and a learning support ‘They also nsed for motivation and efficient learning

ESP is designed to me spovific needs of the learn Hutchinson and Walers

(1993:19) theorize “ESP is an approach to language teaching in which all decisions as to content and method are based on the learners reasons for learning” Thus, sclecting reading

materials is very important “Selection” in language teaching is defied as “she choice of

linguistic content (vocabulary, grammar, etc.) for a language course, textbook, etc procedures

for selecting language items to inchide in a language course include the use of frequency

counts, needs analysis and pedagogic grammar” (Richard, Platt and Webber, 1986:253)

Selecting materials involves making choices and decisions To make good choices, we need to

have good eriicria on which the decision is based Numerous enteria including factors about the

learners, the role of the matcnals, the topies, the language, the presentation have been assessed for the analysis ofmalcrials

Reading materials nmst be used for a given purpose Hutchinson and Waters (1987:107)

state that a good ESP material must contain interesting texts, enjoyable activities which make the students think, opportunities for them to use their existing knowledge, skills and content that they and their teachers can cope with; truly reflect what you think and fel about leaming process; provide clear and coherent unit structure to guide the student through various activities

to maximize the chanecs of learning, croalc a balance oullook which both reflects the

complexity of the task, yet make it appear managcable, introduce teachers to new techniques

and provide models of correct and appropriate language use

1.3 Problems in learning ESP reading

Reading knowledge of a foreign language is often important to professional, academic

studies, and personal development There are a great deal of factors affect the success in

reading including students’ habits, attitude, motivation, exposure to target language, textual

characteristics, the way reading is taught, and the teacher’s classroom techniques or learning

cnvironmeml, cto Many authors ineluđing Jolly (1978), Coady (1979) Yorio (1971) and others agree that problems with foreign language reading may be classitied into three types: reading skill problems, language problems, and cultural background knowledge

1.3.1 Reading skill problems

Acoording to Anderson (1984), a reading ability is often all that is needed by learners of English and other foreign languages In his experience, as well as that of many other teachers, the reason their students cannot read adequately in English is that they cannot read adequately

in the native language, in the first place The problems of reading in English would be vastly

reduced i they learnt to read “proper

Student’s limited reading skills create many problems Some students who read too slowly will casily get discouraged They do not know how to usc the appropriate ways to move

>in their first languags

their eyes fiom word group to word group They just look at every single word, and accordingly fail to grasp the general meaning of the text

Reading is an active skill, involving guessing, predicting, etc Lflearner does not have a good guessing ability and cannot make full nse of grammatical, logical and cultural clues, he/she will read the text with less understanding than he/she might expect, and/or will feel frustrated atthe lext, and will not want to contime reading Therefore, the roađer is trapped in a vicious circle,

Figure 2: The vicious circle of the weak readers (Nuttall, 1982:167)

Learner’s motivation to reading is another factor in the reading process Good speed, enjoyment, and comprehension are the things that can promote good reading, Lack of

Tnotivalion will cause tic reads nol to want lo read

1.3.3 Language problems

According Le Yorie (1971:1608), reading problems of forcign language learners are duc

to imperfect knowledge of the target Janguage and to mother tongue interference in the reading, process In Yorio’s view, reading involves four factors: knowledge of the language, ability to predict or guess in order fo make the correct choices, ability to remember the previous cues, and ability to make the necessary associations between the different cues that have been seleeted,

“Phus, leamers with limited knowledge of the target language might have considered difficulty

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when reading in the largel language, This view is supporled Alderson (1984) Hc ngrocd that a lack of appropriate linguistic knowledge constrains the transfer of reading skills and strategies fiom LI to L2

When readers deal with a reading text, the first problem they often thee is that they may have to work with unfamiliar and difficult topics ‘These are called “text problems” ‘the content

of the text is rather strange to the students and the grammatical structures are new and difficult, that make the unable to understand ‘The readers will find the text very challenging and do not have any motivation left to keep on reading Secondly, students may have “vocahudary problems” Readers enoounter a great deal of difficullics in coping with proverbs and idioms, synonyms, antonyms, poly-semantic and sub-technical vocabulary, metaphor, ete, According to O'Donnell, (1961, 313-316) knowledge of vocabulary is dcal more important as a factor of reading comprehension than awareness of grammatical structure

1.4 Previous studies

‘There ate some studies relating students’ difficulties in learning USP reading were carried ont at Vietmam National University, Hanoi- College of Foreign Languages- Postgraduate Studiss These studies, two of which were read, revealed some strengths and weaknesses as well Both Bui Thi Ngoc Ha (2006) and Pham Hai Yen (2008) proposed studies

on difficultics in reading ESP of lamers in the Army Cryptography Tochmeal College and at Vinh Technical Teachcrs’ Training Universily respeetively, Both nwe these rescarchers administered one questionnaire, interviews and small talks to investigate students’ difficulties

in grammar, vocabulary, reading skills, discourse and cultural background, the causes of these difficulties and students’ expectations in reading materials and teaching methodology ‘These researchers also presented some suggestions to limit these difficulties ‘They did not suggest recommendations to improve students’ grammar knowledge although the area also made the studenls have problems, Hawover, their rescarches still considerod as sample for refer

beffore the rescarcher began the study Probably, the rescarcher will find out solutions for this existing to help students fecl more molivaled in tearting ESP reading,

1.5 Summary

In conclusion, this chapter presents a theoretical ftame work for the study It provides an overview of ESP as well as the nature of reading and reading comprehension Furthermore, this chapter also discussed ESP reading with reading skills and reading material, Besides, via this chapter the researcher also would like to present problems in learning SP reading theoretically

Chapter 2: The current situation of teaching and Icarning ESP reading at

College of Broadcasting I (CB-I) 2.1, Introduction about CB-I lcarncrs

The College of Broadcasting I belongs lo Radio, the Voice of Vietnam and its duly is lo train journalists and broadcasting technicians for broadcasting stations throughout the country, The college helps them to wester seicntifie advances and use perfeetly modern Lechnological

equipments such as cormputers, cameras, recorders, sound- mixture machincs and so on Thz

college has been established for nearly 55 years fiom a school for technician workers then a

vocational school and now a college Every year, our college trains about 1000 students in six faculties for a three-course of study After graduating, our learners become journalists, reporters

and technicians specialized in information technology and broadcasting and telecommunication There are six kinds of ESP in my college but I only focus on ESP for students at faculty of Broadcasting ‘Technology in the thesis

Mos! of the sludents who enter CB-J are aged from 18 lo 22 They come Grom different

parts of the country, fiom Ha Giang province to Quang Binh provinec They have many

advantages in learning a foreign language Firstly they have good cognitive abilities that can

help then succeed in Jeaming Secondly, they can learn and retain a larger vocabulary and

complex grammar structure However, my students have some disadvantages when learning

English My study focuses on students of Faculty of Broadcasting Technology and foreign language is not considered the main subject It serves as means that helps students to read documents, machine manuals in English, bul nol to cormmunicaic with English wative speakers What is more, the students come to the English class with different English background and learning slyles The sludents come from different parls of the country Sore of them come from

the nual areas; others are from cities and towns Many students who come fiom cities had

learnt a Jot of English at school or at English centers before going to umversity whereas others

hhad learnt only little Some even had learnt Russian or French or never learnt a foreign

language his mixed ability has caused certain problems to teaching and learning English at the college In the same class, some students find classroom activities too relaxing while others

find these achivilies too hard The coromon observation is those who know a lol of English are

very active and those who know little are too shy or passive during the class time In sich a

mixed class, if is obviously @ challenge for teachers to satisfy all the needs of the sturdents.

2.2 The ohjcctives of teaching and learning reading ESP in CB-I

ESP wes taught in the faculty of Broadcasting ‘Technology after the teaching of GE three years later ESP was introchiced in the training program to meet students’ needs of English for their fire work The aim of these ESP courses is to provide students with adequate knowledge of English uscd in the field they are studying so that they can use it for their fiture work To achicve this objective English has been taught with the following format: GE is taught

in the rst year with the integration of four skills Prorily is given to leaching translation, Teachers select materials tom newspapers or journals on both Vietnamese and English related

to the students’ fields of study and students have to translate them fiom English into

Vietnamese or vice versa

Students learn KSP for Broadcasting ‘Technology to read materials or control equipment instructed in English, At the end of each semester, students have to sit for an English examination

2.3 Teachers and methods of leaching

There are seven teachers of English in our college, aged from 27 to 35 Alt of them had been educated in ELT training in the foreign language university inside Vietnam Two of them participated in short-time language courses oversea These are our advantages; however, we also have some problems One of most obvious difficulties is that both teachers and students lack a language environment to develop their communicative abilities Another problem is that none of teachers has been trained in teaching ESP ‘this is an obstacle for teachers to improve

the leaching of ESP in the college Almost teachers leach GE wilh fille or no specific knowledge of broadcasting technology Sometimes we find it difficult to transfer specialized Knowledge to ESP, However, we lcatn by oursclves to improve broadcasting technology knowledge through materials or asking our colleagues

Each of our teachers teaches both GE and ESP and we have the responsibility for training for nearly 40 classes ‘Lhis is also our difficulty Besides, methodology addresses as a key in teaching ESP teachers usually use the traditional method of teaching in ESP reading lessons The teachers cover all the class They read, explain new grammar structure, vocabulary

and dircet sludents to do excroi , samnetimes, Wranslate the text ino Vietnamese Students only

listen and take notes and do these exercises Teachers are as the main speakers working with the text, Students arc passive and only ask teachers questions when they encounter difficult structures or words that they cannot find in the dictionary

2.4 The ESP program at CB-I

In the faculty of broadoasting technology, English is taught in the first two years During the first years, students study GH in two terms, focusing on the development of the four language skills at elementary level Usually, two teachers are responsible for a class, in the first term of the sucand year students tearn English for Broadcasting Teckmology Thal moans ESP is taught after the students have studied GE for two terms and they learn ESP while they were not taughl much sboul broadcasting technology in Victnamesc subjects’ matcrials,

English is taught in the college dom the beginning of 1990s and it is a compulsory subject for all students, At first, we used “Streamline” (Departures) textbooks in GE classes tor over 10 years, Llowever, we find this textbook is not suitable to drill four language skills, thua,

we have moved to use “New Headway” (Elementary) since 2004 In addition to “New Teadway” textbook, workbook and cassettes, we have also collected some texts in other

material for students’ further

Infemet or other materials, articles or extracts fiom newspapers, journals, instructions on

machine usage, etc related to broadcasting and television fo supply for students the most practical texts And these materials were individually selected, compiled into the reading

1?

materials for the course, As the result of this, different teachers had different focat paints in choosing lesson plans with different language items such as vocabulary, functions, structure, skills or caning activitics, and different teaching approaches The most common approach then was the grammartranslation one Aithough the main focus of this approach was on teaching vocabulary, grammar was considered as an important component of the whole process

‘This method was used as a means of presenting grammar, specialist vocabulary, structures which were assumed to be relevant to the students” needs and at the same time it was used as a feedback to check the students’ comprehension, SP course at CB-I was delivered in this way for a long lime

‘At presents, students learn English in three semesters in which GE is taught in the first year and ESP in the first semester of the sccond one The time allocated for GE is 90 periods (each period lasts 45 minutes) and that for ESP is 60 periods, The ESP syllabus focuses on the subject matters of broadcasting technology It also focuses on languages skills, speaking, reading, writing and translation and reading comprehension is a major source of input

Regarding assessment, the common form includes wzitten achievement tests (a mid- term and an end-of-term one) The form of tests usually comprises three main parts: reading comprehension, grammar sxerciscs and transtation The tost aims al issossinyg students” knowledge and the results of the test together with other forms of continous asscssment at the class through the course will supply informmtion about the students’ progress These information help teachers adjust their methodology and material available to promote Fearning 2.5 Summary

In brief, this chapter displays the current situation of teaching and learning LSP reading

at CB+I with introduction about CB-1 learners, the objectives of teaching and leaming reading English in CB-I Moreover, this chapter provides some information about teachers and mothodology as wll as the ESP program in GB-T

Chapter 3: Rescarch methodology This chapter presents the research questions and the data collection methods Information about the participants used for the study will also be provided Data were obtained

by means of a survey questionnaire and informal discussions with teachers and informal interviews with students to provide more in depth information AH data will be analyzed to find ont the stndents” difficulties in learning ESP reading, the causes of these difficulties and the

students’ expcetations

4.1 Research questions

in madcrials and methodology

There are three rescareh questions for this thesis as follows:

- What are the difficulties that stadents of FBT have when reading ESP materials?

- What are the causes of these difficulties?

- What adjustments in material and methodology help students overcome or limit difficulties?

3.2 The participants

Onc hundred studonls incluổïng 68 males and 32 females in their second year at the FRT were invited to participate in the siudy They came frara two classes and have the different English proficiency levels, Al the time when the rescarcher did the dala collection, these students were in the third semester All of them finished two semesters of GE course in which they used New Headway as the materials

Students’ age varied ftom 19 to 22 so they belonged to the same psychological However, their length of English learning at school (before entering our college) was different

The 100 students in two classes were selected randomly to participate in the research, Choosing students in ihe classes is more suitalile and conveniont, for the rosoarcher Lo obsarve the participanis who filled the questionnaire in classes

3.3 The data collection methods

To reach the primary purposes of the study, a survey questionnaire has been chosen as the main method for data collection for this particular research One survey with 15 questions is designed for students who are currently learning, Englisli for Broadcasting Technology to get

information about difficulties of students at FBT in learning ESP reading Besides, the

questionnaires helps researcher to find out materials and methodology which are appropriate to

studcnils The questionnaire was wrillen im Vietnamese lo ensure sladents’ accurate

understanding of all the questions before answering them One hundred copies of the

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questionnaire were given to the 100 participants in Iwo cỉm of FBT The survey questionnaire consists of the following sections:

- Personal information

- Students’ attitudes toward ESP reading and purposes of learning ESP reading

- Students’ perception of ESP reading difficulties

- ‘The causes of difficulties

- Students’ expectations of material and methodology

At the same time, informal discussion with teachsrs and informal inferview with students

are also carried oul in the hope 1o reach a more comprehensive picture of the learning and

teaching of ESP reading at FBT

The survey questionnaire has becn chosen because it is known as the best way to collect

a large amount data in relatively short time The questionnaize is also supposed to help to obtain

background information about the research subjects such as age, previous background in langnage learning and years of studying the language Using the survey questionnaire also save time and it is normally cheap way of collection data but also a suitable one for non-language

learners,

3.4 Data analysis

This part of the thesis is the treatment of the data collected from the survey queslionnaire conducted on 100 students af Faculty of Broadcasting Technology and

transcription from informal discussion with teachers and interviews with students The

collected data will be presented ftom question 5 to question 15 separately according to three aims of the study Because of limitation of the number of participants, the data is manually analyzed using descriptive statistics and interpretations All the statistical data will be shown in tables and charts in the form of numbers and percentages

3.4.1, Students? attitudes towards ESP reading

The collected data will be illustrated on charts Each chart is followed by an analysis of the dala

Chart 1

Bivery important Bimnportant

— Taot vey tapsriant

‘Mot important at all

Chart 1: Students’ perception about the importance of reading skill in ESP reading

As can be seen from the chart 1, a great number of students (60%) considered ESP

reading skill is very important and 32% for important and there are only 8% of students who

did not realize the importance of reading in ESP

Chart 2

Divery essential Besseatil

Chart 2: Students’ views about the role of ESP reading for their future jobs

In the chart 2, 70% of students thought that reading skill was very essential for their

future job 27% of them considered it was essential Only 3% found reading’s role for their

future job neutral and none believed that reading skill was not essential for their future career.

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The reasons for this may result from their understanding of reading for students in their future work in which they have to either read a lot of specific documents related to their subject topics from different sources such as course books, reference books, newspapers, magazines

and on the Internet or control machines instructed in English namely, sound mix machine,

camera, computer, ete In other words, reading helps students extend their knowledge of the world’s science and technology An awareness of the importance of reading comprehension is

supposed to create motivation for the students to overcome difficulties they encounter in their

learning process However, reading skill is only one of some skills students have to be trained

Chart 3: Students’ interest in ESP reading From chart 3, we can see that most of students dislike reading ESP (68%) and only 32%

of the participants like it As we see above, there is high percentage of students considering reading ESP is very important and very essential for their future job However, a few of them like reading ESP This low percentage may originate fom some following reasons Firstly, most of participants were male (68%) and they themselves assessed their English qualification

at elementary level and pre-intermediately one (91%), therefore, ESP reading exercises and lessons caused them many difficulties Such difficulties did not motivate them in learning ESP Gradually, they dislike ESP and maybe they hate English and feel be affaid of it, Secondly,

although most of the student had studied English from 4 to 9 years, many of them had poor knowledge of GE and their average marks on GE were not good This might have had a bad influence on their ESP learning, which explained why they lost interest in learning ESP

Thirdly, among 100 participants, there were only 11 people fiom urban, the rest came from

rural countryside In many countryside of Vietnam, GE has been taught unprofessionally and pupils in the countryside are bad at English Being uninterested in learning ESP may result from this reason, Moreover, English was not considered as a major subject in our college, thus, some of students did not pay attentions to learning it although they aware of the importance of

ESP reading in their future job

These negative attitudes may cause certain difficulties to some students

3.4.2 The purpose of reading ESP in the views of the students

purpose purpose purpose purpose purpose purpose

Chart 4: Purposes of reading ESP in the views of students

To have more knowledge about General English and ESP

To learn terminology in English

To read specific materials

To apply for a good job in the future

To get a high score in English exams

x No purposes at all

3.4.3 Students’ perception of ESP reading difficulties

* Scoring procedure:

Tables show how the students themselves perecive the difficultizs they expericnee when reading in four categories: vocabulary, grammar, discourse and reading skills The figures in cohumns 1, 2, 3 and 4 represent the numbers of students who ranked the items in the questionnaire

‘The procedure followed in the analysis of the findings was to allocate a score (see column 5) for level of difficulty to each item in the list A four-point scale was used, with 4 points for Very Difficult (VD), 3 points for Difficutt (D), 2 points tor Kasy (), and 1 point for Very Easy (VE) Using this method, we would obtain the highest scores for items that the students porecived as inost difficult

* Descriptive statistics:

For most of the ilems, the studenls’ responses centered muinly on Very Difficult (VD), Difficult (D) and Easy (E) Only a few items were categorized as Very Easy (VE) In general, vocabulary and reading skills are considered to cause more problems to the students than others Details of the responses to the items in each section are as follows:

9 In the area of grammar

a Recognizing the word’s parts of speech | 20 | 44 | 34 | 2 | 284

nouns, verbs, adjectives

b Understanding and using verb tenses and] 32 | 54 | 14 | 0 | 318

forms

c Understanding and using prepositions and| 39 | 51 | t0 | 0 | 329

¢ Understanding identifying the types of | 27 | 48 | 25 | 0 | 302

sentences: simple or complex, passive or

active voice

£ Identifying clements of simple sentences| 20 | 44 | 32 | 4 | 280

BV0AQ

g Identifying elements of complex sentences | 28 | 54 | 18 | 0 | 310

(main or subordinate clause)

h Understanding the relationship between] 32 | 62 | 5 | 1 | 325

chau of compound snd complex

sentences

1 Identifying the correct word order 37 | 53 | 9 | 1 | 326

Table 1: The difficulties in the areas of grammar

* Im the arca of grammar

In question 9, the participants were asked to point out the difficulties in some aspects of grammar ‘'he results of the responses are presented in ‘Table 1

As can be seen, scores of difficulties with grammar vary from 280 to 343 ‘his area seems to cause many difficulties for students, ‘hey put item 9# (Understanding and using unfamiliar syntactic: structures) al the lop of the granmmar difficulty list with 243 points 49 students think that it is very difficult for them to comprchcnd reading texts containing unfamiliar syntactic structures, 45 of hem consider il difficult, the test (6 stuterts) think that i

is easy to identify zayéaniliar syntactic structeres, None found it “very easy”

Item 9¢ with the score of 329 points follows closely in the list

Item 9h and 91 had the nearly same score (325points, 326 points respectively) which suggested that Understanding the relationship between clauses of compound and complex sentences and identifving the correct word order were at the nearly same level of difficulty

Tem 98 hadl the lowest score, with 280 points, compared to the others in this section, which mean that studonts did nol have any problems wilh simple sentences The scoond lowes! score in this arca was the scare for item Ya with 284 poinls, which aso moans [hal, studonts

found the task of understanding and identifying parts of specch fairly casy.

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The renmining items 9b, 9e, 9g had quile high points (318, 302 aud 310 points respectively) These items are accepted by most students not to be ensy as the responses centre mainly on Very Difficult and Difficult

From Table 1 we can see that the munber of students selecting the responses “Vary difficult” and “difficult” to the items in the grammar area were higher than those of students selecting other responses “easy” and “very easy”, except for items 9Y and 9a which has the higher mumber of students choosing the response “easy” ‘Thus, we can see that the area of grammar seems to canse many difficulties for our students

* Im the area of vocabulary

Low diflicult/easy Areas of difficulties VD D E | VE | Total

scare

10 In the area of vocabulary

a Prommciation and remembering lengthy] 25° 45 25 | 0 290 words

professional technical words 312

c Understanding and remembering idiomatic | 65 25 10 | 0

expression verb phrases and noun phrases

4 Finding the appropriate meaning for poly-| 42 45 13 | 0 | 355 semantic words

e Understanding homonyms (see & se, pai | 15 42 13 | 0

Table 2: The difficulties in the areas of vocaliulary

Question 10 investigated the difficultics in some vocabulary aspects, The results arc shown in Table 2, Scores in this section range between 290 and 353 The high scores indicate that vocabulary problems, as perceived by students, are among the biggest problems for them,

Table 2 shows that item 10¢ (Understanding and remembering idiomatic expression verb phrases and noun phrases.) was at the top of the difficulty list with a fairly high score (355

points) 65 studenls thought thal i was “very difficnlt” for ther to understand and lo remember the meanings of the idiomatie expressions, verb phrases and noun phrases 25 of them perecived it to be “difficult” and only 10 students considered it “easy” No students considered understanding and remembering idiomatic expression verb phrases and noun phrases “very easy” in reading materials

Item 1a (Pronunciation and rementbering lengthy words) had the lowest score (290 points) which means that lengthy words seemed to be the easiest for students to pronounce and remember Thers were 30 students thinking this item “easy” and “very easy”

Te 10 b, 1d and 1e had rather high scores (312, 329and 334 points respectively) This shows that widerstanding and remembering professional technical words, finding the appropriate meaning for poly-semantic words and understanding homonyms (see & sea, pair & pear ) ware also “difficult” for students None rated these items as “vary easy”

* In the area of discourse

How difficult/easy Areas of difficulties VD DE | VE | Total

11 In the area of discourse

a Understanding relationship between | 30 34 16 9 314

sentences/segments in a text

b Understanding relationship betwen| 24 56 20 | 0 | 304

paragraphs ina text

c Recognizing larger textual pattems of a] 10 48 II | 1 | 327

discourse (enswor-question, problem-solulion,

and hypothesis-practice)

4 Identifying and understanding ellipsis and] 36 34 10 | 0 | 326

substitution (one! ones, the same)

e Identifying and recognizing conjunelions| 22 40 38 | 0 | 284

and discourse markers

f£ Recognizing functional values (explaining | 12 43 44 | 1 | 266

Describing)

@ Understanding graphs and diagrams 20 48 31 | 1 | 287