Luận văn an evaluation of teaching esp reading strategies for electrical engineering third year students at hanoi university of industry

STUDIES, FACULTY OF POST - GRADUATE STUDIES NGUYÊN THỊ THANH BANG AN EVALUATION OF TEACHING ESP READING STRATEGIES FOR ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING TIIIRD- YEAR STUDENTS AT HANOL UNIVERSITY

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, IA NOL UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES ANT INTERNATIONAT STUDIES,

FACULTY OF POST - GRADUATE STUDIES

NGUYÊN THỊ THANH BANG

AN EVALUATION OF TEACHING ESP READING STRATEGIES FOR ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING TIIIRD-

YEAR STUDENTS AT HANOL UNIVERSITY OF INDUSTRY

(DANTIGIA CAC KY TITUAT GIẢNG DẠY KỸ NẴNG DỌC IIÉU:

TTNG AXH CHUYEN NGANH CHO SINH VIÊN NAM THỨ 3 KHOA ĐIỆN Ở

TRƯỜNG DẠI HỌC CÔNG NGIHP HÀ NỘI)

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 6014.0111

TIA NƠI — 2015

VIETNAM NATIONAT, UNIVERSITY, HA NOT UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDLES:

FACULTY OF POST - GRADUATE STUDIES

NGUYEN TIT] THANIT BANG

AN EVALUATION OF TEACHING ESP READING STRATEGIES FOR ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING THIRD-

YEAR STUDENTS AT HANOT UNIVERSITY OF INDUSTRY

(ĐÁNH GIÁ CÁC KỸ THUẬT GIẢNG DẠY KỸ NĂNG ĐỌC HIỂU

'TIÉNG ANH CHUYÊN NGÀNH CHO SINH VIỄN NĂM THỨ 3 KHOA DIỆN Ở

TRƯỞNG ĐẠI HỌC CÔNG NGHIỆP HA NOD

M.A, MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 6014.0111

Supervisor: Assoc.Prof.Dr Nguyen Phuong Nga

HA NOT - 2015

DECLARATION

Thereby certify that the thesis entitled

“An evaluation of teaching ESP reading strategies for Llectrical

Engineering third-year students at Hanoi University of Industry”

is the result of my own study in the fulfillment of the requirement for the

Degree of Master of Arts at Faculty of Post-Graduate Studies, University of

Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi and that it Tas not been previously submitted lo this University or Lo any other institutions in application for admission to a degree, diploma or other qualifications

Signature

Nguyễn Thị Thanh Bằng

Tate: August, 2015

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Lowe a great many thanks to so many people who have supported me all the

way throughoul my study (o this final achievement,

First and foremost, T wonkl like to oxpress my deepest gratitude to my academic supervisor Ms, Nguyen Phuong Nga, Associate Professor, Doctor of Philosophy for her wholehearted guidance, valuable suggestions and academic advice during the course of writing this thesis, without which this work would

hardly have been accomplished

1 also wish to acknowledge all the staff of the Department of Post-Graduate Studies for giving me assistance and the lecturers wha conducted the Master course

for me with valuable knowledge

T would like lo extend my deep appreciation to my colleagues and Blectrical Engineering third-year students at Hanoi University of industry who have encouraged me and helped me with the research data

Last but not least, I am deeply indebted to my beloved parents, my husband, two iny children, my siblings, and my post-graduate friends for their love, sacrifice,

encowagement and support.

ABSTRACT

Hanoi University of Industry (hereafter HaUT) is known as a multidisciplinary school which has contributed significantly to the training of the technical labor foree for the developinent of the Vietnamese industry Hence, along with general English-taining courses, English for Specific Purposes (hereafter HSP) courses that has attracted much attention from students at this university For ESP-training context at HaUI, though ESP reading strategics have long been implomented and applied in its programs, nevertheless, up to now, there is no in-depth study to assess the effectiveness of the ESP reading stratepies yet Therefore, this study is carried out to evaluate the teaching ESP reading strategie that is being applied for Electrical linginesring third-year students at Llanoi University of Industry to offer recommendations for the purpose of improving the teaching ESP reading strategies

ina more efficient way

The participants selected for the study included 95 Electrical Engineering

fhand-ycar students and 4 ESP lecturers at Hall The results from the survey

questionnaires for students and lecturers investigate LSP reading strategies curently

employed by the English teachers and find oul appropriale teaching strategies Lo contribute more highly teaching quality of lecturers in ESP reading lessons at HaUl Recommendations and suggestions for further researches are given in order to enhance more effectiveness in teaching ESP reading strategies

1H

TABLE OF CONTENTS Contents

1 Rationale of the study

2 Anns and objectives of the study „

3 Scope of the study

A Sigmificance of the sludy

1.1.2 Reading Comprehension Process

1.1.3 Reading Siraiegies int English for Specific Pisposes

1.1.4 Factors in Teaching ESP Reading Skill

1.1.5, Strategies for Teaching ESP Reading in Hach Stage

1.1.6 Evaluation of Teaching Reading Strategies

1.2 Previous Studies in the Same F1eld

2.3.4 Data collection procedures

2.3.5 Data analysis proeoduros

Chaptcr 3: RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

3.1 Lecturers’ teaching ESP reading strategies

3.1.1 Lecturers’ activities in pre-reading stage

3.2 Sadents' perception of the benefifs 22011 re 31 3.2.1 Benefils from pre-reading stage aclivilies 31 3.2.2 Benefits from while-reading stage activities 32 3.3.3 Benefits from post-roading staae activitio "¬ 33 3.3 Suggestions for enhancement of students’ benefits 34

3.3.1 Lecturers’ difficulties in teaching 1⁄2SP reading texts 34

3.3.2 Studơnls” expectations and ]eclurors' suggesLionis 35

3.4, Comparison between survey results and evaluation criteria 37 PART C: CONCLUSION occ cceeeniseseeersiees iene eericsaneareesssnnesasesisnaeseey 39

A Suggestions for further study on 22020 000100 41

REFERENCES TH HH8 HH TH HT re — 4

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES Tables

Table 3.1: Students’ evalialton of lecturers’ activities in pre-reading stage 22 Table 3.2: Lecturers’ self-evaluation of their activities in pre-reading stage 24 Table 3.3: Stuđents' evaluation of leeturers' activities in while-reading stage 26

‘Yable 3.4: Lecturers’ self-evaluation of their activities in while-reading stage 27 Table 3.5: Students’ evaluation of lecturers’ aclivilies in posl-reading stage 29

‘Table 3.6: Lecturers’ self-evaluation of their aotivities in post-reading stage 30 Table 3.7: Students’ evaluation of benefits from pre-reading stage activities .32

‘Yable 3.8: Students’ evaluation of benefits from while-reading stage activities .33 Table 3.9: Students’ evaluation of benefits from post-reading stage activitics 34

Table 3.10: T.ecturers’ difficulties in teaching ESP reading texts 35

Figures

Figue 3.1: Students’ evaluation of lecturers’ activity organization in pre-

Figure 3.3: Leclurers’ self-evaluation of thei acuvily orgamzalion in pre-

TART A: INTRODUCTION

‘This part introduces briefly about the study including rationale, aims, scope, significance of (he study, research methodology as well as design of the (hesis

1 Rationale of the study

It is not an exaggeration to say that English is one of the most popular languages in this ora of globalization and international exchange English has

become an extremely useful tool for most countries to access the world of modern

technology and update latest achievements in many fields of life In Vietnam, since

1971, Rnglish teaching and learning have altracted a greal deal of atleriion Hence, the demand of learning Linglish has increased rapidly in recent years, Unglish has

proved its important role as the most popular foreign language that is being taught in

all educational tovels cover countries in the worldwide Ti is a compulsory subject, which is not only for tertiary institutions, but also for that from primary to high schools in Vietnam

Hanoi University of Industry (hereafter HaUD) has always been proud of being

a multidisciplimay training school with great contributions to the technological

developments as well as industialization and modernization process Therefore,

along with General English+training course, English for Specific Purposes (hereafter LSP) course such as English for Business, inglish for Jilectrical Lingineering, etc., that has beon received very much altention from students in this university How to teach and lean ESP effectively, however, is not simple

For many students, “reading is by far the most important of the four skills in a

second language, particularly in English as a second or foreign language” (Carrel,

1981:1), however, reading comprehension is still considered as one of the least interesting, ones for both lecturers and students Though many lecturers of English for

Flecirical Engineering also try in their best ways in order to make ESP reading

lessons more attractive to their students, it seems to be all their efforts that do not

capture the desired results

The question of how to deal with Fnglish for Flectrieal Engineering reading more effectively at my university has always been haunted in my mind Although

ESP reading strategies have long been implemented and applied in its programs for ESP-training context at TIaUI, up to now, there is no in-depth study to assess the effectiveness of the ESP reading strategies yet Therefore, the researcher have a desire to perform “dn evaluation of teaching ESP reading strategies for Electrical Engineering third-year students at Hanoi University of Industry” which aims to offer recommendations to tmprove the teaching ESP reading stralegies in a more efficient

way

2 Aims and objectives of the study

The study aims to evaluate the leaching ESP reading stralegies that is applicd for Electrical Engineering third-year students so as to offer recommendations with purpose to enhance the lecturers’ quality of teaching ESP reading at HaUl

The spevilic ebjectives of this study are to identily the strategies employed by lecturers in teaching HSP reading for Hlectrical Hnpineering third-year students and benefits that the students gain from these strategies

4 Scope of the study

Although the LISP course is designed for all the third-year students at 1IaUL

with eight different majors it would be impossible for the researcher to get them

involved in the study due to obstacles of time, duration and expense Instead, the sample of the study consists of the third-year students at Faculty of Llectrical

Engineering only Besides, each ESP reading lesson often covers reading and writing

skills and translation teclmiques Nevertheless, the scope of this study aims Lo evaluate lecturers’ strategies in teaching ISP reading skill, it does not cover all aspects of writing skill and translation lechniques The participants of the study are

the Electrical Engineering students at HaUI who have already finished the ESP

course in the second term of the third-year

4 Significance of the study

‘This paper wishes to offer a picture of HSP reading strategies employed by lecturers for Lleotrical Engineering third-year students at IlaL-I The findings of the study are expected to identify the most appropriate strategies in order to enhance students’ interests in ESP reading lessons Accordingly, suggestions can be made to

improve the third-year students’ reading skill

for ESP lecturers and Electrical Fngineering third-year students The detail of the

methodology applied in lhe study is discussed in Chapter 2

6 Design of the stu

The study consists of three main parts as fallow:

Part A, Introduction, presents a brief introduction of the rationale for the

study, the aims and objectives, scope, significance, research method as well as design

of the study

Part B, Development, includes the following chapters:

Chapter 1, Literature review, deals with the theoretical background of the

study and results from the previous studies for the issues relevant to the field

investigated,

Chapter 2, Methodology, describes the context and the research methodology

of the sturdy

Chapter 3, Results and Discussions, prescnts analysis, discussions and

evaluation basing on results of the study

Part ©, Conclusion, sumoarives the main issuss of Ihe whole study and

indicates limitations of the research as well as suggests for further study In addition, the study also includes sections of References which display the sources of

referenced information and Appendices which present the survey questionnaires for students and lecturers.

TART B: DEVELOPMENT Chapter 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter provides the theoretical background of the sludy and results from

the recent studies for the issues relevant to the field under investigated

1.1 Theoretical Background

LLL Definition of reading

Reading is by far the most important of all four skills in a second language, particularly in English as a second or foreign language (Carrell, Devine, &

Eskey, 1988, Richards & Renandya, 2002) There are different definitions about

reading in Unglish depending on each linguist’s point of view

Goodman (1971: 135) defined reading as “a psycholinguistics process by which the reader, language user, reconstructs, as best as he can, a message which has been encoded by a writer as a graphic display” Williams (1990: 2) shared the same view

that “reading is a process whereby one looks at and understands what has been

written” Tn this point of view, im reading process, there are two parallel activities locking and understanding Thus, readers have to “encode” meanings of a word depending on the context in which it appears

From anolher view of reading, Rubin and Thompson (1994: 91) pointed out

“reading is active information-seeking process in which readers relate information in the text to what they already know” Tn this view, the reader’s knowledge of the world is of importance to their reading success

Moreover, according to the New Criticism, reading is just a process of

‘reorealing’ in our tind the mental condition of the authors or Ihe writer (Fagleton,

1996: 41)

Obviously, no definition can capture all the ideas and features of reading All in all, what all the linguists have in common is hal roading involves looking, understanding and encoding meanings of a word basing on the context in which

appears

1.1.2 Reading Comprehension Process

‘To improve students’ reading comprehension, teachers should introduce the

three reading comprehension processes including the schema of theory, bottom up and top-down processing As a result, the definition of these concepts will be

discussed in this section

1.1.2.1 The schema theory

In his article entitled Effects on Reading Comprehension of Building

Background Knowledge, Jolson (1982: 504) mentions the theory of schema Tr his

opinion, this theory focuses on the leamers’ background knowledge which is the

leaners’ previously acquired knowledge It is also stated that the organization of

reader’s past experiences direelly influences the comprehension and retention of materials in a passage Thus, learners understand a text by analyzing the text according to their schema

According to Nuttall (1996 7), the schema “is a mental structure It is abstract

because it does not relate to any particular experience, although it derives from all the particular experiences we have had It is a structure because it is ompanized: it includes the relationships betwoen its component parts.” The schemata are recognized as a useful concept in understanding how we are able to interpret texts

Numan (1999: 201) identifies “schema theary is based on the ideas that past

experiences result in a mental framework to understand new experiences.”

In brief, in order to comprehend texts, students need to develop new schemata

of language, text and interpretation, as well as schemata of alternative cultural

practives and values According to this schema theory, comprehending a text is

an interactive process This process can be divided into three parts including bollom-up, top-down and inleractive processing

1.1.2.2, Bottom —up and Top-down processing

* Bottom — up processing

Initially, the bottom-up approach was introduced by Gough (1972) The bottom-up approach emphasizes that reading moves from part to whole Processing the meaning starts from the text and it is text-based In this approach, the text is of

great importance Hence it is necessary to know the meaning of individual wards

and promote vocabulary leaning,

‘Then, according to Nunan (1991), reading is a linear process by which readers

decode the text word by word, link the words into phrases and then sentences In the

process of meaning interpretation, the language is translated from one form of symbolic representation to another

Three years later, Silberstein (1994) suggests that comprehending text requires the stiiullangous imleraction of Iwo models of mformation processing According to this author, readers get the meaning of a text through recognizing letters and words,

working out sentence structures and then interpret paragraphs and the whole text

As shown above, il is cloar that the theory of bollom-up processing given by

Silberstein (1994) is the most detailed one

* Top-down processing

Goodman (1975) states that the top-down processing focuses on whole text and the role of schemata or background knowledge to interpret the text In this reading model, the readers’ prior knowledge and past experiences are very important

He also emphasizes on the greatest ditforence between the top-down processing, and the bottom-up one is that readers do not use every piece of information in the

text (as cited in Carrell and Eisterhold, 1983) That is to say, the readers select some

parts of text according to their current purpose and use them only so as to predict and

to confirm the predicted meanings by relating the readers’ own previously acquired knowledge (Carrell, 1988a)

Tu Iriel, there are two ways thal read

can use to deal with a text: using the bottam —up processing ta get detail understanding of the text and using the top-down

to understand main ideas about the text Readers may use oue of the lwo ways lo

comprehend texts, however, readers usually need both of them to deal with difficult texts As a result, this leads to interactive processing which will be mentioned in the

folowing part

1.1.2.3, Interactive processing

It is known that no single method is the best A successful reader should

combine top-down and bottom-up processing, which is called interactive reading

First, Hayes (1991: 7) points out that “in interactive models, different processes

are thought to be responsible for providing information that is shared with other processes The information obtained from each type of processing is combined to determine the most appropriate interpretation of the printed pages”

Next, Nuttall (1996: 17) mentions the interactive processing employed by readers in practice A reader continually shifts from one focus to another, now adopling a lop-dowt approach to predict probable meanmg, then movimg to the bottom-up approach to cheek whether that is really what the writer says

To summarize, interactive theorists appreciate the role of prior knowledge and

prediclion in interpreting (he texts They also show thal inleractive processing can

maximize the strengths and minimuze the weaknesses of the bottom-up and top-down

processing

1.1.3 Reading Strategies in English for Specific Purposes

‘This section deals with the recent definitions and the classifications of HSP

which are considered as indispensable components of the theoretical background

1.1.3.1 Definition of ESP

An early definition is the one given by Liutchinson and Waters (1987: 16) who

define that ESP is “an approach not a product- does not involve a particular kind of

language, teaching materials or methodology” It means that ESP is not a matter

of teaching “specialized varieties” of English, not different in kind from other

form of language teaching Later on, ESP is defined by Strevens (1988: 1) as a

parlicular ca

© of the general category of special — purpose language leaching Ther,

Dudley-Evans and St John (1998: 4) suggest “LSP is designed to meet specific needs

of the learmer™ thal is the most important characteristic Therefore, an ESP course should differ from a general course mm sclection of skills, themes, topics, situations and functions

As has been presented, even though all the definitions show the mraltre of ESP,

it is clear that ESP is used for teaching foreign language as well as satisfying special

demands of students

1.1.3.2 Definition of Reading Strategies

Reading is regarded as a very necessary skill for students, especially in

academic settings which help the students to obtain a fluent reading One of the requirements for English lecturers are to improve the students’ reading

comprehension

Many authors attempt to provide descriptions for reading strategies,

nevertheless, there is a lack of consensus on the definition of reading strategies

Gamer (1987: 50) defines reading strategies as “generally deliberale, playful

activities undertaken by active learners, many times to remedy perceived cognitive failure” Later, another definition suggested by Bamett (1988: 150-162) regards reading strategies as the merilal operations included when the reader approaches the text effectively and makes sense of what he reads Some techniques include skimming, scanning, reading for meaning predicting, activating general information, making inferences and guessing word meanings from context, cle Later, reading strategies are suggested by Carell (1998: 97) as interest not only for what they reveal about the ways readers manage interactions with written text but also for how the use of strategies is related to effective comprehension

Although the definitions of reading strategies are based on different views, the

purpose of reading strategies are to help students approach the text effectively and to

have generat knowledge, to get specific detail and to find out the main idea or theme

of the reading materials

1.1.2.3, Classificarions of Reading Strategies

Different authors suggest different calegories of reading strategies Although their studies identify a variety of similar reading strategies, there are significant differences in their strategy groups:

According to Wenden & Rubin (1987: 19), reading strategies are divided into

cognitive strategies and metacognitive ones The first one, cognitive strategies are

described by Wenden & Rubin (1987: 19) as “mental steps or operations thal leamers:

use to process both linguistics and sociolinguistic content” Later, O’Malley & Chamot (1990) emphasize that these strategies are used to construct associations

between new and existing knowledge of the learners The prominent cognitive

strategies include translation, grouping, note-taking, deduction, imagery, keyword,

contextualization, elaboration and inference

Meanwhile, metacognitive strategies are higher critical thinking skills that help readers achieve awareness of whether they understand a reading text or not (Wenden

& Rubin, 1987: 19) ‘These strategies help leamers identify available resources, decide which of these resources are important for the specific task they perform and sel goals for comprehension Tn facl, the effectiveness of the application of those strategies relies on not only the strategy itself but also the factors including (a) who is

employing it, (b) how consciously it is employed, (c) what kind of text is being read,

(d) when it is being employed and (¢) why il is being used (Carrell, 1998; Farrell,

2001} Bishop et al (2005; 207-208) mention that metacognitive deals with various

kinds of reading strategies such as imagining, using a variety of senses making

conncelions, analyzing (exL slruclure, recognizing words and understanding

sentences, exploring inferences, asking question, determining important ideas and themes, evaluating, summarizing and synthesizing

1.1.4, Factors in Teaching ESP Reading Skill

Many linguistics (Dudley-livans, St John, Nuttall, etc.) state that the role of

ESP teachers and the role of students are always considered as decisive factors to

affect directly teaching HSP reading skill

1.1.4.1 The Role of SP Teachers

According to Dudley-Evans and St John (1998), the role of ESP teacher as an

FSP practitioner seems to be more detailed and completed They distinguish key roles of LSP practitioner as a teacher, a course designer and a materials provider, a

collaboralor, a researcher and an evaluator

Firstly, “a teacher” is to crcate real and authentic communication im the

classroom based on the students’ knowledge Secondly “a course designer and a

matenal provider” are responsible for plarming the course and providing [or it

‘Thirdly, “a collaborator” is to have knowledge about the subject skills, tasks, and syllabus, and to discover how the subject integrates with the language in order to

bring the suitable material and courses for the learners Lastly “an evaluator” is ta

give a feedback for learners and the course achievement through testing, the students’

progress

In short, the teachers must be fully aware of their roles, which will bring

successful reading lessons Apart from the rote of teachers, the students’ participation

is one of decisive factors for a successful reading activity ‘he next part will discuss

the students’ role

1.1.4.2, The Role of the Students

Nuttall (2003: 33) mentions several main roles for students in a reading lesson

To begin with, the students’ responsibility is to take an active part in leaning They

have Io be active and lake charge of what they do Next, studonls need to maniior comprehension in order to understand how texts work and what they do when they read Then, leaming to talk about the text in class is an effective way for students to promote reading comprehension Moreover, students have to take the risk of making mistakes because it is an opportunity to learn, Finally, students should aware that reading will give them enormous advantages such as having better jabs, personal development, interest and enjoyment

In brief, teachers and students are interrelated to each other during the process

of teaching and leaming reading skills

1.1.5 Strategies for Teaching ESP Reading in Fach Stage

‘A reading lesson usually consists of three stages: pre- reading, while- reading

and post- reading Each of these stages carries its own characteristics and purposes

and requires different tectmiques and strategies (William, 1984: 37)

1.1.5.1 Pre-reading Siage

This slage is oflen referred to as “lead-in” The pre-reading stage aims to

prepare students for the text, to arouse their interest in the topic of the text and

motivate them to read (William, 1984: 37) To achieve these goals, many strategies

for this stage are discussed by different aulhors

Furst of all, William (1984: 37) suggests that the teacher should think of

questions and find how to introduce the text, to motivate students and to incorporate language preparation Students are encouraged to express their expectations and

predictions by discussing, brainstorming, matching, ordering, or answering

10

questions

Next, Reutzel (1985) proposes another pre-reading activity called reconciled reading lesson, which reserves the sequence in the textbooks where the text is followed by questions Instead, the teacher develops pre-reading questions from the questions that appear at the end of the reading

Then, Carrell, Pharis, and Liberlo (1989) suggesl semantic mapping stralegy

as a useful way to pre-teach vocabulary Students are asked to brainstorm about the

reading topic as the information is displayed on a graphic “map.”

Smith (1994: 19-20) mentions prediction as another pre-reading activity In his opinion, predictions are questions the readers ask the world and comprehension is receiving the answers He asserts that the prediction makes skilled readers effective when reading texts thal contain familiar subject matter

Later, Davies (2000: 93) states some pre-reading activities including guessing

the topic of the text from the heading, illustration etc.; brainstorming around a topic word, predicting what the text will say, writing questions that may be answered by

the text

As shown above, the strategies suggested by Davies (2000: 93) are the most specific and detailed ones Obviously, without the pre-reading stage, the task (while- reading) might be more difficult and less enjoyable for students

1.1.5.2, While- reading Stage

To begin with, Willams (1984:38) speci! fies the purposes of this stage Lo help the students understand the writer's purpose and the text structure as well as clarify the text

Laler on, sharing the sane Williams’ view, Shields (1993:92) suggests a variety

of the while-reading stage activities which are also considered as reading for general understanding (top-down process); reading for extracting specific’ detailed

information (bollom-up process), predicting contiraung events, then reading to

confirm expectation; reading on communicative tasks

Next, the while-reading activities, according to Mathews, Spratt and Dangerfield (1999:67), include understanding the relation between sentences and clauses, recognizing the effect of style, recognizing the organization of a text,

11

making inferences, extensive reading, skimming for the gist, scamming for specific information and reading, for detail The activities in this stage should be designed acearding to the level and standard of the students

Later on, Karakas (2002) also mentions some activities for this stage In his

opinion, scanning and skimming work better if they are supported with evaluation

activities

To summarize, most of the authors discuss the skimming and scamming

activitics as the most valuable strategics in while — reading stage

1.1.5.3 Post-reading Stage

Tu Williams’ view (1984: 39), the ain of posl- reading stage is lo consolidate or

reflect upon what has been read and relate the text to the leamer’s own knowledge

interest or views This stage might be approached in different ways by different

authors

According to Brown and Palinscar (1984) in Doolittle (2006), the post-reading,

strategies can be predicting, questioning, clarifying, summarizing, monitoring

comprehension, and justifying comprehension

‘Tierney et al (1990) also recommend some practical strategies for the post- reading stage including question-answer relationship, direct reading activity, vocabulary self-collection stralegy, contextual redefinilion, and text structure

strategy

Later, summarizing the content as a kind of post-reading strategies is suggested

by Ur (1996) Tn Ur’s opinion, the summarizing aclivily might be given in the students’ mother tongue or in English

Tu summary, each stage is characterived by ils own aims and activities TL is more effective if teaching ESP reading is carried out into three consecutive stages as

mentioned above

1.1.6 Evaluation of Teaching Reading Strategies

To the evaluation process, “evaluators must, take evaluation crileria into account

before any evaluation takes place.” (Dudley- I'vans and St John (1998) In order to make the teaching of reading effective, it is important for teachers “to take stock of

their perception or the nature of the reading process itself, relevant reading activities, and appropriate classroom management.” (Williams, 1986: 42-45) She also points out “top ten principles” which are important.to evaluate successful reading strategies

However, obviously, the work of developing and choosing evaluative criteria is rather subjective and depends on what the evaluators consider to be important Within the scopes of this study, the researcher chooses the only eight appropriate

criteria to evaluate effectiveness of ESP reading strategies The list of these criteria

(Williams, 1986: 42-45) is paraphrased as follow:

(i) The prerequisite im reading process is fo have interesting lexis as only such

texts enhance readers’ interest in reading skill

Gi) The primary activity of a reading lesson should be learners reading text It

mans that while leaming to read, reading as a single-skill is given emphasis

Teachers should know “Learners team to read by reading: there is no other

way.”

(ii) Tt is obligatory for students to awn a rich source ef vocabulary, deep

imowledge of sentence structure as well as rhetorical forms used in the text

to improve their reading skill; without these kinds of knowledge, all their

skills and stralegics mm the world “will have hie effeet”

(iv) Classroom procedure should reflect the purposeful, task-based, interactive

nature of real reading, as reading is not only active but also interactive process; this interactivity can best be fostered in a reading classroom in which pair work and group work are permitted

(v) Teachers should play a role as am instructor, uol imterfere loo deeply into

students’ reading process as reading activity is an individual task

(vi) Exercise-types should, as far as possible, approximate to cognitive reality

and during the process of real reading, the leaner is equipped with the

reading stralegies and skills to make bimnsher a more efficient reader

(vii) 4 reader contributes meaning to a text, as during the reading process,

readers combine their experience, pre-knowledge with what is in the reading

text

(viii) Selecting appropriate texts for students” level is vital to help them develop

13

reading skills as a particular text is suitable for a particular purpose

In this evaluation study, the cight appropriale criteria mentioned above are adopted to assess whether the most appropriate KSP reading strategies employed by teachers at aUL

1.2 Previous Studies in the Same Field

Reading strategies employed by teachers in teaching reading skill have been of

great interest to researchers all over the world This section mainly deals with those

studies that focus on the teachers’ strategies in teaching reading skill in order to

cuhance the sludenis’ interest

First, the study was conducted by Nurman Antoni (2010), namely “Exploring English as a Foreign Language (UEL) teachers’ strategies in teaching reading

comprehension” at one juror high school in Riau The aim of this study is lo explore

EEL toachers’ strategies in teaching reading comprehension and the students’ responses toward their teachers’ strategies in teaching reading comprehension at one junior high school i Riau This sludy employed a qualitalive case stuly rescarch design which consisted of three data collection techniques: observation, inteiview and questionnaire All of the data were analyzed by using three major phases of analyses: data reduction, data display, ard conclusion drawing and verification The participants of this study in SMPN 1 Gunung Toar in Riau were taken from all of DEL teachers with different experiences and the degree of background knowledge Resides, some students were chosen randomly for each class to gel the mfonnalion about their responses toward their teachers’ strategies in teaching reading comprehension The findings revealed that the teachers had used teaching reading comprehension stralogies in three reading stages: pre — roading, while — reading and post — reading stage It also showed that in general, the students’ responses to their

teachers’ strategies were good enough which were classified into low-level

association responses and partly-formmcd knowledge struchure responses The

teachers are also suggested to give instructions of teaching strategies to students with

low-level association responses before starting the reading activities, and give some guidance to students with partly-formaed knowledge Nevertheless, this study only

14

mentioned an exploration of HEL teachers’ strategies in teaching reading comprehension, it did not evaluate which strategies are the most appropriate ta enhance the students” interest in learning reading skill

Another study, named “An evaluation of the techniques used by some teachers

of English in Misurata secondary schools”, conducted by Ahmad Mahdi Shteiwi (2012) also was relevant 1o this study This paper investigated not only the reading techniques but also the techniques in teaching vocabulary, listening and speaking,

grammar, and functions and writing used by some teachers of English in Misurata

secondary schools The study used classroom observation, checklist items, students”

and teachers’ questionnaire, interview and administering reading tests as the toals to gather data The finding of the study pointed out that teachers’ activities in the classroom are disappointing, Because they did nol [ollow the proscribed student- oriented techniques, instead, they used traditional teacher-oriented methods

Furthermore, the majority of teachers often read the texts in front of the class and

translate them word by word and sentence by sentence As a result, students played a passive role and the class atmosphere became boring Lowever, the subject of this

paper related to all four language skills, namely speaking, listening, reading and

writmg, the techniques employed by teacher in reading comprehension skill were not mentioned fully and thoroughly

The greatest relevance to this study is the one carried out by Hamidur Rahman (2007) which investigated the

uncut silualion of teaching reading skills of Fnglish

as well as presented an evaluation of teaching the different sub-skills of reading at the Higher Secondary school Certificate (H.C) level in Bangladesh H.S.C in Bangladesh is an cquivalent to General Certificate of Education Advanced Level (GCE) A Level in England During the study, the author used five major techniques

lo collect data which consisis of students’ and teachers’ questionnaire survey, students’ and teachers’ interview, classroom observation, test of reading skills and evaluation of reading syllabus, material and tests After analyzing data, the author came to a conclusion that teachers did not follow the prescribed student-oriented techniques, instead, they used traditional teacher-oriented methods ‘the teachers

15

were arbiters, and the students became passive leamers in the class The teachers

only gave lecture and explained the reading passages word for word in Bangla, they did not engage their students in reading the text in the classroom In addition, the author also gave some suggestions for teachers to stimulate students’ interest in reading skill

Those researches, which were carned out in different parts of the world on the

same subjects, revealed that strategies employed by teachers in teaching reading skill

attracted great attention Apart from the international studies, research papers on

icachers’ slategies in (caching reading skill in Vietnamese context: were also reviewed by the researcher of this study

One of those related articles conducted by Ngnyen Thi Hong Minh (2011)

investigated the realily of teaching and learning reading comprehension at Banking Academy Son ‘Yay taining center She used the instruments such as the classroom

observation, the semi-structured interviews and questionnaires for collecting data

First, she carried out the classroom observation to find out actually how a reading,

lesson was taught, from this, the researcher interviewed teachers to find the reason

why teachers chose this approach and methods for teaching reading Finally, the

questionnaires were designed to find out the students’ preferences towards teachers’

methods in teachers’ methods The researcher indicated that most of teachers still

used the traditional methods in reading periods and the students had negative alliludes towards these teachers’ welhods of te;

chíng Those researches, which were carried out in different parts of the world on the same subjects, revealed important issues on the leaching reading comprehension skill and became a useful background knowledge for my study

SUMMARY

Tn this chapter, ihe researcher describes elaborately various aspects of leaching ESP reading strategies More importantly, the researcher reviews what related studies found out It is hoped that the literature review provides a milestone background for the discussion of the collected data

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Chapter 2: METIIODOLOGY

‘This chapter presents the context and the research methodology of the study

2.1, Context of the study

‘The study was conducted at Hanoi University of Industry (HaUl), which is

located in Minh Khai Commune, Bac Tu Liem District, Hanoi At [aUl, English

subject is taught in the Lormal sclting wilh lwo slages: The first stage — the stage for General Jinglish and the second one - the stage for linglish for Specific Purposes (ESP) The first stage often lasts five terms with 405 periods The textbooks employed in the first stage arc New Headway Elementary and Intermediate (Liz and John Soars, 2000) Students study four skills namely: listening, speaking, reading

and writing during the first stage These textbooks aim at providing students with

fundamental knowledge and four language skills of English

The second stage is for an ISP course which students learn in the second

semester of the third year This stage only lasts one term with a total of 45 periods The reading skill accounts for 33 periods while translating, wailing and testing are about 12 periods During this stage, students learn HSP related to their major field in

order to improve the professional knowledge of English for their [ulure job

requirement ESP at HaUl is taught in cight different major ficlds with the aim of equipping students with reading skills and translation techniques Before entering the FSP course, students have already finished General Fnglish slage

For electrical engineering students, they are required to attend three SP periods every week The ESF course uses the textbook “Iinglish for Electrical and

Electronics Engineering” which was compiled from various sources of authentic

texts by HSP lecturers at Hal ‘lis ESP textbook covers 6 topics in G wuts, each of

which lasts from 3 to 9 periods Each reading lesson is taught in 3 periods The aim

of the current ESP lexthook is to provide an amount of vocabulary relating to the students’ major field and develop their ability to read and translate technical

materials It focuses on language skills: reading, writing, and translation It also puis

grealor emphasis on knowledge of siudonts’ spowlie major rather tar lenguage skills However, for most of the Hlectrical Hngmeering students, reading is the most

challenging task

2.2 Methodology

2.21 Research questions

The study is to find ont the answers to the following questions:

1 What sirategies do lecturers employ in leaching FSP reading for Electrical

Lngineering third-year students at LaUl?

2 Hew beneficial are lecturers’ teaching ESP reading strategies to

Electrical Engineering third-year students at Hall?

To address the research aims, objectives and rescarch questions, document

analysis, students’ and lecturers’ survey questionnaires are respectively carried out Vollowing is the details of the participants, research instruments and data collection procedures

2.22 Participants

The participants of this study include third-year students af Electrical Fngincering laculty and ESP Incturers

2.2.2.1 Students

The study was carried out with participation of 100 (out of 150) third-year

students from all 5 English classes for Electrical Engineering faculty at HaUI in

2014-2015 Academic Year The 100 studenls were randamly sclected in five clasacs

The researcher chose the odd numbers of electrical cngincoring classes named

Electrical Engineering 1, Hlectrical Engineering 3 and Electrical Engineering 5 to

participate in the study

These students, from different parts of the country, are at the age from 20 to 27:

most of therm are male, only 20 are Tomale Most of thern come from the rural or

remote areas where there are no good opportunities for studying English Although they all passed the examinations of General English course, there remains a wide gap

in Dnglish proficiency among students

of them graduated from the English Department, University of Foreign Languages Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi, One graduated from the Faculty of lnglish at Llanoi University of Science and ‘lechnology ‘hey all have MA degrees and have been teaching ESP at HaUI at least for three years

2.2.3 Research instruments

In this study, data was collected with the use of two survey questionnaires, one

for students and one for lecturers

In both of students and lecturers’ survey questionnaires, Questions 1, 3 and 5

explore activities lecturers employ in teaching ESP reading at each stage (including

pre-reading, while- reading and posi-reading slage) The questions relaled Lo frequency of use were used 4point Likert scale with 1= Never, 2= Rarely, 3=

Sometimes, 4= Usually In students’ survey questionnaires, questions 1, 3 and 5

related to benefits for students were used following indexes such as N= Not beneficial, LB= Little beneficial, B= Beneficial, VB= Very beneficial To answer

these questions, respondents choose the answer which is the most appropriate to their thoughts

Reasons for choosing survey questionnaires

Generally, it is accepted that the survey questionnaire is the most plausible and the frequently-used tool in doing research According to Nunan (1992), using this

instrument is economical and time saving In theary, this method includes using

questionnaires to colloet the data, as “questionnaires often scom a logical and easy option as a way of collecting of information from people” (Wisker, 2001-32)

‘Therefore, questionnaires are used in this study to investigate activities which lecturers have employed to teach ESP reading for Electrical Engineering third-year

students

2.2.3.1 Survey questionnaire for students

The objectives of this survey questionnaire are to identify the strategies which lecturers have employed to teach LISP reading to Llectrical Lingineering third-year students as well as the students’ personal expectations about teaching activities to

help them improve their readin comprehension (The survey questionnaire is

available in Appendix A)

The students’ survey questionnaire consists of 7 questions [he survey

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questionnaire for students was translated into Vietnamese so that all of students could

properly understand the meaning of all the questions Questions 1, 3 and 5 are designed to explore the teaching reading activities their lecturers employ at each

stage (including pre-reading, while-reading and post-reading stage) and benefits from

those aclivilies Lo students Questions 2, 4 and 6 focus on investigaling how their lecturers organize them to do the activities when teaching an ESP reading lesson at

each stage Question 7 attempts to find out the students’ expectation how teaching

would improve their reading comprehension

2.3.3.2 Survey questionnaire for lecturers

The chjeotives of this survey questionnaire arc to explore the strategies which lecturers have employed to teach LSP reading to Mlectrical Lingineering third-year students, their difficulties in teaching ESP reading as well as what they suggest to improve their teaching (The survey questionnaire is available in Appendix B)

The survey questionnaire for feclurcrs meludss 8 questions Questions 1, 3 and

5 are lo investigate activities thal the lecturers employ al cach stage including pre-

reading, while-reading and post-reading stage Questions 2, 4 and 6 explore how the

lecturers organize students to practice activities at each reading stage Question 7

focuses on difficulties the lecturers face with in teaching I'SP reading texts from their points of view Question 8 is lo collect their personal suggestions to improve leaching ESP reading stratogios

22.4 Data collection procedures

‘The students and lecturers’ survey questionnaires were conducted by the researcher herself A hundred copies of the survey questionnaire were sent to students

at Faculty of Hlectvical Engineering The researcher wenl lo every class and explamed the purpose of ihe survey questiormaire as well as tostructed students how

to answer questions in the survey questionnaire before delivering them They were also encouraged to ask if there was something unclear or if they did not understand any survey items I'he survey questionnaires were collected as soon as students

‘Though a inndred survey questionnaires were given to students, only 98 were collected However, 3 survey questionnaires were excluded due to a lot of missing information, 95 survey questionnaires were employed for data analysis

Four lecturers’ survey questionnaires were rewurned to the researcher on time

Therefore, all these dala are Laken into analysis.

Chapter 3: RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

‘This chapter presents results from the survey questionnaires for lecturers and

for students Comparisons and contrasts between students and lecturers’ opinions are

presented in this chapter,

3.1, Lecturers’ teaching ESP reading strategies

The term “aclivitics” are used instead of “stralegies” for both students and

lecturers’ survey questionnaires because as discussed in Literature Review in chapter

1 each stage of reading is characterized by its own aims and activities

3.1.1 Lecturers’ activities in pre-reading stage

‘Table 3.1 below reports students” points of view about lecturers’ activities in pre-reading stage

reading text through the headinig(s) Fncouage students ts guess the topic of the

Encourage students to guess the topic of the

5 | reading text through the visual aid(s) R42) 5.26 1053 9

reading text in pairs of in groups Provide the meaning of new terminologies amd

31%

Show students how to predict the content of the

As can be seen, among eleven popular reading activities in pre-reading stage, firstly, item & is the most frequent activity employed by lecturers (89.47%); secondly,

item 2 is also frequently used (73.68%), thirdly, item 9 is employed by two-thirds of

lecturers (68.42%), fourthly, item 1 attracts 63.16% of lecturers In addition, in pre-

reading stage, 56.84% lecturers apply item 11 Unfortunately, two activities (item 2 and Hem 9) out of five that lecturers use frequently are uot key aclivilies im pre- reading stage according to the linguists (William, Smith, Davies) discussed in chapter 1

On the contrary, the most effeclive activilies for pre-reading stage as suggested

by the authors (William, Carrel et al, Smith, and Davies) are rarely and/ or never

used by the ESP lecturers including item 10 (100%), item 7 (90.53%), item 5

(89.41%), ilem 4 (81.0594), lem 3 (80%) and ilem 6 (72.63%)

‘The findings of frequency of using activities in teaching KSP reading in pre- reading stage from the lecturers” points af views are presented in table 3.2 below

Items Lecturers’ activities (in pre-reading stage) Frequency of we 6)

1 _| Ask questions relating to the topic of the reading text 0 0 mỊ mm 2 | Briefly imtroduce the topic of the ESP reading text 0 0 25/7

Enoourage students to guess the topic of the reading

3 S

4 Encourage students to guess the topic of the reading 2523| 25| 35

text through the illustration(s) Encourage students to guess the iopie of the reading

6 se language games to introduce the topic of the 0673| 35 0

reading text

7 | Use music to introduce the topic of the reading text 0 10| 0] 0

| Allow students fo discuss the topic of the reading fy a] | ayq

in pairs oc in groups

9 [Provide the meaning of new Eonmimaleals ad HEX ạ| 95) 5

siruehrss in The ESP reading text

ip | 3h96 siulenshow lo moiletdle conlenLoftheradig ye og] gg

lexi Buough the lile(s) or sub-tile(s) or heading(s)

11 [Ask students to brainsionn ideas related tothe eating — 5g | ga | gy

content

Table 3.2: Lecturers’ self-evaluation of their activities in pre-reading stage

As reported in table 3.2, in pre-reading stage, the most usually used activity is item 8 (100%) Then, item 2 and item 9 are frequently employed by two-thirds of lecturers (75%) Finally, half of the lecturers apply both item 1 and item 11 in pre-

reading stage (50%)

On the other hand, table 3.2 reveals that items 7 and 10 are rarely and/ or never

employed by all the lecturers (100%) Additionally, the lecturers report that they

rarely and/ or never use some activities such as items 6, 4 and 5 (75% and 50%

respectively) in pre-reading stage

The findings of frequency of using lecturers’ pre-reading stage activities that present in both students’ evaluation and lecturers’ self-evaluation are relatively

similar Although the ESP lecturers sometimes do not follow the activities suggested

some linguists (William, Carrel et al., Smith, and Davies), there is no evidence to

prove that the activities employed by lecturers are not essential in pre-reading stage

The results in both students and lecturers’ survey questionnaires explore the

lecturers” ways of organizing students’ activities in pre-reading stage The findings of

the two survey are displayed in Figure 3.1 and 3.2 below

80% 75%

Working individualljorking in paitVorking in groups

Figure 3.2: Lecturers’ self-evaluation of their activity organization

in pre-reading stage

First, as can be seen from figure 3.1 and 3.2 above, the lecturers often ask

students to perform pre-reading stage activities in pairs (reported by 45.3% and 75%

of the students and lecturers respectively) Second, in pre-reading stage, organizing students to do activities in groups is frequently used by lecturers (38.9% and 50%

respectively) These results are quite understandable since asking students to work in

pairs or groups ensures increased learner-learner interaction and motivation

3.1.2 Lecturers’ activities in while-reading stage

The responses to question 3 are presented and analyzed in table 3.3 and 3.4 as

follows

As shown in table 3.3, first, items 1, 2, 10, 13 and 15 are reported to be the

most frequent activities used by all the lecturers (100%) in while-reading stage

Second, item 8 and 9 (94.74%) is also frequently employed by lecturers Third, item

5 and item 4 attract 89.47% and 84.21% of lecturers respectively Fortunately, all activities that lecturers often employ are key activities in while-reading stage in

accordance with the authors (Williams, Sheils, Mathews et al and Karakas)

discussed in chapter 1

Nevertheless, it can be seen from table 3.3, item 16 and item 3 are rarely and/

or never employed by the majority of the lecturers (78.95% and 73.68%

respectively) The results are quite understandable since it takes ESP lecturers much

time to design extra exercises Besides, encouraging students to guess the meaning of

unfamiliar words by contextual clues is not an easy task because of depending on

tỳ a

specific subjects and students’ ability of perceiving

§ Skim to get main ideas 0 0| 52% | 94.74

9 _| Scan to get specific information 0 O| 5.26 | 9474

10 |Read silently to find the main ideas for each

0 8 q 100

paragraph

H Do all the reading tasks below the reading text 9 0| 26.32 | 73.68

12 | Do True/ Falsc cxcroiscs lơ check the umderstanding about facts and ideas in the reading text 0 4737/5263} 7.37 | 52, 9

13 _| Use the information in the text for completing tables | 0 0 0| 100

14 | Use the information in the text for completing | 5 9Ì 3684 | 6316

diagrams

15 | Use the information in the text for doing rephrasing |, R al ape

task

16 _| Do extra exercises designed by their lecturer 0 78.95 | 21.05 9

Table 3.3: Students’ evaluation of lecturers’ activities in while-reading stage

Table 3.4 below sums up aclivities in while-reading stage from leolurers` self~ evaluation From this table, items 1, 2, 8, 9, 10, 13, 15 have the highest frequency of use by all lecturers in while-reading stage (100%), Next, two-thirds of the lecturers (75%) reveal that items 4, 5 and 11 are also [frequently employed

However, as can be seen in table 3.4, two items 3 and 16 are rarely and! or