Luận văn thạc sĩ adapting tasks for reading lessons in english for electricity to improve the english reading skill of the first year students at electricity faculty sao do university

This study has been conducted in an attempt to investigate the difficulties in reading ESP materials, find out the necessity of adapting and recommend techniques af adapting tasks for re

ABSTRACT

Reading is one of the most important skills in learning English, especially ESP For first year students at Hlectricrty Faculty in Sao Do University, reading has been given the first priority and has been paid more allsntion as the students have ta read English smaterials related to their own specialist subject This study has been conducted in an attempt to investigate the difficulties in reading ESP materials, find out the necessity of adapting and recommend techniques af adapting tasks for reading Isssons in English for Electricity to improve the reading skill of the first year students at Electricity Faculty, Sao

Do University

‘The subjects involved in the study are 8 English icachers who have taught English for Electricity and 100 students of Electricity Faculty chosen at random from 3 classes They were in their first year and have just finished studying English for Electricity The data collected from questionnaires and notes from class observation reveal that it is necessary to adapt reading tasks to facilitate reading process and help students to obtain desirable achievements in ESP reading,

The analysis of the data collected has helped the researcher to come at several problems in both teaching and leaning ESP in general and reading skill in particutar Stemming from the findings, the author has put forward adapting tasks in reading lessons

of Tanglish for Hlectrécity to improve yeading skill of the first-year students at Plectricity

Faculty, Sap Do University.

LIST OF TABLES, FIGURES AND ABBREVIATION

1, Tables:

Table 1 _ Exercises believed to be suitable to develop reading skills

‘Table 2: English for Electricity’s Units

Table 3: Sludents” evaluation of the difficulties of different units in the Lexthook Table 4: Teachers’ evaluation of the difficulties of different units i the textbook

‘Table 5: ‘Teachers’ and students’ preferences for the reading activities

2 Figures:

Figure 1; Students” places of domicile

Figure 2: Students’ time of leaming English

Figure 3: Sludents’ purposes in earning ESP

Figure 4: Students’ evaluation of the difficulties in leaming Znglish for Eleviricity Figure 5: Teachers’ evaluation of the difficulties in learning English for Electricity Figure 6: Students’ views of the difficulties of reading strategies

Figure 7: Teachers’ cvaluation of the necessity of reading strategics

Figure 8, Students’ views on the reference materials

Figure 9: Time of students’ suulying outsids the classroom

GE: General English

BSP: Engfish for Speci Purposes

CLT: Commmnicalive Language Teaching

EFL: English as a Foreign Language

DC: Direct current

List of tables, figures and abbreviations,

1.3, Research questlODs secenneieeree

14 Scope of the study

1.2.3, Reading skills in English for Specific Purposcs

13 TASK IN LANGUAGE TEACHING AND TASK DESIGNING eo

CHAPTER Il: THE STƯDY ào cesesee

11.1.1 The sylfabus

11.1.2 The teachers

11.1.3 The students

11.2 THE SUBJECTS

11.3 THE RESEARCH INSTRUMENTS AND PROCEDURE

CHAPTER IL: DATA ANALYSIS, DISCUSSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

TIL QUESTIONAIRE DATA ANANYSIS AND DISCUSSION

TIL1.1, Students’ backpround of learning English and their purposes in learning ESP I11.1.2, Evaluation of the difficulties in feaming English for Electricity,

11.1.3 Evaluation of the difficulties of different mils in the texthook

I1L1.4, Evaluation of reading skills

T1.1.4.1, Students’ views of the difficulties of reading stralegies 1.1.4.2 Teachers’ evaluation of the necessity of reading strategies

TIL.1.5 Tcachers’ and students' prcfcrenecs for thc rcadina activifics

IIL.1.6 Reference naaterials for stuđenfs nút

11.2.1 Some adjustnents of teaching and Learning,

171.2.1.1, Promoting sludonts with a varicty of reading strategies

111.2.1.2 Encouraging students to develop learning habit outside elass

11.2.2 Adaptation of the reading tasks in Lnglish for Electricity

ML2.2.1 8implilymg

12.23 Ađding

MI.2.2.4 Dolcting or Omiffng nhan treo

PART HH: CONCLUSION ăn he

REFERENCES

APPENDIXES

APPENDIX 2

with the development of General English (GE), English for Specific Purposes (ESP) has become an indispensable branch in English Language Teaching in Vietnam to meet the growing demand for communicating with foreigners and updating information as well as technology in the fields of electrical engineering, electronics, computer science and

engineering

ESP is a compulsory subject in the training curriculum at Sao Do University Students

at Electricity Faculty are supposed to study a certain command of ESP relating industrial fields

such as: electrical engineering, electric power system, electric power in industry and

household However, ESP teaching has encountered a number of problems such as long and difficult reading texts, students’ electrical knowledge limitation, and lack of experienced

teachers of ESP Another problem of great concern of the ESP teachers is syllabus, especially

its tasks and activities for practicing reading skill, The ESP syllabus for the first-year students

of Electricity Faculty — English for Electricity is not an exception And the desire of how to

improve the effectiveness of reading lessons is really the strong motivation

Alll the above mentioned reasons lead to the choice of the study: “Adapting tasks for

reading lessons in English for Electricity to improve the English reading skill of the first-

year students at Electricity Faculty, Sao Do University”

1.2 The aim of the study

The study aims to:

~ develop a theoretical framework which is appropriate for adapting tasks for reading lessons

in English for Electricity for the first year students at electricity Faculty, Sao Do University

- investigate and analyze the difficulties the first year students of Electricity Faculty may

encounter when studying the reading lessons in English for Electricity

- adapt some reading tasks in English for Electricity for the first year students at electricity

Faculty, Sao Do University.

3, What reading tasks in English for Electricity should be adapted?

L4 Scope of the study

This study is limited to the arca of investigating and analyzing, the difficultics the first

‘year students of Electricity Faculty may encounter when studying the reading lessons in English for Electricity, More importantly, the focus of the sludy is to suggest techriques ta adapt some reading tasks in this textbook to improve the students’ reading skill

1.4

L5 Organization of the study

The study is cxpeeted to consist of three main paits

Part L includes rationales, aims of the study, research questians and scope of the study

Part Tincludes 5 chapters

Chapter 1 deals with the theoretical background relevant to the research topic including adaptation, an overview of reading, tasks in language teaching and task designing

Chapter 2 provides with current situation of lzaching and tearing reading skill in the Electricity Faculty, Sao Do University and introduces the research methodology

Chapter 3 presents the findings of the study resulting from a statistical analysis of the collected data und some oxtra roading tasks [or “English for Fllectrivily”

Part II] presents conclusion of the study

References

Appendix,

11.1 Definition

According to Madsen and Bowen (1978; ix), adaptation is an action of employing “one

of more of a number of techniques: supplementing, expanding, personalizing, simplifying,

aodomizing, locelizing, or modifying cultural’ situational content”, Similarly, from Tomlinson (1998:xi) look the same position that adaptation referred lo “reducing, adding, omitting, modifying and supplementing”, Adaptation is a term referring to the ability to adjust

to new information and experiences Learning is essentially adapling lo our constantly changing environment, Through adaptation, we are able to adopt new behaviors that allow us

to cope with change

1.2 Adapting techniques

L121, Adding

"The notion of addition is that tasks of a textbook are supplemented by putting more into, while taking inlo account the practical effect on time allocation First, we can certainly add in this quantitative way by the technique of extending "This means that the techniques are being applied within the methodological framework of the original materials: in other words, the model is not itself changed" (McDonaugh and Shaw, 1993:89) We can da this in the following situation: A second reading passage parallel to the ane provided is helpful in reinforcing the key linguistic features - tenses, sentence structures, vocabulary, cohesive devices - of the first text, Sceond, more far-rcaching perspective on addition of materials can

be termed expanding ‘This kind of addition is not just extension of an existing aspect of content They go further than this by bringing about a qualitative as well as a quantitative change This can be thought of as a change in the averall systom’ (McDonough and Shaw, 1993-90)

£1.22, Deleting or Omitting

Deletion is clearly the opposile process 1o thal of addition, As we saw in the previous section that tasks can be added both quantitatively (extending) and qualitatively (expanding),

the same point applies when a decision is taken ta omit tasks The most straightforward aspect

of reducing the length of tasks is subtracting, Addition and deletion often work together A task may be taken ont and then replaced with something else ‘the methodological change is greater when, for example, grammar practice is substituted after the omission of an inappropriale communicative function

11.23 Modifying

Modifying can be sub-divided under two related headings The first of these is rewriting, when some of the linguistic content necds modification, the sccond is restructuring, which applies to classroom management

+ Rawriling nay rotate activities more closcly to leamers’ own background and intcrest, introduce model of authentic language, or set most purposefid problem-solving tasks where the answers are not always known before the teacher asks the question

- Restructuring: For many teachers who are required to follow a course book rather strictly, changes in the structuring of the class arc sometimes the only kind of adaptation that is realistically possible For example, the materials may contain role-play activities for groups of certain size The logistic of wanaging a large class (cxpecially if they all have same LI) are complex trom many points of view, and it will probably be necessary

to assign one role to a number of pupils at the same time Obviously the converse - where the class is ton small for the tolal number af roles available - is alsa possible if perhaps Jess likely,

LL24 Simplifying

The pique of sitnptification is a type of modification, namely a “rawriting" activity, The elements of a language which can be simplified are: the instructions and explanations that accompany exercises and activities, and even the visual layout of materials so that it becomes casicr to sac how different part ft logethcr However, texls, most oflen reading passages arc applied this technique Usually, the emphasis has been on changing various sentences - bound elements to match the text more closely to the proficiency level of a particular group of Jeamcrs Simplification could be in the following forms: Scntenec structure, Lexical content,

and grammatical structures

matter is regarded as being too advanced ‘Thirdly simplification can refer to the ways in which the content is presented: we may decide nal to make any changes to the original lext,

‘ut instead to lead the learners through it in a number of graded stages

EL25 Re - oriering

This procedure refers to the possibility of putting the parts of a course book in a different order This may mean adjusting the sequence of presentation within a unit, or taking units ina differen sequence from that originally intended

L2 READING

L2.1 What is reading and reading comprehension?

E241 The definition of reading

On the teaching point of views, language skills consist of fow-macro skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing Of the four skills, Carrel(1988) says that “for many students, reading by far is the thosl important of four skills in d

ond language, particularly in English

as a second or foreign language”, So “what is reading?” To answer the question, numerous attempts have been made, but according to Smith (1985) there is no point in locking for a simple definition of reading Nullal (1996:3) stated that reading is “a process wherchy one Jooks at and understands what has been written” Also, Goodman(1971:135) defined “teading

is psycholinguisties process by which the reader, language user, reconstructs, as best as he can,

a mossage which has been cneodsd by writer as a graphic display” For Gondman, this acl of reconstruction is viewed a cyclical process of sampling, predicting, testing and confirming

And according to Smith (1985: 102), “reading is understanding the author’s thought” ft means

that the readers “read Ihe author's mind nol the author's words”

From these definitions, each author reflects what reading means as seen fram his own points of view All what they share is that they try to find out the nature of reading and reading

act, in which the readers, reading process, and reading message arc emphasized.

is the most important activity in any language class, not only as a source of information and a pleasurable activity, but also as a means of consolidating and extending one’s which are Imowledge of the language” Rskey (1988) considered in advanced levets of second language the ability to read the written language at a reasonable rate and with good comprehension has Jong been recognized to be as oral skills if not more important

Though the authors mentioned above may not have exact same ideas, they all come np the common point that reading comprehension is the process in which the readers, as they read, can recognize the graphic forms of the reading text and understand what is implied

‘bobind these forms,

1.2.2 Reading techniques

In reading, the objective of the rcader is not always to understand which is written

down According to Grellet(1981:4), there are 4 main ways of reading: skimming, scanning,

extensive Toading and intensive reading,

Skimming

Grellct(i981:4} defined skimming as

gist of it” Skimming is used to get main points or the intention of the writer, quickly gather

ickly running onz’s cyes over a text to get the

the most imporiant information, or ‘gist’, rum one’s eyes over the text and note important

information Skimming is to quickly get up to speed on a cwrent business situation It's not

essential to understand each word when skimming

Scanning

Scanning is used to find a particular piece of information The reader goes through the

text very quickly in order to look for the specific piece of information, While scanning, we

Extensive reading is a relatively rapid and efficient process where readers are supposed

to read large quantitics of tnatcrial or long texts for global understanding, the principle goal Deing, obtaining pleasure tiom the text Grellet(1981:4) assumes “extensive reading: reading Jonger texts, usually for one’s own pleasure This is a fluency activity, mainly involving global understanding”, In language teaching, the reading is individualized, what means that students choose books they want to read, they read it independently of the teacher and they not required

to do any tasks afler roading,

Intensive reading

Unlike extensive reading, intensive reading deals with shorter texts to extract specific

information The reader is is required to have deep understanding of the text, Intensive reading aims at understand not only of what the text mcans, but of how the meaning is produced

Brown (1989) explains that intensive reading “calls attention to grammatical forms,

discourse markers, and other surfice structure details for the purpose of understanding literal micaning, implications, rhetorical relationships, and the like."

in conclusion, it’s important for students to develop reading strategies and techniques which will id in Jeaming, understanding, and retaining key concepts from texthaoks, essays, novels, techmcal materials, and other kinds of reading These reading techniques will undoubtedly guide students in becoming a stronger, more critical reader Reading is not an isolated activity; il should be intograted wilh the improvernet of all

L2.3 Reading skills in Engfish for Specific Purposes

Dudley-livans and Jo St John (1998:96) assumed that one of the most important

contributions to the approach to reading in FSP was the shifl from ‘lext os a linguistic object” (TALO) to ‘text as a vehicle of information’ (TAVD It is clear that the most important factor marking the different between reading in ELT and ESP is the change in the approaches in roading By the latter they mean that in ESP the readers pay more attention to extracting information quickly and accurately rather than the language details, That is ‘understand the

macrosinicture comes before langnage study’ and ‘application of the information in the text is

of paramount importance.’ (Dudley Evans and Jo St Join, 1998:94)

In regard to the balance between language and skills in ESP, they proposed that good reading requires language and skills ‘Thus, in order to be a good reader in foreign language the student iseds to Teach a threshold of language before they are able ta lransfer any skills from

‘their first language to those in the foreign language All in all, any reading ESP course requires Janguage to he developed along with the skills Dudley — Evans and Jo St John (1998) list the key skills to be loamed and transferred into the new language as follows:

> Selecting what is relevant for the current purposes;

3> Using all the features of the text such as headings, layout type face;

» Skimming for content and meaning;

» Scanning for specifics:

>» Identifying organizational patterns:

> Understanding relations within a sentence and between sentences;

> Using cohesive and discourse markers;

» Predicting inferring and guessing;

>» — Identifving main ideas, supporting ideas und examples;

» Processing and evaluating the information during reading:

% Transferring or using the information while ar after reading

(Dudley Evans and St John 1998:96)

Although ESP reading is usually related to particular content areas such as technology

in kind from any other form of language Icaching and ESP teaching should be based on the Principles of effective and efficient leaming,

a lot of tasks are adapted or designed based on the theary and characteristics of CLT Lillis

(2003: 3) tas summarized and added his own concise definition as follows: “Tasks are activities that call for primarily meaning-focused language use" Another well-known definition is provided by Nunan (1989:10) He considers a task as “any classroom work which

involves carers in comprchcnding, manipulating, producing, or interacting in the targct Janguage while their attention is puncipally focused on meaning rather than form” More ruocnlly, Skchan (1998:147) summarizes the paramctors for a task activity in the following way

“(a) meaning is primary,

(b) leamers are not given other people's meanings to regurgitate,

(©) there is some sort of relationship to comparable real-world activities,

(d) task completion has a priority,

sment of tasks ate done in terms af oulcoms”

(6), the ngạo

From these definitions, despite the various interpretations, several common design feates can be identified These features include: All three definitions emphasize the importance of foous on meaning, This crilsrion supports the notion (hal eanveying an intended meaning is the essence of language use Skehan’s (1998) definitions emphasize the use of real- world tasks or activities that are comparable to authentic task behavior Performing real-world

A task in language teaching can be seen as the deployment of grammatical knowledge

to express meaning, highlighting the fact that meaning and form arc highly interrelated, and that grammar exists to enable the language user to express different communicative meanings

However, as Willis and Willis (2001) point ont tasks differ from grammatical exercises in that Jeamers are free to use a range of language structures to achieve task outcomes - the fomms are not specified in advance Concemting the distinction between "tasks" and “exercises”, Ellis (2003: 3) classifies tasks as “activities that call for primarily meaning focused language use" and "oxereisos” øs aolivitics “that cull for primarily form focused language usz” Furthermore, Ellis (2003:3) emphasizes that "the overall purpose of tasks is the same as exercises, learning a Janguage- the difference lying in the means by which this purpose is to be achieved”

2 Reasoning-gap activities, which involve deriving some new information from given information through possessed of inti: deduction, practical roasoring, or a pereeption of

According to Hutchinson and Wnlers (1987), in ordor to maximize the chances of Jearning, it is important to design a clea, systematic but flexible material with different types

of tasks Grellet (1981:12-13) listed a number of exercise — types focusing on the formal

organization and the contents of the text to develop reading skills They are chassificd into four main types: reading techniques, the form analysis of the text, the understanding of the meaning

in the text, and the assessment of the text Among various tasks proposed by Grellef(1981),

those listed in table 1 arz belicved to bz used more often in ESP reading Kenedy and Bolitho

(1991: 74-84) suggested several types of exercises, which can be used to train self-stndying

strategies towards reading ESP materials:

L Reference skills

2 Skimming

3 Scamming

4, Relating graphs, diagram to texts

5 Predicting and sequencing the structure of the text

6 Understanding clliptical waiting-tclexes

7 Reading instructions and notices (survival reading)

Reading techniques Form analysis of the text Understanding of the meaning in the

T Inference using contextual

clues, or word formation

T Chronological sequence T, Ordering sequences of pictures T Deciding fact or opinion

2 Linking sentences and ideas | 2 Analogy and contrast | 2 Comparing texts and pictures 2 Finding wniter s

using Reference, link words intention

3 Predicting 3, Classification 3 Matching

charts,)

5, Skimming 5, Reordering events using tables

CHAPTER Ti: THE STUDY 0.1 SETTINGS

IL1.4 The syllabus

‘The sludy is conducted al Electricity Faculty, Sao Do University The main duly of Sao

Do University is to train technicians and engineers for industrial fields such as: electrical engineering, electric power system, electric power in industry and household ‘he overall

120 periods (45 ininutes cach) into two stages: GE and ESP

The General English is taught in 75 periods for which we use the course book Lifeline

ementary by Tom Uulchinson, Oxford University Press Il is considered to be the most important stage to develop students’ language skills The main objectives for this stage are to provide students with basic communicative skills: listening, reading, writing and speaking, However, af the ond of the first lorm, students have a written oxam which includes mainly grammar and vocabulary exercises

‘The second stage is 4S periods for ESP ‘The material for this stage is Bnglish for

1 Unit 1: What is this object called? 3

3 Unit: Conductors, insulatore and semicondnctors 6

Table 2: English for Electricity’ s Units

This hook consists of reading texts followed by various tasks related to the texts, The texts were taken fiom different sources mainly based on some textbooks about Electricity as follows:

- English for technical students ( Nguyén ‘Thi Tuyét, 2000, Vietnam Uducation Publishing

House)

- English in Electrical Engineering and Electronics (E rich H Glendinning, 1990, Oxford

‘University Press)

- Oxford English for Electronics (E rich H Glendinning, 1996, Oxford University Press)

Most of them are authentic texts covering a wide tange of topics related to Electricity

such as: cluchie current, cloctric circuit, maicrials, clecirie motor, Ihe affects af clectric current English for Electricity aims at providing students with a great deal of technical terms and developing students’ reading strategies and techniques, however, Lnglish for lecticity has shown for some problems It only lists lots of technical words but lacks exercises to help students remember them, My colleagues complain that it is difficult for them to understand some texts because they consist of a lot of technical terms and meanings In addition, it also Jacks varied lasks end activities following the roading texts

11.1.2 The teachers

‘The Faculty of ‘lourism and Foreign Languages has 42 teachers, among them 19

icachets are English toachers agcing from 23 10 38 and the other English teacher is 56 Only five of them are holding MA degree in English Methodology and five of them are working toward M.A degree in English ‘Lhe rest holds a B.A in English language teaching The oldest loachor has more than 20 years teaching experience and the youngest one has taught for a ycar Each of our teachers is usually assigned at least 20 periods per week to teach both GE and ESP During the lessons, teachers play a key role and they are the main speakers working with the lexts The teachers usually cxglain new words, new expressions, new structures and thon translate the texts in to Vietnamese English teachers at Sao Do University are willing to take

up ESP course, although none of them have been trained to be the teachers of ESP ot taken any course on clectzicity They have to face many difficulties: eg to understand professional knowledge, and how to choose a suitable teaching methodology As the result, they do not feel

confident in teaching Rngtish ƒør Elecaioity Thịs may leads to unsatisfactory performance in the classroom

0.1.3 The students

‘the first — year students at the Llectricity Maculty aged from 18 to 20, mainly male

students Fach class consists of about 40 to 60 studenls They have 45 periods of English for Electricity and only 3 periods per week English for Electricity is the compulsory subject that students have to study in the first year They start to lea English for Electricity but they haven’t learnt their major subject — Eleetiivity, So they have had little clcotrical knowledge

‘Therefore most of them find it difficult to discuss topics related to electricity Another factor is that most students have studicd English at school and they are also supposad lơ acquirs English at elementary level at our University, but their English levels are quite different, Inthe same class, some students find classroom activities relaxing while others find them too hard to study In addition, the students are quite passive in leaming The typical learning style of the students is dependent on the tcachers in reading lessons, They usually ask their teachers to explain new wards, structures and translate the text into Vietnamese instead of discussing with their partnors or looking up the dictionary

11.2 THE SURFECTS

‘The study was carried out with the participation of 100 students of Ulectricity aculty

and 8 English teachers of the Faculty of Tourism and forcign languages

The students were selected at random trom 3 classes 06TDH1, 06TDH2, and 06HTDI

‘They were in their first year and have just finished studying Haglish for lectricity Of these

IL3 THE RESEARCH INSTRUMENTS AND PROCEDURE

The research method applied is the survey, The data collection instrument is questionaire Survey questionnaire was chosen because it allowed collecting a large amount data in a relatively short time It was also a cheap way of collecting data

‘The questionnaires are sels of closed and open questions in order Lo cnable English teachers and students of Electricity Faculty to state their own views These questionaires were written in Vietnamese so that they would not misunderstand the questions The content

of these two types of questionnaires is similar in five questions

‘The first questionnaire was designed for 100 Hlectricity Kaculty’s students It aimed at

collecting information about their background which included their place of demicite, the muumber of years they have been teaming English and their purposes of leaning ESP It was also conducted to investigate the difficulties in reading lessons, in reading skills, their studying outside class and to identify the reading activities which interest students,

‘The questionnaire was given to students’ right after they had finished studying Engfish for lectricity in hope of obtaining their fresh comment and opinians ‘The author came to differont dormitory rooms to distribute the questionnaires for studenls ta complcte

After they finished, the

individually They were asked the questions in about 30 minut

author cotlected ths questionnaires and got the data for analysis

The questionnaire designed for Engtist tcachers consists of 6 questions, Most af tre teachers showed their concem about the study and willing to complete the survey with helpfd comments and advice The questionnaire was completed in abont 15 minutes for investigating

the teachers” expcrionuc in loaching English /ar Bleamicuy, thir ovaluation of roading 1

in English for Electricity In addition, it also aimed to tind out their attitudes towards the difficulties the first year students of Llectricity Faculty may encounter when studying the

ms

reading lessens in Rnglish for Rlectricity and their choiee of reading activities that improved students’ reading skills

CHAPTER IH: DATA ANALYSIS, DISCUSSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

IIL.1 QUESTIONAIRE DATA ANANYSIS AND DISCUSSION

II1.1.1 Students’ background of learning English and their purposes in learning ESP

In the questionnaire for students, three questions were designed to explore their

background including their places of domicile, the number of years they have been leaning

English and their purposes of learning ESP

Figure 1: Students’ places of domicile

The first question is to find out the students’ place of living before entering University

This is considered to be related to their conditions for learning English Students from cities or

towns seem to have more favorable and better conditions for leaming English while students

from the countryside do not have such conditions or do not pay much attention to this subject

In answering this question, a great number of respondents (87%) come from the country sides where the English learning condition is poor; they only learn from the textbooks in class and

hardly have reference books The rest (13%) are from the cities or towns

Question 2 is designed to identify students’ time of learning English It can be seen

from the figure 2 that most of them (64%) had learnt English for 8 years, another 19% had

learnt for 4 years, Interestingly, there are six students who had learnt English for 11 years However, the number of students who started learning English when they entered the University is quite big (11%) because they leat French or Russian at secondary and high

schools

From the results of the two questions, a conclusion can be drawn out that the first year

students’ English levels at the Faculty of Electricity are varied because they come from

different places, have different English learning conditions, and moreover, they have different time of learning English This leads to a variety of purposes when the students take the ESP

course, as shown in the figure 3 below,

52% To continue studying ina

speaking English country

42% C1To understand teclnical

accounting for 52% They are aware of the importance of English to future career.

‘The number of students who think they study ESP course in order to pass the exams ranked

the third, accounting for 42%, The author thinks the data reflects a reality at Sao Do

University The students study ESP in the first year, therefore by the time they graduate they may have forgotten most of it and the command of ESP will not be enough for them and their careers in the future Only 12% of the students want to strengthen basic English grammar during the ESP course This can be interpreted that learning ESP is supposed to be beneficial from the basic knowledge of General English learning however for some students, grammar still plays an important role They want both technical terms and grammar to improve their English The number of the informants pursuing further education in a speaking English

country makes up for 5% of the total number Studying aboard seems not to be favored

because most of the students come from the countryside,

To know students’ background and purposes of learning ESP is necessary for the study

IIL.1.2 Evaluation of the difficulties in learning English for Electricity

‘The issues deal with the students and teachers” evaluation of the difficulties the first year students of Electricity Faculty may encounter when studying the reading lessons in

English for Electricity The results from respondents are presented as follows:

1B The teachers doesn't give the

students sufficient practice of

‘grammar and vocabulary

The texts are too long and fil

grammar and vocabulary

Figure 5: Teachers’ evaluation of the difficulties in learning English for Electricity

As data shown in the figure 4 and the figure 5, the difference in percentage for each

choice between the teachers’ and the students’ responses is not great Most of the students and teachers found the main courses of their difficulties 78% of the students thought that the texts

in English for Electricity are long and number of new words is great Similar to students”

views, many teachers (75%) supposed for the first items, The students also determined their lack of professional knowledge (86% of respondents) This comment also came from 62.5% of

teachers It is noticeable that most of the lessons in English for Electricity are reading texts

relating to Electricity Before attending the ESP course, they haven’t learnt their major subject

— Electricity So they have had little electrical knowledge It 1s difficult for them to understand

the texts by guessing new words’ meanings or even looking up the dictionary On the contrary,

a quarter of those teachers and 20% of the students supposed that students’ problem in

leaming English for Electricity was General English limitation In fact, the texts in English for

Electricity mainly focus on technical terms and not many complex grammatical structures

Topics about electric current, electric circuit, electric motor are mainly present simple present

tense

From the figure 4, 78% of the students complained for not being given frequent and

sufficient practice of vocabulary and grammar, however, from the figure 5, only a teacher

(accounting for 12,5%) supported for this item The students seemed to expect their teachers to

IIL.1.3 Evaluation of the difficulties of different units in the textbook

pidticanicn Unit 1 Unit 2 Unit 3 Unit 4 Unit 5 Unit 6 Unit7 | Unit8 Unit9 | Unit 10

N°/% | N°/% | N°/% | N°/% | N°/% | N°/% | N°/% | N°/% | N°/% | N°/%

a The text is full of new words | 0 (0) 50(50) 78(78) 0(0) 0(0) 7808) 2020) 5454) |32(32) 18(18)

b ProfEssional knowledge ¡s | 0(0) 646) [37@7 J0) 0(0) 4040) |28@8) | 80(80) |28@8) |0)

difficult

Table 3: Students’ evaluation of the difficulties of different units in the textbook

Unit 1 Unit 2 Unit 3 Unit 4 Unit 5 Unit 6 Unit7 | Unit8 Unit9 | Unit 10

e Exercises are difficult 0) 4(50) Š(62,5 | 0(0) 0(0) 14235) |0(0) (87,5) | 1125) | 0(0)

Table 4: Teachers’ evaluation of the difficulties of different units in the textbook

in unit 7 (67% of the students), professional knowledge is the most difficult in unit 8 (accounting for 80%) and many difficult exercises were in unil 8 (76% of respondents) Interestingly, there are a few difficulties in some units (unit 1, unit 4, unit 5 and unit 10)

In terms of the difficulties of the units in English for Electricity, the teachers were also asked to evaluate five items A high propartion of teachers (over 62, 5%) considered a full of

new words text in unit 2, unit 3, unit 6 and unit 8 Most of teachers (87, 5%) agreed that

‘What is found can direct the researcher to form an orientation towards the adaptation of

reading tasks in the study syllabus

TII.1.4 Evaluatlon of reading skills

HELA, Students’ views of the difficulties of rending strategies

The ESP course mainly consists of reading texts therefore reading strategies are very important for stndants to leam English ‘The following figure shows that the numbers of students chose different strategies as the most difficult one of them are marginally different,

‘The biggest students (36%) found that guessing new words basing on the context clues was

the most difficull, 20% of the respondents slaled thal (hey had diffeullies in both skimming for the main idea and scanning for specific information, Summarizing the text was difficult for 14% of the students, while 10% had trouble in answering the reading comprehension

1 Skimming for the main idea

TH 20% | Scanning for specific

1D Guessing new words basing on|

the context cies 20%

CD Summarizing the text

Figure 6: Students’ views of the difficulties of reading strategies

HI.1.4.2 Teachers’ evaluation of the necessity of reading strategies

‘The teachers of English are the very people who know exactly what reading strategies

are most suitable for the reading texts in English for Electricity Therefore, these strategies are

chosen to ask 8 teachers of English who had many experiences in teaching the textbook for

their advices on what techniques students need master and the responses are shown in the

figure below:

1 Skimming for the main idea

ng 254 | ME Scanning for specifi information

150% [1 Giessing new words basing on

the context chies:

25% i one Summarizing the text

W Answering the reading comprehension questions

Figure 7: Teachers’ evaluation of the necessity of reading strategies

According to the teachers, the basic techniques such as skimming, scanning and

guessing were considered being necessary for reading text in the textbook (25% of the