hiết chỉnh các nhiệm vụ cho các bài đọc hiểu trong giáo trình english for electricity nhằm nâng cao kỹ năng đọc hiểu của sinh viên năm thứ nhất khoa điện, trường đại học sao đỏ

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 of adapting tasks for re

ABSTRACT

Reading is one of the most important skills in learning English, especially ESP For first year students at Electricity Faculty in Sao Do University, reading has been given the first priority and has been paid more attention as the students have to read English materials 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 of adapting tasks for reading lessons 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 teachers 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 learning ESP in general and reading skill in particular Stemming from the findings, the author has put forward adapting tasks in reading lessons

of English for Electricity to improve reading skill of the first-year students at Electricity

Faculty, Sao 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: Students’ evaluation of the difficulties of different units in the textbook Table 4: Teachers’ evaluation of the difficulties of different units in 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 learning English

Figure 3: Students’ purposes in learning ESP

Figure 4: Students’ evaluation of the difficulties in learning English for Electricity

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’ evaluation of the necessity of reading strategies

Figure 8: Students’ views on the reference materials

Figure 9: Time of students’ studying outside the classroom

3 Abbreviations:

GE: General English

ESP: English for Specific Purposes

CLT: Communicative Language Teaching

EFL: English as a Foreign Language

DC: Direct current

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Acknowledgements ii

Abstract iii

List of tables, figures and abbreviations iv

Table of contents v

PART I: INTRODUCTION 1

I.1 Rationale 1

I.2 The aim of the study 1

I.3 Research questions 2

I.4 Scope of the study 2

I.5 Organization of the study 2

PART II: DEVELOPMENT 3

CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW 3

I.1 ADAPTATION 3

I.1.1 Definition 3

I.1.2 Adapting techniques 3

I.1.2.1 Adding 3

I.1.2.2 Deleting or Omitting 3

I.1.2.3 Modifying 4

I.1.2.4 Simplifying 4

I.1.2.5 Re-ordering 5

I.2 READING 5

I.2.1.What is reading and reading comprehension? 5

I.2.1.1 The definition of reading 5

I.2.1.2 Reading comprehension 6

I.2.2 Reading techniques 6

I.2.3 Reading skills in English for Specific Purposes 7

I.3 TASK IN LANGUAGE TEACHING AND TASK DESIGNING 9

I.3.1 Task in language teaching 9

I.3.2 Task designing 10

CHAPTER II: THE STUDY 13

II.1 SETTINGS 13

II.1.1 The syllabus 13

II.1.2.The teachers 14

II.1.3 The students 15

II.2 THE SUBJECTS 15

II.3 THE RESEARCH INSTRUMENTS AND PROCEDURE 16

CHAPTER III: DATA ANALYSIS, DISCUSSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS 17

III.1 QUESTIONAIRE DATA ANANYSIS AND DISCUSSION 17

III.1.1 Students’ background of learning English and their purposes in learning ESP 17

III.1.2 Evaluation of the difficulties in learning English for Electricity 19

III.1.3 Evaluation of the difficulties of different units in the textbook .22

III.1.4 Evaluation of reading skills 23

III.1.4.1 Students’ views of the difficulties of reading strategies 23

III.1.4.2 Teachers’ evaluation of the necessity of reading strategies 24

III.1.5 Teachers’ and students’ preferences for the reading activities 25

III.1.6 Reference materials for students 26

III.1.7 Time of students’ studying outside the classroom 27

III.1.8 Summary 27

III.2 RECOMMENDATIONS 29

III.2.1 Some adjustments of teaching and learning 29

III.2.1.1 Promoting students with a variety of reading strategies 29

III.2.1.2 Encouraging students to develop learning habit outside class 29

III.2.2 Adaptation of the reading tasks in English for Electricity 30

III.2.2.1 Simplifying 30

III.2.2.2 Modifying 34

III.2.2.3 Adding 37

III.2.2.4 Deleting or Omitting 41

PART III: CONCLUSION 44

REFERENCES 45

APPENDIXES I

APPENDIX 1 I

APPENDIX 2 IV

PART I: INTRODUCTION I.1 Rationale

English has experienced its popularity in Vietnam over the last few decades Together 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

All 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”

I.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

I.3 Research questions

1 What difficulties may the first-year students of Electricity Faculty encounter when

studying the reading lessons in English for Electricity?

2 What reading tasks are considered inappropriate for the first-year students of Electricity Faculty?

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

I.4 Scope of the study

This study is limited to the area of investigating and analyzing the difficulties the first year students of Electricity Faculty may encounter when studying the reading lessons in

English for Electricity More importantly, the focus of the study is to suggest techniques to

adapt some reading tasks in this textbook to improve the students’ reading skill

I.4

I.5 Organization of the study

The study is expected to consist of three main parts

Part I includes rationales, aims of the study, research questions and scope of the study

Part II includes 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 teaching and learning 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 and some extra reading tasks for “English for Electricity”

Part III presents conclusion of the study

References

Appendix

PART II: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW I.1 ADAPTATION

I.1.1 Definition

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

or more of a number of techniques: supplementing, expanding, personalizing, simplifying, modernizing, localizing, or modifying cultural/ situational content” Similarly, from Tomlinson (1998:xi) took the same position that adaptation referred to “reducing, adding, omitting, modifying and supplementing” Adaptation is a term referring to the ability to adjust

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

to cope with change

I.1.2 Adapting techniques

I.1.2.1 Adding

The notion of addition is that tasks of a textbook are supplemented by putting more into, while taking into 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" (McDonough and Shaw, 1993:89) We can do this in the following situation: A second reading passage parallel to the one provided is helpful in reinforcing the key linguistic features - tenses, sentence structures, vocabulary, cohesive devices - of the first text Second, more far-reaching 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 overall system' (McDonough and Shaw, 1993:90)

I.1.2.2 Deleting or Omitting

Deletion is clearly the opposite process to that 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 to 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 out and then replaced with something else The methodological change is greater when, for example, grammar practice is substituted after the omission of an inappropriate communicative function

I.1.2.3 Modifying

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

- Rewriting may relate activities more closely to learners' own background and interest, introduce model of authentic language, or set most purposeful 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 are 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 managing a large class (especially if they all have same LI) are complex from 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 too small for the total number of roles available - is also possible if perhaps less likely

I.1.2.4 Simplifying

The technique of simplification is a type of modification, namely a "rewriting" 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 easier to see how different part fit together However, texts, most often reading passages are 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 learners Simplification could be in the following forms: Sentence structure; Lexical content, and grammatical structures

Simplification has a number of further implications Firstly, once linguistic items are changed, stylistics will be affected, and therefore the meaning of intention of the original text

is changed Secondly, simplification of content is required when the complexity of the matter is regarded as being too advanced Thirdly, simplification can refer to the ways in which the content is presented: we may decide not to make any changes to the original text, but instead to lead the learners through it in a number of graded stages

subject-I.1.2.5 Re - ordering

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 in a different sequence from that originally intended

I.2 READING

I.2.1 What is reading and reading comprehension?

I.2.1.1 The definition of reading

On the teaching point of views, language skills consist of four-macro skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing Of the four skills, Carrel(1988) says that “for many students, reading by far is the most important of four skills in a second 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 looking for a simple definition of reading Nuttal (1996:3) stated that reading is “a process whereby one looks at and understands what has been written” Also, Goodman(1971:135) defined “reading

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

a message which has been encoded by writer as a graphic display” For Goodman, this act 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” It means that the readers “read the author’s mind not the author’s words”

From these definitions, each author reflects what reading means as seen from 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 are emphasized

I.2.1.2 Reading comprehension

Reading comprehension plays an important part in teaching and learning a foreign language According to Swam (1975:1), “a student is good at comprehension” if “he can read accurately and efficiently, so as to get the maximum information of a text with the minimum understanding” Grellet (1981: 3) defined reading comprehension: “understanding a written text means extracting the required information from it as effectively as possible” In highlighting the importance of reading comprehension Rivers (1981:147) stated that “ reading

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 knowledge of the language” Eskey (1988) considered in advanced levels of second language the ability to read the written language at a reasonable rate and with good comprehension has long 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 up 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 behind these forms

I.2.2 Reading techniques

In reading, the objective of the reader is not always to understand which is written down According to Grellet(1981:4), there are 4 main ways of reading: skimming, scanning, extensive reading and intensive reading

Skimming

Grellet(1981:4) defined skimming as “quickly running one’s eyes over a text to get the gist of it” Skimming is used to get main points or the intention of the writer, quickly gather the most important information, or 'gist', run one’s eyes over the text and note important information Skimming is to quickly get up to speed on a current 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

ignore all the other information until we find the specific details In contrast with skimming, scanning is far more limited since it only means retrieving needed information

Extensive reading

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

to read large quantities of material or long texts for global understanding, the principle goal being obtaining pleasure from the text Grellet(1981:4) assumes “extensive reading: reading longer 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 after reading

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 means, but of how the meaning is produced

Brown (1989) explains that intensive reading "calls attention to grammatical forms, discourse markers, and other surface structure details for the purpose of understanding literal meaning, implications, rhetorical relationships, and the like."

In conclusion, it’s important for students to develop reading strategies and techniques which will aid in learning, understanding, and retaining key concepts from textbooks, essays, novels, technical 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; it should be integrated with the improvement of all

I.2.3 Reading skills in English for Specific Purposes

Dudley-Evans and Jo St John (1998:96) assumed that one of the most important contributions to the approach to reading in ESP was the shift from ‘text as a linguistic object’ (TALO) to ‘text as a vehicle of information’ (TAVI) It is clear that the most important factor marking the different between reading in ELT and ESP is the change in the approaches in reading 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

macrostructure comes before language study’ and ‘application of the information in the text is

of paramount importance.’ (Dudley – Evans and Jo St John, 1998:96)

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 needs to reach a threshold of language before they are able to transfer any skills from their first language to those in the foreign language All in all, any reading ESP course requires language to be developed along with the skills Dudley – Evans and Jo St John (1998) list the key skills to be learned and transferred into the new language as follows:

 Selecting what is relevant for the current purposes;

 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;

 Identifying main ideas, supporting ideas and examples;

 Processing and evaluating the information during reading;

 Transferring or using the information while or after reading

(Dudley – Evans and St John 1998:96)

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

or engineering, the recent trends in ESP seem to share the assumption that readers’ strategies can be generalized across subject boundaries This means general reading strategies should be taught to ESP students because, as Hutchinson & Waters (1987) point out, ESP is not different

in kind from any other form of language teaching and ESP teaching should be based on the principles of effective and efficient learning

I.3 TASK IN LANGUAGE TEACHING AND TASK DESIGNING

I.3.1 Task in language teaching

The varying definitions of tasks have been well covered in the literature in general and

a lot of tasks are adapted or designed based on the theory and characteristics of CLT Ellis (2003: 3) has 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 learners in comprehending, manipulating, producing, or interacting in the target language while their attention is principally focused on meaning rather than form” More recently, Skehan (1998:147) summarizes the parameters for a task activity in the following way:

“(a) meaning is primary,

(b) learners are not given other people’s meanings to regurgitate,

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

(d) task completion has a priority,

(e), the assessment of tasks are done in terms of outcome”

From these definitions, despite the various interpretations, several common design features can be identified These features include: All three definitions emphasize the importance of focus on meaning This criterion supports the notion that conveying 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 tasks also necessitates the use of real language to accomplish these tasks Meanwhile, Nunan’s (1989) definition makes specific reference to the classroom environment and points out that task performance may entail employing a single skill or a combination of several skills His description recognizes the pedagogical needs for focusing on skills in isolation in language learning

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

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

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

I.3.2 Task designing

Learning tasks, according to Prabhu(1987), can be classified into three principle activity types:

1 Information-gap activities, which operate on the principle of supplying information to some students and withholding it from others Prabhu provides the example of pair work in which each member of the pair has a part of the total information and attempt to transfer it verbally to the other

2 Reasoning-gap activities, which involve deriving some new information from given information through possessed of inference, deduction, practical reasoning, or a perception of relationships or patterns

3 Opinion-gap activities, which engage in learners in identifying and articulating a personal preference, feeling or attitude in response to a given situation such as story completion or taking part in the discussion of some issues In performing this activity, students may use factual information and formulating arguments to justify their opinions

According to Hutchinson and Waters (1987), in order to maximize the chances of learning, it is important to design a clear, 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 classified 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 Grellet(1981), those listed in table 1 are believed to be used more often in ESP reading Kenedy and Bolitho

(1991: 74-84) suggested several types of exercises, which can be used to train self-studying strategies towards reading ESP materials:

1 Reference skills

2 Skimming

3 Scanning

4 Relating graphs, diagram to texts

5 Predicting and sequencing the structure of the text

6 Understanding elliptical writing-telexes

7 Reading instructions and notices (survival reading)

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

1 Inference using contextual

clues, or word formation

1.Chronological sequence 1 Ordering sequences of pictures 1 Deciding fact or opinion

2 Linking sentences and ideas

using Reference, link words

2 Analogy and contrast 2 Comparing texts and pictures 2 Finding writer’ s

intention

charts,)

Multiple choices True/False Completing a summary Completing sentences

Table 1 – Exercises believed to be suitable to develop reading skills (Grellet, 1981; 4-5)

CHAPTER II: THE STUDY II.1 SETTINGS

II.1.1 The syllabus

The study is conducted at Electricity Faculty, Sao Do University The main duty 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 The overall curriculum of the University lasts for 4 years in which English is taught in the first year with

120 periods (45 minutes each) into two stages: GE and ESP

The General English is taught in 75 periods for which we use the course book Lifeline – Elementary by Tom Hutchinson, Oxford University Press It 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, at the end of the first term, students have a written exam which includes mainly grammar and vocabulary exercises

The second stage is 45 periods for ESP The material for this stage is English for Electricity designed by a group of teachers working in the Faculty of Tourism and Foreign

language as follows:

1 Unit 1: What is this object called? 3

3 Unit3: Conductors, insulators and semiconductors 6

4 Unit 4: Shapes and measurement 3

6 Unit 6:The effects of an electric current 3

7 Unit 7: Electronics in the home 3

Table 2: English for Electricity’s Units

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

- English for technical students ( Nguyễn Thị Tuyết, 2000, Vietnam Education 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 range of topics related to Electricity such as: electric current, electric circuit, materials, electric motor, the effects of electric current

… English for Electricity aims at providing students with a great deal of technical terms and developing students’ reading strategies and techniques, however, English for Electricity 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 lacks varied tasks and activities following the reading texts

II.1.2.The teachers

The Faculty of Tourism and Foreign Languages has 42 teachers, among them 19 teachers are English teachers ageing from 23 to 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 The rest holds a B.A in English language teaching The oldest teacher has more than 20 years teaching experience and the youngest one has taught for a year 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 texts The teachers usually explain new words, new expressions, new structures and then 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 or taken any course on electricity 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 English for Electricity This may leads to unsatisfactory performance in the classroom

II.1.3 The students

The first – year students at the Electricity Faculty aged from 18 to 20, mainly male

students Each class consists of about 40 to 60 students 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 learn English for Electricity but they haven’t learnt their major subject – Electricity So they have had little electrical knowledge Therefore most of them find it difficult to discuss topics related to electricity Another factor is that most students have studied English at school and they are also supposed to acquire English at elementary level at our University, but their English levels are quite different In the same class, some students find classroom activities relaxing while others find them too hard to study In addition, the students are quite passive in learning The typical learning style of the students is dependent on the teachers in reading lessons They usually ask their teachers to explain new words, structures and translate the text into Vietnamese instead of discussing with their partners or looking up the dictionary

II.2 THE SUBJECTS

The study was carried out with the participation of 100 students of Electricity Faculty and 8 English teachers of the Faculty of Tourism and foreign languages

The students were selected at random from 3 classes 06TDH1, 06TDH2, and 06HTD1

They were in their first year and have just finished studying English for Electricity Of these

students 87 are male and 13 are female They come from different provinces throughout the country All of them are from 18 to 20 years of age

The 8 teachers of English at the University are chosen for the investigation because

they have taught English for Electricity, 7 of them are female and one is male 3 of them are

MA in English teaching methodology, one is doing the MA course in English teaching methodology, 4 are holding the BA degree

II.3 THE RESEARCH INSTRUMENTS AND PROCEDURE

The research method applied is the survey The data collection instrument is questionnaire 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 sets of closed and open questions in order to enable English teachers and students of Electricity Faculty to state their own views These questionnaires 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 Electricity Faculty’s students It aimed at collecting information about their background which included their place of domicile, the number of years they have been learning English and their purposes of learning 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 English for Electricity in hope of obtaining their fresh comment and opinions The author came to

different dormitory rooms to distribute the questionnaires for students to complete individually They were asked the questions in about 30 minutes After they finished, the author collected the questionnaires and got the data for analysis

The questionnaire designed for English teachers consists of 6 questions Most of the teachers showed their concern about the study and willing to complete the survey with helpful comments and advice The questionnaire was completed in about 15 minutes for investigating

the teachers’ experience in teaching English for Electricity, their evaluation of reading lessons

in English for Electricity In addition, it also aimed to find out their attitudes towards the

difficulties the first year students of Electricity Faculty may encounter when studying the

reading lessons in English for Electricity and their choice of reading activities that improved

students’ reading skills

CHAPTER III: DATA ANALYSIS, DISCUSSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS III.1 QUESTIONAIRE DATA ANANYSIS AND DISCUSSION

III.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 learning English and their purposes of learning ESP

87%

13%

country sides cities or towns

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 learning 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 learnt 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

Figure 3: Students’ purposes in learning ESP

The figure summarizes the students’ purposes of learning ESP course As can be seen from the figure, to understand technical documents and to apply for jobs in the future are the goals of many students 57% of the students thought that when taking ESP course they might get technical words and expressions to understand technical documents This could result from the fact that the participants need to be able to read English materials related to their specific subject area The number of students who expect to get a good job in the future is quite high, accounting for 52% They are aware of the importance of English to future career

To strengthen English basic grammar

To apply for a job in the future

To pass the ESP course’s examinations

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

III.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:

Figure 4: Students’ evaluation of the difficulties in learning English for Electricity

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 is 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

learning 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

demonstrate the vocabulary and grammar with examples especially and spend more time for them to practice The above evaluation of the difficulties should be considered in the process

when adapting tasks in English for Electricity for the first year students of Electricity Faculty

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

c The text is long 0(0) 11(11) 20(20) 0(0) 0(0) 5(5) 67(67) 15(15) 17(17) 10(10)

d Exercises are easy 20(20) 8(8) 2(2) 32(32) 15(15) 68(68) 6(6) 0(0) 30(30) 5(5)

e Exercises are difficult 0 (0) 47(47) 55(55) 12(12) 24(24) 3(3) 12(12) 76(76) 32(32) 34(34)

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

c The text is long 0(0) 0(0) 2(25) 0(0) 0(0) 0(0) 7(87,5) 1 (12,5) 1(12,5) 0(0)

d Exercises are easy 3(37,5) 0(0) 0(0) 2(25) 1(12,5) 4(50) 1 (12,5) 0(0) 0(0) 2(25)

e Exercises are difficult 0 (0) 4(50) 5 (62,5) 0(0) 0(0) 1(12,5) 0(0) 7(87,5) 1(12,5) 0(0)

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

As data in table 3 shows, the difficulties do not exist in all units of the textbook A number of the students complained that many new words in a text came from unit 2 (50% of respondents), unit 3 and unit 6(78%), and unit 8(54%) They also found that the long text was

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 unit 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 proportion 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 professional knowledge and exercises are difficult in unit 8, and the text is long in unit 7 Half

of the teachers found out the easy exercises in unit 6 Unit 1, 2, 4, 5,9,10 received the nearly same views of difficulties from the teachers as from their students

It is understandable that English for Electricity was designed by group of English teachers from some different sources It aims at providing students with a great deal of

technical terms and developing students’ reading strategies and techniques Most of units consist of reading texts and reading comprehension questions, however, the difficulty level of the units are quite different A large number of the teachers and the students found the above difficulties from unit 2, 3, 6, 7, 8 Unit 1, 4, 5, 9 and 10 had few complaints or no comments What is found can direct the researcher to form an orientation towards the adaptation of reading tasks in the study syllabus

III.1.4 Evaluation of reading skills

III.1.4.1 Students’ views of the difficulties of reading strategies

The ESP course mainly consists of reading texts therefore reading strategies are very important for students to learn 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 difficult 20% of the respondents stated that they had difficulties 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

Skimming for the main idea

Scanning for specific information

Guessing new words basing on the context clues

Summarizing the text

Answering the reading comprehension questions

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

III.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:

Summarizing the text

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