Applying Information Technology In Teaching Medical Terms To The Second Year Students At Thanh Hoa Medical College = Ứng dụng công nghệ thông tin trong việc dạy

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ************************* NGUYỄN THỊ KIM DUNG APPLYING INFORMATION

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

*************************

NGUYỄN THỊ KIM DUNG

APPLYING INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY IN TEACHING MEDICAL TERMS TO THE SECOND YEAR STUDENTS AT THANH

HOA MEDICAL COLLEGE

ỨNG DỤNG CÔNG NGHỆ THÔNG TIN TRONG VIỆC DẠY TỪ VỰNG TIẾNG ANH Y HỌC CHO SINH VIÊN NĂM THỨ HAI TRƯỜNG CAO

ĐẲNG Y TẾ THANH HÓA

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY CODE: 60140111

Hanoi, 2014

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

*************************

NGUYỄN THỊ KIM DUNG

APPLYING INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY IN TEACHING MEDICAL TERMS TO THE SECOND YEAR STUDENTS AT THANH

HOA MEDICAL COLLEGE

ỨNG DỤNG CÔNG NGHỆ THÔNG TIN TRONG VIỆC DẠY TỪ VỰNG TIẾNG ANH Y HỌC CHO SINH VIÊN NĂM THỨ HAI TRƯỜNG CAO

ĐẲNG Y TẾ THANH HÓA

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY CODE: 60140111

SUPERVISOR: Dr DƯƠNG THỊ NỤ

Hanoi, 2014

DECLARATION

I certify that the thesis entitled "Applying information technology in

teaching medical terms to the second year students at Thanh Hoa Medical College" is the result of my own work Thesis submitted in fulfillment of the

requirement for the award of the degree of Master in English Teaching Methodology by Nguyen Thi Kim Dung

August 2014

Nguyễn Thị Kim Dung

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to express my deep gratitude to my supervisor, Dr Dương Thị

Nụ for accepting me as her M.A student so that I had the opportunity to study and finish this thesis She taught me how to do research through creative and critical thinking, hard work and perseverance I am grateful to her for her encouragements, supports, valuable suggestion, guidance and patience

I also would like to thank Dr Lê Văn Canh for his valuable comments on my work

A big thank you goes to my colleagues Especially, the teachers of English from Foreign Language Division at Thanh Hoa Medical College, they are always willing to spend time and share with me their knowledge and experience about teaching English to help me with the research data

Additionally, I have a special gratitude to my 200 students of Thanh Hoa Medical College for their willing to support and provide thoughtful responses to the survey questions

Last, this work could not have been finished without the unlimited support and continuous encouragement of my family in every stage of this study

ABSTRACT

Applying IT in general and MS PowerPoint in particular to teaching and learning English is a motivation for innovation process of the teaching method with the aim to highlight an efficiency of teaching and learning The propose of this work was to identify the challenges of application MS PowerPoint in teaching and learning to find out possible solutions to the found difficulties in order to help teachers enhance the quality of EMP vocabulary teaching at Thanh Hoa Medical College The data were collected by means of questionnaires and interviews The results showed that both teachers and students have positive attitude toward application of PowerPoint in EMP vocabulary teaching and learning process The findings examined that students at TMC strongly advocated the importance and necessity of applying PowerPoint in EMP classes They were more comfortable and motivated in EMP lessons with the support of PowerPoint The interviews were developed so that the researcher can get deeper information to understand and clarify some issues related this application Teachers perceived MS PowerPoint as the essential tool for teaching EMP terms that are considered as difficult for students to memorize The survey results highlight the positive effect and necessity

of using PowerPoint in teaching EMP vocabulary to improve students' Medical terms competence In addition, this work will hopefully be a reliable source of reference for teachers of English in general to develop teaching methods and PowerPoint application in class

LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS Tables

Table 1: Students’ experience in learning English

Table 2: The purposes of learning EMP vocabulary

Table 3: The advantages of using PowerPoint in learning EMP vocabulary

Table 4: Teachers’ teaching experience

Table 5: Teachers' techniques of teaching EMP vocabulary

Table 6: Teachers’ opinions of the benefits of applying PowerPoint in ELT

Table 7: Teachers’ confidence in using PowerPoint in teaching

Table 8: Teachers’ challenges in using PowerPoint

Charts

Chart 1: Students' interest towards learning EMP vocabulary

Chart 2: The frequency of using PowerPoint designed by teachers

Chart 3: Students’ attitude toward the importance of EMP vocabulary Chart 4: Students’ assessment on the effectiveness of PowerPoint

Chart 5: Teachers' attitude toward the importance of using PowerPoint in teaching

EMP vocabulary

Chart 6: Teachers’ assessment on the effectiveness of PowerPoint

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

AECT: Association for Educational Communication and Technology

CALL: Computer Assisted Language Learning

IT: Information technology

ELT: English Language Teaching

ESP: English for Specific Purposes

ESL: English As Second Language

EFL: English As Foreign Language

EGP: English for General Purpose

ESP: English for Specific Purposes

EMP: English for Medical Purpose

TMC: Thanhhoa Medical College

TABLE OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii

ABSTRACT iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS vi

LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS iv

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS v

TABLE OF CONTENTS vi

PART A: INTRODUCTION 1

1 Rationale 1

2 Objectives of the study 2

3 Research Questions 2

4 Research Methodology 2

5 Scope of the study 2

6 Significance of the study 3

7 Design of the study 3

PART B: DEVELOPMENT 4

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 4

1.1 Definition of vocabulary 4

1.1.1 The importance of vocabulary in language teaching and learning 4

1.2 English for specific purposes (ESP) 5

1.2.1 Definition of ESP 5

1.2.2 Medical English 6

1.2.3 The roots of medical terminology 7

1.2.4 Teaching and learning ESP vocabulary 8

1.3.2 Information Technology in English Language Teaching 9

1.3.3 Computer-Assisted Language Learning (CALL) 11

1.3.4 Role of Information Technology in language teaching 13

1.3.5 Technological resources currently deployed in language teaching 15

1.3.6 The difficulties in applying MS PowerPoint in EFT 18

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY 19

2.1 The survey research 19

2.2 Context of the study 20

2.3 Participants 20

2.4 Instrument 21

2.4.1 Interviews 21

2.4.2 Questionnaires 22

2.5 Procedures of data collection 22

CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION 23

3.1 The students‟ questionnaire 23

3.1.1 Students' opinions about using PowerPoint in learning EMP vocabulary 23

3.1.2 Students‟ assessment on the effectiveness of PowerPoint (PP) 27

3.2 The teachers' interview questions 28

3.2.1 The benefits of applying IT in teaching EMP vocabulary 28

3.2.2 Teachers‟ challenges in using PowerPoint in teaching EMP vocabulary 34

3.2.3 Teachers‟ suggested solutions 36

PART C: CONCLUSION 38

1 Major findings of the study 38

2 Conclusion 39

3 Limitations of the study 40

4 Suggestion for further studies 41

REFERENCES 42 APPENDICES I APPENDIX 1 I APPENDIX 2 V

PART A: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale

Information technology is a major force that has brought about revolutionary changes in the development of the global, digital society Education is considered the foundation for development and the concept of IT use in education as powerful tools is strongly encouraged in Vietnam Applying IT to teaching and learning is also one of the essential tasks of the National Education Service at present Like other subjects, applying IT to teaching and learning English is a motivation for innovation process of the teaching method with the aim to highlight an efficiency of teaching and learning English is a communicative subject so teachers always have

to prepare teaching aids for their lessons Without teaching aids such as pictures, posters, real things and so on, English lessons are very boring and unattractive Applying IT to teaching English not only helps teachers save their time but also makes learners access to their lessons easier However, applying IT in teaching is still a challenging new task English teachers at Thanh Hoa Medical College have coped with the challenges of technological and pedagogical shifts occurring in the teaching profession, especially in teaching and learning ESP vocabulary ESP is viewed as something hard to teach for language teachers As a teacher of English for Medical Purposes, I find it difficult to understand a lot of terminology, complicated words and how to enhance students' learning interest for each lesson It seems challenges for teachers to consider suitable methods to teach learners Facing this problem, the teachers of English of Thanh Hoa Medical College want to do something to change the ways of teaching vocabulary in order to improve the students' learning effectiveness to help them succeed in their future job by using Microsoft (MS) PowerPoint It is the active display software We can use it to make lesson plans and teach vocabulary, grammar, listening, speaking, reading and writing skills In this report, we only discuss applying MS PowerPoint to teach EMP vocabulary With the support of PowerPoint, teachers not only save time, but also help students understand meaning of new words more easily Lessons with

lively pictures, sound, video, etc become more interesting, more attractive and students have a chance to speak English more Therefore, I have conducted a research to find out the main difficulties in applying MS PowerPoint of teachers at Thanh Hoa Medical College, then to offer some solutions to these problems

2 Objectives of the study

The objectives of the study are as follows:

To investigate the challenges the teachers encounter in applying IT (MS PowerPoint) in teaching medical vocabulary to the second year students at TMC

To provide suggestions to enhance effective utilization of MS PowerPoint in teaching medical vocabulary at the college

3 Research Questions

From our research objectives set, we are able to formulate the following research questions:

Question 1: What do teachers in Thanh Hoa Medical College think of the benefits

of applying MS PowerPoint in English language teaching?

Question 2: What challenges do they encounter in applying MS PowerPoint in teaching English Medical vocabulary at TMC?

Question 3: What are their suggested solutions to get more effectiveness in applying

MS PowerPoint in teaching English at the college?

4 Research Methodology

To answer the research questions, we chose a survey research to explore the reality and the impact of the teacher‟s application of MS PowerPoint on students' learning ESP vocabulary People who take part in this research are 10 ESP teachers,

200 the second year students (non-English majors) who are learning ESP at Thanh Hoa Medical College

5 Scope of the study

This research only focuses on the application of some popular, suitable and easy-to-use MS PowerPoint in teaching Medical vocabulary to the second year non-English major students at Thanh Hoa Medical College The results of this study will

be used to deepen my understanding of how to use MS PowerPoint to improve ESP vocabulary teaching at the college

6 Significance of the study

The result of the study illustrates theory of teaching English language with the support of MS PowerPoint This research does not only provide a deep insight into the effectiveness of applying MS PowerPoint to the teaching ESP vocabulary to second-year English non-majors but also contributes in ESP teaching method innovation The researcher found out possible solutions to the found difficulties in order to help teachers enhance the quality of EMP vocabulary teaching This research helps students to enhance their participation in EMP vocabulary lessons that is considered as difficult to learn

7 Design of the study

This thesis is composed of the following three main parts:

Part A, INTRODUCTION, presents the rationale of the study, the objectives, the

research questions, scope, significance, methods, and the design of the study

Part B, DEVELOPMENT, consists of three chapters:

Chapter 1, LITERATURE REVIEW, deals with the literature focusing on the

theoretical basis related to teaching vocabulary and applying IT in language

learning and teaching

Chapter 2, METHODOLOGY, details a survey research as the method of the study, the participants and the instruments to collect data

Chapter 3, DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSIONS, presents the results of the

study and data analysis, the findings in which research questions are revealed and discussed

Part C, CONCLUSION, summarizes the major findings and gives conclusions

Limitation and suggestion for further study are also discussed in this chapter

PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter presents an overview of the literature in which key concepts, theories in the field There are three main parts: An overview of vocabulary;

English for specific purposes; Information Technology

1.1 Definition of vocabulary

The term "vocabulary" appears to be a very simple concept but in fact, we can find it extremely difficult to give an exact definition of vocabulary Based on different criteria, linguistics defined vocabulary in different ways According to Ur, (1996:60) vocabulary is defined "as the words we teach in the foreign language However, a new item of vocabulary may be more than a single word: a compound

of two or three words or multi- word idioms" Pyles and Algeo (1970: 96) also noted that "It is in words that sound and meanings inter-lock to allow us to communicate with one another and it is words that we range together to make sentences, conversations, and discourses of all kinds"

Therefore, the teaching of vocabulary to foreign language learners has long been an area of concern to language teachers because learning vocabulary in a foreign language is much more than making form - meaning correspondences and simply filling up individual words “Knowing a word, according to Nation (2001) means knowing at least its forms, its meanings and its basic usage”

1.1.1 The importance of vocabulary in language teaching and learning

Words are the building blocks in a language By learning the lexical items,

we start to develop knowledge of the target language Based on our experience of being a language learner, we seem to have no hesitation in recognizing the importance of vocabulary in L2 learning Meare (1980) points out that language learner admit that they encounter considerable difficulty with vocabulary even when the upgrade from an initial stage of acquiring a second language to a much more advanced level Language practitioners also have reached a high degree of consensus regarding the importance of vocabulary The findings in Macaro‟s survey

(2003) indicate that secondary language teachers view vocabulary as a topic they most need research to shed light on to enhance the teaching and learning in their classrooms In fact, vocabulary always holds a significant place in foreign language teaching and learning According to Troike (1976: 87), “Vocabulary is most important for understanding and knowing names for things, actions and concepts” Also, vocabulary knowledge can help language users perform and develop language skills since “substantial vocabulary knowledge is always a prerequisite to the performance of language skills Vocabulary enables language use, language use enables the increase of vocabulary knowledge and language use and so on” (Nation and Waring, 2004: 6-19) Therefore, it is undeniable that vocabulary plays an extremely important role in making a success of language learning and that the acquisition of adequate vocabulary is essential for successful second language use

Vocabulary is the tool of thought, self-expression, translation and

communication In any language teaching, vocabulary plays a tremendously important role The famous linguist Wilkins said people could describe few things without grammar, but they could express nothing without vocabulary Widdowson thought that the native English speaker can understand those language material with correct vocabulary but not so proper in grammar rules rather than those with correct grammar rules but not so proper in vocabulary use Lewis (1993) held the idea that vocabulary acquisition is the main task of Second Language Acquisition and the language skills as listening, speaking, reading, writing and translating all cannot go without vocabulary Non-native language learners usually tend to make mistakes about vocabulary; the most difficult thing in listening is vocabulary Foreign language teaching methods are various but all show the importance of vocabulary teaching To start learning a foreign language is connected with learning the words

1.2 English for specific purposes (ESP)

1.2.1 Definition of ESP

ESP is developing gradually between countries with the enlargement and development of science, technology, economy etc Meanwhile, many countries

advocate their citizens to master English that regarded as the international language

in the fields of science and business trade, to get rid of the puzzledom brought by the war, to revitalize economy and to develop science and technology In the late period of the 60s of 20th century, several linguists like Halliday, Macintosh, Strevens (1964) and Hutchinson & Waters (1987) illustrated the concept of ESP Halliday, Macintosh, Strevens believe that: English is for civil servants; for policemen; for officials of the law; for dispensers and nurses; for specialists in agriculture; for engineers and fitters

According to Hutchinson and Waters, (1987, p.19), ESP is “an approach to language teaching in which all decisions as to content and method are based on the learner‟s reason for learning” Likewise, Strevens (1988:1) said, “ESP is a particular case of the general category of special-purpose language teaching”

1.2.2 Medical English

English for Medical Purposes (EMP) is one of the genres in English for Specific Purposes (ESP) Class subjects in ESP have been getting widespread among Japanese university ESP has been trying to attain its popularity since the 1990s among Japanese university in the growing necessities in ESP genres such as English for economics, business, English for law, and English for Science and Technology (EST), judging from the JACET annual conferences for the past two decades

However, class subjects in EMP are still small in number in Japan compared

to other ESP genres despite the strong need of EMP, judging from the proceedings of JACET annual conferences in 2008 and 2009 In fact, medical students and nursing students have various reasons for learning medical English (Kawagoe, 2009) They

English for Specific Purposes (ESP)

English for Business and Economics (EBE)

English for

Scientific Study

(EST)

English for Social Study (ESS) English for Academic Purposes & English for Professional Purposes (EAP & EPP)

need to read journals and books in medical genres Doctors and nurses also need to read journals and books and to speak to colleagues on professional visits, to make use

of the expanding and increasingly important database available through the internet,

to participate in international conferences, to write up research for journal publication, to take postgraduate courses in the U.S or in U.K to work in hospitals where English is the first language or the lingua franca

1.2.3 The roots of medical terminology

Medical terminology is the special vocabulary developed over time for use by physicians to “accurately describe the human body and associated components, conditions, processes and procedures in a science-based manner” Medical terminology has also been defined as “the science which deals with the investigation, arrangement and construction of medical terms” It is this second definition that has developed the corpus described in the first definition, the roots of which can be found in the historical records of medical history Although the history of medicine is quite long, virtually as long as human history itself, modern medical terminology rests primarily upon a Greek and Roman foundation Indeed, early Greek physicians certainly learned and accumulated a great deal of medical knowledge from other civilizations, especially from ancient Egypt and India, but it was the Greeks who assimilated this knowledge and gave it names that spread to other lands, e.g throughout the Roman Empire, that gave its use force and weight This subsequent mixture of Greek and Latin medical terms and word formation is the basis for many of the currently used medical terms used today by medical professionals For example, the word “diabetes” was derived from the Greek word meaning “a siphon” the 2nd - century A.D Greek physician, Aretus the Cappadocia, named this condition “diabetes” after he observed that patients with this problem “passed water like a siphon” However, many more medical words are often cobbled together from two or more building blocks, also derived mainly from Greek or Latin origins, along with many prefixes and suffixes that form the components of many polysyllabic medical terms

1.2.4 Teaching and learning ESP vocabulary

Teaching English vocabulary is an important area worthy of effort and investigation Recently methodologists and linguists emphasize and recommend teaching vocabulary because of its importance in language teaching As mentioned earlier, ESP is an approach to language teaching, which is “directed by specific and apparent reasons for learning” Thus, whether it is labeled as „learner-centered‟ or „learning-centered‟, the focus of ESP teaching, in light of the global Communicative Language Teaching, is both on the learner and the process of learning in the context it takes place Since emphasis is laid on the learner and the learning process, in discussing ESP teaching, a number of factors must be taken into consideration such as motivation, learning strategies, theories of learning, etc In addition, sufficient attention should be paid to issues closely related to any language course such as syllabus design, material development, methodology, assessment and evaluation Through the history of language teaching there are many teaching theories and methods appearing at different time As Carter and McCarthy (1988) commented that the history and development of vocabulary teaching is more a series of dominating ideologies or fashions that have succeeded one another Teachers must keep in mind that there are no perfect and exclusive methods in language teaching, therefore, the application of a suitable approach needs supplementation of other approaches in vocabulary teaching Nation (1990) declared that there is a wide variety of ways for dealing with vocabulary in foreign language learning it is important that when a teacher chooses or rejects a way

to deal with vocabulary, this choice or rejection should be based on a good understanding of the way of dealing with vocabulary such as the principles behind it, and its theoretical and experimental justification Besides, learners‟ need is another important factor, which language teachers have to consider when they choose their teaching methods For this reason, an attempt is made to bring about a glimpse of a prominent issue in ESP teaching

1.3 Information Technology

1.3.1 Definition of Information Technology

According to the Information Technology Association of America, Information

Technology (commonly called simply IT) can be defined as “the study, design,

development, implementation, support or management of computer-based information systems, particularly software applications and computer hardware” Encompassing the computer and information systems industries, information technology is the capability

to electronically input, process, store, output, transmit, and receive data and information, including text, graphics, sound, and video, as well as the ability to control machines of all kinds electronically It refers to anything related to computing technology, such as networking, hardware, software, the Internet, or the people that work with these technologies In Vietnam, the concept of Information in the Resolution 49/CP signed on April 8, 1993 on the development of information technology by the Government of Vietnam IT is understood and defined,

“Information technology is collection of scientific methods, the means, and tools of modern technology-mostly computer engineering and telecommunications -to organize the exploitation and use effectively the resources are rich information and potential

in all areas of human activity and society” (Resolution 49/CP, 1993)

1.3.2 Information Technology in English Language Teaching

IT has a deep influence on the development of all the fields in our modern

life With the development of era, the application of IT to teaching is one of the essential tasks The application of IT to teaching and learning has been affirmed by the Party: “We should improve teaching methods, change the teaching and learning

in one way, make learners more positive and more creative during the lessons and

step by step apply the best and advanced methods to teaching and learning”

IT is considered as an effective tool to innovate the way of teaching, learning

and management, contributing to enhance the efficiency and quality of the education

In teaching history, we can use IT to do tasks as follow: to access information sources (internet, CD ROMs), to save historical document (texts, images, sounds, documentary

films ), to integrate listening and viewing functions of the teaching aids used to teach history in the past years; to design slide shows for the scientific seminars, to

make electronic lesson plans and to organize picnics or outdoor activities and so on

There are many ways to define the term Educational Technology Everyone

agrees that it is undeniable that new information technologies are the most notable and visible of “globalization” into school space Some other educators use this term

to refer to any things that teachers can use in teaching, such as media images, audio

or digital devices or “refer to the application of computer or electronic equipment in the teaching and learning” (Muffoletto, 1994:99) The most general one, used by the

Technology is the study and ethical practice of facilitating learning, and improving performance by creating, using, and managing appropriate technological processes and resources” In this definition, we can include a wide array of technology including computers, software, slides, photographs, e-mails, CD-ROMs or DVD-ROMs, the Internet, videotapes, and instructional television

In this the term “technology” is used in a very narrow sense In fact,

„technology‟ in this study refers to the use of the PowerPoint as a support to teaching ESP vocabulary According Kisito, PowerPoint presentations consist of a

number of individual pages or "slides" The "slide" analogy is a reference to the

slide projector Slides may contain text, graphics, sound, movies, and other objects, which may be arranged freely Most PowerPoint presentations are created from a template, which includes a background color or image, a standard font, and a choice

of several slide layouts PowerPoint, however, facilitates the use of a consistent

style in a presentation using a template or "Slide Master" Kisito, F (2007:1-2) We

can also apply Microsoft PowerPoint to designing diagrams, sketches and maps with mutable images in order to illustrate lessons With the support of Microsoft PowerPoint learners feel easy to understand their lessons and they are more active

and more positive during the lessons

1.3.3 Computer-Assisted Language Learning (CALL)

The term most widely used when it comes to the application of information technology in language teaching is CALL "CALL" is not a method CALL materials are tools for learning The focus of CALL is learning, and not teaching CALL materials are used in teaching to facilitate the language learning process It is a student-centered learning material, which promotes self-paced learning

CALL is often perceived, somewhat narrowly, as an approach to language teaching and learning in which the computer is used as an aid to the presentation, reinforcement and assessment of material to be learned, usually including a substantial interactive element Levy (1997:1) defines CALL more succinctly and more broadly as "the search for and study of applications of the computer in language teaching and learning"

CALL's origins and development trace back to the 1960s (Delcloque 2000) Since the early days CLL has developed into a symbiotic relationship between the development of technology and pedagogy In the late 1970s, the arrival of the

personal computer (PC) brought computing within the range of a wider audience,

resulting in a boom in the development of CALL programs and a flurry of publications Throughout the 1980s, CALL widened its scope, embracing the communicative approach and a range of new technologies

Although CALL has gradually developed over 30 years, Warschauer divided

the development of CALL into three phrases: Behavioristic; Communicative;

Integrative (Multimedia and the Internet) (Baron & Debski, 1996) He said the

introduction of a new phase does not necessarily entail rejecting the programs and methods of a previous phase; rather the old is subsumed within the new In addition, the phases do not gain prominence one fell swoop, but, like all innovations, gain acceptance slowly and unevenly

Behavioristic CALL: the first phase of CALL, conceived in the 1950s and

implemented in the 1960s and 70's, was based on the then-dominant behaviorist theories of learning Programs of this phase entailed repetitive language drills and

can be referred to as "drill and practice" Drill and practice courseware is based on

the model of computer as tutor (Taylor, 1980) In other words, the computer serves

as a vehicle for delivering instructional materials to the student The rationale behind drill and practice was not very spurious, which explains in part the fact that CALL drills are still used today In the late 1970s and early 1980s, behavioristic CALL was undermined by two important factors First, behavioristic approaches to language learning had been rejected at both the theoretical and the pedagogical level Secondly, the introduction of the microcomputer allowed a whole new range

of possibilities The stage was set for a new phase of CALL

Communicative CALL: the second phase of CALL was based on the

communicative that became prominent in the late 1970s and 80s In the communicative approach, the focus is on using the language rather than analysis of the language, teaching grammar implicitly and focuses more on using forms rather than on the forms themselves One of the main advocates of this new approach was John Underwood, who in 1984 proposed a series of "Premises for 'Communicative' CALL" (Underwood 1984:52) The communicative CALL programmes provide skill practice in a non-drill format, through language games, reading and text

reconstruction This approach still uses the computer as a tutor, although it gives

students choices, control and interaction Another CALL model used for

communicative activities involves the computer as stimulus, as in programmes that

stimulate writing or discussions, and which may not be specifically designed for

language learners Finally, communicative CALL also uses the computer as a tool,

in programmes that do not provide language material, but enable the learner to understand and use the language, such as word processors, desk–top publishing, spelling and grammar checks programmes, as used for instance in process writing

Integrative CALL: integrative approaches to CALL are based two important

technological developments of the last decade- multimedia computers and the Internet Multimedia technology allows a variety of media (text, graphics, sound, animation, and video) to be accessible on a single machine These resources are all

linked and called „hypermedia‟, enabling learners to navigate through CD-ROMS and the Internet at their own pace and path, using a variety of media Hypermedia

provides a number of advantages for language learning as followed:

 creating a more authentic learning environment

 assisting the integrations of different skills

 offering students greater control over their learning

 facilitating a principle focus on the content, without sacrificing a secondary focus on language form for learning strategies

Three phases of CALL suggest that the computer can be used for a variety of purposes in language teaching It can be a tutor for language drills or skill practice,

a stimulus for discussion and interaction; or a tool for teaching and a medium of “global communication and a source of limitless authentic materials” (Warschauer, M: 1996)

1.3.4 Role of Information Technology in language teaching

It is well known that our new life is highly affected by the era of IT, and technology plays an important role in today‟s human society development Based

on this fact, it is indispensable to take advantage of the modern technological facilities in aiding the task of English language education Students trying to learn English as second language need further language support They need to practice in hearing language, reading language, speaking language, and writing language in order to develop their experience and skills (Ybarra & Green, 2003) For doing such tasks, they are in need of using various tools that can help them learn the language easily and effectively

In language teaching and learning, we have a lot of choose from the world

of technology: Radio, TV, Computers, the Internet, Electronic Dictionary, Email, Blogs, Power Point, Videos etc This rapid rising and development of IT has offered

a better pattern to explore the new teaching model Using multimedia to create a context to teach English has its unique advantages Technology, when used appropriately, can help the English and language classroom a site of active learning and critical thinking Teachers can adopt technology resources to develop and tailor

instructional materials to better meet individual student needs Psychologist Skinner, in the early 1960s stated that “I was soon saying that, with the help of teaching machines and programmed instruction, students could learn twice as much

in the same time and with the same effort as in a standard classroom” (As cited in Oppenheimer, 1997: 45) It cannot be denied that one obvious benefit of IT is that it can help the teachers and students have up-to-date information and knowledge Numerous researchers have supported the use of multimedia technology for EFL instruction (Jonassen 2000; Kitao 1995; Kang 1999; Pino-Silva 2002,2004; Stepp-Greany 2002) (cited in Carlos A Mayora) Their researches show that using multimedia technology in the classroom:

+ helps teachers to deal more effectively with a large group of students + makes the introduction and presentation of content more dynamic and attractive for students

+ increases student motivation due to the interactive nature of the activities + introduces a variety of print, audio, and visual materials that match different student learning styles and preferences

Teaching and learning vocabulary is one of the basic requirements for a lesson There are many new words in each lesson; if learners do not know the meanings, pronunciation and uses of these words, their learning will be more difficult and not effective With the support of Microsoft PowerPoint, teachers not only save time, but also help students understand meaning of new words more easily Lessons with lively pictures become more interesting, more attractive and students impress deeply vocabulary and use effectively when they work in society

In Vietnam, MS PowerPoint is considered as the most popular application that teachers use in classroom Teachers use this application to create presentations to help explain different topics and supply students with many kinds of tasks The major purpose of Power Point is to enable the user to create dynamic, informational slide shows using text, graphics, and animation Slide shows created with the software are often displayed on projection screens for training, or educational presentations

Additionally, the slides can be arranged and printed as handouts for reference With PowerPoint, teachers can make charts, tables, and macros, and insert images, audio, video, and other multimedia files to support for their teaching activities Although PowerPoint has been around for years, it has just begun to spread to schools and English Language Teaching (ELT) classrooms as more and more classrooms and teachers have access to computers and the hardware to use PowerPoint Therefore, PowerPoint is becoming an increasingly popular medium in ELT in the classrooms Therefore, the effect of technology has become huge in teaching and learning the language in addition to the instructor's role In other words, the role of the instructor together with the role of the technology can lead to advanced learning results (Sharma, 2009)

1.3.5 Technological resources currently deployed in language teaching

These days, the application of IT in teaching English is very rich and diverse

These modern technologies include Audio devices, Video, Television and radio

broadcasts; Computers; Telephone Each one means brought positive influence

during the teaching and learning English process Firstly, Audio devices are the

most popular and most widely used devices appropriated by modern language teachers remain the CD player and the audiocassette recorder Besides, the use of

Video linked to sound provides learners with exposure to all important elements of

spoken communication: gestures, proxemics, pronunciation, intonation, all

embedded in natural, cultural contexts While Television and radio broadcasts

consist both satellite and terrestrial radio and television programmes that offer

cheap access to contemporary, authentic, and potentially culturally rich programmes

for the language learner The next device is Telephone that the principal uses of it to

date have been limited to supplementary tutoring for those engaged in distance education Finally, with the introduction of the multimedia computer, the learner and teacher have at their disposal an instrument, which can combine all the advantages of the above-mentioned media in a compact and easily accessible form

PowerPoint is one of the most powerful tools for teaching in the classroom today

Microsoft (MS) PowerPoint

Information Technology in general and computers in particular, have had great effects on the general picture of English Language Teaching According to Hutchens (2004:1), the use of technology can help teachers develop innovative teaching stratergies that increase student learning and comprehension and it should

be implemented in the classroom Byk, J (2008:23) said, “I find the use of

technology in the classroom amazing It offers great visual aids as well as listening and reading inputs through power point presentations, for instance I believe technology offers tools to teachers if it‟s well used and we must not forget that tools without great content and interaction do not offer good quality teaching” Scrivener,

J (2005: 18) also mentions “Computer presentation programs (Microsoft PowerPoint) are a good way of storing and showing images and text in unusual ways, a sort of high-tech slide show”

Microsoft PowerPoint use in education is very prevalent Microsoft PowerPoint

is a software program that helps teachers organize their thoughts and present their information in an orderly, attractive manner In addition, teachers can insert graphics, drawings and photos in their slides Therefore, it is believed that PowerPoint presentations can improve the efficiency of EFL teaching In addition, they can help some students to better understand the instruction of the teacher Microsoft PowerPoint is a complete presentation program that “allows teachers

to produce professional-looking presentations in EFL classroom In a PowerPoint presentation also is called a slide show” (Cashman & Shelly, 2000: 15) They identify that PowerPoint gives teachers the flexibility to make presentations using a projection device attached to a computer and using overhead transparencies Cashman and Shelly (2000:16) also state, “Teachers can quickly format a slide show using one of the professionally designed presentation design templates To make their presentations more impressive, they can add tables, charts, pictures, video, sound, and animation effects” Catherina (2006: 4) indicates that students think PowerPoint based lectures are more interesting than traditional lectures

Moreover, Fisher (1998) reports that student scores on tests are even improved with PowerPoint lectures as opposed to traditional lectures Miltenoff (2003: 120) indicates that PowerPoint can be used as a multimedia and interactive tool Pictures, animation, sound effects, and music can greatly enhance the quality

of the presentation It is much easier to use attractive fonts, photos, clipart, tables, and graphs in PowerPoint Moreover, the hyperlinks on the slides allow users to get more information than is found in books and broadens the field of view of students Most importantly, slide shows are adaptable to many EFL teaching environments, including face-to-face and online.In addition, comparing PowerPoint presentations with handwriting, teachers can immediately appreciate the value and impact of using PowerPoint presentations According to Coulthard and Hutchinson (1996:95),

“On the one hand, PowerPoint presentations are more effective and they can take less time and effort to create On the other hand, teachers can improve the quality of PowerPoint presentations while dramatically reducing their production time and budgets.” While PowerPoint presentations help teachers improve teaching, they also help students absorb teachers‟ messages Cashman and Shelly (2000) find that students learn most effectively when their five senses are involved

To sum up, PowerPoint is a useful tool for teaching and learning process in general and the process of teaching and learning EMP vocabulary in particular With the support of PowerPoint, to explain some difficult EMP vocabularies instead

of trying use words to explain, teacher can give examples of imagine and sound

Some facilities of the application MS PowerPoint

+ MS PowerPoint encourages and supports teaching learning process by

facilitating the material presentation Using PowerPoint for classroom lessons help

to change boring learning atmosphere of the traditional method by offering a variety

of effects to change font, color, how to present

+ When teacher designed lectures with the support of MS PowerPoint, they have chances to think and rearrange knowledge logically and help learners to

understand the content more easily

+ Creating interactive presentation containing texts, art, animation, and audio and video element or creating link to other documents, teachers will bring learners real data with the support of this software All these factors contributed to increase

learners' interest

+ When teacher uses PowerPoint, they can make use of some facilities such as

spelling check, software store, or sending to students if necessary

+ To apply this software proficiently, teachers need to have knowledge and use useful tools of this software for teaching ESP vocabulary It allows teacher to create slides that contain multiple choice questions, effect, sound, or images Students feel

lectures more interesting and sudden when they learn ESP vocabulary

1.3.6 The difficulties in applying MS PowerPoint in EFT

Many researchers give the trend that teachers perceptive to use IT in education, they understand the effectiveness and potential of teaching with the help

of PowerPoint In a developing country like Vietnam, it is still a challenging new adoption However, the facility of applying IT in general and multimedia in particular into teaching English is not good results in schools Most of schools now have not used PowerPoint presentation all classrooms Although this software is quite easy to apply, teachers do not often use IT to teach ESP very much The following four reasons explain these problems are lack of knowledge of IT, limited time for prepare before coming the class, out of date facility of that school and nervousness of going into the new field Roblyer (2003:167) states that students need ample online development time to take full advantage of the benefits of PowerPoint technology This presents a problem in most EFL classrooms due to insufficient numbers of computers Therefore, educators should try their best to increase the number of computers if conditions permit

Therefore, this study was an attempt to investigate the issue Seeing those are also the problems that the teachers at TMC, this study here wish to conduct a research to investigate the benefits of PowerPoint, teachers‟ difficulties for using PowerPoint The challenges they encounter and find out some solution

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY

Chapter 2 presents the methodology of the study, the context of of teaching and learning EMP vocabulary to English non-majors, participants, instrumentation

and the procedure of data collection and data analysis

2.1 The survey research

According to Johnson (1992:104), survey research is "a study of a large group

through direct study of a subset of that group" and Nunan (1992) defined survey research as "a method to learn about characteristics of an entire group of interest by examining a subset of that group" Survey research is an efficient method for systematically collecting data from a broad spectrum of individuals and educational settings As you probably have observed, a great many researchers choose this method of data collection In fact, surveys have become such a vital part of our social fabric that we cannot assess much of what we read in the newspaper or see on

TV without having some understanding of survey research A well-designed survey can enhance our understanding of just about any educational issue The qualitative and quantitative research methods are used Theoretically, these methods include using questionnaires and interviews in order to gain more depth data for analysis

As defined by Wisker (2001:32), "Questionnaires often seem a logical and easy option as a way of collecting information from people" and interview is "another way of asking questions, in face-to-face interaction, rather than the questionnaire format" (McDonough, McDonough, 2001:182) These methods concentrate on gaining in-depth understandings and attitudes of teachers to applying PowerPoint in ESP teaching The purpose of the adoption of these methods is to explore the extent

to which the application of a PowerPoint-based method to teaching medical vocabulary helps to improve the effectiveness of EMP lessons The results of the study would be helpful to the teachers' teaching and professional development at

TMC

2.2 Context of the study

All students at TMC are non-English majors and have 2 years for studying

English Therefore, they are expected to be fluent in English communication In the first year, they are taught to get general background of English proficiency In the second year, students concentrate mainly on English for Nursing The ESP materials are designed by the teachers of English from Foreign Language Division During the course, the students will be given a glossary of specific medical terms appropriate for students requiring a working knowledge of specialized medical terminology However, it is very difficult for students to remember and using vocabulary in communication when they work in society or they can to pass the exams IT is considered as one of the most effective tools that teachers use in the colleges in several years recently However, English teachers in our college met many difficulties in the perception of IT application as well as in the uses of

Microsoft PowerPoint in teaching Therefore, we decided to apply Microsoft

PowerPoint that are not only able to help teachers to find difficulties and solutions

in teaching ESP vocabulary, but also students can improve their vocabulary learning and enhance their communication and reading skills for their future job

2.3 Participants

The population for this study is 10 Vietnamese EFL teachers working at Thanh Hoa Medical College and 200 second year students who are majoring in nursing Questionnaires will be used for students and interviews will be used for the teachers Most of these students come from different districts of Thanh Hoa province and they have been learning English for over 5 years They have experienced a basic course in the first year at the college They are taught to get the background knowledge Secondly, second-year students were chosen because they had spent more than one-year learning EMP vocabulary with traditional method of teaching with hand techniques rather than computer technological ones What they often do is to translate EMP terms into Vietnamese When the college encourages teachers to use new methods in teaching English, they are very enthusiastic and

flexible to update Information technology and apply it in teaching They mostly use

IT in English classroom teaching This is feasible for me to make some comparisons between two methods Therefore, we could partly evaluate the effectiveness application Microsoft PowerPoint in learning medical vocabulary Moreover, the third year students are busy with their subjects major in nursing That is why it is very feasible to choose the second year students All 10 teachers of English in English Division at Thanh Hoa Medical College will be interviewed in this study They are all women whose age ranges from twenty-seven to thirty-five Most of them have more than 5 years teaching English

2.4 Instrument

The researcher will use the questionnaire and interviews for the study The questionnaire was constructed based on the literature on EMP vocabulary learning, the researcher‟s observation and experience got during her 6 years of teaching at Thanh Hoa Medical College, and the discussion with the other 10 English teachers

at the college Interviews were employed for teachers and questionnaires for students The full period of data collection covered 5months in order to help me see the effects of my interventions

2.4.1 Interviews

Ten teachers were interviewed in a natural setting so that they feel at ease

when answering the researcher's questions The time budget was flexible so that each one felt free to express to the best of their opinions, support their points, and add extra information when needed The interview was organized to find out teachers' attitudes toward the application of PowerPoint and what difficulties and challenges the teachers are coping with applying Microsoft PowerPoint in teaching EMP vocabulary English and some solutions made by them These instruments help enhance the validity and reliability of data The interviews was designed with the same questions which focused on the main issues (Appendix 2)

2.4.2 Questionnaires

A questionnaire for students was designed in order to get more information supporting other instruments to find out teachers‟ difficulties and challenges, students' attitudes towards using PowerPoint, the effectiveness of PowerPoint to recommend and suggest some solutions to gain better results The questionnaire for students was written in Vietnamese to make sure that the students understand the questions The questionnaire was designed with 7 questions which focused on the main aspects that the researcher would like to investigate There is one question about their learning experience, three close-questions and three open questions Three open-question questionnaires are used to get more information about their own opinions in the application of PowerPoint in EMP classes (Appendix 1)

2.5 Procedures of data collection

The results of the study are developed on the basis of the data collected through questionnaires and interviews The stage of data collection and interviews will happen during the second semester of the school year All teachers are interviewed in person for approximately 8-12 minutes To have a deep understanding of teachers and gain results, interview questions were prepared carefully, and before the interview, the researcher informed to the participants the aims of the study Each teacher was asked with the same interview questions to get more detail information and the places of the interviews were flexible Most of the teachers are experienced in the IELTS exams; therefore, all the answers were asked

in English, then they are recorded and collected for data analysis The questionnaire for students was distributed to 200 students during the class time The students were given careful explanation each question and encouraged to answer truly and frankly The questionnaire was made Vietnamese The choice of language did not affect the reliability of the data; in contrast, it helps to avoid any misunderstanding during implementation process The aim of using the questionnaire was to help me get the ideas, perception and evaluation from the students toward learning EMP vocabulary

IT - assisted instruction

CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION

This part of the thesis is the analysis of all the data collected from students' questionnaire and teachers' interview questions Then the data were analyzed and organized systematically in forms of tables and charts or discussion purposed The aims of the questionnaire were to explore students‟ self-assessment and attitude towards the application of PowerPoint presentations that helped them improve and memorize their EMP vocabularies The teachers' interview questions will be

organized and discussed in accordance with research questions

3.1 The students’ questionnaire

Total 3 years 5-6 years 7 years 8 years 9 years

Table 1: Students’ experience in learning English

Most of the students had already learnt English before having taking part in this college In fact, it is much more beneficial and convenient for students who have learnt English for 7 years, making up the bulk of the total with 44,5% They would have basic English to take into ESP classes at this college Those who had from three to six years experience in learning English at secondary or high schools, which was considered to be rather long time and accounted for 36% The minority

(19,5%) of the student have learnt English from 8 to 9 years

3.1.1 Students' opinions about using PowerPoint in learning EMP vocabulary

students (200) Percentage

Table 2: The purposes of learning EMP vocabulary

For this question, more than one option is accepted Thus, the results in Table 2 represent percentage of the options chosen A large number of the students (92%) who wanted to learn EMP vocabulary to pass the exam, while 36,5% of them expected that learning EMP vocabulary would help them enrich their vocabulary with Medical terms There were 16,5% for reading specialized materials, 0,8% for communicating with foreigners and only one student (0,5%) answered that he just loved English It is interesting to note that 51% of the students revealed their main reason for studying EMP vocabulary was to meet the future job requirements They seem to know that with the rapid development and expansion of information technologies, there should be a common language for people of all countries to exchange information with each other and it is English that is used as means of international communication From the above - analyzed data, we can conclude that students just paid attention to their short term goals such as passing the exams and looking forward to having to have good preparation for their future jobs

Chart 1: Students' interest towards learning EMP vocabulary

From the pie chart above, we can see that students are asked whether they like learning in EMP vocabulary lesson using PowerPoint, a large ratio of the students responded "very interested" which a positive sign It is very surprising that the percentage of the students voted for learning vocabulary-using PowerPoint went

up to 94% in which 26% of them felt very interested and 68% of them felt interested It is noticeable that only 5,5% of the students gave the answer "Not

interested" and one student gave another idea The student wrote, "This is not my

favorite subject so I feel it is so difficult for me to learn" As it can be seen from the

information above, the support of PowerPoint in teaching EMP vocabulary has greatly contributed to increasing students‟ interest in learning which was considered

boring and difficult by many students

Chart 2: The frequency of using PowerPoint designed by teachers

As shown in the second chart, 58% of the students stated that their teachers usually design PowerPoint lessons to make them more interested in learning EMP vocabulary 18% reported that their teachers sometimes design lessons with the help

of PowerPoint to motivate them in learning medical terms 18,5% of the participants said their teachers rarely apply this software and only 5,5% admitted their teachers never apply PowerPoint in vocabulary lessons An explanation for these is that many classrooms still lack equipment and many computers, projectors in classroom

or are not working This is a challenge for most of the teachers

Chart 3: Students’ attitude toward the importance of EMP vocabulary

The table shows that most of the students (93,5%) considered EMP vocabulary was very important and important, only 4,5% of the students denied the significance

of EMP vocabulary and 2% supposed it was not important at all When four

students were asked, "why do you think learning EMP vocabulary is not important