Translation as an enabling strategy for students' reading comprehension of it texts = Sử dụng dịch thuật như một chiến lược trong việc dạy đọc hiểu các bài khoá

Applying translation activities in post-reading, the direct observation in class and strategy for using translation to support students in reading comprehension of IT texts.. The main fe

TRANSLATION AS AN ENABLING STRATEGY FOR STUDENTS’ READNG COMPREHENSION

CODE : 601410

SUPERVISOR: VU THI THU THUY, M.A

BY : DANG THI THANH VAN

HA NOI – 2010

DECLARATION………ii

ABSTRACT iii

ABBREVIATION iv

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale 1

1.2 Identification of the problem 1

1.3 Scopes, objective and research questions for the study 4

1.4 Methods of the study 5

1.5 Design of the study 5

CHAPTER 2: REVIEW OF LITERATURE 2.1 Challenges of comprehending IT texts 6

2.2 Use of language 1 as support of students’ reading comprehension 7

2.3 Translation as a classroom technique 9

2.4 Strategy for using translation to support students’ comprehension of IT texts 10

2.4.1 Clarifying the exact meanings of technical terms 10

2.4.2 Performing translation activities in post-reading for clearer comprehending the IT texts 11

2.4.3 Improving students’ knowledge of the language 12

CHAPTER 3: THE STUDY 3.1 Context of the study 13

3.1.1 The learning context 13

3.2.2 The learning materials 13

3.2 Methods of data collection 14

3.3 The participants 15

3.3.1 The students 15

3.3.2 The teachers 16

3.4 The procedures of the study 16

3.4.1 Problem identification 16

3.4.2.2 Helping students come over their challenges in comprehending IT texts 17

3.4.2.3 Applying translation activities in post-reading, the direct observation in class and strategy for using translation to support students in reading comprehension of IT texts 18

3.4.2.4 Evaluating students’ attitude to translation in post-reading process 19

3.4.3 Analyzing the data 20

3.4.4 Findings 21

3.5 Conclusion 21

CHAPTER 4: DATA ANALYSIS 4.1 The effects on the students’ attitude towards translation in post-reading process 22

4.2 The students’ perception of usefulness of translation to reading comprehension 34

4.3 Discussion of the above findings 36

4.3.1 What are the effects of translation on students’ reading comprehension? 38

4.3.2 What are the students’ attitudes towards translation in post-reading? 38

4.3.3 What do IT students perceive of the usefulness of translation to their reading

comprehension? 39

4.4 Conclusion 39

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION 5.1 Summary of the major findings 40

5.1.1 Students’ positive attitudes towards translation in post-reading process 40

5.1.2 Students’ perception of usefulness of translation to their reading comprehension related the strategy for using translation mentioned above 40

5.1.3 Students’ opinion on the role of translation to their reading comprehension of IT texts 41

5.2 Limitations of the study and suggestions for further studies 41

5.3 Pedagogical implications of the study 42

5.4 Conclusion 42

REFERENCES

APPENDIX

IT: Information Technology

ESP: English for Specific purposes

FLT: Foreign Language Teaching

HUBT: Hanoi University of Business and Technology E.T.M: English Teaching Methodology

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

This chapter is concerned with the rationale behind the researcher‟s decision of choosing the thesis subject, and the way she investigates the effects of translation activities on students‟ achievement in reading skills for IT students

Besides, the scope, the objectives, and the research questions as well as the methods and design of the study are also stated clearly

1 1 Rationale

Never before has English become so pervasive as nowadays, and English has formally been an important subject in our educational system English is one of the languages in the world that masters in various fields globally “Better English, more opportunities” is the answer given by most Vietnamese university students when asked about their goal of learning English English can help students prepare well for their future careers as it can not only equip them with a useful source of personal, linguistic, social and cultural knowledge but also provide them with access to modern technology and information concerning a variety of issues in modern society Getting students to read English texts is

an important part of our job at HUBT IT students should be able to read specialist texts in English either for careers, or for study purposes Understandably, reading is useful for language acquisition provided that students more or less understand what they read, and the more they read, the better they get at it Reading also has a positive effect on students‟ vocabulary knowledge, on their spelling and on their writing However, it is observed that

IT students at HUBT who have to read to get gist information about new technology always have difficulties in translating IT texts for thorough understanding in their mother tongue

For all the above reasons, it is strongly desirable for the researcher to propose

“Translation as an enabling strategy for students’ reading comprehension of IT texts” as the subject of this study

1 2 Identification of the problem

According to the researcher‟ observation and her teaching experience she realizes that her

IT students always encounter difficulties in understanding specialist reading texts

thoroughly after they have done many reading comprehension exercises They always have

to use their mother tongue as an understanding aid Therefore, there is an additional task after doing reading comprehension known as translation or translating the text into Vietnamese (as IT students do at HUBT) In the past, the prevalence of grammar-translation method led to an extraordinary phenomenon: students were unable to speak fluently after having studied the language for a long time and until recently, translation was out of favour with the language teaching community As pointed out by Duff (1994), translation was labelled “boring”, “uncommunicative”, “difficult”, “pointless” and the like, and suffered from too close an association with grammar For this reason, translation has been defined as “uncommunicative, boring, pointless, difficult, and irrelevant”

However, Duff (1994) also sees there has been a revival of interest to translation due to the shift of its emphasis - to using a mother tongue as a resource for the promotion of language learning Duff (1989:7) also notes that translation is of a great value because it “develops 3 qualities essential to all langage learning: flexibility, accuracy and clarity This combination of freedom and contraint allows the students to contribute their own thoughts

to discussion which has a clear focus- text.” Therefore, translation can be considered as a tool for improving language skills

Today, thanks to the new communicative approach to language teaching, translation is gradually becoming recognized as a valid activity for language practice and improvement The three qualities essential to all language learning should be taken into details

Firstly, accuracy is very important for IT students, who always deal with professional technical terms as well as complicated grammar structures in their specialist reading texts The accuracy quality can be seen in the real usefulness of translation in English classes in exploiting it in order to compare grammar, vocabulary, word order and other language points in English and the student‟s mother tongue According to N J Ross (2000), if students are aware of the language differences, language interference (transfer) and intervention from their own language are likely to be reduced

Secondly, clarity depends a lot on students‟ language proficiency It is observed that the students may understand the text in general However, it is sometimes difficult for them to clarify some professional terms and complicated grammar structures - syntactic IT texts feature

It is noteworthy that in teaching / learning ESP there has been a long-felt dissatisfaction, mainly on the students‟ part, about the exclusion or minimal use of translation in mastering complex issues Learners constantly wished to check the exact meanings of the professional terms in their native language by consulting bilingual dictionaries or asking for teacher‟s explanations

There is an opinion that “rigidly eliminating or limiting the native language does not appear to guarantee better acquisition, nor does it foster the humanistic approach that recognizes learners‟ identities (Mattioli 2004: 20) Translation as a teaching tool needs to take into account a number of different aspects, such as grammar, syntax, collocation and connotation Uncritical use of translation may give learners insufficient, confusing, or even inaccurate information about the target language

Thirdly, flexibility is referred quite a lot to students‟ background knowledge According to the researcher‟s observation of her IT students at HUBT she realizes that students with better background IT knowledge find it easier to understand technical texts and interpret to others legibly or clearly This means that in the case their background knowledge leads them to become more flexible to cope with challenges of comprehending IT texts

Therefore, raising learners‟ consciousness can be valuable: teachers can explicitly point out differences between L1 and L2 For this purpose translation may be useful, because it can

be interactive, learner-centered, then it promotes learners‟ autonomy by using authentic materials (Mahmoud 2006: 28)

Although the use of translation in learning a foreign language is much maligned by language teachers, translation is widely used in learners‟ foreign language learning process It appears that learners often use translation as a learning strategy to comprehend, remember, and produce a foreign language Translation has been used by foreign language learners to facilitate language learning for centuries, but translation has played various roles under different language teaching methods While some foreign language educators may consider translation as a critical means to ensure students‟comprehension and an important writing exercise, other teachers may totally ban or discourage the use of the native language and translation in the classroom As Malmkjar stated, „the issue of the use

of translation in language teaching is one on which most language teachers have a view‟(1998: 1), but fairly often, teachers‟ views are not strongly in favor of it However, relatively little research attention so far seems to have been devoted to a consideration of

the use of translation in language learning As an English teacher working with IT students

on ESP at HUBT the researcher always takes this problem onto consideration

Doing the research the researcher tries to identify the role of translation in post-reading for IT students at HUBT and to help them use translation well enough for their language learning The teacher - the researcher had asked her students to translate their specialist reading into Vietnamese as a compulsory task in class as well as a homework assignment She asked them

to translate a simple sentence, then more complicated ones, after that a paragraph, and finally a whole text orally in order to find out students‟ weaknesses and strengths and help them with correcting mistakes Their products had to be written out, which helped them a lot in improving their language learning During the research, the researcher had found some articles and books about implementing translation as learning strategies to improve students‟ reading understanding and even their language proficiency According to these articles and books, the benefits of translation had been explored in Vietnam and should be taken into account

1 3 Scopes, objective and research questions for the study

This study was a kind of survey research which was designed and conducted by the researcher herself The study was limited to the investigation of students‟ attitudes towards translation, as well as the effect of translation on students‟ reading comprehension of IT texts The study was conducted on the third-year IT students who were studying English

as a compulsory subject at Hanoi University of Business and Technology Thus, the first and foremost objective of the study is for the sake of the students at Hanoi University of Business and Technology, where the researcher worked as a teacher of English Although any generalization of the findings should be made with caution, it is expected that this study will serve as a source of references for teachers of English on the teaching of reading skills for IT students, especially for those who consider translation in post-reading for IT students as one of the suggested educational innovations

To be more specific, in realizing this study, the main objective is:

- To investigate the effects of translation activities on students‟ achievement in reading skills for IT students

With this objective, the research questions are:

- What are the IT students‟ attitudes towards translation in post-reading process?

- What do IT students perceive of the usefulness of translation to their reading comprehension?

1.4 Methods of the study

This study primarily involved a survey questionnaire (for students) Moreover, in order to clarify learners‟ attitude to translation and their perception of the usefulness of translation

to their reading comprehension, interviews were conducted with students as well

On the other hand, the research was based on the students‟ attitudes to translation learning through researcher‟s direct observation herself during her teaching process at HUBT

1 5 Design of the study

The study is divided into five main chapters:

Chapter one is the Introduction, which states the rationale, the scope, the objective, and the research questions as well as the methods and design of the study

Chapter two presents all necessary literature review that relates to the study

In chapter three, the study solves the two research questions:

1 What are the IT students‟ attitudes towards translation in post-reading process?

2 What do IT students perceive of the usefulness of translation to their reading comprehension?

One of the main contents of the study, the data analysis is reported in chapter four In this chapter, the researcher analyzes the data collected using a survey questionnaire and interviews to reach the findings of the study The discussion of the findings related to the research questions with reference to the literature review is mentioned

Chapter five is the conclusion where the main contents of the study are summarized In addition, the pedagogical implications of the study as well as the limitations of the study and the suggestions for further studies are discussed in this chapter

Besides, the list of references and the appendixes are also parts of this study

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter presents some of the most important issues in theory of teaching translation in general and in language teaching in particular The main features are taken into

consideration, namely, the concepts related to the study including challenges of comprehending IT text, use of language 1 as support of students’ reading comprehension, translation as a classroom technique, strategy for using translation

to support students’ comprehension of IT texts

2.1 Challenges of comprehending IT texts

It is observed that the most difficult task for IT students at HUBT in their course book is specialist reading because nearly all students have trouble comprehending technical expository text at deep levels even though some of them are really skilled readers Deep comprehension of technical texts is a difficult challenge, because the students have minimal knowledge of technical terms as well as key forms background knowledge Technical terms are categorized as single terms, compound terms, acronyms and abbreviations etc The background knowledge may have some effects on reading comprehension even though with high relevant background knowledge and general reading skills and struggle According to Wolff (1987) low students used background knowledge to help to make sense of incomprehensible material However Bernhardt (1991) suspects that background knowledge becomes less important as students become more linguistically proficient Even in their first language, readers have different level of reading ability, which is the reason why some theorists argue that whereas good readers can take advantage of background knowledge and context, readers who are slow at decoding symbols and words overburden their short-term memory and cannot call up the appropriate schemata This means that good professional knowledge helps IT students have professional understanding of specialist reading, which helps them easily follow the ideas presented in an IT text and comprehend it better

The second thing that must be taken into account is the typical syntactic features of IT texts As pointed out by Phuong Nguyen Thi Mai (2004) the typical syntactic features of IT texts are much related to sentence structures which are categorized into complex sentence structure, which is often formed as one main clause followed by a dependent clause such

as relative clauses, or - ed participle clause, and passive structure These phenomena, which typically appear in IT texts, sometimes make students frustrated due to its complexity Most linguists of Vietnamese (Nguyen Anh Que, Diep Quang Ban, Hoang Trong Phien etc.) have concluded that this grammatical category does not exist in Vietnamese Although it seems that it is not difficult to understand those clauses in English, the translation of such clauses from English into Vietnamese is considered as a difficult and sophisticated task particularly for IT students

The next feature of IT texts that should be considered is common pitfalls of the language such as multi-meanings, complex phrases or sentence structures caused by the differences

in expressions between languages It is really a difficult task because it conversely affects the reader‟s understanding as an awkward translation would hinder the ideas in the SL text

to be transferred smoothly and naturally into the TL text

2 2 Use of language 1 as support of students’ reading comprehension

The state-of-the-art teaching of languages is based on the communicative method which only emphasizes teaching English in practical context However, the idea of abandoning the native tongue is too stressful to many students of English for IT at HUBT, who need a sense

of security in the experience of learning a foreign language

Several studies (Block, 1986; Chamot, Kupper, & Impink- Hernandez, 1988a; Chamot, Kupper, & Impink-Hernandez, 1988b; Chamot, O'Malley, Kupper, & Impink-Hernandez, 1987) have shown that translation, using the first language as a means for understanding and/or producing the second language, is not an uncommon cognitive strategy for high school and adult language learners However, Cook (1992) argues further that all second language learners access their L1 while processing the L2 Cook also suggests that "the L2 user does not effectively switch off the L1 while processing the L2, but has it constantly available" Cook (1992: 571) Cook also maintains that when working with second language learners, teachers must not treat the L2 in isolation from the L1 In fact, according to Cook, one cannot do so: "The L1 is present in the L2 learners' minds, whether the teacher wants it

to be there or not The L2 knowledge that is being created in them is connected in all sorts

of ways with their L1 knowledge" Cook (1992: 584)

Kern (1994) in his study on the language of thought used by L2 learners in comprehending L2 texts, looks at the role of translation as a cognitive strategy in the L2 reading comprehension process (For his study Kern has used verbal report interviews while reading and 51 students (L1=English) in a third- semester, college French class were asked to report what they were thinking as they read a text in French as well as how they went about making sense of what they read.) Kern (1994: 441) found that not only did these subjects make frequent use of translation as a strategy to understand the L2 text, but that "mental translation during L2 reading may facilitate the generation and conservation

of meaning" A partial replication of this study by Hawras (1996) supports Kern's (1994) findings Hawras in fact argues that, for beginning language learners, "mental translation is not just the major, but the only comprehension tool at the student's disposal" Hawras (1996: 65) While this statement seems extreme, it does stress the importance of an L2 learner's L1 in the early acquisition stages

Haenggi (1992) and Perfetti (1992) suggest two important sources of limitations to reading comprehension The former relates to the phenomenon that second language readers have access to their first language and indeed use this resource as a strategy to help themselves

to comprehend an L2 text The latter seems likely that the L1 is used as a valuable strategy for overcoming obstacles in word recognition and propositional integration

For all above statements the researcher herself can see that it is undeniable that it is very important for teachers to analyze, to reflect on and to make use of their own situations It is observed that no matter how good the students are at comprehending authentic reading or listening materials, the majority keeps mentally translating from L2 into L1 and vice versa as

a habit for they don‟t have enough knowledge of the language they are learning so they need

to reason through their mother tongue This fact makes teachers of foreign languages aware

of the importance of translation in language classrooms

There is a question in Widdowson (1983:20) “will the learner have to use translation once

he has learned L2?” and the answer to this question is positive, for translation is a real life communicative activity – the learners translate in class for peers, decode signs and notices

in the environment, translate professional IT texts to understand clearly and exactly in their mother tongue In addition, one should not lose sight of Duff‟s warning (Duff 1989:6) that

language competence is a two-way system, that we need to be able to communicate into and from the language system Yet little guidance of how to communicate is given back into the mother tongue, something that many professionals need to do in their daily work

It is important to remind that the purpose of the use of translation in the foreign language classroom is neither the major nor minor aim but a tool to promote success in language by the help of the language 1 L1 is used to clarify meaning, to check the understanding in a text, to interpret and clarify the new vocabulary by the help of translation In short, translation is said to reflect the students‟ abilities to mediate betwween L1 and L2 and show insight into both languages Translation appears to be convenient, for students are said to naturally think in their L1 while learning L2 Translation is seen by sonme as a reliable test because it measures great deal of language.”( Benssoussan, 1985:45)

2.3 Translation as a classroom technique

According to Duff, there are not only 4 skills in the process of learning in the language (reading, writing, listening and speaking) but 5, and the fifth is translation Duff (1989:5) also stated that four hundreds of years, translation was “right at the heart of language teaching”

This means it is worth considering reasons for taking translation as technique in teaching ESP Reading comprehension Firstly, as Nunnan (1999) pointed out, what the students think and feel about language learning is of great importance in language teaching and this should be taken into account in any course planning In some cases it is inevitable that language learners use L1 as a resource Indeed it is a kind of individual learning style for some students They need to be able to relate lexis and structures of target language into their equivalents in their mother tongue So a sound pedagogy should make use of this learning style rather than try to deny it Secondly, translation makes students develop their reading comprehension ability in grammar as well as in vocabulary It is quite obvious that before translating any text, students should read the text thoroughly trying to make sense

of its features like sentence -structures, context and register In other words, according to Chellapan (1982) there should be a kind of textual analysis, which is very important in reading comprehension Indeed the difference between translation and reading is the degree of attention paid by readers or translators, that is, in translation the weight of attention is far heavier than the sole reading Thirdly, Herry and Higgins (1992) stated that

translation is a conscious process of learning, in which exist two types of activities, both of them require a full engagement of learners.The former is the understanding the source text

in the language 1 and the latter is formulating it in the target language.This is the characteristic that distinguishes translation from other activities Fourthly, Duff (1990) pointed out that translation is a kind of communicative activity, which is practiced within a meaningful context It enhances interaction between teachers and students and students themselves due to the fact that there is rarely any absolute right rendering of the text Finally, translation can be used as an evaluating technique in reading lessons As reading is totally unobservable comprehension which should be inferred from the other behavior It is important for both teachers and students to be able to assess comprehension precisely.That

is, among the other techniques like doing, transferring, answering, extending and modeling, we may ask students to translate part of the reading text into their native language to ensure if they have fully grasped the content.This can be done at the end of the reading lesson, particularly for specialist reading which is really demanding texts for third year students at HUBT, known as post-reading activity

2.4 Strategy for using translation to support students’ comprehension of IT texts

The researcher herself thinks of three essential strategies to support students‟ comprehension of IT texts including:

1 Clarifying the exact meanings of technical terms

2 Performing translation in post-reading for clearer comprehending

3 Improving students‟ knowledge of the language

2.4.1 C larifying the exact meanings of technical terms

For all above reasons the researcher herself can come closely to the idea that the purpose of translation in the language classroom is not to train professionals, but to help learners develop their knowledge of English In other words, it is a means to an end, not an end to

be achieved

Mahmoud (2006) points out that the translation is useful for L2 acquisition because, firstly, it uses authentic materials, secondly, it is interactive, thirdly, it is learner-centered, and finally it promotes learner autonomy

The first strategy is suggested because it is based on the fact that learners constantly wished to check the exact meanings of the professional terms in their native language by

consulting bilingual dictionaries or asking for teacher‟s explanations. It is really important for IT students to clarify technical terms which help them to improve their reading comprehension Thus, as for the advantages of translating, the students felt that the ideas were easier to develop, thoughts and opinions could be expressed more clearly, and words could be more easily found through the use of dictionary In addition, translation also can help in vocabulary acquisition Prince‟s research results (1996) revealed the superiority of using translation in learning vocabulary in terms of quantity of words learned Also, researchers have varied opinions at which stage the use of translation is the most beneficial for learners Husain‟s research (1995) suggested that using translation had highly positive effects on the low and intermediate proficiency learners, but it did not benefit higher level students Husain also found that translation strategy could enhance English learning in general.

2.4.2 Performing translation activities in post-reading for clearer comprehending

According to Mahmoud (2006), raising learners‟ consciousness can be valuable: teachers can explicitly point out differences between L1 and L2 For this purpose translation may be useful, because it can be interactive, learner-centered, it promotes learners‟ autonomy, and uses authentic materials.The ESP learners, specifically IT students use a number of activities that are beneficial for their linguistic development as well as reading comprehension Post-reading activities give students the opportunity to review, summarize, and react to a reading material through discussions in small or large groups After having read a professional passage as a homework assignment or class task, students were encouraged to generate various comprehension exercises, such as multiple choice questions, true or false statements, general questions on the contents of a professional text Students‟ generated exercises were scrutinized in pairs or small groups The activity of writing different types of summaries, e.g restatement, descriptive summary or opinion essays, has proved being very useful It allowed teachers to pin-point errors stemming from the mother tongue, although checking written work increased teacher‟s load significantly Selected texts (at HUBT we have been following scheduled specialist reading texts and extra reading passages related tightly to the students IT knowledge) for re-translation should not be too long, or too linguistically complex, or too distant from the students‟ ESP knowledge Students in pairs translated different short professional passages from L2 into L1 Then pairs exchanged their translations and translated the passages back into L2 Finally translations L2 •¨ L1 •¨ L2 were examined and compared with the original texts

The ultimate analysis allowed raising learners‟ awareness of vocabulary, grammar, style, and language transfer Benson (2002) accepted that language transfer, or cross-linguistic influence, does occur, but is a far more complex phenomenon than hitherto believed Thus, the second strategy is suggested to help students comprehend IT texts more clearly or legibly by the application of translation in post-reading process

2.4.3 Improving students’ knowledge of the language.

It was also discovered in Husain‟s research (1995) that students who used translation tended to make more gains in learning vocabulary and phrases, compared to a lower level gain in learning tenses In other words, the higher level students benefited the least from translation use

In contrast, other researchers advocate the use of translation at the advanced level Advanced learners may have already developed a somewhat solid foundation of the target language, and thus can be more likely to discern the subtle differences of vocabulary meaning and grammar usage between their L1 and L2 For example, Perkins (1985: 53) indicated that through translation instruction, „the advanced learner will always gain some insight into points of L1-L2 difference and conflict on a syntactic, semantic and stylistic level and this may ultimately improve his L2 competence‟ Translation is seen as an important tool to upgrade high-level students‟ learning as well as reading comprehension Titford (1985) shared the same view and proposed that translation is an appropriate resource for advanced learners He also argues that translation can serve as a problem-solving exercise as well as a cognitive exercise in the classroom More importantly, the use

of translation at the advanced level can help learners extend their knowledge of the foreign language by making reference to their mother tongue, and then help learners clarify the similarities and the differences between the foreign language and their native language Therefore, the third strategy is recommended to improve knowledge of the language learning which helps students a lot in comprehending IT texts

Thus, so much benefit is taken from translation activity in post-reading mentioned above, which is recommended to use translation to support students‟ comprehension of IT texts which will be made clear by the next section

CHAPTER 3: THE STUDY

In this section, besides the minor introduction and conclusion, four main categories are addressed The first one is the context of the study, which houses the description of the students‟ learning context and learning materials in their third year at Hanoi University of Business and Technology In the second category, the methods of data collection are presented carefully The introduction of the survey research lies in the next part The most important part of the chapter, which is the procedures of the study, describes in details the problem identification and the plan of survey

3 1 Context of the study

3 1 1 The learning context

The students were in their first semester of the third university year, with 180 class hours

of English study They studied in a small-sized class of 30 ones; each class had one private room to study They had just finished the pre-intermediate level of English and attended 10 class hours of English every week The students, after two years learning English at Hanoi University of Business and Technology, are expected to communicate appropriately in various, simple situations in everyday life as well as to read IT texts quite well

In general, the students at Hanoi University of Business and Technology attend 3 modules

of English in their first year, 4 ones in their second year, and 4 others in their third year At the end of each module, they have to take part in an oral progress test which accounts for 20% of the general module score The written test takes 10%, the on-going assessments get 10%, and the final on-computer-test takes 60%

3 1 2 The learning materials

The course book is Oxford English for Information Technology (Intermediate, second edition) by Eric H.Glendinning John/ Mc Ewan The book is clearly laid out with five different sections of language work, reading , speaking ( with instructions and information for pair works as well as group work), writing , to help students practice using the language

in the classroom The book is divided into 25 units covering a wide range of current IT topics, using authentic texts and visual material taken from textbooks, newspapers, popular computing magazines, Internet newsgroups, Web pages, manuals and advertisements There are additional longer specialist reading texts for students already proficient in

computing in their own language In the case, the specialist reading texts have been focused following research among teachers to answer the research questions Besides reading, the book provides input in speaking, and listening, with guidance for writing tasks Each unit ends with a specialist reading which the researcher has chosen to allow students to practice language they have worked on during the unit and to do the post-reading task to enhance their comprehension and to interpret to others in their mother tongue There are also other components such as a comprehensive glossary of current IT

terminology, and five progress Tests that consolidate and support the work in the main

units as well as assess students' progress through the course However, the specialist reading texts are too professional and demanding for third year IT students at HUBT to understand and interpret to others (It is quite a big challenge because the third-year IT students at HUBT are not proficient in computing in their own language yet) This stimulates the researcher to work on this issue to help students cope with their difficulties,

so that the use of mother tongue can be solved, and students can quickly make progress in the process of second language acquisition, as well as meet the course requirements at university

3 2 Methods of data collection

As mentioned above, the study was conducted according to a survey research method The purpose of a survey is to learn about characteristics of an entire group of interest (a population) by examining a subset of that group (a sample) In other words, the purpose of

a survey is to examine one or more variables for larger numbers of entities The most prevalent data-collection methods are questionnaires, interviews, and direct observations of language use

The sample of the research was 30 students of TH1201 at HUBT The results of the study were developed based on the data collected via the direct observation, the survey questionnaire for 30 students of TH1201, the think- aloud interview The process of collecting data was carried out during the students‟ tenth module of English at university The first instrument for collecting data was the teacher‟s direct observation during specialist reading lesson and translation activity in post-reading process to evaluate students‟ attitude to their class tasks, to translation in post-reading process and their level

of perception, then provides support when it is necessary The researcher observed the

class performance herself during the study Once she assigned her students any tasks, she encouraged and silently observed their attitude towards their mission She walked around the classroom, kept in touch with every student and helped with difficult vocabulary or technical terms as well as complicated grammar structures such as relative clauses, -ed clauses and passive sentences Specifically, the students were divided into groups based on their reading abilities and their interests The observer- researcher- the teacher also noticed who were really interested in the lesson or who had better reading ability and how each student deal with vocabulary and grammar structure Although most of them bring bilingual dictionaries with them to look up, they still need teacher‟s help

The second instruments were findings of the survey questionnaires to clarify the two research questions The survey questions were designed according to the five-point Likert scale The answers to fifteen survey statements were collected The results of the six students‟ interviews also were used to clarify the questionnaire data

3 3 The participants

3 3 1 The students

This study as a survey research was carried out in class TH 1201 with 30 third year IT students, who studied English as a non-major subject, at Hanoi University of Business and Technology The students were at the age of 20 to 21, including 8 females and 22 males Their level of proficiency in English was roughly attributed to elementary and pre-intermediate (after two years studying English at university) In this class female students seemed to be more hard-working and more interested in learning English than male students Most of the students come from different high schools in different regions all over Vietnam, where traditional methods of teaching English are popularly applied Before studying at university, although their English learning had focused on reading and writing, they had very little chance to read specialist texts in English However, those coming from towns and cities seemed to have better reading abilities because it is understood that they had more chance to come and study at foreign language centres, where they could get more English resources of vocabulary strategy and better background knowledge; while the students coming from provinces and remote regions seemed to have less English resources

of vocabulary strategy and worse background knowledge which make them embarrassed and inactive Although the students were dynamic, enthusiastic and hard working in the

study, their level of reading competence was mixed Some students (approximately 10) were really active and interested in post reading activities Most of the students (about 20) were relatively involved in translation activities though they were still reluctant as contributing their own ideas The rest (around 10) were quiet and passive, they seemed to

do nothing except for copy other students‟ results Despite the mentioned difficulties, most

of the students were always eager to learn any subjects well, particularly English, as it was necessary for their future jobs

3 3 2 The teachers

As participants of the survey research study, the teachers who were involved in the study were the researcher herself, who taught class TH1201, another teacher working with her on the same class.They were from 34 to 43 years of age They all had six to over ten years of experience of teaching English to non-major students They had all participated in one or more Teacher In-service Education programs (held by Vietnam-Australia Training Organizations, the British Council, and some other non-government Organizations ) In addition, both of them had attended a course on English teaching methodology at the Department of post-graduate studies in Vietnam National University, and they all showed their interests in the lectures on teaching reading IT texts

3 4 The procedures of the study

3 4 1 Problem identification

In her English class with the students of class TH1201, the researcher found out a problem: students‟difficulties and lack of interest in reading comprehension of IT texts, especially the ones including many technical terms and relative clauses, -ed participles or passive structures

To clarify the problem, the researcher observed each reading lesson to discover that the number of students who were really interested in reading took 27% (eight out of thirty students), whereas the number of students who did it as a compulsory task were 50% (fifteen students), and the rest of the students was about 23% (seven students) who had no sense of reading or learning English as well It is observed that the students who were really interested in reading IT texts as well as learning English had the best reading ability

of all They always accomplished the teacher‟s given tasks in advance, then they tried to do the next tasks themselves and after that they shared the ideas or difficulties among each

other They only asked teacher for help until they had no idea for that In contrast, the students who did the teacher‟s given tasks as a compulsory task did not have good reading ability They required teacher‟ support and encouragement more often and completed their tasks more slowly The worst of all is the rest of the students in the class It seemed that they did not read the text or did any teacher‟s given task They were usually busy talking with each other or doing their private things or feeling sleepy They did not pay attention to their reading passage until the teacher demanded strictly or gave them bad marks Based on the fact and the advantages of translation the teacher-researcher tried to apply translation after reading comprehension as an enabling strategy to support their reading comprehension Observing the students‟ attitude to translation activities after doing reading comprehension in class makes the teacher-researcher more confident do the survey research

3 4 2 Plan of survey

3 4 2 1 Determining the students’ challenges in reading comprehension of IT texts

After her direct observation has been given to instruct students in post-reading activities, the teacher-researcher decided to share the problem with the other teacher who worked with her in the same class and asked for support.The teachers then sat together to elicit the common problems that students usually encounter during their reading comprehension and post-reading activities, specifically, translation activity after doing reading comprehension tasks After the solutions were suggested and discussed, the teachers decided to apply translation as an enabling strategy to support the students‟ reading comprehension of specialist reading in the course book.The teacher of the class then discussed the teaching and learning methods in post-reading activities, especially focusing on translation, with the students Finally, most of the students agreed with the teacher that translation should be applied to improve their knowledge of the language as well as reading skills

3 4 2 2 Helping students overcome their challenges in comprehending IT texts

According to the teacher-the researcher‟s direct observation, she decided to identify the students‟ background knowledge, and to start her research with this problem Then, she tried to understand the students by talking with them directly After that, she stimulated them to show their ideas about learning English Finally, she found out that her students did not like learning English because they were not good at general English and their IT

knowledge was not very related to the University specialist English program and it seemed

to be more difficult to learn technical English The researcher and her colleague started with providing them extra reading including all technical terms related to the new lesson for good preparation for the next reading lesson The students felt more confident after clarifying the problem involved their IT knowledge The teacher-the researcher and her colleague also provided the students a glossary file (built by group of IT English Teachers

at HUBT with explanation in Vietnamese) including technical terms and difficult phrases which helped students to comprehend the specialist reading texts better The result was considerably encouraged, most students felt more interested in reading IT texts After background knowledge was identified, she tried to deal with their difficulties in syntactic

IT text features Once the students encountered relative clauses in the texts, the the teacher stopped for a while to explain the use, the structure and meaning of the sentences carefully, specifically –ed or –ing participle for e.g: “Talking to Professor

researcher-Cochrane is probably time travelling without leaving the current dimension, as his vision

stretches far into this century and beyond.” (Oxford English for Information Technology, Eric H.Glendinning John/ Mc Ewan, p.176) The grammatical category –ing participle (time which travels) may be confused with a noun phrase if the students are not careful Or

at the same paragraph there is another extract: “In fact BT (British Telecom) is already

sitting on a host of innovation poised to blow your mind during this century” Poised here

is like an –ed participle (a host of innovation which are poised) too However, if it is considered that, the sentence will be very difficult for Vietnamese students to understand

or interpret legibly Once “poised” is understood by another grammatical category “ready”,

it will be legible for the sentence

Understandably, it is important to find out how students themselves feel about the problem Once they see the problem themselves, they are expected to be willing to solve it and come through it successfully

3 4.2.3 Applying translation activities in post-reading, the direct observation in class and strategy for using translation to support students in reading comprehension of IT texts

With the IT students, the teacher-the researcher has used a number of activities that are

beneficial for their linguistic development Post-reading activities give the students the

opportunity to review, summarize, and react to a specialist reading text through discussions

in small or large groups After having read a specialist reading text, the students were assigned to do various comprehension exercises, such as multiple choice questions, true or false statements, general questions on the contents of text The activity of writing different types of summaries, e.g restatement, descriptive summary or opinion essays, has proved being very useful It allowed teachers to pin-point errors stemming from the mother tongue, although checking written work increased teacher‟s load significantly Students, first in pairs translated different short paragraph of the specialist reading text from English into Vietnamese, then exchanged ideas with each other, after that reported their translated paragraph to the teacher and whole class During post-reading the teacher-the researcher listened to the about three different students‟ results for each paragraph, took note their mistakes as well as good ideas After the students read their translated results aloud in front the whole class, the teacher-the researcher asked other students to give their comments on the students‟ translation The teacher-the researcher gave final comments and corrections Finally, she invited one of the best students to translate the whole text again and supported when it was necessary The completed translation should be written down on papers as homework assignment and given back to the teacher-the researcher She used those translations as materials to evaluate the students‟ attitude to her post-reading lesson as well

as the students‟ reading comprehension It was a matter of the fact that not all students do the homework seriously or successfully However, the ultimate analysis allowed raising the students‟ awareness of vocabulary, grammar, style, and language transfer, which may help them to improve their reading comprehension of IT texts

3 4 2 4 Evaluating students’ attitude to translation in post-reading process.

The students were supposed to carry out the translation as homework assignment at least once a week and their homework was checked by the teacher-the researcher herself or by the other teacher who shared the same class TH1201 with her The two teachers sat together and came to the same conclusion that the class might be categorized into three groups represented by the good reading ability, the fairly good and quite bad reading ability Their reading ability may be affected their attitudes to reading comprehension tasks

as well as translation as post-reading activities This means that there are both positive and negative attitudes to learning Technical English in general and to reading comprehension tasks or post-reading activities in particular

Husain‟s research (1995) suggested that using translation had highly positive effects on the low and intermediate proficiency learners, but it did not benefit higher level students Husain also found that translation strategy could enhance English learning in general It was also discovered that students who used translation tended to make more gains in learning vocabulary and phrases, compared to a lower level gain in learning tenses Another important finding was that the intermediate level students made more gains than those higher level peers did, and the gains made by the lower level students were higher than those by the intermediate level students In other words, the higher level students benefited the least from translation use

In contrast, other researchers advocate the use of translation at the advanced level Advanced learners may have already developed a somewhat solid foundation of the target language, and thus can be more likely to discern the subtle differences of vocabulary meaning and grammar usage between their L1 and L2 For example, Perkins (1985:53) indicated that through translation instruction, „the advanced learner will always gain some insight into points of L1-L2 difference and conflict on a syntactic, semantic and stylistic level and this may ultimately improve his L2 competence‟ Translation is seen as an important tool to upgrade high-level students‟ learning Titford (1985) shared the same view and proposed that translation was an appropriate resource for advanced learners He argued that translation could serve as a problem-solving exercise as well as a cognitive exercise in the classroom Advanced learners are often keen to know the underlying rule behind a particular foreign language, and tend to ask the question how an expression is translated in the foreign language and what rules are involved More importantly, the use

of translation at the advanced level can help learners extend their knowledge of the foreign language by making reference to their mother tongue, and then help learners clarify the similarities and the differences between the foreign language and their native language Those arguments may be made clearer by the result of a survey questionnaire for the students and the result of an interview for six students in class TH1201

3 4 3 Analyzing the data

The both quantitative and qualitative approaches were applied to analyze the collected data The researcher qualitatively depended on the data collected from the survey questionnaire, the direct observation , the result of the interview six students in class TH1201 Qualitatively, the result of students‟ interview and the answers to the survey

questionnaire were taken into account to identify the students‟ attitude towards translation

in post-reading process and their perception of the usefulness of translation to their reading comprehension The quantitative approach was applied to find the percentage and the Means and Standard Deviation for evaluation of students‟ attitude towards the two research questions mentioned above

CHAPTER 4: DATA ANALYSIS

The previous chapter presents the study which includes the context of study, the methods

of data collection, the participants, and the research procedures This chapter presents the data analysis The chapter begins with the findings related to the students‟ attitude towards translation in post-reading process and their perception of the usefulness of translation to their reading comprehension As presented in the previous chapter, chapter three, the data were analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively The chapter concludes with the discussion

of the findings

4 1.The effects on the students’ attitude towards translation in post-reading process

As it was mentioned in the previous sections, the teacher-the researcher observed the class activities during her reading lesson She could identify and divide the class into three different abilities related to the students‟ attitudes to learning English in general, to specialist reading lessons or to post-reading process in particular It is certain that the students‟ background knowledge and general English knowledge really affect students‟ attitudes to learning English and their interests in leaning in general and in learning English

in particular.The data were obtained for thirty IT students of class TH1201 at HUBT The students were asked to rate 15 statements on the five-point Likert scale (The statements are reproduced as a survey questionnaire enclosed in the appendix)

The survey results are summarized in a table bellowed in which the first column represents fifteen questions shown as Q1 to Q15 and the first row represents five rates from 1 to 5 The numbers in each cell represent the number of students selecting the answers for each question The total of students participated in the survey was 30, thus, each answer choice was coded into percentage

It can be seen in table 1 that the survey results mainly lying in column 4 &5 over 70% of the students have positive attitude to translation in post-reading process and about 70% of the students agree with almost advantages of translation in post-reading process