Some suggestions to improve esp reading cpmprehension skill for students of automotive technology at the central region transport college (CRTC)

In fact, there are many factors that affect theteaching and learning ESP reading comprehension process such as: inappropriateteaching methods and classroom techniques, inappropriate atti

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

TECHNOLOGY AT THE CENTRAL REGION TRANSPORT

COLLEGE (CRTC)

MASTER’S THESIS IN EDUCATION

NGHE AN - 2014

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

TECHNOLOGY AT THE CENTRAL REGION TRANSPORT

Nghe An, 2014

I certify my authority of the paper submitted entitled

SOME SUGGESTIONS TO IMPROVE ESP READING COMPREHENSIONSKILL FOR STUDENTS OF AUTOMOTIVE TECHNOLOGY AT THE CENTRALREGION TRANSPORT COLLEGE (CRTC)

In total fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts

Vinh, August 2014Student’s signature

Thân Thị Bích Hường

On the completion of this thesis, I would like to express my deepest gratitude

to my supervisor, Dr Tran Van Phuoc, who gave me precious guidance,comments, suggestions and encouragement throughout my research

My special thanks go to all my teachers of my M.A course (TESOL) at thePost-graduate Department at Vinh University, Nghe An province, for theirinteresting and useful lectures

I also wish to convey my sincere thanks to all my colleagues and the year students at the Mechanical Faculty, Central Region Transport College, fortheir contribution to the data collection and their constructive suggestions for thisresearch

second-Finally, I am grateful to my friends and my family who gave me supportand encouragement during the time of fulfilling this work

TABLE OF CONTENT

DECLARATION i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ii

ABSTRACT iii

TABLE OF CONTENT iv

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS vii

LIST OF TABLES viii

LIST OF FIGURES ix

Chapter 1 Introduction 1

1.1 Rationale 1

1.2 Aims and objectives of the study 2

1.3 Scope of the study 3

1.4 Research questions 3

1.5 Methods of the study 3

1.6 Organization of the study 4

Chapter 2 Literature Review and Theoretical Background 5

2.1 Literature Review 5

2.2 Theoretical background 8

2.2.1 The nature of reading 8

2.2.1.1 Definition of reading 8

2.2.1.2 Reading comprehension 9

2.2.1.3 Classification of reading according to the purpose of reading 10

a Skimming 10

b Scanning 11

c Extensive reading 12

d Intensive reading 13

2.2.1.4 Reading skills 14

2.2.2 Reading in ESP teaching and learning 17

2.2.2.1 Definition of ESP 17

2.2.2.2 Types of ESP 19

2.2.2.3 Some characteristics of ESP for engineers 21

2.2.2.4 Reading skills in ESP 23

2.2.2.5 ESP reading materials 23

2.3 Review on current teaching and learning English at CRTC 23

2.3.1 The English teaching and learning situation at CRTC 24

2.3.2 Resources and administrative constraints 25

2.3.3 The students 25

2.3.4 The teachers 26

2.3.5 The features of ESP materials for Automotive Technology at CRTC 27

2.4 Summary 28

Chapter 3 Methodology 29

3.1 The setting of the study 29

3.2 The participants 29

3.3 The data collection method 30

3.4 Data collection procedure 32

3.5 Data analysis 32

3.6 Summary 33

Chapter 4 Findings and discussions 34

4.1 What are teachers and students’ attitude and expectation of learning ESP reading skill? 34 4.1.1 Teachers and students’ attitude towards ESP reading comprehension 34

4.1.2 Teachers and students’ attitude towards reading materials 38

4.1.3 Teachers and students’ perceptions of working interaction 41

4.2 What problems did the teachers and students of Automotive Technology get when teaching and learning ESP reading? 41

4.2.1 What techniques were often used in reading lessons in practice? 41

4.2.1.1 Pre-reading stage 41

4.2.1.2 While-reading stage 42

4.2.1.3 Post-reading stage 43

4.2.2 Students’ perception of ESP reading difficulties 44

4.2.2.1 In the area of vocabulary 44

4.2.2.2 In the area of grammar 46

4.2.2.3 In the area of discourse 47

4.2.2.4 In the area of reading skills 49

4.2.2.5 Rank order of ESP reading difficulties basing on students’ opinions 50

4.2.3 The cause of difficulties 50

4.2.3.1 The reading materials 51

4.2.3.2 The teachers 51

4.2.3.3 The learners 52

4.3 What helps students overcome the difficulties and improve ESP reading skill? 53

4.3.2 Some suggestions to improve students’ ESP reading comprehension skill 55

4.3.2.1 Increasing students’ reading interest and motivation 55

a Raising the students’ awareness of the importance of reading in their future job. .55

b Improving reading purpose of students 57

4.3.2.2 Training students become efficient readers 57

a Teaching students different reading strategies 57

b Encouraging students to develop extensive reading habbit 59

4.3.2.3 Applying different approaches to teach vocabulary 60

4.3.2.4 Giving homework and checking previous lesson frequently 60

4.3.2.5 Changing teachers’ awareness of the students’ needs 61

4.3.2.6 Improving teachers’ professional knowledge about English on Automotive Technology and teaching methodology 61

a Improving teachers’ professional knowledge about Automotive Technology .61

b Improving teachers’ teaching methodology 61

4.4 Summary 62

Chapter 5 Conclusion 63

5.1 Summary of the study 63

5.2 Limitations of the study 64

REFERENCES 65

APPENDICES

Appendix 1a Questionnaire for teachers (English version)

Appendix 2a Questionnaire for students (English version)

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

CRTC: Central Region Transport Collge

EOP: English for Occupational Purposes

ESP: English for Specific Purpose

LIST OF TABLES

Table 4.1 Teachers and students’ view of sources of difficulties 50

Table 4.2 The learners’ expectation in term of methodology 54

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 4.1 Attitudes towards the role of ESP to students’ future job 34

Figure 4.2.The role of reading skill on teaching and learning ESP 35

Figure 4.3 Purpose of teaching and learning reading ESP 35

Figure 4.4 Students’ motivation in ESP reading classes 36

Figure 4.5 Opinions about reasons for being interested in reading lessons 37

Figure 4.6 Opinions about reasons for not being interested in reading lessons 37

Figure 4.7 The teachers’ attitudes toward the ESP materials 38

Figure 4.8 The students’ attitudes toward the ESP materials 38

Figure 4.9 Teachers and students’ using of supplementary materials 39

Figure 4.10 Teachers’ and students perceptions of working interaction 41

Figure 4.11 Techniques used at pre-reading stage 42

Figure 4.12 Techniques used at while-reading stage 43

Figure 4.13 Techniques used at post-reading stage 43

Figure 4.14 Students’ perceptions on the difficulties in the areas of vocabulary 44

Figure 4.15 Teachers’ perceptions on the difficulties in the areas of vocabulary 45

Figure 4.16 Students’ perceptions on the difficulties in the areas of grammar 46

Figure 4.17 Teachers’ perceptions on the difficulties in the areas of grammar 47

Figure 4.18 Students’ perceptions on the difficulties in the areas of discourse 47

Figure 4.19 Teachers’ perceptions on the difficulties in the areas of discourse 48

Figure 4.20 Students’ perceptions on the difficulties in the areas of reading skills 49

Figure 4.21 Teachers’ perceptions on the difficulties in the areas of reading skills 49

Figure 4.22 Suggestions made by the teachers and the students 53

Chapter 1 Introduction 1.1 Rationale

As an international language, English nowadays plays an important role inacademic studies, professional success and personal development in the world ofeconomic integration and globalization The number of learners of English increasesquickly day by day In fact, all courses of English usually start with the question

“Why do these learners need to learn English?” These courses are based on aperceived need of some sort Most learners have realized their core need to learnEnglish for their current or future job Thus, in teaching and learning English as aforeign language in Vietnam, English for Specific Purposes (ESP) has recentlyreceived a great deal of attention

Moreover, many researchers believe that reading is by far the most important

of all four skills in a second language, particularly in English as a second or foreignlanguage (e.g Carrell, Devine, & Eskey, 1998) Certainly, if we consider the study

of English as a foreign language around the world, the situation in which mostEnglish learners find themselves, reading is the main reason why students learn thelanguage Quite simply, without solid reading proficiency, second language readerscannot complete with their English-speaking counterparts Aebersold and Field(1997) also emphasize that the acquisition of reading skills in a second or foreignlanguage is a priority for millions of learners around the world, and there is agrowing demand for both effective reading courses as well as high-quality secondlannguage reading materials

In Vietnam, English seems to be learnt and taught in non-English environment,

so reading is an important means to get knowledge in ESP, and also a means forfurther study In other words, learners “read to learn” (Burn, 1988) This is true forthe students of Automotive Technology at The Central Region Transport College(CRTC), where learners are future technical engineers and technicians who learn

English in order to be able to handle subject-related written materials in English and

to work with modern technological equipment So ESP materials used at CRTCnow are often reading materials with the topics in the specific area Readingcomprehension skill is therefore the key for students not only to study English butalso to further study

At CRTC, after finishing 120 periods of GE, students of AutomotiveTechnology begin to take 60 periods of ESP Being an ESP teacher of AutomotiveTechnology, the researcher has always been aware of the importance of developingreading skills for students If students read well, they are able to handle subjectsrelated written materials in English and to work with modern technologicalequipment Since reading skill is of utmost importance, however , its teaching is not

a simple task According to Celce-Murcia (2001), teaching reading skill to native speakers of English involves unique problems and challenges of allconceivable levels of instruction In fact, there are many factors that affect theteaching and learning ESP reading comprehension process such as: inappropriateteaching methods and classroom techniques, inappropriate attitude of the teachersand learners about the subjects, unsuitable teaching materials… So that, despite theeffort of the teachers and students, the students’ reading comprehension skill has notmet the requirements of the collge

non-For the above-mentioned reasons, the researcher would like to study about theperceptions and attitude towards ESP reading, the current situations, the difficultiesand the causes of difficulties for teaching and learning English on AutomotiveTechnology at CRTC, then make some suggestions to improve students’ ESPreading comprehension skill

1.2 Aims and objectives of the study

The study aims to provide some suggestions to improve the skill of ESPreading comprehension for students of Automotive Technology at CRTC

To be more specific, the objectives of the study are:

- To invesigate the present situation of teaching and learning English forAutomotive Technology in order to find out the teachers and learners’difficulties for reading comprehension skill

- To suggest the ways to overcome the difficulties and help improve students’ESP reading comprehension skill

It is hoped that the findings from this study will be of some benefits to the students

at CRTC

1.3 Scope of the study

This study is to find out the perception and problem in ESP reading experience

by the second year students of Automotive Technology at CRTC The information

is intended to be used as the base for giving some suggestions for improvingstudents’ reading comprehension skill

Also, the findings from this study will help ESP teachers at the college meetthe learners’ expectation by narrowing the gap between teaching and learning Anyother purposes would be beyond the scope of the study

3 What helps students overcome the difficulties and improve ESP reading skill?

1.5 Methods of the study

This is a case study on teaching and learning reading English for AutomotiveTechnology at CRTC To achieve the aim of the study, both qualitative andquantitative methods are used in the study Quantitative method is used toinvestigate students’ attidude and expectation in ESP reading as well as teachers’

techniques of teaching ESP reading by mainly using questionnaires Qualitativemethod is used to find the causes and make suggestions to overcome thosedifficulties in ESP reading skill by using the instrument of survey and discussions tocollect and analyse the data.

1.6 Organization of the study

The study is comprised of five chapters:

Chapter I (Introduction) introduces the rational for choosing the topic, the aims andobjectives of the study, the scope of the study, research questions and method of thestudy

Chapter II (Literature Review and Theoretical Background) includes two parts Partone is on literature review commenting on some previous studies on the field oftopic Part two is on the background of the study including theoretical background

to the nature of reading, reading comprehension and reading in ESP; the currentsituaton of English teaching and learning at the CRTC

Chapter III (Methodology) presents the data collection instruments, procedure anddata analysis

Chapter IV (Findings and discussions) provides the findings and some commentsbasing on data analysed as well as some suggestions to improve students’ ESPreading comprehension skill

Chapter V (Conclusion) summarizes the main issues and points outs the limitations

of the study

Chapter 2 Literature Review and Theoretical Background

2.1 Literature Review

The teaching of ESP has actually been seen as a separate activity withinEnglish language teaching (ELT), and the process of teaching ESP is naturallysimilar to that of EFL So that, ESP research is as an identifiable component ofapplied linguistic research, as EFL A key distinguishing feature of ESP is itsopenness to insights of other disciplines

Recently, there have been several studies done with the consideration on therelationship between reading strategies and successful foreign language readers In

an empirical study, Song (2001) studied 68 first-year students majoring inArcheology, Esthetics, and religion at a university in Korea to investigate theimpact of strategy training on the reading ability of EFL university students He alsoaimed to get answers for the different effect of the strategy training on students'reading proficiency level and types of reading comprehension questions Thefindings of the study showed that the reading strategy training does improve EFLcollege students reading proficiency Furthermore, the study demonstrated thatless able readers might benefit from the training more than more ablereaders Finally the study revealed that the students' ability of grasping main ideasand of making inferences from the given passages was significantly enhanced.The effect of training reading strategies to make better training has also beenconfirmed by many other study results of many researchers as Salataci and Akeyl's(2002) who investigated the reading strategies of Turkish EFL students in Turkishand English possible effects of reading instruction on reading in Turkish andEnglish; Sedighi (1998) who studied the effects of training in the use of readingstrategies on the improvement of reading comprehension of 110 students atAllameh Tabatabaei University and Islamic Azad University, Iran

While lots of studies on reading strategy instruction have been done in EFLand ESL context, few studies have been conducted on the impact of strategytraining on ESP readers However, an article on the Journal of Language Teachingand Research (Vol 1, No 5, pp 569-577, September 2010) about the study on theeffects of pre-reading activities on ESP reading comprehension by Minoo Alemiand Saman Ebadi (Tehran, Iran) shows that better comprehension can be gainedthrough restoring to pre-reading activities In the study, writers giving priorinformation through restoring to pre-reading activities might become a usefultool for teachers of ESP to facilitate the learner's reading comprehension ability.

In another article in Vol 2, No 1, pp 270-273, January 2011 about the study of

“Deepening ESP Reading Comprehension through Visualization”, Seyyed MahdiErfani, Abutaleb Iranmehr and Hossein Davari suggested that visualization can be akey effective reading comprehension strategy can be a useful alternative foruniversity ESP classrooms The procedures used in the experimental grouptriggered off the students to participate more actively in discussions and devotedmore attention and interest to the topic Moreover, strategies like visualizationmight remove the strictness and formality of language learning classrooms andallow students, as one important side of ESP instructional transition, to engage moreactively Finally, the instructors' creativity to use efficient strategies likevisualization might cover some obvious shortcomings of textbooks

In Vietnam, there have been also studies focusing on improving students’ ESPreading skill in recent years In the study on “Students’ difficulties in learning ESP

at Faculty of Broadcasting Technology of College of Broadcasting I” by Ms HoangThi Hai Hanh (2009), the researcher showed that the students have difficulties inmany areas of the language such as grammar, vocabulary, discourse and readingskill when dealing with ESP texts and their problems result from limited

background, unsuitable reading materials inadequate linguistic knowledge and theteaching methods of some teachers.

Ms Nguyen Thi Nga (2011) with the study of “An investigation into thedifficulties of learning reading English for ESP of students of Finance and Banking

on HUI Nghe An Campus” showed that students’ ineffective ways of learning ESPprevented better reading comprehension So that, in order to improve reading skill,

it is necessary to raise awareness of the students of self-study

In another study, Ms Ta Thi Minh Nguyet (2007) stated that the teaching andlearning of ESP in general and reading skills in particular are still far from beingsatisfactory because the Communicative Approach is not properly applied andreading classes are often used to teach language rather than reading comprehension.Hence, she suggested improving students’ ESP reading skill by “Teaching readingESP in integration with the other language skills to students of Linguistics”

Up to the present, there have been several books written for Automotive

Technology and realated branches, such as: English for Mechanics (Thorold May, Lulu.com), English for the Automobile Industry (Marie Kavanagh, Oxford), Technical English (David Bonamy, Longman), Cambridge English for Engineering

(Mark Ibbotson, Cambridge), etc In addition, teachers of ESP in universitíes andcolleges in Vietnam and over the world have been editing the materials of ESP inorder to make it more suiable to their students The most effective exploitation ofthese kinds of ESP materials means improving competence in the English languageand reinforcing specification knowledge of automotive technology Most ofknowledge related to students’ major is compiled in automotive technology texts inthe materials As a sequence, mastering the reading comprehension skill plays thepriority importance in teaching and learning ESP However, there have been notmany studies related to developing ESP reading skill for students of AutomotiveTechnology

In this study, the researcher would like to apply theories and her ownunderstanding as well as experience in teaching English for AutomotiveEngineering in order to give some suggestions of improving reading comprehensionskill for students as presented in the following parts.

Actually, most people usually read naturally so that they can not give exactdefinition of reading Each definition only can reflect some aspect of reading Somepeople think that reading consists of two elements: the reader and the text Nor theyare all In any mature act of reading there is also an interaction between the readerand the writer True reading, thus, involves a triangular interaction between thereader, the writer and the text

According to Goodman (1971:135), reading is “a psycholinguistic process

by which the reader, a language user, reconstructs, as best as he can, a message which has been encoded by a writer as a graphic display” Similarly, Carell Devine

and Eskey (1988:13) give the point that considers reading as a process in which thewriter encodes thought by language and reader decodes language to thought calledconstructed meaning This can be understood that there is an essential interactionbetween language and thought in reading

Sharing the similar point of view, Petty and Salzer (1989:323) suppose that

“reading involves the identification and recognition of printed or written symbols which serve as stimulus for the recall of meanings built up through past experience and further the construction of new meanings through the reader's manipulation of

relevant concepts already in his or her possession The resulting meanings are organized into thought processes according to the purposes that are operating in the reader.” Through these views, we can see clearly the interrelationship between

the writer, the reader and the text

On the other hand, some other reseachers consider reading as a creative act,interaction, interpretation, a social act and responding Ur (1996:138) gives the

definition that “Reading means "reading and understanding" A foreign language learner who says, "I can read the words but don't know what they mean" is not, therefore, reading, in this sense He or she is merely decoding - translating written symbols into corresponding sounds.” This does not mean that the reader needs to

understand every word in a text but actively work on the text and extract therequired information efficiently

From all the opinions above it is clear that no researcher could give anabsolutely exact definition that can capture all the ideas and features of reading.However, they all try to find out the nature of reading, that is “understanding”, inwhich they emphasize on reading process, reading message and readers We can nottell whose point of view is better because each of them focuses on one importantmatter of reading However, we find that there is a close relationship betweenreading and understanding Therefore, being a language teacher, we mustunderstand the nature of reading thoroughly to help our students read effectively

2.2.1.2 Reading comprehension

Reading comprehension plays an important role in teaching and learningreading a foreign language It can be understood as the ability to obtain theinformation as required in the reading text as efficiently as possible If reading issimple mechanical movements of the eyes, reading comprehension includesmechanical and mental activities So far, many people have done some research todefine reading comprehension

According to Swam (1975: 1), “a student is good at comprehension” if “hecan read accurately and efficiently, so as to get the maximum information of a text”.Whereas, Grellet (1981:3) stated that “reading comprehension or understanding awritten text means extracting the required information from it as effectively aspossible”.

Though these opinions are different, they all have a common point, that is,reading is much more than just pronouncing words correctly or simply knowingwhat the author intends It is the process in which the readers, as they read, canrecognize the graphic forms of the reading text and understand what is impliedbehind these forms For the teachers who teach reading, a profound understandingabout the nature of reading comprehension may help them find out the students’difficulties of learning reading

2.2.1.3 Classification of reading according to the purpose of reading

As mentioned above, people read because of various reasons or, in other words,different purposes According to the purpose of reading Wood (1985), Williams(1984) and Grellet (1990) categorize reading into intensive, extensive, skimmingand scanning

a Skimming

Skimming differs from general rapid reading in that the readers go throughthe text extremely quickly, merely dipping into it or sampling it at various points.Skimming is the technique that is used widely in reading comprehension Skimmingmay sometimes be the prerequisite of reading for full understanding There are

many definitions of skimming Grellet (1981:19) states that “when skimming, we go through the reading material quickly in order to get the gist of it, to know how it is organized, or to get an idea of the tone or intention of the writer” It means that the

purpose of skimming is simply to see what a text is about The reader skims in order

to satisfy a very general curiosity about the text The key that actually encourages

learners to skim is to give them a series of texts and ask them to select appropriatetitles from groups of ones Moreover, in order to teach skimming effectively, theteacher should have the students read the beginning or end of a text or a paragraphbecause it may provide students with a statement relating to the topic Skimminggives students the advantage of being able to predict the purpose of the passage, themain topic or message, or possibly some of the developing or supporting ideas Thisgives them a “head start” as they embark on more focused reading Skimming alsohelps student organize their thoughts and specify what information they can getfrom a book so that the subsequent reading will become more efficient.

In conclusion, skimming is understood as a necessary technique for readingcomprehension which enables readers to get the main points of the text withoutbeing concerned with the details Therefore, skimming should be applied at the firststage of teaching reading to help student have an overview of what they are going toread And it is sure that they will understand the whole text later However,skimming sometimes proves too difficult for younger learners, or beginners becausethey generally lack confidence and the knowledge of the language they are learning

b Scanning

Like skimming, scanning is also one of two most valuable reading strategies.However, scanning is far more limited than skimming since it only means retrievingwhat information is relevant to our purpose Scanning occurs when a reader goesthrough a text very quickly in order to find a particular point of information It is auseful skill worth cultivating for its own sake, if it has been cultivatedsystematically from the earliest point in the course at which it can be attempted, co-operative work on the study of texts can be greatly expected and made easy

Scanning requires two skills of the reader One of them is that they recognizethe specific type of word that identifies the item The other is the use of a differenteye movement pattern, vertical vision Nearly all the background reading required

for the presenting of a topic to the class by a group calls for proficiency in this type

of reading There is a great range of text suitable for scanning – indexes,dictionaries, maps, advertisements, labels, reference material, etc

In short, the key to scanning is to decide exactly what kind of information wecan look for and where to find it The purpose of scanning is to extract certainspecific information without reading through the whole text

c Extensive reading

Extensive reading is a fluency activity, mainly involving generalunderstanding It provides valuable reinforcement of the language already presentedand practiced in the class as well as giving students useful practice in inferringmeaning from the context of the text

Lewis and Hill (1985:109) state that “extensive reading means students have

a general understanding of the text without necessarily understanding every word”.

It is obvious that when reading extensively, readers do not need to have intenseconcentration on the content of a long text and total comprehension because theobjective of extensive reading is to cover the greatest possible amount of text in theshortest possible time In other words, extensive reading can be compared to theactivity of ploughing through the text in a uniform fashion Extensive reading istherefore regarded as means of entertainment and pleasure And the reason why thiskind of reading is essentially needed is that it can promote reading out of class.Students can read directly and fluently in the foreign language for their ownenjoyment without the aid of teacher Furthermore, it is by pursuing the activity ofextensive reading that the volume of practice necessary to achieve rapid andefficient reading can be achieved It is also one of the means by which a foreignermay be exposed to a substantial sample of the language he may wish to learnwithout actually going to live in the country to which that language is native

Basing on the importance of extensive reading, Nuttal (1982:168) shows that

“the best way to improve one’s knowledge of a foreign language is to go and live among its speakers: The next best way is to read extensively in it.”

The practice of extensive reading needs little justification It is clearly theearliest way of bringing the foreign learner into sustained contact with a substantialbody of English

Broughton (1980:111) suggests that “there appears to be basically three ways the extensive reading may be encouraged, first by having class sets of title, second by operating a class library system, and the third by using the school library”.

In short, this kind of reading is necessary for students at University because

it actively promotes reading out the class and gives them opportunity to use theirown knowledge of the language for their own purposes Moreover, this kind ofreading is regarded as pleasure and interest That is why intensive reading is highlymotivated

d Intensive reading

Intensive Reading, sometimes called "Narrow Reading", may involvestudents reading selections by the same author or several texts about the same topic.When this occurs, content and grammatical structures repeat themselves andstudents get many opportunities to understand the meanings of the text Thesuccess of "Narrow Reading" on improving reading comprehension is based on thepremise that the more familiar the reader is with the text, either due to the subjectmatter or having read other works by the same author, the more comprehension ispromoted

Different from extensive reading – reading for fluency, readers can readwithout the aid of the teachers and without understanding the text in detail –

intensive reading is regarded as reading for accuracy It “involves approaching the

text under the close guidance of the teacher or under the guidance of a task which forces the students to pay great attention to the text in order to arrive at a profound

to detailed understanding of the text not only of what it means, but also of how the meaning is produced The “how” is as important as the “what”, for the intensive reading lesson is intended primarily to train students in reading strategies” (Nutall,

1982:23)

Sharing this opinion, Lewis (1985:109) states that “intensive reading means students understand everything they read and be able to answer detailed vocabulary and comprehension questions” The concern of such reading is for detailed comprehension of very short texts “ The objective of intensive reading is to achieve full understanding of the logical argument, the rhetorical arrangement or pattern of the text, of its symbolic, emotional and social overtones, of the attitudes and purposes of the author, and of linguistic means that he employs to achieve his ends” (Broughton, 1980:93) In other words, the aim of intensive reading is to

obtain the fullest possible response in the student’s head to the black mark in hisbook Response can not be achieved by instruction about what he ought to see andfeel, or by repetition of what others see and feel, although knowledge of what can

be seen by others sometimes helps us to see for ourselves

Generally, in real life, our reading purpose constantly varies therefore we canuse different ways of reading to obtain information Teachers should be active andflexible in each situation to choose the type of reading to help students becomeindependent and efficient readers

2.2.1.4 Reading skills

The reader employs a number of specialist skills when reading and hissuccess in understanding the content of what he reads depends to a large extent onhis expertise in these specialist skills The following are some of the main reading

skills required by a learner of English listed by Matthews, Spratt and Dangerfield(1991: 65):

1 recognising the letters of the alphabet;

2 reading groups of letters as words;

3 understanding the meaning of punctuation;

4 understanding the meaning of vocabulary items;

5 understanding the grammar of a sentence;

6 understanding the relationship between sentences and clauses in a text;

7 recognizing the effects of style;

8 recognizing the organization of a text;

9 making inferences;

10 reading longer texts (extensive reading);

11 skimming for gist;

12 scanning for specific information; and

13 reading for detail

This list concerns students of different levels of reading ability To ESP reading,students should be improved with the skills numbered (4), (5), (8), (9), (10), (11),(12) and (13) than the rest since they are essential skills for them not only in theirmajor but also in real life

Reading skills are also identified as follows:

1 recognizing words and phrases in English script;

2 using one's own knowledge of the outside world to make predictions about and interpret a text;

3 retrieving information stated in the passage;

4 distinguishing the main ideas from subsidiary information;

5 deducing the meaning and use of unknown words; ignoring unknown words/phrases that are redundant;

6 understanding the meaning and implications of grammatical structures;

7 recognizing discourse markers;

8 recognizing the function of sentence - even when not introduced by discourse markers;

9 understanding relations within the sentence and the text;

10 extracting specific information for summary or note taking;

11 skimming to obtain the gist, and recognise the organisation of ideas within the text;

12 understanding implied information and attitudes; and

13 knowing how to use an index, a table of contents, etc Understanding layout, use of headings, etc.

(Willis - 1998: 142)Basically, Willis took the same view on reading sub-skills as Matthews,Spratt and Dangerfield These methodologists all emphasized that the student offoreign languages should improve his reading ability by acquiring the ways to makeprediction; how to skim and scan; understanding the text by getting the main idea,the specific information; recognizing the organization as well as the discoursepatterns

Also being concerned about reading skills, Harmer (1992: 183) gave anotherlist of six specialist skills which, to some extent, summarize all the above-mentioned skills including

1 Predictive skills;

2 Extracting specific information;

3 Getting the general picture;

4 Extracting detailed information; and

5 Recognizing function and discourse patterns

6 Deducing meaning from context

All the skills mentioned above should be paid a special attention to by bothteachers and learners of English in the process of acquiring the language Theteacher of reading should encourage his or her students to predict what they aregoing to read, to know how to find out a fact in the fastest way, how to pick outmain points or detailed information rapidly, and how to discard what is not essential

or irrelevant In addition, he or she needs to make the students aware of discoursemarkers, help them develop their ability to deduce the meanings of unfamiliarwords from the context in which they appear Perhaps, these skills are largelysubconscious in the minds of the students when reading in their mother tongue.However, reading in a foreign language can create barriers for the students, whichmay make these sub-skills more difficult to use The teacher’s job, then, is to re-activate these skills which may be less effective when the students are faced withEnglish If the teacher of reading can make the students feel less anxious and thusremove some of the barriers, that alone may dramatically improve their readingability

2.2.2 Reading in ESP teaching and learning

2.2.2.1 Definition of ESP

ESP has been defined with different emphasis on a variety of elementsthat characterizes ESP Different researchers and scholars have different views ofwhat it is that counts in ESP

Hutchinson and Waters (1987:19) stressed that ESP should be seen as anapproach, not a product It means that ESP students’ goal of learning a secondlanguage might not only be to acquire general language competencies but alsoacademic and job-related skills Widdowson, on the other hand, argued that thedistinction between English for General Purposes and ESP is not the problem of

specificity of purpose but “the way in which purpose is defined and the manner of its implementation” (Widdowson, 1983:6) He also put the specification of

objectives in ESP course design in a close relation with training It can be said thatESP basically focuses on all aspects of language pertaining field of human activitywhile taking into account the time constraints imposed by learners.

First, Fitzjohn in Robinson (1980:9) takes the time factor as acharacteristic feature of ESP He notes: “The very concept of “special purposes”implies that foreign language study is a subsidiary contribution to another, maininterest, and that there will normally be pressure to achieve the required level oflinguistic competence in a minimum of time” When Fitzjohn considers ESP as

a subsidiary contribution to another main interest, he focuses on ESP ashaving an immediate, utilitarian purpose, not simply pleasure, or a long-termpurpose There is usually a very clearly specified time period for the course Thismeans that objectives should be closely specified and their realization to thetimetable This also requires the collaboration of those involved in thecourse: organizers, teachers, sponsors, and learners

Second, the age of the learners is also a criterion of ESP Most of ESPlearners are likely to be adults, not children Normally, they are students intertiary education or experienced members of the workforce In this regard,Robison cited in Long (1980:9) points out: “By and large these people have beenstudents in tertiary education, and adults” Because the learners are adults, theirbackground knowledge and their way of learning are quite different from those ofchildren For example, adult learners often learn by “problem solving” not bymimicry or repetition which young children enjoy For this reason, in teaching anESP course, the teacher should take the learner’s age into account so as to findout appropriate materials and methods of teaching to suit the age of thelearners

Thirdly, the learners’ needs are considered the most important factor in ESP.Strevens defines ESP, there needs to be a distinction between absolute

characteristics and variable one The absolute characteristics of ESP are as follows:ESP consists of English language teaching that is:

- Designed to meet specified needs of the learners

- Related in content (i.e in its themes and topics) to particular disciplines,occupations and activities

- Centered on the language appropriate to those activities, in syntax, lexis,discourse, semantics, etc

- In contrast with “ GE”

According to him, ESP may, but not necessarily be characterized as being:

- Restricted as to the language skills to be learnt (e.g reading only, speechrecognition only, etc )

- Taught according to any pre-ordained methodology (i.e ESP is not restricted toany particular methodology - although communicative methodology is very oftenfelt to be the most appropriate)

It is noteworthy that those definitions imply two factors: (1) the broad meaning ofthe term ‘purpose’ and (2) the syllabus basing on learners’ needs analysis todetermine the content of the syllabus, the materials and methods ofteaching/learning for these purposes With specific purposes in mind, the learnersknow clearly what they need to learn, and they will learn with high motivationwhat they find useful for theirwork later, or at present For this reason, an ESPteacher should be aware of the learners’ needs so as not to introduce irrelevantmaterials to the course

2.2.2.2 Types of ESP

David Carter (1983) identifies three types of ESP:

- English as a restricted language

- English for Academic and Occupational Purposes

- English with specific topics

The language used by air traffic controllers or by waiters are examples ofEnglish as a restricted language Mackay and Mountford (1978:4-5) clearlyillustrate the difference between restricted language and language with thisstatement: “ the language of international air-traffic control could be regarded as'special', in the sense that the repertoire required by the controller is strictly limitedand can be accurately determined situationally, as might be the linguistic needs of adining-room waiter or air-hostess However, such restricted repertoires are notlanguages, just as a tourist phrase book is not grammar Knowing a restricted

“language” would not allow the speaker to communicate effectively in novelsituation, or in contexts outside the vocational environment.”

The second type of ESP identified by Carter (1983) is English for Academicand Occupational Purposes In the 'Tree of ELT' (Hutchinson & Waters, 1987), ESP

is broken down into three branches: a) English for Science and Technology (EST),b) English for Business and Economics (EBE), and c) English for Social Studies(ESS) Each of these subject areas is further divided into two branches: English forAcademic Purposes (EAP) and English for Occupational Purposes (EOP) Anexample of EOP for the EST branch is 'English for Technicians' whereas anexample of EAP for the EST branch is 'English for Medical Studies'

Hutchinson and Waters (1987:16) do note that there is not a clear-cutdistinction between EAP and EOP: "· people can work and study simultaneously; it

is also likely that in many cases the language learnt for immediate use in a studyenvironment will be used later when the student takes up, or returns to, a job".Perhaps this explains Carter's rationale for categorizing EAP and EOP under thesame type of ESP It appears that Carter is implying that the end purpose of bothEAP and EOP are one in the same: employment However, despite the end purposebeing identical, the means taken to achieve the end is very different indeed Icontend that EAP and EOP are different in terms of focus on Cummins' (1979)

notions of cognitive academic proficiency versus basic interpersonal skills This isexamined in further detail below.

The third and final type of ESP identified by Carter (1983) is English withspecific topics Carter notes that it is only here where emphasis shifts from purpose

to topic This type of ESP is uniquely concerned with anticipated future Englishneeds of, for example, scientists requiring English for postgraduate reading studies,attending conferences or working in foreign institutions However, I argue that this

is not a separate type of ESP Rather it is an integral component of ESP courses orprograms which focus on situational language This situational language has beendetermined based on the interpretation of results from needs analysis of authenticlanguage used in target workplace settings

2.2.2.3 Some characteristics of ESP for engineers

First of all, the term “engineer” has two rather distinct meanings, one ofwhich is close to “technician” or “mechanic” (e.g a photocopier repair engineer)and another which is closer to “designer” The needs of these two groups are likely

to be different, but there are also people whose jobs and training fall somewhere inthe middle Hence, there are numerous different kinds of engineer (marine engineer,architectural engineer, automotive engineer, genetic engineer, etc) with wildlydifferent fields of work and very specialist vocabulary…

Having said all that, English for engineers tend to be related to technicaltopics which serve engineers’ specialisations, and technical topics also tend to bring

up language that can be used to describe other kinds of engineering There are alsothings that most kinds of engineers need to be able to understand, including:

- Abbreviations

- Adjectives, e.g positive ones like “reliable” and negative ones like “rusty”

- Consequences/ Cause and effect

- Countable and uncountable nouns

- Dimensions, plus other units of measurement like pressures and temperatures andother numbers

- Directions, e.g “vertical” and “anticlockwise”

- Equipment and tools

- Language to describe health and safety requirements, e.g modal verbs

- Manuals

- Materials

- Opposites, e.g “loose”/ “tight” and “plug in”/ “unplug”

- Other parts of speech, e.g “loose”/ “loosen” and “wide”/ “width”

- Parts of things, e.g leg of a chair/ Components and how they are put together

- Positions, e.g “in the top left corner”

- Presentations, e.g of a design or to explain an engineering failure

- Processes, e.g “First of all” and “After that”

- Reports

- Shapes

- Talking about projects, e.g planning and progress checks

- Things that engineers do, e.g “check” and “measure”

- Things that machines and devices do and have done to them, e.g “pivot” and

“break down”

- Troubleshooting conversations, e.g helpdesk phone calls and using “enough” and

“too”

- Words which are always plural, e.g “scissors”, “overalls”, “premises”,

“tweezers”, “pincers” and “pliers”

- Words which have different general and technical meanings

There will also be some differences between the grammar syllabus ofEnglish for technology and some other ESP courses, for example putting passivetenses earlier in this kind of course, covering the zero conditional long before the

first and second conditional, and covering imperatives (pretty much useless for mostGeneral English courses) Making uncountable things countable with words like “apiece of…” and “a tube of…” is also likely to be important.

Technology vocabulary can be presented and practised all the usual TEFLways such as trying to make true sentences about your partner using one or morewords on the list, Pictionary, miming, Taboo, and the definitions game Becausesuitable things like “spanner” and “spring” can vary a lot (making them difficult todescribe, draw etc), you might want to be more specific and give them “bed spring”and “adjustable spanner”

As a branch of technology, English for Automotive Engineers therefore getsall the above-mentioned characteristics of English for engineers in general

2.2.2.4 Reading skills in ESP

Kenedy and Bolitho (1991:74) state some necessary reading skills: skimming,scanning, relating graphs to text, relating diagram to text, predicting and sequencingthe structure of a text, and reading notice and instruction

2.2.2.5 ESP reading materials

A good ESP material must contain interesting texts and enjoyable activitieswhich make students think and be able to use their existing knowledge, skill andcontent that they and their teacher can cope with; truly reflect what you think andfeel about learning process; provide clear and coherent unit structure to guide thestudents through various activities to maximize the chances of learning; create abalance outlook which both reflects the complexity of the task, yet make it appearmanageable; introduce teachers to new techniques and provide models of correctand appropriate language use (Hutchinson and Walters, 1987:107)

2.3 Review on current teaching and learning English at CRTC

This section provides background information about ESP at Central RegionTransport College The information presented here includes the reality of English

language teaching and learning, the learners and teachers’ profile, and a description

of the current ESP course of the College

2.3.1 The English teaching and learning situation at CRTC

Being founded as a Vocational Training School, the Central Region TransportCollege mainly focused on training workers of road and bridge construction Littleattention was paid to teaching and learning of English English was only taught forstudents at a few class with only one teacher From 2006, The Central RegionTransport College included four faculties: Basic Subjects Faculty, ConstructionalFaculty, Mechanical Faculty and Economic Faculty with more than 120 teachersand more than 50 classes of 15-45 students per year From then on, the teaching andlearning English has received greater attention and interest

Since 2010, ESP has been introduced to the college level at CRTC Due to thelimited time, although the time fund for English course was 180 class hours, thestudents at CRTC can only have 60 periods of learning ESP The whole curriculum

of English is as follows:

Stage 1: General English with 120 periods

Stage 2: ESP with 60 periods

With such a timeframe, the students cannot learn much but just come to know

a number of technical terms or concepts in English All the teachers could do is tohelp students develop their ESP learning skills with focus on how to read specificdocument, how to write instructions or reports, and so on

The textbooks are used for GE are “Streamline (Departure)” and “NewHeadway (Elementary)”; ESP are “English for Road and Bridge Construction”,

“English for Civil Engineering”, “English for Automotive Engineering” and “Englishfor Business Accounting” However, the traditional methodology is being used inteaching English at CRTC Teacher often plays the key role concentrating onteaching grammar and vocabulary and students are passive and do not have much

practice in the classroom Thus, most students find it difficult to read materials intheir specific areas after having finished their English course at the college.

2.3.2 Resources and administrative constraints

In fact, the teaching and learning English at CRTC is affected by someconstraints such as the class size, economic conditions and time allocation Theaverage class size is 40–50 students, so it is too crowded for communicativeEnglish Besides, classrooms are not appropriately arranged for language classes.Classroom interaction is always in the form of question and answer All theseconstraints have negative effect on the quality of the English teaching and learning

at CRTC

The textbook used for General English is the New Headway Course which issimplified in order to suit the students’ level It should also be noted that this seriesonly covers social topics for general purposes

For stage 2, the ESP materials used for each major at CRTC are compiled andedited by teachers at the English section of General Subjects Department The

material for students of Automotive Technology major is “English for Automotive Engineering” The book includes eleven units designed with eleven topics related to

operating and repairing cars and engines Each unit includes a text with exercisesfollowed and grammar checking to explore new structures The main skills focusedare reading and translating The ESP course aims to provide students technicalterms and concepts as well as ways to giving instructions and reports

2.3.3 The students

The target students are at the age of 18 to 21 studying Automotive Technologyand are male students Each class consists of about 35-50 students They have anaverage of 6 periods of English per week The students are varied in terms ofEnglish background and proficiency Most do not have the habit of self-study andtend to depend on the textbooks and the teachers for knowledge

Most of them are beginners although English has been introduced into thesecondary school curriculum for years This is especially true for those from therural areas who account for a large proportion of the total number of students eachyear Only a small number of the students who come from cities or towns havelearned English for long at school or at English center This mixed ability hascaused certain problems to the teaching and learning of English at the college In thesame class, some students find classroom activities relaxing while others find toohard In such situation, it is obviously a challenge for teachers to satisfy all theneeds of the students

The typical learning style of the students at CRTC is quite dependent on theteachers This learning style is characterized as rote learning of vocabulary andrules Another aspect of their learning style is that they prefer written work andprivate reading which means that in class students work individually Besides, theyare profoundly influenced by their past learning experience For example, theyprefer everything being translated It results in the fact that they pay more attention

to forms than functions and meanings

In general, the students’ level of English proficiency is still very low ascompared to the requirements of the syllabus An analysis of these characteristicswill help teachers to make use of the advantages, limiting the disadvantages andfind find proper methods and techniques for these learners

2.3.4 The teachers

Four teachers of Engish in the Falculty of Basic-Subjects, aged from 26 to 37,have responsibility to teach both General English and ESP None of them has beentrained in teaching ESP and has no specialist knowledge on the subject matter.One of the most obvious difficulties is that these teachers lack a languageenvironment to develop their communicative abilities Another problem is that none

of these teachers has been trained in teaching ESP All of these teachers at the

English section have been teaching GE for a long time with a little or no specialistknowledge of mechanical repairs or engine operation… They sometimes find itdifficult to deal with the content area.

Teachers of the English section of CRTC share the same problem with manyother ESP teachers in the world These problems are described by Ewer (1976:10)when he writes about the difficulties that a teacher of English for General Purposesmay encounter when transferring to ESP These are “attitudinal, conceptual,linguistic, methodological and organizational” problems

2.3.5 The features of ESP materials for Automotive Technology at CRTC.

As mentioned above, the current ESP material for Automotive Technology atCRTC is the coursebook “English for Automotive Technology” The book includes

11 units as following:

Unit 1 Engines

Unit 2 Car cooling system

Unit 3 Welding – Safety Rules

Unit 4 Finding a fault in a car

Unit 5 Accidents in the machine shops

Unit 6 How the fuel warning light works

Unit 7 How to check a spark plug

Unit 8 Engine valves

Unit 9 Suspension system

Unit 10 Plain bearings

Unit 11 Starter motors

Each unit includes: part 1 “Reading and translating” is with a text topic of

which is about basic information, specifications or structural parts of a car, reading

manual and safety instructions when operating or repairing a car, part 2 “Checking comprehension” which contains exercises to check students’ reading