Factors affecting ESP vocabulary learning by the second-year students at University of Fire Fighting and Prevention

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES  PHẠM THỊ THẢO FACTORS AFFECTING ESP VOCABULARY LEARNING BY TH

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES



PHẠM THỊ THẢO

FACTORS AFFECTING ESP VOCABULARY LEARNING BY THE SECOND-YEAR STUDENTS AT UNIVERSITY

OF FIRE FIGHTING AND PREVENTION

(Những yếu tố ảnh hưởng đến việc học từ vựng tiếng Anh chuyên ngành của sinh viên năm thứ hai trường Đại học Phòng cháy Chữa cháy)

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111

Hanoi – 2016

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES



PHẠM THỊ THẢO

FACTORS AFFECTING ESP VOCABULARY LEARNING BY THE SECOND-YEAR STUDENTS AT UNIVERSITY

OF FIRE FIGHTING AND PREVENTION

(Những yếu tố ảnh hưởng đến việc học từ vựng tiếng Anh chuyên ngành của sinh viên năm thứ hai trường Đại học Phòng cháy Chữa cháy)

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111

Supervisor: Dr Nguyễn Huy Kỷ

Hanoi – 2016

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First and foremost, my sincere thanks are due to Dr Nguyễn Huy Kỷ, my supervisor for his continual, invaluable support, encouragement, guidance and ideas

I am grateful to all lecturers and the staff of the Faculty of Post-Graduate Studies at University of Languages and International Studies-VNU for their useful lecturers and guidance during my study

I must also express my most sincere appreciation to my colleagues and students at University of Fire Fighting and Prevention, who have assisted me with data analysis and useful advice

Lastly, my heartfelt gratitude goes to my beloved parents and husband whose constant support and patience have encouraged me through the most difficult times

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ABSTRACT

Vocabulary plays an important role in learning a foreign language, especially

in learning English for Specific Purposes How to learn vocabulary efficiently is a question to every learner as well as teacher at University of Fire Fighting and Prevention This research was carried out in order to help our students improve their English for Specific Purposes vocabulary learning

The aims of this study are to identify factors affecting students‟ English for Specific Purposes vocabulary learning at University of Fire Fighting and Prevention and suggest solutions to teach and learn English for Specific Purposes vocabulary more effectively

The study was undertaken with 100 second-year students and 4 teachers On the basic of data analysis, the findings show that the major factors affecting students‟ English for Specific Purposes vocabulary learning of fire and rescue are the intralexical factors, factors from students and teaching methods Some solutions are suggested to deal with these factors including encouraging students to develop their self- study, providing students with different vocabulary learning strategies, and improving teachers‟ techniques in teaching English for Specific Purposes vocabulary

It is hoped that the results of this study will help students and teachers at University of Fire Fighting and Prevention learn and teach vocabulary of fire and rescue better

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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

ESP: English for Special Purposes

EFL: English as a Foreign Language

ESL: English as a Second Language

GE: General English

L1: First Language

L2: Second Language

UFFP: University of Fire Fighting and Prevention

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LIST OF CHARTS & TABLES

Chart 1: Students‟ attitude towards vocabulary learning

Chart 2: Students‟ evaluation on learning of ESP vocabulary

Chart 3: The element that students find the most difficult in learning fire and rescue vocabulary

Chart 4: Students‟ difficulties in learning fire and rescue vocabulary

Table 1: Intralexical factors that affect vocabulary learning

Table 2: Students‟ purposes of learning ESP vocabulary

Table 3: Students‟ ways of learning a new word

Table 4: Students‟ ways of learning ESP vocabulary

Table 5: Teachers‟ ways of presenting new words

Table 6: Students‟ interest in ways of presenting new words

Table 7: Students‟ interest in ways of practicing new words

Table 8: Students‟ suggestions for better effects on learning fire and rescue

vocabulary

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION……… i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ………ii

ABSTRACT……….iii

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS……….iv

LIST OF CHARTS AND TABLES ………v

TABLE OF CONTENTS………vi

PART I: INTRODUCTION 1

1 Rationale 1

2 Scope of the study 2

3 Objectives of the study 2

4 Research questions 2

5 Methods of the study 3

6 Design of the study 3

PART II: DEVELOPMENT 4

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 4

1.1 An overview of ESP 4

1.1.1 Definition of ESP 4

1.1.2 The roles of ESP teachers 5

1.2 Vocabulary and ESP vocabulary 6

1.2.1 Definition of vocabulary 6

1.2.2 Classification of vocabulary and ESP vocabulary 7

1.2.3 Aspects of word knowing 8

1.3 Terminology 11

1.3.1 Definition of terminology 11

1.3.2 Characteristics of terminology 11

1.4 Some factors affecting vocabulary acquisition 12

1.4.1 Intralexical factors 12

1.4.2 The influence of first and other languages 13

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1.4.3 Vocabulary learning task 14

1.4.4 Contextualization 15

1.4.5 Vocabulary learning strategies 15

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY 17

2.1 Setting of the study 17

2.1.1 Students and their background 17

2.1.2 Teachers and their teaching methods 18

2.1.3 Teaching materials and facilities 18

2.2 Participants 20

2.3 Data collection instruments 21

2.4 Procedures of data collection and analysis 22

CHAPTER 3: DISCUSSION AND FINDINGS 24

3.1 Data analysis and discussion of students‟ questionnaires 24

3.2 Data analysis and discussion of teachers‟ interviews 34

3.3 Major findings 36

PART III: CONCLUSION 39

1 Summary of major findings 39

2 Concluding remarks 39

3 Pedagogical implications 40

4 Limitations of the study 41

5 Suggestions for further study 42

REFERENCES 43 APPENDIX 1: QUESTIONNAIRE I APPENDIX 2: INTERVIEW V

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PART I: INTRODUCTION

This part provides the background to the study and statement of the problem, the objectives, the research questions, and the scope of the study as well as the methods of the study It also outlines the organization of the thesis

1 Rationale

It is undeniable that English is a means of international communication in the fields of science, technology, culture, education, economy, etc It is not only the native language of about 300 million of speakers around the world but also the official language in many countries as well as second/ foreign language in many nations in the world In Vietnam, where people are carrying out the modernization and industrialization, English is becoming more and more important In teaching and learning English as a foreign language in our country, English for Specific Purposes has recently received a great deal of attention

In Vietnam, English seems to be taught and studied in non-English environment hence reading is an important means to get knowledge As the result, ESP materials used at most of the universities now are often reading materials with topics in the specific areas and ESP textbook of University of Fire Fighting and Prevention (UFFP) is not an exception “Vocabulary learning has long had a synergistic association with reading; each activity nourishes the other.” (Coady and Huckin, 1997:2) and “Knowing words is the key to understanding and being understood.” (Vermeer 1992: 147), therefore, if one wants to read ESP materials well he needs to learn ESP vocabulary

Vocabulary, which is considered as the base of a high building, is indispensable in language learning Teachers who have been teaching English in general and English for Specific Purposes in particular must bear in mind that at the beginning or in the end, vocabulary is always one of the biggest problems At UFFP, teaching and learning ESP vocabulary are really challenging Vocabulary of fire and rescue has long been considered a difficult and boring subject by many students at the university For ESP teachers, correspondingly, it is a difficult task to

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get students involved in vocabulary learning even they devoted a plenty of time to vocabulary teaching, the results have been disappointing The question posed for ESP teachers now is how to meet the needs of ESP learners, especially the needs of improving their vocabulary acquisition

Facing this situation, the teachers of English at UFFP would like to do something new to help students overcome these difficulties Being one of the teachers there, I would like to do a study to identify factors that most affect students‟ vocabulary learning of fire and rescue, to claim a more satisfactory standing for ESP vocabulary for the second-year students, as a result, the title of the minor thesis goes as:

“Factors affecting ESP vocabulary learning by the second-year students at University of Fire Fighting and Prevention.”

2 Scope of the study

The study mainly focuses on the investigation of factors most affecting ESP vocabulary learning by the second-year students at University of Fire Fighting and Prevention, and then suggests some techniques to help them improve their ESP vocabulary

3 Objectives of the study

In this study, two objectives were involved as follow:

- To investigate the current situation of teaching and learning ESP vocabulary

in order to find out the factors affecting students‟ ESP vocabulary learning at UFFP

- To give some recommendations to improve the quality of teaching and learning ESP vocabulary at UFFP

4 Research questions

The research is carried out in an attempt to answer the following questions:

1 What are the factors affecting students‟ learning of ESP vocabulary at UFFP?

2 What solutions should be suggested to help the students learn ESP vocabulary more effectively?

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5 Methods of the study

The study was conducted using both quantitative and qualitative methods including questionnaires and interviews The quantitative data was collected through a survey delivered to 100 second-year students who have already completed their ESP course and qualitative data was obtained through interviews with four ESP teachers

6 Design of the study

The minor thesis consists of three parts: Introduction, Development and Conclusion

The first part includes the rationale, the objectives, the methods, research questions, and the scope of the study as well as the organization of the thesis

The second part consists of three chapters Chapter 1 discusses the theoretical background of the research, which is related to the issues relevant to the topic of the research Chapter 2 investigates the setting of the study, the participants, data collection instruments as well as procedures of data collection and data analysis Chapter 3 deals with data analysis, discussion and major findings

The last part- Conclusion- restates the findings of the study, the concluding remarks and discusses the implications and limitations of the study as well as proposes some suggestions for further research Following this part are References and Appendix

in second language teaching and learning as well as classification of vocabulary learning and factors that affect vocabulary learning are presented and commented upon

1.1 An overview of ESP

1.1.1 Definition of ESP

According to Hutchinson and Walters (1987), ESP is an approach to language teaching in which all decisions as to content and methods are based on the learners‟ reason for learning This means that ESP does not involve a particular kind

of language teaching material or methodology He clarifies that ESP is not a matter

of teaching „specialized variety of English‟ Teaching ESP should be based on the first instance on principles of effective and efficient learning

Robinson‟s definition is based on two key defining criteria and a number of characteristics that are generally found to be true of ESP The key criteria are that ESP is “normally goal-directed” and that ESP courses develop from a needs analysis, which “aims to specify as closely as possible what exactly it is that students have to do through the medium of English” (Robinson: 1991:3)

In an understandable way, Evans and St John (1998: 2-5) use „absolute‟ and

„variable‟ characteristics to clarify the term ESP Their definition is as follows: „1 Absolute characteristics: ESP is designed to meet specific needs of the learner; ESP makes use of the underlying methodology and activities of the discipline it serves; ESP is centered on the language (grammar, lexis, and register), skills, discourse and genres appropriate to these activities 2 Variable characteristics: ESP may be related to or designed for specific disciplines; ESP may use, in specific teaching

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situations, a different methodology from that of general English; ESP is likely to be designed for adult learners, either at a tertiary level institution of in a professional work situation It could, however, be used for learners at secondary school level; ESP is generally designed for intermediate or advanced students Most ESP courses assume basic knowledge of the language system, but it can be used with beginners.‟ This description broaches the ESP as satisfaction for a wide range of learner and their needs It consists of activities and some language factors suitable for the learners

From the definitions above, it is clear that ESP courses are purposeful and aim at the successful performance of occupational roles by an individual or a group whose need is considered to be a distinguished feature to those of GE

1.1.2 The roles of ESP teachers

Whether the ESP teacher should master the materials or content of the subject matter seems a debating issue Littlewood (1981: 51) says that a language teacher is expected “to perform in a variety of roles, separately or simultaneously” These roles may include an instructor, a syllabus designer, a material writer/provider, and even a friend Hutchinson and Waters (1987: 157) think that

„ESP teachers do not need to learn specialist subject knowledge‟ They list three requirements of the ESP teachers as follows:

- A positive attitude towards the ESP content;

- A knowledge of the fundamental principles of the subject area;

- An awareness of how much they probably already know

Dudley-Evans and St John (1998) argue that ESP teaching is extremely varied They continue to say that the ESP teacher should perform different roles: teacher, course designer, collaborator, researcher, and evaluator

The first role as 'teacher' is identical with that of the 'General English' teacher However, due to his/her lack of knowledge, the ESP teacher has to work with teachers of other subjects or field specialists This collaboration does not have

to end at the development stage and can extend as far as teach teaching, a possibility

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discussed by Johns et al (1988) When team teaching gets difficult, the ESP Teacher must collaborate more closely with the learners, who will generally be more familiar with the specialized content of materials than the teacher him or herself

Both 'General English' teachers and ESP teachers are often required to design courses and provide materials However, providing materials is not an easy task due

to the fact that materials in one field are numerous This makes the ESP teacher become a researcher He/She has to develop authentic materials that may be suitable for their learners The final role as 'evaluator' is perhaps the role that ESP teachers have neglected most to date

The ESP practitioner is often involved in various types of evaluation: testing the students, evaluating the courses and the teaching materials (Dudley-Evans and

St John, 1998: 16) Doing these kinds of evaluation, especially through discussion and on-going needs analysis can be used to adapt the syllabus

In brief, ESP teachers as a practitioner have many roles in ESP teaching Hutchison and Waters (1987), hence, assumed that “adaptability” and “flexibility” are the foremost requirements of an ESP teacher

1.2 Vocabulary and ESP vocabulary

1.2.1 Definition of vocabulary

There have been different definitions of vocabulary Each linguist gives his own definition of vocabulary depending on the criteria that he considers the most important in terms of linguistics, semantics, lexicology, etc Penny Ur defined vocabulary as “the words we teach in the foreign language However, a new item of vocabulary may be more than a single word, a compound of two or three words or multi-word idioms” (Ur, 1996) A similar definition from Richards and Platt is that vocabulary is “a set of lexemes, including words, compound words and idioms” (Richards and Platt, 1992) These statements indicate that vocabulary is the total number of all the words that a language possesses, including a single word, two or

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three word items expressing a single idea and multiword idioms of which meaning cannot be deduced from the analysis of the component words but only understood in

1.2.2 Classification of vocabulary and ESP vocabulary

Vocabulary can be classified in different ways according to different criteria

Semantically, it can be divided into notional words (name objects, actions, qualities, etc.) and functional words (particles, articles, preposition, etc.)

Grammatically, vocabulary is categorized into different parts of speech such as nouns, verbs, adjectives, etc.)

In particularly, as many language learners notice, vocabulary can be divided

into active vocabulary and passive vocabulary The active vocabulary consists of

words which can be used very often, both in speaking and writing by the learners The passive vocabulary includes the words that can be recognized and understood easily when occur in context but may not be used correctly and effectively in reality

by the learners

Recently, according to some methodologists of the Communicative

Language Teaching, vocabulary can be split into productive vocabulary and

receptive vocabulary The productive vocabulary is concerned with the words that a

learner can use effectively to express his/her ideas both in speaking and writing forms The receptive vocabulary is the words that help a leaner to receive and understanding information in listening and reading

According to Fraser (2005), ESP vocabulary can be divided into three types:,

and general vocabulary, academic vocabulary and technical vocabulary General

vocabulary consists of high-frequency words that are used in daily life as well as in

a specific field Academic vocabulary includes words that are used commonly in a variety of academic texts or discourse Technical vocabulary is most obviously associated with specialized texts or discourse These words have their specific meanings and they seem to be very uncommon to the people who are not related to their fields of meaning Technical vocabulary can be sub-divided into three smaller branches:

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- Fully technical vocabulary

- Crypto technical vocabulary

- Lay-technical vocabulary

Fully technical vocabulary comprises those words whose meaning is clearly technical They are specific to the field and not likely to be known in general language e.g hypertension, obesity, hepatitis … Crypto technical vocabulary consists of polysemous words like “transmitter” which could be said to be „cryptic”

in that they have a hidden technical meaning Lay technical vocabulary comprises those terms which are obviously technical but are likely to be known by the layperson, e.g bacteria, toxicity …

As foreign language teachers, we need to understand these classifications so that we can help students extend their vocabulary with more productive and active words As ESP teachers, we need to help students extend, memorize and use their ESP vocabulary effectively in their concerned subjects

1.2.3 Aspects of word knowing

Vocabulary acquisition is an important goal that one needs to achieve in his/ her study of a second language Nation (2001) states that: “It is wise to direct vocabulary learning to more specialized areas when learners have mastered the 2000-3000 words of general usefulness in learn and be taught judgment about vocabulary and its use such as vocabulary aspects, which words are worth focusing

on and at what time, during class or independent study time, etc.”

According to Penny Ur (1996), when vocabulary is introduced to learners, pronunciation and spelling, word form, grammar, collocation, aspects of meaning, word formation need to be taught

1.2.3.1 Word form

When learning vocabulary students should be introduced its pronunciation and its spelling To many students, the complex relationship between sound and spelling in English seems to make the language inexplicable It is easy to understand when we consider the number of homophones in English such as:

word is taught, for example, we might also give its past form such as: buy/ bought and it is transitive or intransitive, when a noun such as a person is taught, it should

be given its plural form as people

1.2.3.3 Collocation

Collocation is the way in which words are used together regularly in a specific language It refers to the restriction on how words can be used together in right contexts Thus, this is another piece of information about a new item, which

may be worth teaching For example, you throw a ball but toss a coin We can talk about thick fog and dense fog, thick smoke and dense smoke with the same meaning However, we cannot say dense hair instead of thick hair

Connotation of a word is less obvious component of its meaning This is association, or positive and negative feelings the word evokes which may not be indicated in a dictionary definition Connotation includes stylistic, affective,

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evaluation, intensifying value, pragmatic communicative values, the word acquires

by virtue of where, when, how and by whom, for what purpose and in what context

it is or it may be used

Appropriateness is more subtle aspect of meaning that indicates whether a particular item is appropriate one to use in a certain context or not Thus, it is useful for a learner to know whether a certain word is very common, or relatively rare or taboo in a polite conversation, or tends to be used in writing but not in speaking, or

is more suitable for a formal than informal discourse or belongs to a certain dialect

It is necessary to list aspects of meaning in the sense of meaning relationships This can also be useful in vocabulary teaching and learning They show how the meaning of one item relates to the meaning of others These are various relationships and here are some of the main ones like synonyms, antonyms, hyponyms, co- hyponyms or co- ordinates, super ordinates, and translation

"able", this will help them guess the meaning of words such as "substandard",

"uncomfortable", and "enable" However, students should be warned that in many

common words the affixes no longer have obvious connection with their root

meaning (for example: "consider" -> "considerable")

Another way that vocabulary items are built is by combining two words: two nouns,

or a gerund and a noun, or a noun and a verb to make one item: a single compound

word or two separate (for example: "book list"," sitting room")

Terminology may be considered as a system of words or symbols to name a typical phenomenon or phenomena in natural and social research fields in a scientific way It also includes necessary methods in language contents and study to reach sufficient and suitable terms Additively, there may be terms which are accepted and used by a large number of individuals and terms which are admitted

by a restricted group of people

and rescue area, this characteristic is clearly seen For example: combustion reaction, vaporization, rescue, ionization, etc

Systematization

Systematization is considered to be of the most important features of terminology Every field of science has its own limited system of concepts which are denoted by certain terminologies and the value of each terminology is determined by its relationship with other terminology in the same system As the

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result, terminology loses its value when being isolated from its system Generally, a

terminology has to be a dependent member of its system For instance: ionization smoke detectors and optical smoke detectors, fire inspection, fire safety code, inspection tour, etc

Internationality

The internationality is recognized in both form and meaning of terminology With respect to such characteristics of terminology in term of meaning, terminology denotes common scientific concepts shared and equally understood by speakers of different cultures This feature is an important property that helps distinguish terminology from other layers of vocabulary such as slang, dialect, etc Terms denote universal concepts of a certain subject, whereas normal lexical items are confined to various limits of expression, context, and culture differences The internationality is also seen in the form of terms It is interesting to know that many terms used by different countries have similar phonetic form The internationality of terms helps promote and accelerate the irreversible trend of global integration today

in term of language as well as other fields

1.4 Some factors affecting vocabulary acquisition

1.4.1 Intralexical factors

The key factors that affect the learning of a lexical item and make the acquisition of vocabulary difficult are intralexical factors According to Laufer (1997), the factors that affect the learnability of lexical items include pronounceability (phonological or suprasegmental features), orthography, length, morphology, including both inflectional and derivational complexity that increase the vocabulary learning load, similarity of lexical forms (e.g

features (e.g abstractness, specificity and register restriction, idiomaticity and multiple meaning) Table 1 gives an overview of the intralexical factors and their effect on vocabulary learning (facilitating factors, difficulty-inducing factors and factors with no clear effect)

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Facilitating factors Difficulty-inducing factors Factors with no

clear effect

Familiar phonemes Presence of foreign phonemes

Phonotactic regularity Phonotactic irregularity

Fixed stress Variable stress and vowel

change Consistency of sound-

script relationship

Incongruency in sound-script

relationship

Word length Inflexional regualarity Inflexional complexity

Derivational regularity Derivational complexity

Morphological

transparency

Deceptive morphological transparency Synformy

Part of speech Concreteness/ abstractness Generality Specificity

Register neutrality Register restrictions

Idiomaticity One form for one

meaning One form with several meanings

Table 1: Intralexical factors that affect vocabulary learning (Laufer, 1997: 154)

1.4.2 The influence of first and other languages

L2 vocabulary acquisition is different from L1 vocabulary acquisition because an L2 learner has already developed conceptual and semantic systems linked to the L1 This is why L2 acquisition, at least in its initial stages, often involves a mapping of the new lexical form onto an already existing conceptual meaning or translational equivalent in L1 The role of

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L1 in this process varies depending on the degree of equivalency between languages: although in some cases it may facilitate the acquisition or use of L2 lexical items, in others it will create an obstacle This may occur in the process of acquisition, in recalling and using previously learnt lexical items, or in attempts of constructing a complex lexical al item that has not been learnt as a unit By making cross-linguistic comparisons (i.e by contrastive analysis) one can often predict difficulties caused

by interference of the L1 that learners may encounter when learning the target language Namely, the learner ‟s approach to L2 learning is based on an „equivalence hypothesis‟: „the learner tends to assume that the system of L2 is more or less the same as in his L1 until he has discovered that it is not‟ (Ringbom, 1987: 135) The learner‟s readiness to transfer may also be influenced by his perceptions of linguistic and cultural distance Forming a kind of equivalence hypothesis enables learners to learn an L2 without having to go all the way back

to learning how to categorize the world

1.4.3 Vocabulary learning task

Williams and Burden (1997) claim that the learning task includes the materials being learned (such as the genre of a piece of reading) as well as the goal the learner is trying to achieve by using these materials (such as remembering, comprehending or using language)

In practice, it appears to refer to the idea of some activities designed to engage the learner in using the language communicatively or reflectively in order to arrive at an outcome other than that of learning a specified feature of the L2 A task can be a real-world activity or a contrived, pedagogic activity (Nunan, 1989), as long as the process of completing the task corresponds to that found in discourse based on the exchange of information (Ellis, 1994)

Different types of task materials, task purposes, and tasks at various difficulty levels have various effects on the learners‟ vocabulary acquisition For example, learning words in a word list is different from learning the same words in

„If learners have to perform certain activities on unfamiliar words in texts, there is a good chance of retaining the words The activities comprise guessing meaning from context and from word to word, verifying meaning by checking in a dictionary, and analysis of the word form to recognize relationships between the new word and others already known.‟ (Hedge, 2000: 120)

It is agreed that vocabulary is better acquired not in an isolated form but in a context or situation Although a learner has grasped the pronunciation, spelling and meaning of a word, a text with the appearance of that word will help deepen the word storage in the learner‟s mind

1.4.5 Vocabulary learning strategies

According to Hedge (2000: 19) learning strategies are „techniques used by learners to deal with input, assimilate new language, store, retrieve, and practice using it‟ Teachers and textbook writers „have attempted both to find ways of improving the strategies learners already have and to raise their awareness about others they might develop‟ (Hedge, 2000: 19)

Vocabulary learning strategies are one part of language learning strategies which in turn are part of general learning strategies (Nation, 2001) Intaraprasert (2004) sees vocabulary learning strategies as “any set of techniques or learning behaviors, which language learners reported using in order to discover the meaning of a new word, to retain the knowledge of newly-learned words, and to expand their knowledge of vocabulary.” According to Cameron (2001), vocabulary learning strategies are the actions that learners take to help themselves understand and remember vocabulary items

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With reference to the definitions of the term “vocabulary learning strategies” above, we can conclude that this term has been used to refer to the purposeful steps, actions or mental processes that the learners employ, more or less consciously, with the purpose to facilitate vocabulary learning These processes lead to the interventions that enhance vocabulary skills in the target language

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CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY

As the validity and reliability of a study depend largely on the research methods, it is essential that the researcher decide the most precise instruments to suit the objectives of the study Accordingly, this chapter discusses the methodological issues beginning with the setting of the study The most important methodological issues including the participants, data collection instruments, data collection and data analysis procedures are also thoroughly presented in this chapter

2.1 Setting of the study

UFFP is under the management of the Ministry of Public Security, established in 1976, based on Vocational School of Fire Fighting and Prevention It

is proud of being the only university which studies and trains fire and rescue for Vietnam and Laos

This is a technical university; therefore, foreign language is not considered as the main subject It serves as a means that helps students read documents and machine manuals in English, but not communicate with English native speakers

2.1.1 Students and their background

UFFP belongs to the Ministry of Public Security so the majority of its students are male, female students count a few percent out of the total number They come from every part of the country Thus, their language background varies a lot Some students did not study English at school while others study English from the sixth grade In fact, most of the students commonly did not spend much time learning English at high school as they had to spend most of the time learning other subjects to pass the Nation Exam, which causes a lot of difficulties for both teachers and students in teaching and learning English Most of the students are beginners when starting university; however, they have to learn ESP in the second year as they have not fully understood all specialized subjects in Vietnamese It is, therefore, difficult for them when entering ESP course, especially ESP vocabulary

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2.1.2 Teachers and their teaching methods

Up to now, there are totally fifteen teachers of English at the University Most of them graduated from University of Foreign Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, the others graduated from Hanoi University None of the teachers has been trained in an English speaking country, in teaching ESP or in content subjects The oldest one has over ten years of teaching experience, and the youngest just has only one year Among fifteen teachers, only seven are able to teach ESP and responsible for teaching both GE and ESP We, therefore, face with many difficulties in teaching process, which lacks of the specialized knowledge and the choice of appropriate teaching methods seems to be the major concern

For most of the ESP teachers at UFFP, the common method of teaching in ESP reading lessons is the traditional teacher-center In classes, explanation, translation, asking and answering questions are the main class activities The teachers are often asked to explain every new word, new structure and even to translate the texts into Vietnamese The major interaction patterns in the classroom are:

- Teacher-whole class (most of the time)

- Teacher-student interaction (sometimes)

- Students initiating interaction: pair work, group work, questions and comments (sometimes)

Through class observation and small talks to ESP teachers and learners, it is obvious that most of the teachers teaching ESP at UFFP are deeply influenced by grammar-translation method which leads to the lack of motivation and few chances for students to practice

2.1.3 Teaching materials and facilities

At UFFP, English is taught in a formal setting, namely a classroom The teaching of English is divided into two stages During the first stage, the students study General English for two terms (195 class hours) In the second stage, they are

is the book “English for Fire and Rescue” It was compiled by the teachers of

English at the university with 75 class hours One of the most difficult parts of designing this course book that the teachers had to deal with was the shortage of English books in terms of fire and rescue These books in Vietnam are written in Vietnamese or translated from Russian, therefore, we had to order from America or adapt from other sources

The ESP syllabus focuses on the subject matters of a specific area The main focuses of the present English for Fire and Rescue syllabus at UFFP are reading comprehension and translation The book is divided into ten topics with the form of

a content-based syllabus rather than a task-based one The exercises after each text are often reading comprehension, vocabulary and grammar exercises Vocabulary exercises are blank-filling, matching, puzzle and crossword There is a list of new words with their meanings in Vietnamese provided at the end of the book The amount of fire and rescue vocabulary in this course book is rather large in comparison with class hours; therefore, both teachers and students encounter a bunch of difficulties

The overall curriculum of the university lasts for four years and teaching English is divided into two stages During the first stage students study GE focusing

on four language skills which accounts for 195 periods (45 minutes/ 1 period) Students are taught GE in the first and the second year The second stage includes

75 periods for ESP which is taught in the second term of their second academic

2.2 Participants

The participants of this study were 100 second-year students at UFFP who had finished both GE and ESP courses 84% of these students come from the countryside, only 16% are from towns and cities Most of them are male (90%) Their age varied from 19 to 27 so they belong to the same psychological age group However, their English learning background was different 92% have learnt English before entering the university 20% of them have learnt English for more than 5 years, 75% have learnt English for 3 years and only 5% have learnt English less than 2 years Therefore, such differences as age, place of living, level of English proficiency have caused certain difficulties in teaching and learning fire and rescue vocabulary

This group of students was chosen due to the fact that at this university, only the second-year students are required to learn ESP after finishing a GE course in the first year Therefore, the findings of the study will provide valuable information for both of the teachers and students to improve teaching and learning ESP and hence contribute to enhancing the overall training quality of the university

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There were also informal interviews with 4 English teachers Among them, 3 teachers have taught ESP for over 10 years while 1 young teacher has worked with ESP for nearly 3 years

2.3 Data collection instruments

According to Hutchinson and Waters (1987), there are a number ways in which information can be gathered such as questionnaires, interviews, observation, tests, etc The researcher of this study decided to choose questionnaires and interviews as main tools for collecting information

2.3.1 Questionnaires

Questionnaires were chosen here because it is relatively popular means of collecting data (Nunan, 1992) Moreover, questionnaires are considered an effective way of collecting data quickly in term of affective dimension of teaching and learning as beliefs, attitudes, motivation and preferences (Richard and Lockhart, 1994) The advantages of the questionnaire are that it saves time and it can be used with the large number of subjects Besides, it encourages people to answer the questions straightforwardly and genuinely Moreover, the information collected is not difficult to tabulate and analyze For all of the above reasons, the author decided

to use questionnaires for the research

In the study, the questionnaire (see Appendix 1) was targeted at students, and aimed at collecting statistical data to answer the research questions The questionnaire was constructed based on the literature on ESP vocabulary learning, the researcher‟s observation and experience got during her 5 years of teaching at UFFP, as well as the discussion with the other English teachers at the English Department

The questionnaire was translated into Vietnamese to make sure that the participants could fully understand the questions before giving their answers The

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question items were multiple choices, both close-ended and open-ended It consists

of two main parts:

- Part one was designed to collect information about the students‟ background: gender, age, birthplace, years of learning English and their proficiency levels in English

- Part two was aimed at gathering information about the factors affecting ESP vocabulary learning such as their difficulties in learning ESP vocabulary, their teachers‟ methods and their expectations for better effects on learning vocabulary of fire and rescue

2.3.2 Interviews with ESP teachers

Informal discussions and interviewing can be adopted as follow-up sources

of information to be conducted individually or in groups Informal discussion allows teachers to convey their ideas and thoughts spontaneously and does not take much time to plan or prepare Selinger and Shohamy (1989) point out that the use of interview as a data collection instrument permits a level of in-depth information, therefore free response, and flexibility that cannot be obtained by other procedures Although an interview usually requires considerable time commitments from the interviewer and interviewees, it is an excellent way to collect data In other words, interview is an extremely useful and valuable way to get in-depth and comprehensive information

In this study, the interviews are organized with 4 ESP teachers to investigate the factors affecting ESP vocabulary learning by the second-year students and suggest some possible solutions to teach and learn ESP vocabulary more effectively

2.4 Procedures of data collection and analysis

To obtain the data for the investigation, the questionnaires were delivered to

100 students during the class time The students were given clear instructions before answering each question so that they could respond appropriately to each question

At the same time, four teachers were interviewed to collect information of the difficulties that students are facing, factors affecting students‟ ESP vocabulary learning, techniques that they are using to teach ESP vocabulary and some