Challenges faced by information technology students in reading english for computer science

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAININGVINH UNIVERSITY ĐẶNG THỊ HẢI LÝ CHALLENGES FACED BY INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY STUDENTS IN READING ENGLISH FOR COMPUTER SCIENCENHỮNG THÁCH THỨC SINH VIÊN C

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

VINH UNIVERSITY

ĐẶNG THỊ HẢI LÝ

CHALLENGES FACED BY INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY STUDENTS IN READING ENGLISH FOR COMPUTER SCIENCE(NHỮNG THÁCH THỨC SINH VIÊN CÔNG NGHỆ THÔNG TIN GẶP PHẢI TRONG KỸ NĂNG ĐỌC MÔN TIẾNG ANH CHUYÊN NGÀNH KHOA HỌC MÁY TÍNH)

Master Thesis in Education

Field: Theory and Methodology

of English Language Teaching Code: 60.14.10

Vinh, 2011TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION 3

I.1 Rationale 3

I.2 Aims and objectives: 4

I.3 Method of the study 4

I.4 Scope of the study: 5

I.5 Significance of the study 5

I.6 Organization of the study: 6

1.7 Summary 6

CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW 7

II.1 The nature of reading 7

II.1.1 Reading: 7

II.1.2 Reading comprehension 9

II.1.3 Reading process: 10

II.1.3.1 Bottom-up models of the reading process: 11

II.1.3.2 The top-down models of the reading process: 12

II.1.3.3 The interactive models of the reading process: 14

II.1.3.4 Schema Theory 16

II.1.4 Classification of reading 17

II.1.4.1 Classification of reading according to manner of reading 17

II.1.4.2 Classification of reading according to purpose of reading 18

II.2 Reading in General English (GE) and in ESP 20

II.2.1 ESP reading 21

II.2.1.1 Definition of ESP 21

II.2.1.2 Reading comprehension in ESP 22

II.2.1.3 Types of ESP 23

II.2.1.4 Characteristics of ESP 24

II.2.2 Challenges in ESP Reading 25

II.2.2.1 Language challenges 25

II.2.2.2 Reading skill challenges 26

II.2.2.3 Methodology and Materials 27

II.2.3 Differences between ESP and EGP 29

II.2.4 The ESP learners 30

II.2.5 Learners’ learning strategies 31

II.2.6 Learner-centeredness in ESP and Learning-Centeredness 32

II.2.7 The requirements for ESP teachers 33

II.3 Summary 34

CHAPTER III RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 35

III.1 The setting of the study 35

III.1.1 The purposes of teaching and learning reading English for Computer Science at Nghe An Junior Teacher Training College 35

III.1.2 Teachers of English at Nghe An JTTC and their methods of teaching 36

III.1.3 IT Students at Nghe An JTTC and their background knowledge 37

III.1.4 Materials 38

III.2 The participants 39

III.3 Research method 39

III.3.1 Research questions: 39

III.3.2 Data collection instruments 40

III.3.3 Data collection procedure 40

III.3.4 Data analysis procedure 41

III.4 Summary 41

CHAPTER IV.: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 42

IV.1 Sources of reading English for computer science challenges experienced by second-year IT students at Nghe An JTTC 42

IV.1.1 The participants’ background 42

IV.1.2 Students’ attitudes towards ESP reading 44

IV.1.3 Students’ perception of ESP reading challenges 47

IV.1.3.1 In the area of vocabulary 47

IV.1.3.2 In the area of grammar 49

IV.1.3.3 In the areas of reading skills 51

IV.1.3.4 In the areas of discourse 52

IV.1.4 The causes of challenges 54

IV.1.4.1 The reading materials 55

IV.1.4.2 The teachers 56

IV.1.4.3 The learners 56

IV.1.5 Students’ techniques to deal with new vocabularies and terminologies 57

IV.1.6 The learners’ expectation for ESP reading materials 58

IV.1.7.The learners’ expectations in term of methodology 60

IV.2 Discussion 63

IV.3 Summary 63

CHAPTER V: CONCLUSION 64

V.1 Summary of the main findings 64

V.2 Conclusions 65

V.3 Implications for the study 66

V.3.1 Increasing students’ reading interest and motivation 66

V.3.3.Training students to become efficient readers 68

V.3.4 Training students with different reading strategies 68

V.3.5 Encouraging students to develop extensive reading habits 72

V.3.6 Giving homework and checking the previous lessons frequently 73

V.3.7 Improving teachers’ background knowledge about Computer Science and teaching methodology 74

V.3.7.1 Improving teachers’ background knowledge about Computer Science 74

V.3.7.2 Improving teachers’ teaching methodology 74

V.3.8 Developing IT reading materials 75

V.3.8.1 Adapting and improving reading exercises 75

V.3.8.2 Choosing appropriate supplementary reading materials 76

V.4 Limitations and Suggestions for further study 77

REFERENCES 78

CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION

I.1 Rationale

I have been teaching at Nghe An Junior Teacher Training College (JTTC)for ten years English is taught with the purpose that the students will use iteffectively to fulfill their daily work in the future, so it receives great deal ofconcern from both teachers and students here Enormous attempts have been made

to provide the students with general English as well as English for SpecificPurposes (ESP) Now I find out that reading comprehension plays a very importantrole in learning English as a foreign language, especially English for computerscience in Vietnam

The main goal of ESP course, especially English for Computer Science isaimed at providing the students with linguistic knowledge relevant to their field andskills up to their expectation of their future employment However, studentslearning ESP in Vietnam rarely have opportunities to use English in communicationoutside the classroom They mainly have access to popular documents written inEnglish through reading Hence, skills in reading English texts are naturally ofspecial importance in teaching and learning ESP, which is not an exception for theESP teaching at Nghe An JTTC Nghe An JTTC is one of those where ESP involveswithin an English teaching situation in response to the demand for specific languageskills for the specialists – the graduated doctors Therefore, improving students’reading skills is recognized as a principal objective of ESP course provided byteachers of English at Nghe An JTTC

Of the four skills, reading comprehension has always received a great deal ofattention It is completely right because English is taught and learnt in othercountries, not the native countries So reading comprehension is not only theimportance to get a new language but also for further study

“ For many students, reading is by far the most important of the four skills in a second language, particularly in English as a second or foreign language” (Carrel, 1981:1) As we know, if students read well, they are able to

handle subjects related written materials in English and to work with moderntechnological equipment

In fact, many researchers find out that teachers are disappointed withstudents’ reading comprehension There are many challenges that we have to payattention to: Teaching methods, classroom techniques, unsuitable materials,teachers and students’ attitude about the subjects

For all these reasons, it is necessary to discover the areas of students’reading challenges at Nghe An JTTC and the causes of their unsuccessful readingcomprehension Problems have been found out The researcher should do something

as suggestions to improve the learning for students about reading comprehension

of English for Computer Science at Nghe An JTTC

I.2 Aims and objectives:

This study aims to examine the areas of challenges in reading comprehension

of English for Computer Science for second-year students in the department ofinformation technology at Nghe An JTTC To be more specific, the objectives ofthis study are:

- To investigate the situation of teaching and learning English for Computer

Science in order to find out the students’ challenges in reading the materialsand causes of them

- To suggest the ways to overcome the challenges and help students to improve

their reading comprehension

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

second-year students of information technology (IT) at Nghe An JTTC

I.3 Method of the study

In order to achieve the aims mentioned above, the methodologies adopted forthis study are a survey questionnaire with 65 students which is used as the mainmethod to collect the needed data from the learners

When carrying out this thesis, the author prepares a questionnaire to investigatethe second-year IT students’ challenges in learning reading English for ComputerScience and find out some possible causes of these challenges

The questionnaire consists of 11 questions, based on the information in theliterature review part and the aims of the study This questionnaire is prepared inVietnamese for the learners to read, think and answer suitably and adequately Afterthat it is delivered to second-year IT students, and the answers are collected andanalyzed The real challenges in learning reading English for Computer Science andsome possible causes to these difficulties will be found out

I.4 Scope of the study:

It is too broad to deal with reading challenges of all types Therefore, thefocus of this study is to investigate some problems in linguistics and reading skillswhich are faced by second-year students of IT at Nghe An JTTC Then, theresearcher will recommend some techniques to overcome reading challenges

I.5 Significance of the study.

Reading is one of the four language skills which is very important in learning

a foreign language Reading will help students get adequate knowledge ofvocabularies, structures or ideas to speak and to write Teaching the language itself

is the most typical use of reading in a foreign language class

Despite the awareness of the importance of reading in ESP learning, somestudents had a negative attitude towards ESP reading, which made their readingmore difficult

What is more, when poor reading results are reported, one tends to blame thestudents for having poor ability or for making insufficient effort Nevertheless, thestudents are not always at fault There are other important factors in the process ofteaching and learning reading such as unsuitable teaching materials, teachers’inappropriate teaching methods and classroom techniques How to help them reachthe goal of reading comprehension is a great challenge Hopefully, this study will

much help teachers of English at my college to better their teaching, motivate my ITstudents to better their learning especially to improve their reading comprehension.

I.6 Organization of the study:

This major thesis consists of five chapters Chapter 1 concludes the

rationale for the study, the aims, the methods, and the scope of the study as well asthe organization of the thesis

Chapter 2 deals with the literature review It discusses the theoretical background

to the nature of reading and reading comprehension and reading in ESP teaching

and learning Chapter 3, the methodology chapter, will make it clear how the

present study was implemented, including information about context, participants ,and procedures, instrumentation and data collection Methods of analysis will be

addressed in Chapter 4 It investigates the current situation of teaching and learning

English for Computer Science at Nghe An JTTC Analysis of a range of datacollected from various sources for the study will be clarified in this chapter It

includes some discussion of findings and recommendations Chapter 5

-Conclusion - summarizes the main findings of the study, points out the limitationsand makes some suggestions for further research

1.7 Summary

This chapter introduces the study This introduction includes the rationale,research methods, and the scope of of the study Next chapter reviews the literaturefor the study

CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter aims at providing a theoretical background to the study Thereview of the issues most relevant to be the focus of the study will be included:definition of reading and reading comprehension, classification of readingaccording to the purposes of reading; reading in ESP teaching and learning such asdefinitions such as definition of ESP, types of ESP and challenges in teaching andlearning English for Computer Science; finally the typical features of IT texts willalso be discussed

II.1 The nature of reading

II.1.1 Reading

Up to now, there are so many definitions of reading by perspectives-linguists,psychologists, educators and second language researchers When reading, weunderstand the texts We analyze and find its meaning give out meaningfulconclusion But no one can define exactly what reading is The question “What isreading?” attracts much attention and reasearchers have defined reading in variousideas Each author has each different way to define

Goodman(1971; 135) considers reading as “ 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”.

William (1984) had the same view on reading, especially on the act of

reconstructions as Goodman He argues that “ written texts, then often contain more than we need to understand them The efficient reader makes use of this to take what he needs, and no more to obtain meaning” (p.3) His opinion is shared by

Nuttall and Grellet

However, Hafner and July (1982:4) did not think that understanding isknown what the writer implied although they also mentioned the understanding

between the author and the readers According to their opinion, “ reading involves the identification and recognition of printed and written symbols which serve as

stimuli for the recall of meanings built up through past experiences and further construction of new meanings through the readers’ manipulation of relevant concepts already in his possession.”

Frank Smith (1985; 102) defined “ reading is understanding the author’s thought” It means that the readers “ read the author’s mind not the author’s words” He also added “ understanding print or even receiving communication can hardly be said to explain reading ” We know that the nature of reading is the

interaction between readers and the authors

Harmer (1989: 153) considers reading as a mechanical process that “eyes receive the message and the brain then has to work out the significance of the message.” Harmer points out a view that reading activity consists of two actions

dominated by the eyes and the brain

Rumelhart (1977) writes “ reading involves the reader, the text, and the interaction between the reader and the text” He emphasizes the important role of

both readers and reading texts

According to Carell Devine and Eskey (1988:13) “ reading is a process in that it starts with linguistic surface representation encoded by a writer and ends with meaning, which reader constructs There is, thus, an essential interaction between language and thought in reading The writer encodes thought in language and the reader decodes language to thought ” They mean that we can see clearly

the interrelationship between the writer, the reader and the text

One more definition of reading is offered by Allen and Vallete (1977) They

thought that “ reading is developmental process” (p.249) We learn reading not only

to know how to read, to master the symbols, the language, the grammar, etc…used

in the text but also to understand the ideas, the information expressed in that text or

to develop the ability reconstructing its contents in our own words

From all the opinions above, it is clear that no definition can possibly capture allthe ideas and features of what reading is Each scholar’s definition reflects what reading means as seen from his own point of view However, they all try to find out

the nature of reading, that is “ understanding ” in which they emphasize on reading

process, reading message and readers Nowadays, with the explosion of

information, reading has become more important

II.1.2 Reading comprehension

In teaching and learning reading, reading comprehension plays a veryimportant role Reading comprehension can be understood as the ability to attractthe required information from the text as efficiently as possible There are threeelements involving in the reading process: the text being read, the backgroundknowledge of the reader, and the contextual aspects relevant for interpreting thetext

Abbott (1981:82) gives out a research on the nature of reading

comprehension According to him “ there are two broad aspects or levels Firstly, there is basically visual task that of deciphering the marks on the page, the brain receiving signals from the eyes Secondly, there is cognitive task that of interpreting the visual information, so one is not simply barking at point.”

According to Swan ( 1975: 1 ) “ a student is good at comprehension ” if “

he can read accurately and efficiently, so as to get the maximum information of a text with the minimum understanding” , This means that the student can show his

understanding by re-expressing the content of the text in many ways such assummarizing the text answering questions etc

Grellet (1981:3) considered “ reading comprehension or understand a written text means extracting the required information from it as effectively as possible”.

Richard and Thomas (1987:9) describe reading comprehension as “an understanding between the author and the reader.” The nature of reading

comprehension has been emphasized by these authors It means that the readerslook at the printed words and try to understand the implied meanings of the authorbasing on their background knowledge This is a process whereby the printed words

Expressing the nature of reading comprehension, Grilled (1981:3) said that “

reading comprehension or understanding written text means axtracting the required information from it as effectively as possible” He means that the student

can show his understanding by re-expressing the content of the text in many wayssuch as summarizing the text, answering questions etc

Though these ideas are not exactly the same, they all seem that “ reading without comprehension is meaningless” ( Karlin and Kartin, 1982:2)

It is known that reading is usually clearly, completely, and permanently onthe page in front of us Reading comprehension work should normally deal withdirect comprehension in silent reading In other words, it should aim to develop theskills competent readers use in their first language

In conclusion, reading for comprehension is the primary purpose for reading;raising students’awareness of main ideas in a text and exploring the organization of

a text are essential for good comprehension We know that reading is much morethan just pronouncing words correctly or simply knowing what the authors intends

It is known as a process in which the readers can recognize the graphic form andunderstand the relation between the writing and the meaning Thus, after reading,students can find the way to bettering their grammar, words, pronunciation and canunderstand the content of the text Therefore, we comfirm that it is important for us

to understand what reading comprehension is In order to help teachers who teachreading find out the students’ difficulties of learning reading, they have to get aprofound understanding about the nature of reading comprehension

II.1.3 Reading process

In this section, three models are going to be mentioned They are bottom-upmodels, top-down models and interactive models Finally, schema theory models ofthe reading process is expressed

II.1.3.1 Bottom-up models of the reading process

We know that the reader begins with the written text (the bottom), and

constructs meaning from letters, words, phrases and sentences found within and

then processes the text in a linear fashion in bottom-up reading models It seems to

be that bottom-up models analyze reading as a process in which small chunks oftexts are absorbed, analyzed and gradually added to the text chunk until theybecome meaningful It can be seen the passive role of the reader in the process asthese models are text driven ones of comprehension and the printed pages play an

important role Samuels and Kamil (188:301) say: “ an important shortcoming of these models is lack of feedback, in that no mechanism is provided to allow for processing stages which occurs later in the system to influence processing which occurs earlier in the system Because of the lack of feedback loops in the early bottom-up models, it was difficult to account for sentence-context effects and the role of prior knowledge of text topic as facilitating variables in word recognition and comprehension ”

LaBerge and Samuels (1974) consider that the reader’s understandingdepends on what appears in the text and that the reader performs two tasks whenreading, namely decoding and comprehending For them, decoding is going fromthe printed word to some articulatory or phonological representation of the printedstimulus Comprehending is deriving meaning from the decoded materials( Samuels and Kamil, 1984:197) LaBerge and Samuels take the reader into accountmore than Gough does; still the reader’s primary function seems to be to processwords from the printed pages

Gough (1972) is one of the theorists who supports these models His primaryfocus is on the letter and word level of the text According to him, the reader must

go through letter recognition to decoding, to word recognition, then to syntactic andsemantic rules The reader is not a guesser in his model, and guessing strategies arenot considered an approach to extract meaning from printed material, and areapplied only when there is failure in decoding However, Gough’s model is

criticised by Brewer (1972), as well as Gibson and Levin The latter (1978: 449)argue that

The model leaves largely unexplained the use of higher-order structures that is characteristic of the very economical behaviour of the skilled reader A major problem with the model is that it can not handle the word superiority effect which has by now been thoroughly documented… It seems to us, too, that it ignores completely the flexibility of processing that characterises the skilled reader.

Print → Every letter discriminated → Phonemes and graphemes matched →Blending → Pronunciation → Meaning

In conclusion, the bottom-up models of the reading process is known asemphasizing the written or printed text, saying reading is driven by a process thatresults in meaning (or, in other words, reading is driven by text), and proceedingfrom part to whole Teachers who believe that bottom-up theories fully explain howchildren become readers often teach subskills first: they begin instruction byintroducing letter names and letter sounds, progress to pronouncing whole words,then show students ways of connecting word meanings to comprehend texts.Although bottom-up theories of the reading process explain the decoding part of thereading process rather well, there is certainly more to reading than decoding Tobecome readers, students must compare their knowledge and backgroundexperiences to the text in order to understand the author’s message Thus, the exactpurpose of reading is comprehension

II.1.3.2 The top-down models of the reading process

The reading process moves from the top, the higher level mental stages down

to the text itself in top-down models This approach emphasizes the reconstruction

of meaning rather than the recoding of form, the interaction between the reader andthe text rather than the graphic forms of the printed pages The reader proves hisactive role in the reading process by bringing to the interaction his/her availableknowledge of the subject, and expectations about how language works, motivation,interest and attitudes towards the content of the text

Cambourne (1979) provides the following schematisation of the approach.

Past experience, language Selective aspects Meaning Sound, pronunciation if

→ → →

intutions and expectations of print necessary

Figure 1.1 : Schematisation of the top-down approach

From the diagram, it can be seen that this approach emphasizes the

reconstruction of meaning rather than the decoding of form The interaction or the reader and the text is central to the process, and the reader brings to this interaction his knowledge of the subject at hand, knowledge of and expectations about how language works, motivation, interest and attitudes towards the content of the text Rather than decoding each symbol, or even every word, the reader uses his general knowledge of the world or of particular text components to make intelligent guessesabout what might come next in the text, or forms hypotheses about text elements and then the reader samples only enough of the text to cofirm or reject his/her guesses, to determine whether or not the hypotheses are correct Truly, the reader plays an active role and supplies more information to construct meaning than the printed page does

Being different from bottom-up models of the reading process, which arebased on sound-symbol theory, top-down models take their roots from meaning-based theory Phonological knowledge is not considered a crucial aspect in the top-down process of reading What is important in constructing meaning from theprinted material is the reader’s prior knowledge, and cognitive and linguistic

abilities According to Dechant (1991: 25), “ the knowledge, experience, and concepts that readers bring to the text, in other words, their schemata, are part of the process…Reading in this cotext is more a matter of bringing meaning to than gaining meaning from the printed page.”

Goodman is one of the most frequently mentioned advocates of top-down

Goodman (1975), his original model (1967), referring to reading as “ a psycholinguistic guessing game,” argues that readers use their knowledge of syntax

and semantics to reduce their dependence on the print and phonics of the text Theoriginal model specifies four processes in reading: predicting, sampling,confirming, and correcting

Smith (1975:60) says about the top-down reading models as one of the

advocates that “ to be able to read, a child must be encouraged to predict, to use prior knowledge or even have non-visual information provided ” Like Goodman,

Smith (1971:2) emphasizes the role of meaning and the reader’s to predict when

reading: “ Reading is less a matter of extracting sound from print than of bringing meaning to print” He cites four distinctive and fundamental characteristics of

reading: (1) Reading is purposeful; (2) Reading is selective; (3) Reading is based oncomprehension; (4) Reading is anticipatory Both Goodman and Smith give thereader a central role in understanding what he or she reads

One of the shortcomings of the top-down model is that it sometimes fails todistinguish adequately between beginning readers and fluent readers Smith (1971),for example, advances the view that fluent readers operate by recognising words onsight In other words, fluent reading in non-ideographic languages such as Englishproceeds in the same way as fluent reading in ideograph languages such as Chinese,where readers must learn to identify characters by their shape Of course, it does notnecessarily follow that, as fluent readers proceed through sight recognition, which isthe way initial readers should be taught Moreover, second language theorists haveseen that a purely top-down concept of the reading process makes little sense for areader who can be stymied by a text containing a large amount of unfamiliarvocabulary

II.1.3.3 The interactive models of the reading process

The third type is interactive models of the reading process This type derivesfrom the perceived deficiencies of both bottom – up and top – down models Hayes

(1991: 7) proposes “in interactive models, different processes are thought to be

responsible for providing information that is shared with other processes The information obtained from each type of processing is combined to determine the most appropriate interpretation of the printed pages” The Hayes’ view is

understood that if the reader wants to gain reading comprehension as much aspossible, he/she has to apply different processes (bottom-up or top-down models) atthe same time in order to catch information from the text Therefore, in interactivemodels, both the reader and the text play an important role in reading

The interactive theorists argue that both top-down and bottom-up processes are

occurring either alternatively or at the same time It is a process that moves bothtop-down and bottom-up depending on the type of the text as well as on the reader’sbackground knowledge, language proficiency level, motivation, strategy use andculturally shaped beliefs about the reading

Interactive theorists appreciate the role of prior knowledge and prediction, and

at the same time emphasize the importance of rapid and accurate processing of theactual words of the text

Most foreign language reading specialists view reading as interactive Thereader interacts with the text to create meaning as the reader's mental processeswork together at different levels (Bernhardt, 1986; Carrell, Devine & Eskey, 1988;Rumelhart, 1977)

One important part of interactive process theory emphasizes "schemata," thereader's preexisting concepts about the world and about the text to be read Into thisframework, the reader fits what he or she finds in any passage If the new textualinformation does not fit into a reader's schemata, the reader misunderstands the newmaterial, ignores the new material, or revises the schemata to match the facts withinthe passage

Content schemata are background knowledge about the cultural orientation

or content of a passage For example, readers might know that Mark Twain wrotestories about life on the Mississippi River during the nineteenth century Such

content schemata help the readers to understand and recall more than do readers lessfamiliar with text content (Carrell, Devine & Eskey, 1988)

Formal schemata define reader expectations about how pieces of textualinformation will relate to each other and in what order details will appear (Carrell,1987) For example, in a detective story, a reader could expect the following chain

of events: a crime occurs, possible suspects are identified, evidence is uncovered,and the perpetrator is apprehended

In sum up, the popularity of interactive models shows that interactive modelscan maximize the strengths and minimizes the weaknesses of the separate use ofeither bottom- up or top- down models However, when dealing with a text, whichbest models depend on the purpose of reading

II.1.3.4 Schema Theory

It is believed that background plays an indispensable part in readingcomprehension and an influential factor in facilitating reading comprehension Therole of background in comprehension of texts is explained and formulized in atheoretical model known as schema theory

Schema theory explains how people’s existing knowledge affectscomprehension It means that the theory emphasizes the importance of the reader’sknowledge in understanding the text Schema is very abstract, Orasanu (1986: 33)claims that “A schema is an abstract structure or knowledge It is structured in thesense that it indicates relations among constituent concepts It is abstract in thesense that one schema has the potential to cover a number of texts that differ inparticulars”

According to Silberstein (1994:8), he identifies two kinds of backgroundknowledge: formal schemata and content schemata Formal schemata often known

as textual schemata, refers to knowledge of rhetorical structures and linguisticconventions of written texts It consists of knowledge of how texts are organizedand the understanding that different types of text use language structures,vocabulary, grammar, level of formality/ register differently Content schemata

involves knowledge of the world beyond texts, “including the subject-matter of thetext” (Carrell, 1983a) Alderson (2000: 34) divides content schemata further intobackground knowledge, which is directly relevant to text content and topic It can

be said that schema plays an important role in text comprehension because textcomprehension requires an interaction of two models of information processingwhich are known as bottom-up (or text-based) and top-down (knowledge-based)processing In top-down processing, readers draw on their own intelligence - thepredictions they can make, based on schemata they have acquired - to understandthe text

It is apparent that schema theory reflects important roles of prior knowledge

in reading comprehension A reader comprehends a text when he/she is able toactivate or construct a schema When processing a reading text, he/she makes use oftheir prior knowledge or schemata to interpret what the message is conveyed in thetext Adam and Bruce (1982) give an emphasis on the role of schemata, theyexpress “without prior knowledge, a complex object such as a text is not justdifficult to interpret; strictly speaking, it is meaningless”

II.1.4 Classification of reading

II.1.4.1 Classification of reading according to manner of reading

As for Doff (1988: 58), reading aloud is not a very useful technique for some

- Only one student is active at a time, the others are either not listening at all orlistening to a bad model.

- Students’ attention is focused on pronunciation, not on understanding thetext

- It is an unnatural activity, most people do not read aloud in real life

- Because students usually read slowly, it takes up a lot of time in class

By whispering the words while reading, reading aloud slows the reader downand forces him to read every word so it can distract him from understanding thetext

Silent reading

Unlike reading aloud, silent reading is more often used in both real life and

classroom, and “it is the method we normally use with our native language, and on the whole the quickest and most efficient” (Lewis, 1985: 110) With silent reading

we can best understand the reading materials in the shortest possible time because

we do not need to read all the words in the text, we can read at our own speed and if

we do not understand what we are reading, we can read again or slow down forintensive reading For the teachers, silent reading is helpful for controlling the class

In silent reading, students are in fact concentrating on the text, obtaining themeaning and extracting what they need

In short, silent reading is the most useful and practical way to develop thestudents’ reading ability However, it is more beneficial when the teachersometimes combines it with reading aloud to improve students’ pronunciation andintonation because reading aloud also has its own advantages

II.1.4.2 Classification of reading according to purpose of reading

According to purpose of reading, Wood (1985), Williams (1986) and Grellet

(1990) categorize reading into intensive, extensive, skimming, and scanning.

Intensive reading means the careful reading of shorter, more difficult foreign

language texts with the goal of complete and detailed understanding The objective

of intensive reading is to understand not only what the text means but also how the

meaning is produced Francoise Grellet (1981:41) defined: “Intensive reading means reading short texts to extract specific information This is an accuracy activity involving reading for details” And according to Nuttal (1982:36),

“Intensive reading involves approaching the text under the guidance of a teacher or

a task which forces the student to pay great attention to the text” To this kind of

reading, readers are required a profound and detailed understanding of the text.They have to know every idea, every piece of hidden information in the text Theyalso have to pay attention to the area of the words in the passage through whichsome hints may be conveyed In short, intensive reading is reading in detail for a

complete understanding of every part of the text

Extensive reading means to read widely and in quantity According to Grellet

(1981:2), extensive reading means “reading longer texts usually for one’s own pleasure This is a fluency activity, mainly involving general understanding” Harmer (1989:497) also has the same view He states “extensive reading would normally start with reading for the main idea or for general comprehension and finally, after much practice, for detailed comprehension” In fact, most of extensive

reading is done silently and out of the classroom and it gives the studentsopportunities to use their target language knowledge for their own purposes

Skimming is a very useful reading skill for students to locate a specific item

of information that they need Because of its nature, the key to skimming is toknow where to find the main idea of different paragraphs and to be able tosynthesize them by way of generalization When skimming, we go through thereading 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 the intension of the writer Nuttal (1982: 36) says “by skimming, we mean glancing rapidly through the text to determine whether a research paper is relevant to our own work or in order to keep ourselves superficially informed about materials that are not of great importance to us.” As for Grellet (1981: 19) stated: “when skimming, we go through the reading material

quickly in order to get its main points out the intension of the writer, but not to find the answer to specific questions” Clearly, the reader skims in order to satisfy a very

generous curiosity about the text This type of reading does not aim at learners atthe beginner level but it is more suitable for gifted students of English It helps them

to organize their thought and specify what information they can get from readingmaterial; therefore, their subsequent reading is more efficient

Scanning is another useful skill to locate a specific item of information

that we need Williams (1986:100) said: “scanning occurs when a reader goes through a text very quickly in order to find a particular point of information” In

contrast with skimming, scanning is far more limited since it only means retrievingneeded information This kind of reading is widely used in reading comprehension

In sum, there are different ways of reading and they are determined not by thetexts but by the reader’s reasons for reading In order to understand a texteffectively, the readers should not use these ways independently They must knowhow to use suitable ways to achieve their reading purpose

II.2 Reading in General English (GE) and in ESP

In many countries, English is learnt by a number of students who may neverhave opportunities to converse with native speakers, but may have access toscientific and technical materials written in English In comparison with otherlanguages skills, reading, once developed, is the one that can most easily bemaintained at a high level by the student himself with further help from his teachers.Through reading exercises, he can increase his knowledge and understanding of thespeakers’ culture, their way of thinking and their contribution to different fields inour everyday life Reading, therefore, is always considered an important skill inboth GE and ESP contexts

Reading in GE and ESP classes involves teachers, students and texts that areused for reading In general, these factors function similarly in both types of Englishteaching However, ESP teaching is different from General English teaching insome aspects

II.2.1 ESP reading

II.2.1.1 Definition of ESP

ESP is short for “English for Specific Purposes” which has developed rapidly tobecome a separate activity in English Language Teaching (ELT) It has sometimesmoved away from the mainstream of ELT, when the research on ESP was beyondapplied linguistics to include various disciplines There have been a lot of attempts

to define ESP

Hutchinson and Waters (1987:19) define ESP as “an approach to language teaching in which all decisions as to content and method are based on the learners’ reason for learning” They see ESP as an approach rather than a product, by which

they mean that ESP does not purely involves a particular kind of language, teachingmaterials or methodology They propose that teaching ESP does not mean teaching

a ‘special variety’ of English which is separate from the common language use.There are not such things as matters of science words and grammar for scientist or adifferent kind from any other form of language teaching, but it is an approach tolanguage learning, which is based on the learners’ needs

Robinson (1991) also accepts the primacy of needs analysis in defining ESP.Her definition is based on two key defining criteria and a number of characteristics

that are generally found to be true of ESP Her first criterion is that “ESP is normally goal directed” (Robinson, 1991:2) Here, she claims that a lot of students

study English not because they are interested in English language or English –language culture, but because they need English for their job or study proposes The

second criterion is that “an ESP course is based on 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) The characteristics that she gives are that

time period should be specified clearly for an ESP course, in which their objectiveshave to be achieved; and the ESP courses should be taught to adults inhomogeneous classes with the learning content related to the students’ work orspecialist studies

Streven (cited in Tickoo, 1988:1) states “ESP is a particular case of the general category of special-purpose language teaching”.

Dudley-Evans and Jo St John (1998) believe that “a definition of ESP should reflect the fact that much ESP teaching, especially where it is specifically linked to a particular profession or discipline, makes use of a methodology that differs from that used in General Purpose English teaching” In ESP the teachers

are more of ‘language consultants, enjoying equal status with the learners who havetheir own expertise in the subject matter In the class the interaction between theteacher and learners may be very different from that in a general English class According to the above-mentioned authors, ESP is one important branch

of the English as a Foreign language/ Second language system that functions as themain branch of English Language Teaching (ELT) ESP concentrates more onlanguage in context than on teaching grammar and language structures As a matter

of fact, ESP combines subject matter and ELT

II.2.1.2 Reading comprehension in ESP

Reading is a language skill essential to any language learners not only fortheir academic study but also for their future profession The aim of any readingprogram is “to enable students to read without help unfamiliar authentic texts atappropriate speed, silently with adequate understanding” (Nuttal, C, 1982:21).Hence, reading comprehension plays a central role To this kind of reading course,English is not only taught with the purpose of improving the students’ readingskills, but also familiarizing them with specialized English language used in manyfields in terms of Vocabulary, terminology and registers In other words, after anESP course, students are supposed to be able to interpret texts of their specializedsubjects in order to get information for their further study and/or their future work

in the most appropriate way Teaching and learning reading English for ComputerScience at Nghe An JTTC is aimed at helping students get acquainted with variousvocabulary, terms of computer and the computer information and events that theyread on newspapers or on the Internet For IT students, reading skill overweighs the

other three skills because in the future they will mainly use it for expanding certaincomputer concepts as a basis for them to move on along the computer knowledgehighway

II.2.1.3 Types of ESP

There are many types of ESP which are classified in different ways.Traditionally, ESP has been divided into two main areas: English for OccupationalPurposes (EOP) and English for Academic Purposes (EAP)

Kennedy and Bolitho (1984: 4) explain the two areas quite early: “EOP is taught in a situation in which learners need to use English as part of their work or profession Instances of EOP students would be doctors in casualty or technicians servicing equipment They need English, in the first case, to talk and respond to patients and other staff, and, in the second, to read technical manuals.” And, “EAP

is taught generally within educational institutions to students needing English in their studies The language taught may be based in particular disciplines at higher levels of education when the student is specializing (in-study) or intends to specialize (pre-study) in a particular subject”.

Robinson (1991: 3) shares the same view of dividing ESP into EOP and EAP bygiving the following tree diagram:

Pre-experience

EOP Simultaneous/ In-service

Post-experience

ESP Pre-study For study in a specific discipline In-study EAP Post-study Independent

As a school subject

Integrated

This diagram shows a useful division of courses according to when they takeplace These distinctions will affect the degree of specificity that is appropriate tothe course A pre-experience or pre-study course will probably rule out any specificwork related to the actual discipline or work as students do not have requiredfamiliarity with the content, while courses of in-service or in-study will be providethe opportunity for specific or integrated work.

According to David Carter (1983), he identifies such three types of ESP asEnglish as a restricted language, English for Academic and Occupational Purposes/English with specific topics

In the “Tree of ELT” (Hutchinson & Waters, 1987), ESP is broken down intothree branches, namely English for Science and Technology (EST), English forBusiness and Economics (EBE), and English for Social Studies (ESS) Each ofthese subject areas is further divided into two branches: English for AcademicPurposes (EAP) and English for Occupational Purposes (EOP) Hutchinson andWaters (1987: 16) do not note that there is not a clear-cut distinction between EAPand EOP because “people can work and study simultaneously; it is also likely that

in many cases the language learnt for immediate use in a study environment will beused later when the student takes up, or returns to a job”

In short, studying various types of ESP is an important step for ESP teachersbecause it provides them with an overall picture of the group of learners they aregoing to work with Accordingly, it is helpful for ESP teachers to choose teachingmaterials as well as to design or adapt an appropriate ESP course for their targetstudents

II.2.1.4 Characteristics of ESP

According to Dudley-Evans and Jo St John (1998), there are three absolute characteristics and four variable characteristics.

Absolute characteristics:

- ESP is designed to meet specific needs of learners;

- ESP makes use of the underlying methodology and activities of thedisciplines it serves;

- ESP is centered on the language (grammar, lexis, and register), skills,discourse and genres appropriate to these activities

Variable characteristics:

- ESP may be related to or designed for specific disciplines;

- ESP may use, in specific teaching situations, a different methodology fromthat of general English;

- ESP is likely to be designed for adult learners, either at tertiary levelinstitution or in a professional work situation IT could, however, be used forlearners at secondary school levels;

- ESP is generally designed for intermediate or advanced students Most ESPcourses assume basic knowledge of the language system, but it can be usedwith beginners

The division of ESP into absolute and variable characteristics is very helpful

in defining what is and is not ESP We can see that ESP can but is not necessarilyconcerned with a specific discipline, nor does it have to be aimed at a certain agegroup or ability range ESP should be seen simple as an 'approach' to teaching, orwhat Dudley-Evans describes as an 'attitude of mind'

II.2.2 Challenges in ESP Reading

II.2.2.1 Language challenges

Language plays a vital role in reading in general and ESP in particular Its role

in reading can be compared to the role of running in the game of soccer or skating in the game of ice hockey One cannot play soccer if one cannot run, andone cannot play ice hockey if one cannot skate One cannot read a book in alanguage unless one knows that particular language If learner’s knowledge ofEnglish is poor, then his reading will be also poor, and naturally also his readingcomprehension According to Yorio (1971) “the reader’s knowledge of the foreign

ice-language is not like that of the native speakers; the guessing or the predicting abilitynecessary to pick up the correct cues is hindered by the imperfect knowledge of thelanguage; the wrong choice of cues or the uncertainty of choice makes associationmore difficult; the memory span in a foreign language in the early stages of itsacquisition is usually shorter than in our native language; recollection of previouscues then is more difficult in a foreign language than in a mother tongue; and at alllevels, and at all time, there is interference of the native language.”

From the above viewpoints, problems of foreign language learners in readingprocess are mainly caused by the imperfect knowledge of the target language andthe interference of the native language

Clarke(1980) and Alderson(1984) also share the same idea They both agreedthat a lack of appropriate linguistics constrains the transfer of reading skills andstrategies from the first language (L1) to the second language (L2)

When dealing with a reading text, readers not only face with unfamiliartopic but also difficulties in vocabulary and grammatical structures They deal withidioms, proverbs, synonyms, antonyms, etc., which can be considered to have animpact on the readers’ motivation Knowing vocabulary and structures is necessaryfor getting meaning from a text, especially for second or foreign language readerswho frequently say that they need more vocabulary and structures so that they canunderstand the meaning of the sentences Therefore, when the amount of vocabularyand structures is limited, the readers will encounter difficulties As a result, theywill be unwilling to explore the text

II.2.2.2 Reading skill challenges

Bernhardt and Kamil (1995:17) assume that “reading performance in a

second language is largely shared with reading ability in a first language” Sarig’s

findings (1987:118) also demonstrated that “the same reading strategies typesaccounted for success and failure in both languages to almost the same extent.”

Students’ limited reading skills create many problems such as readingslowly, failing to understand and summarize main ideas of the reading text, unable

to guess or predict meaning of the words or phrases used in that context, etc Veryfrequently, student reading in a foreign language seems to read considerably slowerthan they reportedly read in their first language Some students who read too slowlywill easily get discouraged They do not know how to use the appropriate ways tomove their eyes from word groups to word groups They just look at every singleword, and consequently fail to grasp the general meaning of the passage Sometimesreaders may encounter a text, which is too long Reader may know a lot ofvocabularies, and the topic of the text is fairly familiar to them, yet they cannotconcentrate well on the text and when they get to the last paragraph, they cannotrecall what they have read before.

Reading is an active skill, involving guessing, predicting It is common thatthere are new words, new structures, and ideas in a reading text to every languagelearners If he does not have a good guessing ability and cannot make full use ofgrammatical, logical, and cultural clues, he will read the text with lessunderstanding than he might expect, and/or will feel frustrated at the text, and itmay cause disinterest in reading

II.2.2.3 Methodology and Materials

Methodology

There is sometimes a misconception that ESP teaching methodology iscompletely different from that for General English In fact, there is nothing specificabout ESP methodology Hutchinson and Waters (1986:18) wrote: ‘though thecontent of learning may vary there is no reason to suppose that the processes oflearning should be any different for the ESP learners than for the GE learners.’Therefore, they did not introduce any particular method, which is considered typical

of ESP teaching The ESP teacher can well exploit the techniques and skills whichare used in the General English classroom

But anyway, ESP teaching methods must be learner - oriented In otherwords, ESP is concerned, first and foremost, with satisfying the real needs of thestudents and not with revealing the knowledge of the teacher The intensive and

efficient teaching of grammar, vocabulary, translation, etc must be scientificallygrounded and concentrate only on those items which students actually need for thepurposes specified at the beginning of the university course This is an importantstatement which in theory is universally accepted but in practice is hardly everfollowed.

Materials

It is clearly known that ESP course books are those designed for a specifictype of students However, one problem here is that many of them are unsuitable forstudents because they completely adopted from articles, texts designed byforeigners and native speakers which are defined “authentic texts” While

‘Authentic text is a text which is not written or spoken for language teaching

purposes’ (Brian Tomlinson, 1998) and ‘Authentic texts are those which aredesigned for native speakers, they are real texts designed not for language studentsbut for the speakers of the language in question.’ (Harmer,1992:146) Hence, instudent-centered instruction, the course book with authentic texts should beappropriately simple in language and concept, respecting the special characteristics

of readers of limited language ability and unfamiliar with concepts and topicscommon in the target language

Using authentic texts without considering the reader’s linguistic knowledgemay cause readers to have too many doubts, as well as too much distraction, andmay force them to focus on the linguistic code with a consequent overload onmemory, hence hindering the reading task When using texts difficult for readers interms of high new word density, the problems arising are: the first is that readersmay not have the linguistic knowledge for bottom-up information processing;second, readers may not have enough automatic word recognition, hinderingcomprehension because of the limitations in working memory resources (Tomitch,1996); third, higher-order knowledge cannot be applied to compensate for the poorlinguistic knowledge (Ridgway, 1997); fourth, students may not be able to make use

of contextual clues for meaning inference

In addition, some texts were written long ago and now they could be out ofdate, thus worthless For example, the text about sport events, the rules of somesports such badminton, volleyball etc because they have been changed.

Another problem in teaching English for specific purposes is the lack ofreference materials ESP teacher, with the role of course designer and materialsprovider, should provide students with supplementary materials by “choosingrelevant published material, adapting material when published material is notsuitable” Jordan (1997) Reference and supplementary materials will help studentswide reading and self-study

II.2.3 Differences between ESP and EGP

ESP can be simply described as the opposite of EGP EGP is the languagethat is used every day for ordinary things in a variety of common situations,therefore ESP is language used to discuss specialized fields of knowledge

The most important difference lies in the learners and their purposes forlearning English ESP students are usually adults who already have someacquaintance with English and are learning the language in order to communicate aset of professional skills and to perform particular job-related functions An ESPprogram is therefore built on an assessment of purposes and needs and the functionsfor which English is required

ESP concentrates more on language in context than on teaching grammar andlanguage structures It covers subjects varying from accounting or computer science

to tourism and business management The ESP focal point is that English is nottaught as a subject separated from the students' real world (or wishes); instead, it isintegrated into a subject matter area important to the learners

However, EGP and ESP diverge not only in the nature of the learner, but also

in the aim of instruction In fact, as a general rule, while in EGP all four languageskills; listening, reading, speaking, and writing, are stressed equally, in ESP it is aneeds analysis that determines which language skills are most needed by the

example, emphasize the development of reading skills in students who are preparingfor graduate work in business administration; or it might promote the development

of spoken skills in students who are studying English to become tourist guides

As a matter of fact, ESP combines subject matter and English languageteaching Such a combination is highly motivating because students are able toapply what they learn in their English classes to their main field of study, whether it

be accounting, business management, economics, computer science or tourism.Being able to use the vocabulary and structures that they learn in a meaningfulcontext reinforces what is taught and increases their motivation

The students' abilities in their subject-matter fields, in turn, improve theirability to acquire English Subject-matter knowledge gives them the context theyneed to understand the English of the classroom In the ESP class, students areshown how the subject-matter content is expressed in English The teacher canmake the most of the students' knowledge of the subject matter, thus helping themlearn English fast ESP assesses needs and integrates motivation, subject matter andcontent for the teaching of relevant skills

II.2.4 The ESP learners

The students are usually adults who already have some acquaintance withEnglish and are learning the language in order to communicate a set of professionalskills and to perform particular job-related functions They come to the ESP classeswith specific interest for learning, subject matter knowledge, and well-built adultlearning strategies They are in charge of developing English language skills toreflect their native – language knowledge and skills However, sometimes they meetdifficulties in interpreting the text because of unfamiliar vocabularies and limitedbackground knowledge or because their speed and comprehension ability are not yet

up to the expectation In this case, the students have to work in the direction of theirteachers

Apart from all above activities in a reading classroom, ESP students alsohave to become familiar with English used in their specialized field Having

acquired basic English in terms of grammar and having been familiar with readingactivities, these students attend ESP reading classes with the hope to improve theirreading skills in their specialized field

Furthermore, in reading, the students would tackle texts which are full ofterminologies that can be comprehensively understood only in combination withtheir available specialized knowledge A statement of a computer requires students’knowledge on IT whereas other students need knowledge of sports such football ortennis … to understand a sports article or comment That is, ESP students in readingclasses should have ability to combine their English competence with theirbackground specialized knowledge

Therefore, for vocational purposes, ESP students are in a more requirement

of not only English knowledge but also specialized knowledge of the field

II.2.5 Learners’ learning strategies

Learning strategies are operations employed by the learner to aid theacquisition, storage, retrieval, and use of information To put it more concrete, asOxford (1990) suggested, learning strategies are specific actions taken by thelearner to make learning easier, faster, more enjoyable, more self-directed, moreeffective, and more transferable to new situations Obviously, learning strategies areconcerned with actual activities and techniques, which lead to learning Thesedefinitions, while helpful, remain vague with regard to the nature of languagelearning strategies in learner-centered teaching Some key features of languagelearning strategies according to Oxford (1990):

Greater self-direction for learners

Language learning strategies encourage greater overall self-direction forlearners Self-direction is particularly important for language learners because it isessential to the active development of ability in a new language

Unlike the teacher-dependent mode of learning in teacher-centered classroomswhere the students are passive, learner self-direction in learner-centered

environment grows, as students become more aware of their responsibility directed students gradually gain greater confidence, involvement, and proficiency.The implication here is remarkable in that the transfer of responsibility providesstudents with more freedom, more opportunities to choose most appropriatelearning strategies which fit their learning purpose Obviously, when students takemore responsibility, more learning occurs and that is conducive to success inlanguage learning.

Self-New roles for the teachers

Traditionally, teachers expect to be viewed as instructor, director, manager,judge, leader, evaluator, controller or just one word-dumper of information In thatrelation, the students act passive role or in other words they are spoon-fed Thespecter of role change has put the teacher in a new situation with new functions asfacilitator, helper, guide, consultant, coordinator, diagnostician, and co-communicator Therefore, new teaching capacities are required such as “identifyingstudents’ learning strategies, and helping learners become more independence.”(Oxford, 1990)

II.2.6 Learner-centeredness in ESP and Learning-Centeredness

First and foremost, it is necessary to differentiate the common term centered’ from ‘learning-centered’ Hutchinson and Waters (1987: 72) stated that

‘learner-“the learner-centered approach is based on the principle that “learning is totallydetermined by the learner” This implies that learning is an internal process which iscrucially dependent upon the knowledge the learners already have and their abilityand motivation to use it However, in their opinion, the learner is a major factor toconsider in the learning process, but not the only one They further noted thatlearning “is a process of negotiation between individuals and society” (p.72) Thismeans the society sets the target and the individuals must do their best to get asclose to that target as possible The learners determine “the route to the target” and

“the speed at which they travel the route” but the target still “has a determininginfluence on the possible route.” Therefore, the term ‘learning-centered approach’

applied for ESP teaching and learning at the discretion of Hutchinson and Watersindicates that “the concern is to maximize learning and potential of the learningsituation” (p.72).

In a nutshell, teaching and learning environment should be constructed in away that helps the learners build a positive attitude towards learning and increasetheir self-esteem which, in turn, will be strong motives to make them more efficientautonomous learners Besides, in light of learner-centered education, the role ofteacher as facilitator as well as mediator of learning and strategy trainer has becomeincreasingly important in teaching students how to learn and to put it simply,helping them to become more conscious of strategy use and more adept atemploying appropriate strategies which, without doubt, are closely related to theirsuccess in language learning

II.2.7 The requirements for ESP teachers

It is known that ESP teachers play a very important role in students’ gettingknowledge Whether the ESP teacher should master the materials or content of thesubject matter seems a debating issue Two points of view will be considered in thispart for typical consideration

Hutchinson and Waters (1987: 157) think that ‘ESP teachers do not need to learnspecialist subject knowledge’ They list three requirements of the ESP teachers asfollows:

- 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

When mentioning the roles of the ESP practitioner, Evans and St John (1998:13-14) claim that ‘the teacher is not in the position of the ‘primary knower’ of thecarrier content of the material’ They also believe that ‘the teachers have clearobjectives for the class and a good understanding of the carrier content of theteaching material ESP teachers also need to have a great deal of flexibility, to be

willing to listen to learners, and to take an interest in the disciplines or professionalactivities the students are involved in.’

Both of the ways to point out the roles of ESP teachers have their ownimportance They imply that the teachers should be aware of the students’ needs,have basic knowledge of the subject areas, and act as actual learners In the author’spoint of view, ESP teachers need to master somehow the specific knowledge of themajor subject and fundamental teaching knowledge so that they can help thelearners better and more thoroughly Vocational students need to use simple buteffective specific English in their working conditions, therefore, the language skillsare learnt in a combination with specific knowledge for better communication

II.3 Summary

In conclusion, this chapter gives a theoretical framework for the study First,

it provides an overview on the nature of reading, in which the definitions of readingand reading comprehension as well as classification of reading according to thepurpose and manner of reading are discussed This chapter also discusses thedefinition of ESP, reading skills in ESP, challenges in ESP reading, ESP learnersand the requirements for ESP teachers

CHAPTER III RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

This chapter deals with the research methodology that has been employed forthe achievement of the aims and objectives of the study Data was obtained bymeans of a survey questionnaire Besides the survey data, additional data wasgathered by other instruments such as discussion with teachers and students toprovide more in-depth information

III.1 The setting of the study

III.1.1 The purposes of teaching and learning reading English for Computer Science at Nghe An Junior Teacher Training College

Nghe An JTTC has had a long standing tradition of training junior teachers inthe areas of mathematics, informatics, biology, chemistry, literature, history,physics, sports, music It has also trained office administration and informationprofession ESP has become one of the main subjects in the major courses of thetraining fields, one of which is information technology profession English subjectfor the college level students is divided into two stages: basic English (or generalEnglish) and major English The first stage of basic English covers 150 classperiods for college level The second stage depends on each major subject such asinformation technology, office administration Professional English for IT studentincludes 60 classes, for students of office administration includes 120 classes

The study was carried out at Department of information technology, Nghe AnJunior Teachers’ Training College, which is located in the East of Nghe An, trainteachers for junior schools The students had to take a three –year course in whichEnglish was their professional subject In the first year and the first term of thesecond year, they studied general English with four language skills listening,reading, speaking and writing In the last term of the second year, they engaged instudying the subject of English for Computer Science as well as one which related

to professional knowledge

After students finish to study in three years, their fields are expected not only

to obtain competent professional skills, but also to have good foreign languageknowledge and specializing English language used in their field which is verynecessary for their future career and studies, especially English for ComputerScience Hence, English is considered to be a vital component in the program Afterlearning the General English with “ New Headway-elementery ” for three terms(150 periods), students will continue with the ESP textbook “ English for ComputerScience” (60 periods) which mainly focus on reading skills Thus, the ESPcurriculum at Nghe An JTTC aims at:

- Providing students with an amount of vocabulary and terms relating to thecomputer science and information technology in general

- Developing students’ reading skills

- Help students to be able to do the reading comprehension well in documentswritten in English

III.1.2 Teachers of English at Nghe An JTTC and their methods of teaching

The English teaching staff in the department of foreign languages at ourcollege consists of 35 official teachers Teachers are female and male Five of themused to be teachers of Russian Six of them have taken MA courses and has been to

an English speaking country Three ESP teachers in English group II are alternative

to teach English for computer science and English for office administration

Excepting one teacher who teaches Chinese, the others in the department offoreign languages at Nghe An JTTC have responsibility to teach both GE and ESPwhile they are inexperienced in teaching ESP because none of them has beentrained to become an ESP teacher Thus, they have to face many difficulties: Thelack of professional knowledge and the choice of appropriate teaching methodologyseem to be the major concerns As a result, they do not feel confident to teach ESPalthough they have positive attitudes to it

According to the field of methodology, since the ESP teachers havedifficulties expressing themselves in English, they are apt to switch over to theirnative language, Vietnamese, when explain things in class Moreover, the materialused in class is usually full of specific and technical terms and long, complicatedsentences, so that the teachers have to stop and analyze them all the time Hencecomes the easy conclusion that in class they are doing nothing else but followingthe traditional method of teaching, grammar-translation method, which is criticized

to be too teacher-centered, learner-passive and thus inefficient In class, the readinglesson generally has two focuses: one is word study, which is often performed withthe teacher taking out some difficult words or phrases from a text and explaining themeaning by giving the examples or equivalent Vietnamese Students often listenand take notes passively They raise questions only when they encounter new words

or structures in the text Another focus is study of grammar and translation, which isusually done by the teacher explaining or analyzing some ‘important’ or ‘difficult’structures usually in Vietnamese After, explaining vocabulary and grammar,teachers usually translate the text into Vietnamese Therefore, this method makesstudents have low motivation, be unable to develop their reading skills To sum up,teachers with their traditional method may lead to unsatisfactory performance inclass To some extent, the success rests on how flexible and adaptable the individualteacher is to respond the requirement of the new teaching situation

III.1.3 IT Students at Nghe An JTTC and their background knowledge

In the department of information technology at Nghe An JTTC, students donot study linguistic field carefully They come to the college from different parts ofthe country Most of them are country-side youths at the age from 18 to 23 Everyyear we have a point-selected class for students from remote areas That means,students of this class have a place at the college without the entrance examination.The in-put level of English of our students is extremely different because theirlength of English learning was different: some have learned for 9 years, others for 4years and the rest has learnt for 2 years In the department of information

technology at our college, they engage in ESP course, it means English forComputer Science, after finishing one year and a half of GE with an allocatedtimeframe of 150 class periods (in two terms at the first year and the second term atthe second term) using American English File 1 by Clive Oxenden and ChristinaLatham-Koenig.

On the one hand, after three terms at the college with GE, students’vocabulary improve but not much, especially technical terms They have not muchchance to deal with English for Computer Science Therefore, most of them have toface difficulties when discussing topics related to other sport subjects due to theirlinguistics limitations, especially terminologies in information technology, whichmake them learn ineffectively and also creates the teaching problems for teachers

One more reason is that the students are quite passive in learning They tend

to depend too much on textbooks and their teachers This dependent habit oflearning is an obstacle to their learning process

In fact, the students come to class with different English background andattitudes, motivation, learning style towards learning the language Therefore, thefirst thing the teachers have to do is to improve the students’ level of GE beforethey can deal with this professional subject Another problem is that most of them

do not have the habit of learning independently and tend to depend on the textbooksand the teachers for knowledge These provide the ESP teachers with the basicunderstanding of the subject of ESP

III.1.4 Materials

Materials are anything used to teach language learners Materials can be inthe form of a textbook, a workbook, a cassette, a photocopied handout, anewspaper, a paragraph written on a white board, power point, etc

It is known that there are two resources of materials in teaching and learningESP which are published materials and in-house materials The ESP material which

is being currently used for the second year students in the department of informationtechnology at Nghe An JTTC belongs to the latter type The course book named

“English for Computer Science” is a collection of readings in computer sciencewhich has been used for second year students at Nghe An JTTC since 2003 Thebook consists of 10 reading texts and each unit has some reading comprehensiontasks relating to the history of the computer, the configuration, the operating system(OS), the central processing unit (CPU), the memory, the programs and theprogramming languages The aim of this course book is to help students haveopportunity to read more effectively and widen their knowledge and vocabulariesabout the computer However, the texts in the course book are too long and difficultsuch as unit 7, with a great amount of vocabulary and terms because they are notadapted to fit the language level of the students In addition to this, the difficult andnew vocabulary wasn’t much extracted from each reading to create a word list withVietnamese equivalents This makes teaching and reading more difficult.

III.2 The participants

65 students involved in this study were the second year IT students Of these

65 students, 40 of them were male and 25 of them were female Their age ranged

from 19 to 23 All the students have been learning English for at least 3 years ormore The study was conducted at the end of the second term in the second year.Thus, the students were likely to finish the ESP course

III.3 Research method

III.3.1 Research questions

This study attempt to investigate reading challenges of Engish for computerscience encountered by IT students at Nghe An JTTC as well as factors which helpand hinder their reading in ESP To achieve this aim, the following researchquestions are proposed:

1 What are the major challenges faced by IT students when reading English

texts for computer science?

2 What are the techniques to be used to improve the IT students’ reading

comprehension?