From the findings of previous relevant researches by Nguyen (2002), Nguyen (2004), Pham (2011), Lau (2012), it can be believed that the ESP learners will face four main problems in learning: 1) Lack of integrative motivation in learning English; 2) Lack of lexical knowledge; 3) Lack of authentic materials; 4) Ineffective ESP teaching methodology
2.4.1. Lack of integrative motivation in learning English
As mentioned above, learners’ motivation has a meaningful effect on teaching and learning an ESP course. Brown (2007) said that integrative and instrumental motivations are those which directly influence language learning.
Integrative motivation is an interest in foreign language, a desire to interact with native speakers of the target language culture, and positive attitudes towards these people and culture. Instrumental motivation is a desire to gain social recognition or economic advantages through knowledge of a foreign language such as improving individual’s future employment opportunities or meeting the graduation requirement. As cited in Lau (2012) learners with integrative motivation were strongly believed to make much more effort and therefore be more successful in learning a foreign language than those with instrumental motivation. It can be inferred that it is extremely difficult to teach those who even know they need to – or should – learn language as a graduation (instrumental motivation) but they have no passion in the target language and culture (lack of integrative motivation).
However, in reality, most students at tertiary education in general and at vocational schools in particular study English just for a graduation requirement. That proves the reason why Vietnamese students start to learn English when they are in the 6th grade and nearly 10 years later, they pass all the examinations but they cannot use English to communicate. Most of them think that after the graduation, they will work in state companies or domestic companies and they do not need English for their work because all documents about their major are written by their mother tongue. Therefore, they do not need to learn English in general and ESP in particular. These thoughts lead to the conclusion that learners’ lack of integrative
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motivation in learning English in general and ESP in particular is a big problem from learners to teach ESP.
2.4.2. Lack of lexical knowledge
Widdowson (1998, cited in Pham, 2011) stated that specific lexis could be a problem for ESP learners because they lacked experience of a whole new way of conceptualizing that is the characteristic of the discourse community using that word. Lack of vocabulary knowledge in General English is a big problem for learners and this problem is much bigger than in ESP learning. The ESP vocabulary knowledge is one of the most difficult parts for a number of learners because most of language skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing activities are determined by learners’ vocabulary knowledge. When the learners lack this knowledge, they will face a big obstacle. In ESP vocabulary knowledge, many new words, new phrases that the learners never get in touch before will make them miserable in learning. For ESP word form, there is a must for learners to pronounce new vocabulary items correctly, especially for long, complex words and learn word spelling. For ESP word meaning, the biggest obstacle for the learners is to learn lexical relation (synonym, antonym,…) of a new word and sometimes with this word in this context it has a meaning and in another context it has a complete different meaning. This requires the learners a big effort to remember word meaning. Moreover, grammatical function words also bring many troubles to learners. They have to know and use correctly new words in many different contexts. This is not easy for the learners.
In common, the lack of vocabulary knowledge is the largest obstacle for foreign language learners to overcome (Yang and Dai (2011, cited in Lau, 2012).
2.4.3. Lack of authentic materials
As mentioned above, ESP materials take a very important part in ESP teaching and learning activities. In Vietnam, many ESP textbook are designed to serve the needs of teaching ESP at universities and colleges. However, ESP textbooks designing has still errors and there are not uniform criteria. In some
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kinds of ESP textbooks, they almost emphasize only one skill. This makes the textbooks monotonous and boring. The texts are out of date, no adaption with a lot of new terminologies. Tasks in each lesson do not interest students in developing communicative skills. According to Huynh (2005) there are two criteria for ESP textbooks: the social nature of language and the context about intellectual and aware requirements. In the social nature of language, knowledge about culture, society, science and technology that learners need to gain to use for their work and learners understand the form of ESP language are from the ESP textbooks. It means after learning from ESP course books, students have to gain communicative capabilities. However, not all students after finishing their ESP courses have this capability. Many students cannot read and comprehend their majored documents in English after graduation. In Vietnam most of current ESP textbooks are in non- context (Pham, 2002) but have a high requirement about intellect. Meanwhile, textbook designers lack students’ abilities and general knowledge assessment. That is the reason why most of ESP course books in Vietnam are inauthentic.
2.4.4. ESP teaching methodology
Teaching methods takes an important role in deciding the successful or unsuccessful ESP courses because they have an effect on the students’ learning.
According to Dudley-Evans & St John (1998) although ‘the methodology of ESP teaching may not differ from that of General English, but there is one basic difference that affects the methodology ….this is that the teacher is not in the position of being the ‘primary knower” of the carrier content of the material”
(p.13). Therefore, if the teacher does not have suitable and flexible teaching methods, students will feel so bored in learning and they will lose their motivation in learning because “the students in many cases, certainly where the course is specifically oriented towards the subject content or work that the students are engaged in, know more about the content than the teacher” ( Dudley-Evans & St John ,1998).
ESP is a branch of EFL so EFL teaching methods can be used in teaching ESP. However, if a teacher only uses the Grammar Translation method to teach
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ESP without other methods, ESP courses will not be successful. Therefore, “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 professional activities the students are involved in. They must be ready to change tack account of what comes up, and to think and respond rapidly to events. ESP teachers must also be happy to take some risks in their teaching. The willingness to be flexible and to take risks is one of the keys to success in ESP teaching” ( Dudley-Evans & St John ,1998).
To sum up, like ESP teachers, ESP learners also have many obstacles when they take ESP courses. These problems are the reasons why they do not gain their desires about the course that they have before getting ESP courses.