VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ********************* NGUYỄN NGỌC HẢI USING TRANSLATION TO TEACH TECHNICAL VOCABULARY TO THE 2ND YEAR VOCATIONAL STUDENTS AT INDUSTRIAL UNIVERSITY OF HO CHI MINH CITY – THANH HOA BRANCH Sử dụng thủ thuật dịch vào việc dạy từ vựng chuyên ngành cho sinh viên nghề năm thứ hai trường Đại học Công nghiệp thành phố Hồ Chí Minh – Cơ sở Thanh Hóa M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY CODE: 60140111 Hanoi, 2014 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ********************* NGUYỄN NGỌC HẢI USING TRANSLATION TO TEACH TECHNICAL VOCABULARY TO THE 2ND YEAR VOCATIONAL STUDENTS AT INDUSTRIAL UNIVERSITY OF HO CHI MINH CITY – THANH HOA BRANCH Sử dụng thủ thuật dịch vào việc dạy từ vựng chuyên ngành cho sinh viên nghề năm thứ hai trường Đại học Cơng nghiệp thành phố Hồ Chí Minh – Cơ sở Thanh Hóa M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY CODE: 60140111 SUPERVISOR: Associate Professor, Dr Lê Hùng Tiến Hanoi, 2014 DECLARATION This thesis is submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Education I certify that the thesis is the report of my own research, and that it has not been submitted for any other university or institution Thanh Hoa, September, 2014 Student‟s signature Nguyen Ngoc Hai i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First and foremost, I would like to express my gratitude to Dr Le Hung Tien - my supervisor for his invaluable advice, constructive criticism, precious correction and helpful encouragement in the completion of my minor thesis My thanks also go to all of the lecturers and the staff of the Department of PostGraduate Studies at University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi for their valuable lectures and supports I am also thankful to all the English teachers and students at Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh city (IUH) – Thanh Hoa branch for answering the questionnaires and interviews, which are indispensable for the analysis and discussion in my study Last but not least, I greatly appreciate the support and encouragement from my family and friends ii ABSTRACT This research was done to investigate the use of Vietnamese translation in vocabulary teaching and learning process This action research is aimed at finding out the teachers and students‟ perceptions of the effectiveness of Vietnamese translation in teaching and learning vocabulary at Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City – Thanh Hoa branch The study focuses on issues (1) the difficulties encountered by English teachers as well as the second year vocational students at IUH – Thanh Hoa Branch when teaching and learning technical vocabulary (2) Exploring translation used in teaching technical vocabulary for the second year vocational students at IUH – Thanh Hoa Branch (3) Investigating how far translation improves teaching and learning technical vocabulary for the second year vocational students at IUH – Thanh Hoa Branch This study involves the participants of 170 second – year vocational students who are in their first semester at IUH The data was collected by a number of instruments including questionnaire for teachers and students, teacher‟s observation, informal interviews The result of the study reveals that there exist some difficulties in teaching technical vocabulary to second-year vocational students at IHU However, the majority of respondents confirm that Vietnamese translation technique is an efficient method Vietnamese translation has big attributions in diminishing the difficulties in teaching technical vocabulary to second-year vocational students at IHU iii LIST OF FIGURES, TABLES, AND CHARTS Charts Chart 1: Teachers‟ and students‟ purposes of teaching and learning technical vocabulary Chart 2: Teachers‟ difficulties in teaching technical vocabulary Chart 3:Teachers‟ commonly used techniques Chart 4: Students‟ comments on technical vocabulary in the course book Chart 5: Students‟ solution when they meet a new word Chart 6: Students‟ ways of learning technical English vocabulary Chart 7: Student‟s problems when learning vocabulary Chart 9: Students‟ perceptions of the effectiveness of Vietnamese translation on their vocabulary learning Chart 10: Students‟ perceptions of the roles of Vietnamese translation in helping them to learn vocabulary Chart 11: Effect of using Vietnamese translation on the class atmosphere Chart 12: Problems faced by students in learning vocabulary through Vietnamese translation Chart 13: Students‟ perceptions of using Vietnamese translation Tables Table 8: Students‟ preference for Vietnamese translation use in technical vocabulary lessons iv LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ESP: English for specific purposes course GE: General English IUH : Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh city v TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii ABSTRACT iii LIST OF FIGURES, TABLES, AND CHARTS iv LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS v TABLE OF CONTENTS vi PART A: INTRODUCTION 1 Rationale of the study Aims of the study Research questions Significance of the study Scope of the study Methods of the study Design of the study PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW Theoretical background of technical vocabulary 1.1 Definition of technical words Classification of technical words 1.3 Approaches to Technical Vocabulary Teaching Theoretical background of L1 and Translation 2.1 Definition of translation 2.2 Function of Translation 2.3 Advantages and Disadvantages of Using L1 Translation in Teaching Vocabulary 10 Previous Studies on L1 Translation in Teaching L2 Vocabulary 11 CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY 13 2.1 Rationale for the use of a survey research 13 vi 2.2 Context of the study 13 2.2.1 Textbook 13 2.2.2 Students 14 2.2.3 Teachers 15 2.3 Instruments 16 2.3.1 Interviews 16 2.3.2 Questionnaires 16 2.4 Data collection 16 2.5 Chapter summary 17 CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS, FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS 18 3.1 Findings from questionnaires 18 3.1.1 Teachers‟ and students‟ purposes of teaching and learning technical vocabulary 18 3.1.2 Teachers‟ difficulties in teaching technical vocabulary 19 3.1.3 Teachers‟ commonly used techniques 20 3.1.4 Students‟ perception of learning technical vocabulary 21 3.1.5 Students‟ perceptions of Vietnamese translation use in technical vocabulary lessons 25 3.2 Further findings from informal interview with teachers 39 PART C: CONCLUSION 33 Summary of major findings 33 Concluding remarks 34 Limitations and suggestions for further study 35 REFERENCES 37 APPENDIX I vii PART A: INTRODUCTION Rationale of the study English for specific purposes course (ESP) is new trend in English Language Teaching and the demand of learning ESP has been nationwide Due to the social needs, ESP is taught in almost universities, colleges and vocational schools Most of universities offer course in ESP after General English (GE) during the basic years Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh city (IUH) – Thanh Hoa branch is a typical example of the training institution that combines ESP within its current English teaching situation in response to the demand for specific language learning target ESP in IUH includes technical English, scientific English, English for medical professionals, English for waiters, and English for tourism Vocabulary learning and teaching is very important in learning English; nevertheless, vocabulary was a neglected area in foreign language teaching for a number of years.I myself have experienced years of working as a teacher of English at IUH – Thanh Hoa Branch Up to now, I find that teaching and learning ESP, particularly teaching and learning vocabulary has still been far from satisfactory With many similar characteristics and a number of different features in comparison with General English, Teaching ESP vocabulary is viewed as something hard to teach for language teachers Furthermore, most of students here find learning ESP vocabulary is the most challenging to them in acquiring English Their biggest obstacle in learning ESP vocabulary is that it is difficult for them to identify the meaning of, to understand the use of and to remember the words belonging to technical terms Recently a lot of attention has been given to vocabulary English teachers are being trained in using modern methods of English teaching Old teaching methods are rapidly being replaced with modern ones However, among various kinds of ... HO CHI MINH CITY – THANH HOA BRANCH Sử dụng thủ thuật dịch vào việc dạy từ vựng chuyên ngành cho sinh viên nghề năm thứ hai trường Đại học Công nghiệp thành phố Hồ Chí Minh – Cơ sở Thanh Hóa M.A... University of Ho Chi Minh City – Thanh Hoa branch The study focuses on issues (1) the difficulties encountered by English teachers as well as the second year vocational students at IUH – Thanh Hoa Branch... students at IUH – Thanh Hoa Branch (3) Investigating how far translation improves teaching and learning technical vocabulary for the second year vocational students at IUH – Thanh Hoa Branch