MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING VINH UNIVERSITY -  - HA THI THANH A STUDY ON SECOND -YEAR STUDENTS’ DIFFICULTIES IN READING ESP MATERIALS AT AUTOMOBILE TECHNOLOGY DEPARTMENT IN VIETNAM-KOREA TECHNICAL COLLEGE (Tìm hiểu khó khăn sinh viên năm thứ hai việc đọc hiểu tài liệu tiếng Anh chuyên ngành khoa Công nghệ Ôtô, trờng Cao đẳng Kỹ thuật Việt Nam- Hàn Quốc) Field: Theory and Methodology of English Language Teaching Code: 60.14.10 Master thesis in Education Vinh, 2011 STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP I hereby certify that the thesis entitled A STUDY ON SECOND-YEAR STUDENTS’ DIFFICULTIES IN READING ESP MATERIALS AT AUTOMOBILE TECHNOLOGY DEPARTMENT IN VIETNAM - KOREA TECHNICAL COLLEGE is the result of my own research for the Degree of Master of Education at Vinh University I confirm that this thesis has not been submitted for any other degrees Student’s signature Hà Thị Thanh ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my deepest thanks to my beloved supervisor Dr Le Van Canh for his invaluable support, patient guidance, and encouragement he gave me throughout my research I am truly grateful to him for his advice and suggestions right from the beginning when this study was only in its formative stage I also wish to send my sincere thanks to the students of the classes I visited in order to gather information for my survey questionnaire Without their help, this study could not have been successful I am indebted to my friends, my classmates, as well as my colleagues for their invaluable comments and criticism and also for their continued interest and encouragement Finally, I would like to express my gratitude to family members whose support and encouragement greatly contributed to the completion of my study ABSTRACT Reading is one of the four important skills in learning English, especially English for specific purposes (ESP) For non-English major students at VietnamKorea Technical College, reading has been given the first priority and has been paid more attention as the students have to read English materials related to their own specialist subject However, they have encountered a lot of difficulties in reading ESP materials and, therefore, failed to become efficient readers What, then, are the difficulties that the students at Vietnam-Korea Technical College encounter when reading ESP materials? And what hinders their reading comprehension? Many studies have already been conducted in the area of reading problems This study aims to examine the difficulties in ESP reading for the second-year students at Vietnam-Korea Technical College and the causes of their unsuccessful reading comprehension The results of this study has shown that the second-year students often have difficulties in many areas of the language such as difficulties with ESP vocabulary, discourse, reading skills and subject background knowledge when dealing with ESP texts and their unsuccessful reading comprehension comes from different sources: inadequate ESP vocabulary, limited background knowledge about the subject, unsuitable materials, the teachers’ teaching methods as well as the negative attitude of some students This study has also suggested some solutions to help to reduce their difficulties in reading ESP and obtain desirable achievements in ESP reading LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS EFL: English as Foreign Language EGP: English for General Purposes ELT: English Language Teaching ESP: English for Specific Purposes FL: foreign language GE: General English L1: first language L2: second language TALO: text and as a linguistic object TAVI: text as a vehicle of information VKTC: Vietnam-Korea Technical College LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES Table 3.1 Students’ attitudes towards ESP reading 44 Table 3.2 The difficulties in terms of ESP vocabulary 46 Table 3.3 The difficulties in terms of grammar 47 Table 3.4 The difficulties in terms of text discourse 49 Table 3.5 The difficulties related to lack of background knowledge 51 Table 3.6 The difficulties due to lack of reading skills 52 Table 3.7 Rank order of difficulties in ESP reading 54 Table 3.8 Students’ views of sources of difficulties 55 Table 3.9 The students’ needs for ESP materials 59 Table 3.10 The students’ needs for teachers’ methodology 61 Figure 2.1: The vicious circle of the weak readers 15 Figure 3.1 Students’ attitudes towards ESP reading 44 Figure 3.2 Causes of difficulties from materials 56 Figure 3.3 Causes of difficulties from teachers 58 Figure 3.4 Causes of difficulties from students 59 Figure 4.1: Automobile parts 65 Figure 4.2: Automobile systems 66 Figure 4.3: Automobile inside parts 66 Figure 4.4: Parts of an automobile fuel system 67 Figure 4.5: Diagram of the fuel flow 68 APPENDIX A Questionnaire for students This questionnaire is designed for my research into difficulties in ESP reading of the second year students in Vietnam – Korea Technical College Your assistance in completing the survey is appreciated All the information provided by you is solely for the study purpose, and you can be confident that you will not be identified in any discussion of the data Thank you very much for your cooperation! *Where you come from? □ Rural □ Urban *Did you learn English before entering Vietnam-Korea Technical College? □ Yes □ No - If Yes, when did you start learning English? …………………………… - If No, did you learn any other foreign languages? ……………………… * What is your average mark of General English in the first year? ……………… Section A: Do you agree with these? Question 1: I need to read technical texts well for my future job □ Strongly agree □ Agree □ Disagree □ Strongly disagree Question 2: I find it difficult to understand technical texts because my technical words are limited □ Strongly agree □ Agree □ Disagree □ Strongly disagree Question 3: I like reading texts about my specialized topics □ Strongly agree □ Agree □ Disagree □ Strongly disagree Section B: Here are some of difficulties you may encounter when reading ESP Please tick the appropriate box according to the level of difficulties you have Very difficult (VD) Difficult (D) Easy (E) Very easy (VE) Question 4: Difficulties with ESP vocabulary VD D E VE 4a I find it difficult to pronounce technical words □ □ □ □ 4b I find it difficult to understand the meaning of technical □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ terms in reading texts 4c I find it difficult to memorize technical terms ( such as: ignition, lubrication, spark plugs .) 4d I have troubles in using idomatic expressions and phrasal verbs (such as: convert into, by means of ) 4e When a word has many meanings, I don’t know which meaning is used in the reading text 4f Others (Please indicate here) ………………………………….……………… Question 5: Difficulties with Grammar 5a I don’t remember all grammatical structures that I have learnt and this makes it difficult to understand the content of the reading text 5b If the sentence is a new grammatical structure in the text I not understand its meaning 5c Long sentences are difficult to me to understand their meanings 5d Others (Please indicate here) ………………………………….……………… Question 6: Difficulties with the Text Discourse 6a I don’t understand how a reading text is organized and VD D E VE □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ VD D E VE □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ VD D E VE this makes it difficult to understand the content of the text 6b I don’t understand how a paragraph is organized and this makes it difficult to understand its content 6c I cannot find which is the most important sentence in each paragraph of the reading text 6d I have problems understanding how meanings of different sentences are linked together 6e Understanding graphs and diagrams is difficult to me 6f Others (Please indicate here) ………………………………….……………… Question 7: Difficulties related to Lack of Background Knowledge 7a I find it difficult to understand the content of unfamiliar professional topics 7b I find I don’t have enough professional knowledge related to the topics 7c I find it difficult to understand authentic materials 7d Others (Please indicate here) ………………………………….……………… Question 8: Difficulties due to Lack of Reading Skills 8a I find it difficult to find out the main idea of a reading □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ text 8b I find it difficult to find out the specific ideas of a reading text 8c I don’t know how to guess meanings of new words in a reading text 8d I find it difficult to recognize what the writer wants to imply in a reading text 8e I find it difficult to summarize the mains ideas of a reading text 8f I don’t know how to answer comprehension questions of a reading text 8g Others (Please indicate here) ………………………………… Section C Question 9: Please indicate what possible sources of your problems in ESP reading YES NO 9a The texts are very too long and full of technical terms □ □ 9b The texts are full of new and complex grammar structures □ □ 9c Some texts are taken from authentic materials, which □ □ 9d The teacher doesn’t teach us sufficient reading strategies □ □ 9e The teacher doesn’t give us sufficient practice of grammar □ □ makes us difficult to understand and vocabulary 10 ... hereby certify that the thesis entitled A STUDY ON SECOND- YEAR STUDENTS’ DIFFICULTIES IN READING ESP MATERIALS AT AUTOMOBILE TECHNOLOGY DEPARTMENT IN VIETNAM - KOREA TECHNICAL COLLEGE is the result... their reading comprehension? Many studies have already been conducted in the area of reading problems This study aims to examine the difficulties in ESP reading for the second- year students at Vietnam- Korea. .. my research into difficulties in ESP reading of the second year students in Vietnam – Korea Technical College Your assistance in completing the survey is appreciated All the information provided