VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES DEPARTMENT OF POST GRADUATE STUDIES ---o0o--- ĐẶNG THỊ NGỌC ANH A STUDY ON THE PROBLEMS FACED BY STUDENTS IN READING ENGLISH FOR BUSINESS AT UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS AND BUSINESS ADMINSTRATION – THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY AND SOME IMPLICATIONS Tìm hiểu những khó khăn trong việc đọc hiểu tiếng Anh Thương mại của sinh viên trường Đại học Kinh tế và Quản trị Kinh doanh – Đại học Thái Nguyên và một số giải pháp M. Minor Thesis Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60 14 10 HANOI – 2010 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES DEPARTMENT OF POST GRADUATE STUDIES ---o0o--- ĐẶNG THỊ NGỌC ANH A STUDY ON THE PROBLEMS FACED BY STUDENTS IN READING ENGLISH FOR BUSINESS AT UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS AND BUSINESS ADMINSTRATION – THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY AND SOME IMPLICATIONS Tìm hiểu những khó khăn trong việc đọc hiểu tiếng Anh Thương mại của sinh viên trường Đại học Kinh tế và Quản trị Kinh doanh – Đại học Thái Nguyên và một số giải pháp M. Minor Thesis Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60 14 10 Supervisor: Phạm Thị Hạnh, MA. HANOI – 2010 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com TABLES OF CONTENTS PART ONE: INTRODUCTION.
The significance of the study. Aims of the study. Method of the study. Scope of the study.
Organization of the study. 13 Chapter 1: LITERATURE REVIEW. ESP Teaching and Learning. Definitions of ESP.
Types of ESP. The differences between General English and ESP. Business English – a type of ESP. Introduction of Business English.
Characteristics of Business English. Performance objectives for Business English. Content of Business English course. 24 Chapter 2: THE PRESENT SITUATION OF TEACHING AND LEARNING ENGLISH FOR BUSINESS AT THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS AND BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION (TUEBA).
Introduction of Thai Nguyen University of Economics and Business Administration and its students. Objectives of the ESP course at TUEBA. Materials of the ESP course. The problems in teaching and learning ESP at TUEBA .1 Problems on the part of the teachers .2 Problems on the part of the students.
27 Chapter 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY. Data collection method. Data collection instrument. Data collection procedure.
30 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. 31 Chapter 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION. Questionnaire Results and Interpretation. Student’s purposes of learning English and learning to read English.
Attitudes towards foreign language skills in the students’ future work and the role of ESP teaching and learning. Views on ESP teaching and learning materials. Students’ favorite reading materials. Difficult materials to teach and learn.
Attitudes towards the current ESP reading materials. Students’ difficulties in dealing with the ESP reading materials. Students’ expectations to improve their ESP reading skill. The students’ difficulties in dealing with ESP reading texts and materials.
The causes of the students’ difficulties. 47 Chapter 5: IMPLICATIONS FOR IMPROVING READING SKILLS OF BUSINESS ENGLISH FOR STUDENTS AT TUEBA. For the students. Awareness of the importance of reading skill and role of the ESP course.
Development of reading strategies and techniques. Development of extensive reading habits. For the teachers. Improvement of background knowledge of Business.
Enhancement of ESP teaching methodology. For the materials. Improvement of reading materials. Awareness of the student’s needs in designing the materials.
57 PART THREE: CONCLUSION. 58 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Summary of the study. Limitations and suggestions for further study.
60 APPENDIX Questionnaire for the students (English version) Questionnaire for the students (Vietnamese version) Questionnaire for the teachers (English version) LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS EAP English for Academic Purposes EBP English for Business Purposes EFL English as Foreign Language EGAP English for General Academic Purposes EGBP English for General Business Purposes EGP English for General Purposes ELP English for Legal Purposes ELT English Language Teaching EMP English for Medical Purposes EOP English for Occupational Purposes ESP English for Specific Purposes EST English for Science and Technology TNUT Thai Nguyen University of Technology TUAF Thai Nguyen University of Agriculture and Forestry TUEBA Thai Nguyen University of Economics and Business Administration LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com TABLE OF FIGURES AND CHARTS Figure 1: ESP classification by experience (Robinson, 1991: 3-4) .16 Figure 2: ESP classification by professional area (Evans, T. and St John, 1998: 6) .17 Figure 3: Continuum of ELT course types (Dudley-Evans and St John, 1998:9) .18 Chart 1: Student’s purposes of learning English .32 Chart 2: Student’s purposes of learning to read English .33 Chart 3: Attitudes towards foreign language skills in students’ future work .34 Chart 4: Views of the role of ESP course .34 Chart 5: Students’ favorite reading materials .35 Chart 6: Types of difficult texts and materials .36 Chart 7: Attitudes towards current ESP reading materials .37 Chart 8: Students’ difficulties in vocabulary .38 Chart 9: Students’ difficulties in grammar .39 Chart 10: Students’ difficulties in reading skill .40 Chart 11: Causes of students’ difficulties .41 Chart 12: Students’ expectations of ESP reading materials .43 Chart 13: Students’ expectations of teaching methodology .44 Chart 14: Students’ activities to improve their ESP reading skill .45 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com PART ONE: INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale English for Specific Purpose, or ESP for short, is a pedagogy in which the syllabus, contents and methods are determined according to the needs of learners' specialized subjects (Ping Duan & Weiping Gu, 2004:1). In the past 20 years, the explosion in business and communication technology has revolutionized the field of English language teaching, and has radically shifted the attention of course designers from teaching English for Academic Purposes to teaching English for more specialized purposes.
ESP can be regarded as an indispensable part of our life, without which a lot of good opportunities may be missed. ESP teaching has become a popular trend in English language teaching in the world in general and in Vietnam in particular, especially since Vietnam joined the international economy. Nowadays, ESP is one of the main subjects taught in the curriculum in most universities and colleges in Vietnam. The main objective of ESP courses is to prepare thousands of specialists for the language required by the learner’s future work, or overseas studies.
English for Business is a novel development of English for Specific Purposes brought about by the demand of society for improving students' abilities in communicating business information. At Thai Nguyen University of Economics and Business Administration (TUEBA), the students are trained with their Business profession mostly in their mother tongue. After completing General English in the first three semesters, they advance from the first glimpse to more in-depth lessons of English for Business with the aim of acquiring the ability to read and understand their professional knowledge in English and serving their further study as well as future jobs. However, the problem is that the students are rarely satisfied with their reading comprehension in reading ESP text and materials despite their efforts.
They are sometimes blamed for having poor reading skill or not making enough effort. Nevertheless, the students are not always at fault. Other factors such as materials, teaching methods, the teaching and learning attitude must also be considered. As a matter of fact, it is necessary to have a close look at and find out the reasons for the difficulties students’ encounter at TUEBA in dealing with their materials in English for LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.
On identifying the problems, it is hoped that the study will propose some possible suggestions for improving students’ ESP reading skills. The significance of the study The study highlights the difficulties that students at Thai Nguyen University of Economics and Business Administration (TUEBA) encounter when dealing with their specialized materials. Basing on these, solutions can be proposed in order to help students to overcome the problems and improve their reading comprehension in English for Business effectively. It is hoped that the findings of this study will be useful for both students and teachers of ESP at TUEBA and other institutions as well.
Aims of the study The primary purposes of this study are to describe the problems of ESP students in dealing with their reading materials at TUEBA, their causes and how to reduce the difficulties. In particular, the study is designed with the hope to achieve the aims as follows: To discover students and teachers’ attitudes towards ESP teaching and learning at TUEBA; To investigate the present situation of ESP teaching and learning at TUEBA in order to identify the students’ difficulties in ESP reading and their causes; To propose some recommendations to help students overcome the challenges in order to improve their ESP reading skills. Method of the study For the purpose of the study, data is collected through the application of the questionnaire technique. The information from the survey will then be paraphrased in order to find out the situation of ESP teaching and learning at TUEBA; students’ problems and their causes.
As such, descriptive statistics of simple percentages will be used. The instruments used to develop this study are chosen according to the needs of the students such as: pen, paper and questionnaire format. Scope of the study The focus of the study is mainly on investigating some linguistic problems related to ESP reading skills of the students at Thai Nguyen University of Economics and Business LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. After that, suggestions will be recommended so as to reduce the difficulties and help students learn ESP more effectively.
Organization of the study There are three main parts in this study including: Introduction, Development and Conclusion The Introduction part of the study covers the rationale for the study, the significance, aims, methods, scope as well as the organization of the study. The Development part of the study consists of 5 chapters as follows: Chapter 1 provides a theoretical framework for the study, including, definitions and types of ESP, ESP related issues, and typical features of English for Business. Chapter 2 discusses the present situation, materials, as well as the objectives of teaching and learning English for Business at TUEBA. The main focus is placed on the problems faced by the students when reading English texts and document for Business.
Chapter 3 reports the methodology used in the research including research questions, participants, instruments and the procedures for data collection and analysis. Chapter 4 reports and discusses the major findings. Chapter 5, the last part of this section, offers suggestions to reduce difficulties and help the students to effectively improve their ESP reading skills. The Conclusion part summarizes what is addressed in the study, points out the limitations, draws pedagogical implications and provides some suggestions for further study.
LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com PART TWO: DEVELOPMENT Chapter 1: LITERATURE REVIEW This chapter aims at providing a theoretical background to the study. For this purpose, the chapter will review the issues most relevant to the focus of the study. ESP Teaching and Learning 1. Definitions of ESP ESP is generally used to refer to the teaching of English for a clearly utilitarian purpose.
This purpose is usually defined with reference to some occupational requirement, e. for international operators, civil airline pilots etc., or vocational training programs, e. for hotel and technical trades etc., or some academic or professional study e. engineering, medicine, law, etc.
Though ESP has had a relatively long time to mature, it is defined differently by many scholars. Some ESP scholars described ESP as simply being the teaching of English for any purpose that could be specified.