VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ĐINH THỊ TUYẾT THOA difficulties in reading “English for Finance” of the second-year-students of Accounting Department at Hanoi Vocational Training College for Electro-Mechanics TÌM HIỂU NHỮNG KHÓ KHĂN TRONG VIỆC ĐỌC HIỂU TIẾNG ANH CHUYÊN NGÀNH CỦA SINH VIÊN NĂM THỨ HAI KHOA KẾ TOÁN CỦA TRƢỜNG CAO ĐẲNG NGHỀ CƠ ĐIỆN HÀ NỘI M.A Minor Thesis Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 601410 Hanoi – 2011 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ĐINH THỊ TUYẾT THOA difficulties in reading “English for Finance” of the second-year-students of Accounting Department at Hanoi Vocational Training College for Electro-Mechanics TÌM HIỂU NHỮNG KHÓ KHĂN TRONG VIỆC ĐỌC HIỂU TIẾNG ANH CHUYÊN NGÀNH CỦA SINH VIÊN NĂM THỨ HAI KHOA KẾ TOÁN CỦA TRƢỜNG CAO ĐẲNG NGHỀ CƠ ĐIỆN HÀ NỘI M.A Minor Thesis Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 601410 Supervisor: Dr. Dƣơng Thị Nụ Hanoi – 2011 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com iv List of abbreviation ESP: English for Specific Purposes EOP: English for Occupational Purposes EAP: English for Academic Purposes EEP: English for Educational Purposes GE: General English IT: Information Technology HVTCEM: Hanoi Vocational Training College for Electro-Mechanics LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com v List of figures, charts and tables Figures: Figure 1: ESP classification by experience Figure 2: ESP classification by professional area Tables: Table 1: Students’ perception on the purposes of learning reading English for Finance Table 2: Students’ focus when learning English for Finance Table 3: The difficulties in term of reading skills Table 4: The difficulties in term of vocabulary Table 5: The difficulties in term of grammar Table 6: The difficulties in term of cultural background knowledge Table 7: Students’ views of sources of difficulties Table 8: The students’ expectation in term of materials Table 9: The students’ expectation in term of methodology Charts: Chart 1: Students’ preference in ESP reading Chart 2: Students’ perception on the importance of ESP reading Chart 3: Students’ perception on the necessity of reading English for Finance for their future job LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Statement of authorship. iii List of abbreviations. iv List of figures, tables and charts.
v Table of content. Aims of the study. Methods of research. Scope of the study.
Organizations of the study. 4 Chapter 1: Literature review. Basic concepts about ESP………………………. Definitions of ESP.
Types of ESP. Reading in ESP teaching and learning. Reading skills in ESP. ESP teachers and their roles.
ESP students and their roles. ESP reading materials and their roles. Difficulties in ESP reading. Reading skill problem.
Cultural background knowledge problem. 9 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. 10 Chapter 2: The current situation of teaching and 11 learning English for Finance at Hanoi Vocational Training College for Electro-Mechanics. The teachers and their methods of teaching.
The students and their background knowledge. The teaching and learning English at HNVTCEM. General review of the course book “English for Finance”. Rationale for choosing the course book and objectives of the course.
Topics, terminologies and grammatical structures. Characteristics of reading texts. Chapter 3: Research Methodology. The data collection methods.
The data collection procedure. 20 Chapter 4: Findings and discussion. Discussion of the results collected by means of the questionnaire. Students’ attitude towards ESP reading.
Students’ perception on the purposes of reading lessons. Students’ focus when learning English for Finance. Students’ difficulties in learning reading English for Finance. In term of reading skills.
In term of vocabulary. In term of grammar. 25 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. In term of cultural background knowledge.
The causes for these difficulties in learning reading English for Finance 27 4. From the reading materials. From the teachers. From the learners.
The learners’ expectation in term of materials. The learners’ expectation in term of methodology. Discussion of the result collected by means of the interview, classroom 32 observation and journal keeping. Teachers’ attitude towards ESP reading.
Teachers’ opinion on the course book they are teaching. Teachers’ focus when teaching reading English for Finance. Teachers’ techniques to teach students in reading English for Finance. Teachers’ difficulties in teaching reading English for Finance.
In term of cultural background knowledge. In term of methodology. 36 Chapter five: Recommendations. Training students to become efficient readers.1 Improving students with different reading strategies.2 Encouraging students to develop extensive reading habits.
Improving teachers’ techniques in teaching English for Finance. Developing English for Finance reading materials. Improving teachers’ professional knowledge about economics. Improving teachers’ teaching methodology.
LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ix Part 3: CONCLUSION………………………………………………………… 42 1. Summary of the findings. Limitation of the study and suggestion for further study. I Appendix 1: Phiếu điều tra nghiên cứu V Appendix 2: Interview questions for teachers VI Appendix 3: List of topics in the course book VII Appendix 4: Unit 17: Financial statements IX Appendix 5: Translated version of the survey questionnaire for students LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 1 Part 1: Introduction 1.
Rationale Learning English now is not only an interest but also a practical thing for many people. Learning English means learning four related skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing. In teaching and learning English as a foreign language in Vietnam, reading has always received a great deal of attention. This is understandable because English is taught and learnt in non-English environment, so reading is not only the important means to get knowledge but also means of further study.
What is more, by means of English, the learners can take it professionally in their future work as well as in reading their specialized materials. It is exactly true for students of accounting. At Hanoi Vocational Training College for Electro-Mechanics (HVTCEM), after finishing 120 general English periods, students of accounting department begin to take 60 ESP periods. Being an ESP teacher of economics, the researcher has always been aware of the importance of developing reading skill for accounting students.
If students read well, they are able to handle subject-related written materials in English and to work with modern technology equipment. But in fact, in spite of the effort of the teachers and students, the researcher finds her students‟ reading disappointing, which do not meet the requirements of the college. It is often seen that when poor reading results are reported, one tends to blame the students for having poor ability or for making insufficient effort. However, the students are not always at fault.
With some years of English teaching experience, the researcher recognized that there are many other factors that affect the teaching and learning reading process such as inappropriate teaching methods and classroom techniques, inappropriate attitude of the teachers and learners towards the subjects, unsuitable teaching materials, etc. For all the above reasons, the researcher would like to find out the areas of students‟ difficulties at HVTCEM when learning reading English for Finance and the cause of these difficulties. It is also hoped that the study will make some suggestions for the teachers and learners to improve the teaching and learning English for Finance at college. Aims of the study This study aims to investigate the difficulties in reading English for Finance of the second year students at HVTCEM.
To be more specific, the objectives of this study are: LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 2 - To investigate the present situation of teaching and learning reading English for Finance so as to find out the teachers and learners‟ areas of difficulties when teaching and learning English for Finance. - To suggest the ways to reduce these difficulties and help learners to improve their ESP reading skills. It is hoped that the findings from this study will be some benefits to teachers and students at HVTCEM. Research questions In order to achieve the aims mentioned above, two research questions were raised: - What are the teachers and learners‟ areas of difficulties when teaching and learning reading English for Finance? - To what extent do the teachers‟ teaching methods help learners overcome the difficulties and improve their ESP reading skills? 4.
Methods of research With the aims of finding out the areas of the difficulties in reading English for Finance at HVTCEM, this study adopts a survey research. To achieve this aim, the survey questionnaire is used as the main instrument to collect the needed data from the learners. Besides, other instruments are also made used of such as the researcher‟s observation, journal keeping as well as interview questions with the other 6 teachers of the College. Scope of the study The study mainly focuses on some difficulties in ESP reading experienced by the second year students of Accounting at HVTCEM, and then suggests some techniques to help them overcome these difficulties and to improve their ESP reading skill.
Organization of the study This study consists of three main parts: Introduction, Development and Conclusion. The first part includes the rationale for choosing the topic of the study, the aims, the research questions, the methods, and the scope of the study. The second part comprises five chapters. Chapter one deals with the theoretical background relevant to the research topic including Basic concepts about ESP, reading in ESP teaching and learning, difficulties in ESP reading.
Chapter two discusses the current situation of teaching and learning English for Finance at HVTCEM. Chapter three presents the research methodology, LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 3 which focuses on the participants, the data collection methods, the data collection procedure and the data analysis. Chapter four presents findings and discussion. Chapter five provides some recommendations to reduce difficulties in reading English for Finance.
The last part summarizes the mains issues of the study, points out the limitations and presents some suggestions for further research. LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 4 Part 2: Development Chapter 1: Literature review 1. Basic concept about ESP 1. Definitions of ESP There are different definitions of ESP by different linguists.
According to Hutchinson and Waters (1987), “ESP-an approach not a product- does not involve a particular kind of language, teaching materials or methodology”. In their opinion, ESP is not a matter of teaching specialized varieties, but “is an approach to language in which all decisions as to content and method are based on the learners’ reason for learning”. So an ESP course should differ from a general English course in selection of skills, themes, topics, situation and function. And, all ESP courses should be based on the learners‟ needs and meet the learners‟ needs.
However, Strevens‟ definition of ESP (1988) makes a distinction between 4 absolute characteristics and two variable characteristics: - The absolute characteristics of ESP are: + designed to meet specified needs of the learners + related in context (that is in its themes and topics) to particular disciplines, occupations and activities. + centered on language appropriate to those activities in syntax, lexis, discourse, semantics, and so on, and analysis of the discourse. - The variable characteristics are that ESP: + may be restricted to skill to be cleaned (for example reading only) + may not be taught according to any pre-ordained methodology. The definition by Robinson is based on two key defining criteria and a number of characteristics that are found to be true of ESP.
The key criteria are that ESP is “normally goal- directed” and that ESP courses develop from a need analysis, which “aims to specify as closed as possible what exactly it is that students have to do through the medium of English” (Robinson, 1991:3). From the definitions above, it is clear that ESP courses are purposeful and aimed at the successful performance of occupational roles by an individual or a group whose need is considered to be a distinguished feature to those of General English. LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.