iv TABLE OF CONTENTS
CANDIDATE’S STATEMENT i
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii
ABSTRACT iii
TABLE OF CONTENTS iv
LIST OF TABLES viii
ABBREVIATIONS viii
PART A: INTRODUCTION Error! Bookmark not defined.
1. Rationale Error! Bookmark not defined.
2. Scope of the study 2
3. Aims of the study 2
4. Methods of the study 2
5. Design of the study 3
PART B: DEVELOPMENT 4
Chapter 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 4
1.1. Background knowledge of English for specific purposes (ESP) 4
1.1.1. Concept of ESP and its characteristics 4
1.1.2. English for geology (EG) 6
1.2. Cohesion and Coherence 6
1.2.1. Concept of cohesion 6
1.2.2. Cohesion vs Coherence 6
1.2.3. Main types of Cohesion 7
1.2.3.1. Grammatical cohesion 7
1.2.3.2. Lexical cohesion 9
Chapter 2: LEXICAL COHESIVE DEVICES ANALYZED IN “ESP TEXTBOOK
IN DEPARTMENT OF MINERAL RESOURCES”. 11

3.1.3.4. Problems in teaching and learning EG 33 vi a. Difficulties of teachers in teaching EG 33
b. Difficulties of students in learning EG 34
3.2. IMPLICATIONS FOR TEACHING EG EFFECTIVELY 35
3.2.1. Teachers 35
3.2.2. Learners 37
3.2.3. Materials 37
PART C: CONCLUSION 39
Suggestions for further study 39
REFERENCES 41
APPENDIX 1 I
APPENDIX 2 III
APPENDIX 3 V
APPENDIX 4 X
Table 3.1. Indispensable features of EG
28
Table 3.2. Ts and Ss’ focuses on teaching and learning EG
28
Table 3.3. The time teachers clarify terminologies
29
Table 3.4. The time Students study terminologies
29
Table 3.5. Ss’choosing means to know terminologies’ meaning
30
Table 3.6. Role of LCD in EG materials
30
Table 3.7. Awareness to LCD
31
Table 3.8. Ss’ awareness to Appearance of LCD
31
Table 3.9. Ss’ target of studying EG
32
Table 3.10. Ts’ wishing Ss to do after EG course
32
Table 3.11. Ts and Ss’ awareness to Appearance of LCD
33
Table 3.12. Teachers’ difficulties in teaaching EG
34
Table 3.13. Ts’ Reasons to be a teacher of EG
34
Table 3.14. Difficulties of students in learning EG
35 - 1 -
- 1 -
Part A: Introduction
1. Rationale of the study
This dissertation emphasizes the LCD as one prominent feature of FG which are
really worthfocusing when they are put in ESP texts. It is reasonable that this study will
cover a number of concepts (ESP, EG, Cohesion, Coherence, Cohesive Devices, LCD)
within the single constrained knowledge. This work established clearly-defined links
between linguistics and science. Moreover, since the geological advances which make it
possible to do this owe a great deal to this work, the transition from generative grammar to
functional grammar can be comparatively straightforward one. Although the author has not
attempted to deal exhaustedly with all the problems of teaching and studying EG, the
current work covers those issues which partly contribute to enhance the present situation.
In particular, a lot of Vietnamese who speak English as the second language have
paid heed to both General English and English for Specific Purposes; And ESP, nowadays,
is really taken notice more and more. One of ESP subjects is English for Geology (EG)
which is a significant component of science and a necessary means to learn the knowledge
of human beings about science including Geology.
As with other branches of human knowledge, in education, educationists usually
experience the problem of students after graduation. According to the result of a survey
done by students K44, K45, K46, K47 and K48 of Psychology, Information-library and
Linguistics departments of Ha Noi National University, College of Social Science and
Humanity in Feb, 2009, only 41.9% graduate students work in accordance with what they
were trained after one year, 18.8% do not, 1.8% are unemployed, and 1.8% study post
graduate. It is said that most of the students study impractically, they try to pass the exams

3. Main types of Cohesion.
4. Analysis in “ESP textbook in department of mineral resources”.
5. Statistics of questionnaires to work out the findings.
6. Problems in teaching and studying EG based on the findings.
7. Implications for teaching EG effectively and some suggestions for further
study.
4. Methods of the study
In order to catch up with the targets of this study, it is indispensable to apply the
appropriate methods which are both qualitative and quantitative approaches. To the detail,
the methods of description, statistics and analysis are applied flexibly by handing out the
survey questionnaires, analyzing them and collecting the data from both nine typical texts
and two survey questionnaires.
In this study, with a view to examine the material currently used at DMR, FG of
UMG in relation to the course requirements, much attention is paid to the analysis of the
syllabus and the material itself. These analyses were based on Hutchinson and Waters‟ - 3 -
- 3 -
criteria on material evaluation (1987) and Halliday and Hasan‟s features on lexical
cohesive devices used in material.
5. Design of the study
This study is divided into three main parts:
Part A: Introduction
The first part mentions the rationale, aims, scope, methods and design of the study.
Part B: Development
This part also consists of three smaller parts which are labeled by each chapter.
Chapter 1 goes over the theoretical background of the research containing two
significant terms:
(1) Overview of ESP and EG

various specific disciplines e.g. ´Law English´, ´English for Hotel Industry´ or ´English for
Tourist Management´. Students learn English for a specific purpose, represented by
studying subject matter, to gain and develop appropriate knowledge and skills through
English. That is why English language is not seen as the main goal in the process of
learning, but rather a vehicle for its acquirement. “Students study ESP not because they are
interested in the English language as such but because they have to perform a task in
English. Their command of the English language must be such that they can reach a
satisfactory level in their specialist subject studies. (Robinson, Pauline C., ed. Hywel
Coleman, 1989, p 396).
The fact that “learners know specifically why they are learning a language”
(Hutchinson and Waters, 1992, p 6) is a great advantage on both sides of the process. The
group of ESP learners is going to achieve the same goal in the field of studying branch, so
learners´ motivation, in a form of the same aim, enables teacher to meet learners´ needs
and expectations easier. Learners and their ways of learning (´acquiring language´) are
considered to be the main factors in the whole process. Hutchinson and Waters (1992)
emphasize ESP to be an approach not product that means language learning not language
use is highlighted. They draw the attention to a ´learning-centered approach´ “in which all
decisions as to content and method are based on the learner‟s reason for learning”.
(Hutchinson and Waters, 1992, p 19).
Tony Dudley-Evans and Maggie Jo St John (1998) divided characteristic features
of ESP in two groups according to their ´absolute´ and ´variable´ attributes. Concerning the
absolute characteristics (according to Dudley-Evans and St John):
 ESP is defined to meet specific needs of the learner
 ESP makes use of the underlying methodology and activities of the discipline it
serves. - 5 -
- 5 -
 ESP is centered on the language (grammar, lexis, register), skills, discourse and
- 6 -
- 6 -
As Kilborn & Kriei, 1999, Cohesion is the glue that holds a piece of writing
together. In other words, if a paper is cohesive, it sticks together from sentence to sentence
and from paragraph to paragraph.
Otherwhile, in Connor, 1996, Cohesion is considered as “The use of explicit
linguistic devices to signal relations between sentences and parts of texts.“
In other case, Nguyen Hoa (2000) claimed that “Cohesion refers to the formal
relationship that causes texts to cohere or stick together. It is indicated by grammatical,
logical and lexical relationships found among or between the sentences of a text”
1.2.2. Cohesion vs Coherence
In the Nunan (1993:116), “Coherence is the extent to which discourse is perceived
to hang together rather than being a set of unrelated sentences or utterances.”
Palmer (1983) indicated that “Coherence refers to the rhetorical devices, to ways of
writing and speaking that bring about order and unity and emphasis”
Like cohesion, coherence is a network of relations which organize and create a text.
Mona Baker defined that cohesion is the network of surface relations which link words and
expressions to other words and expressions in a text, and coherence is the network of
conceptual relations which underlie the surface text.
In the case of cohesion, stretches of language are connected to each other by virtue
of lexical and grammatical dependencies. In the case of coherence, they are connected by
virtual of conceptual or meaning dependencies as perceived by language users. Hoey
(1991:12) gave the summary of the difference between cohesion and coherence as follows:
We will assume that cohesion is a property of the text and that coherence is a facet
of the reader’s evaluation of a text. In other words, cohesion is objective, capable in
principle of automatic recognition, while coherence is subjective and judgments
concerning it may vary from reader to reader.
1.2.3. Main types of Cohesion

There are four categories:
 Additive
 Adversative
 Causal
 Temporal.
E.g. For the whole day he climbed up the steep mountainside, almost without stopping.
And in all this time he met no one. ►Additive
Yet he was hardly aware of being tired. ►Adversative
So by the night time the valley was far below him.► Causal
Then, as dusk fell, he sat down to rest. ►Temporal - 8 -
- 8 -
d) Reference
Reference is the Replacement of words and expressions with pro-forms.
e.g. pronouns, pro-modifiers.
There are three types of reference:
 Personal
 Demonstrative
 Comparative
1.2.3.2. Lexical cohesion
Following Paltridge, “Lexical cohesion refers to relationships in meaning between
lexical items in a text and, in particular, content words and the relationship between them”.
Otherwise, Yitzhaki pointed out that Lexical cohesion is a cohesive device which
creates unity in a text through the selection of vocabulary. Lexical items are connected to
one another to create cohesive “ties” which hold the sentences together and make them
appear as being about “the same thing”.
According to Halliday and Hasan, there are five major types of Cohesive Devices,
and the fifth type of cohesive tie is lexical. This one is divided into two main subtypes

whole relations: Car/Break, Face/Eye, table/Feet.
Part-part relations: Eye/Ear, Mouse/Screen.
Co-hyponymy: Red/Black, Chair/Table.
- Associations based on a history of co-occurrence: e.g. Rain, pouring, torrential,
wet.
As reported the theory of cohesive devices above which seems to be very
complicated, this study‟s author would like to make it more simple and familiar with
readers, especially EG teachers and students. It is the reason why the research only focuses
on two main types of LCD including reiteration and collocation; to the detail, reiteration is
divided into four subtypes consisting of repetition, symnonym, antonym, and super-
ordinate.
In summary, the above information brought all meaningful background knowledge
which is the basic material for the following parts with descriptions, statistics and analysis
in the focus of the lexical cohesive devices used when going to the detail of texts. - 10 -
- 10 -
Chapter 2: Lexical cohesive devices analyzed in “Esp
textbook in department of mineral resources”.
2.1. General description of EG text
The first part of this chapter reports the description of EG in general before coming
into the specification of cohesion used in texts.
2.1.1. Definition of EG
EG is the study-in-English of the planet Earth- the materials of which it is made-
the processes that act on these materials, the products formed and the history of the planet
and its life forms since its origin.
2.1.2. Some features of EG
The matter of fact that the author must master and follow the linguistic rules for
working out long geological texts which are used so many kinds of cohesive devices such

The content in major English text of Geology is really difficult to master. Thank to
the diagrams and figures which illustrate the text comprehensively. Although the pictures are
black and white, they help readers figure out all they wonder. Perhaps, the black and white
pictures or figures with simple symbols are not attractive or interesting, but the learners base
on them a lot to study EG effectively.
2.2.3. Vocabulary
This part which is at the end of each unit is in charge of providing the Vietnamese
meaning of all vocabulary. It is the truth that all vocabulary belongs to ESP, of course, few
students have ESP dictionaries and the rest will find easier to get the unit with this tool.
2.3. Lexical cohesion
The previous parts showed the frame of each unit. To the detail, in this part, the
writer pays attention to analyze two major categories of lexical cohesive devices:
reiteration and collocation in the lights of occurence and analysis.
2.3.1. Reiteration
Based on the background knowledge of reiteration in the beginning part, reiteration
is obviously related to the repetition of a lexical item. To make analyzing text simplier, the
author just devides reiteration into repetition, synonym, antonym, and super-ordinate. To
figure out how much important role they play, this section touches on their frequencies of
occurrence in the texts of EG, from that, lexical cohesive functions and structures will be
worked out.
To find out the most general overview of the using lexical cohesive devices in the
textbook of EG, the below table indicates the frequency of occurrence of lexical cohesive
devices(LCD) in nine chosen typical texts in that book to figure out the role of these
devices used in those texts. - 12 -
- 12 -
Types of LCD
Text

19%
19%
12%
7%
8%
2%
19%
15%
3%
12%
Antonym
6%
3%
2%
4%
2%
5%
4%
3%
3%
4%
Super-ordinate
3%
2%
3%
3%
6%
2%
5%
2%

Text
2
Text
3
Text
4
Text
5
Text
6
Text
7
Text
8
Text
9
Average
Nouns/NP
68 %
75 %
81 %
71 %
72 %
77 %
85 %
74 %
65 %
74%
Other parts
of speech

In text 6, readers can see the word “Exploration” in the title “EXPLORATION
FOR PLACER DEPOSITS” for 6 times.
In text 7, “WEATHERING AS AN ORE FORMING PROCESS”, the word
“Weathering” seems to be emphasized a lot with 23 times of repetition.
In text 8, the same to text 7, the word “Weathering” in the title “DEPOSITS
RELATED TO WEATHERING” also appears 10 times.
Last, in text 9, DEPOSITS RELATED TO REGIONAL METAMORPHISM, the
word “metamorphism” occurs 15 times.
The following table indicates the summary.
Text
Title
Eg of Nouns/
Noun Phrases
Times of
repetition
1
ENERGY AND MINERAL RESERVE
“CRISES”
Mineral
7
Petroleum
11
2
Mineral Exploration
Mineral
9
Exploration
13
3
ZONING

DEPOSITS RELATED TO REGIONAL
METAMORPHISM
Metamorphism
15
Table 2.3: Summary of the repeated words as topics or mainpoints.
It is said that most of specialized vocabularies and terminologies normally are Nouns
or Noun Phrases, which provide students with a lot of content of the texts. This leads
students to find out which specialized vocabularies and terminologies are important and
necessary to focus on and study. Of course, learners based on them can catch up with the
coherence of the texts and understand them deeply.
Besides, Noun Phrases are also used again owning to the unique characteristics of
ESP in general and EG in particular. In other words, there is no choice to replace one Noun
Phrase in ESP with an other one. So, it seems to be compulsory to repeat them to make
coherence in texts. In short, repetition is available in not only EG but other ESP as well.
These are some examples to illustrate Nouns/ Noun Phrases as terminologies.
Text
1
2
3
4
5
Eg of Nouns or
NPs as
Terminologies
petroleum
(11s)
barrels
(10s)
exploration
(13s), 11s =11 times
Table 2.4: Examples of repeated Nouns/Noun phrases as terminologies
b. Repetition of different parts of speech.
The previous part is about using exact words again for some reasonable purposes,
however, in this part, the author just wants to mention the repetition of some words which
are different parts of speech with the similar meaning. This type of repetition plays a bit
fundamental role in making the texts coherence, but it is hopeful that students can be aware
of it and use effectively in reading comprehension and writing correctly.
For example,
The energy has brought home not only to Americans, but also to the people of all
industrial countries, and some not so industrialized, that oil and gas reserves are
finite.(Text 1)
Where intrusive rocks or other sources of mineral concentration appear in windows
in this thrust, mineralization is not uncommon. The Carlin gold mine is such an example.
Determining the depth to the trust is major problem, but small mineralized veinlets that
have penetrated the unfavorable silicic and volcanic allochthonous rocks are suggestive of
more concentrated mineralization in the autochthonous carbonate rocks below the thrust
fault.(Text 2)
Syngenetic deposits may be zonal parallel to a shore line or along a stream channel.
Any detection of a zonal pattern-epigenetic or syngenetic- is important to economic
geology because it helps predict changes in the style and grade of mineralization as a
deposit is developed and mined. Zones of abstraction and leaching that are parts of lateral
secretion, or solution-remobilization, should be reflected in cryptic or phase zoning.(Text
3)
Surface accumulation of heavy minerals can be detected by airborne pray or ground
scintillometer surveys and, more directly, by heavy mineral exploration (panning) surveys;

Adverbs.
The following table illustrates frequency of presence of Synonyms in 9 texts.
Parts of
speech
Text 1
Text 2
Text
3
Text
4
Text
5
Text
6
Text
7
Text
8
Text
9
Ave-
rage
Nouns
50%
53%
46%
25%
27%
25%
36%

27%
25%
23%
37%
25%
25%
Table 2.5: Frequency of presence of Synonyms in 9 texts

Although being used not much as repetition and collocation since readers look
through these nine texts, synonyms still play a vital role in making the texts in unification - 17 -
- 17 -
and coherence. The real situation is that there is not equal scale of using both different
sorts of lexical cohesive devices and different parts of speech in each sort not except
synonym. However, it is a certain result because of the unique characteristics of ESP in
general and EG in particular. As statistics in the above table, we can see that the highest
percentage of presence of synonyms belongs to Nouns containing much information that
the author would like to convey to readers. In contrast, Verbs seem to be rarely used as
synonyms. Besides, Adjective is also an important element for many writers to make use in
not only in EG but also other fields; maybe due to the descriptive ability of adjectives.
Using synonyms is considered to be the wise way to avoid using repetition too
much and this helps the texts coherent and not tautological.
The following table will give examples in detail.
Texts
Examples of Synonyms
1
Countries & Nations; Requires & Needs & Demands; Increase & Reach & Rise;
Finite & Little; Relatively & Rather & Severely

Industrial minerals & Rocks; Regional & Dynamothermal; Involving & Related
to; Widely & Broadly.
Table 2.6: Examples of Synonyms used in texts
When exploring the texts, there are many pairs of words with the similar meaning
as the above table. The one special characteristic is that all pairs of these words are the
same part of speech. However, the real situation readers can recognize easily and wonder if
many pairs of words with the similar meaning but different parts of speech are synonyms.
As example below:
The mining Congress Journal has indicated the demand, consumption, and deficit
of energy, metals, and nonmetallics, for the United States from 1950 o predictions for the
year 2000. In 1950, the deficits were zero to $1 billion, respectively. The predicted
deficiencies in the year 2000 are $22, $36, and $6 billion in the year 2000. (Text 1)
Where intrusive rocks or other sources of mineral concentration appear in windows
in this thrust, mineralization is not uncommon. The Carlin gold mine is such an example.
Determining the depth to the thrust is major problem, but small mineralized veinlets that
have penetrated the unfavorable silicic and volcanic allochthonous rocks are suggestive of
more concentrated mineralization in the autochthonous carbonate rocks below the thrust
fault.(Text 2)
In the first example, predictions and predicted have the similar meaning,
nevertheless, predictions is noun meanwhile predicted is adjective.
Moreover, in the second example, a pair of words “concentration” and
“concentrated” has the similar meaning, but the word “concentration” is noun and the
word “concentrated” is adjective. Besides, another pair of words “mineralization” and
“mineralized” are the same. In fact, this feature is so popular in not only EG texts but also
many texts of other fields. And many people are aware that they are types of synonyms.
To be sure of the answer, everybody should remind the theory of the synonym
which has the same or similar meaning to the previous word and they are the same part of
speech. Therefore, some typical examples have been mentioned are considered as a kind of
cohesive or linking device.
2.3.1.3. Antonym

rage
Nouns
33%
25%
0%
20%
0%
0%
17%
20%
0%
13%
Verbs
11%
0%
0%
20%
33%
0%
17%
40%
0%
13%
Adjs
44%
75%
100%
60%
67%
67%

The first one that readers are only sure due to the meaning of those words such as narrowly
and broadly, Initial and Last. In fact, it means that we have to know exact meaning to
confirm if they are antonyms. In some cases, we must focus on the context to guess its
meaning. For instance, - 20 -
- 20 -
“The nature of wall-rock alteration by hydrothermal processes offers strong
evedence in support of the view that many hydrothermal solutions are neutral or slightly
acidic at higher temperatures. Helgeson (1964) states that hydrothermal alteration of
aluminosilicate rocks is essentially aprocess of trading H
+
ions for other cations in the
rock”.
More luckily, some devices lead readers to figure out antonyms more easily as this
example:
Color changes include bleaching, darkening, and the development of aureoles of
various colors. Pastel colors of micas and clays are especially prominent around some ore
deposits and may form conspicuous leads to ore.
Otherwhile, the second group belongs to pairs of suffixation which are easy to
realize; in other words, when we master the suffixation of antonyms, we completely work
out which are antonyms. For example, unstructured and structure, uncommon and
common, dispensable and indispensable, ect.
2.3.1.4. Super-ordinate
According to linguistics, Super-ordinate is a word the meaning of which includes
the meaning of another word or words.
In the field of the EG texts, super-ordinates do not occur much; however, it is
popular in some ESP texts including EG texts, especially the scientists in this field would
like to describe the components, elements, or compounds related to Geology.