iv

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Candidate’s statement ……………………………………………………………………i
Acknowledgements ……………………………………………………………………….ii
Abstract ……………………………………………………………………………… …iii
Table of contents …………………………………………………………………………iv
List of abbreviations …………………………………………………………………….vii
List of tables ……………………………………………………………………………viii
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION …………………………………………………… 1
1.1Rationale……………………………………………………………………………….1
1.2 Aims of the study …………………………………………………………………… 1
1.3. Research questions ………………………………………………………………… 2
1.4. Scope of the study ……………………………………………………………………2
1.5. Methods of the study …………………………………………………………………3
1.6.Design of the study ………………………………………………………………… 3
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW …………………………………………… 4
2.1. An overview of ESP ………………………………………………………………….4
2.1.1. The Concepts of ESP………………………………………………………… 4
2.2.1. Classification of ESP………………………………………………………… 4
2.2. Teaching ESP vocabulary…………………………………………………………….4
2.2. 1. What is ESP and EEE vocabulary…………………………………………… 5
2.2.1.1. What is ESP vocabulary………………………………………………… 5
2.2.1.2. What is EEE vocabulary…………………………………………………5
2.2.2. Important aspects of ESP vocabulary teaching……………………………… 5
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2.2.2.1. Word formation ………………………………………………………….5
2.2.2.2. Word - form …………………………………………………………… 6
2.2.2.3. Grammar…………………………………………………………………6

3.3.3. Data collection instruments …………………………………………………… 19
3.3.4. Data collection procedure ………………………………………………………20
3.3.5. Data analysis ……………………………………………………………………21
3.4. Findings and discussion 21
3.4.1. The teachers’ questionnaire …………………………………………………….21
3.4.1.1. The teachers’ linguistic challenges in teaching EEE vocabulary …… 21
3.4.1.2. The teachers’ pedagogical challenges in teaching EEE vocabulary ….23
3.4.1.3. The teachers’ personal view of sources of their challenges in teaching
EEE vocabulary ………………………… 24
3.4.1.4 The teachers’ suggestions to improve their EEE vocabulary teaching……….26
3.4.2. Findings from the interviews and journal writings………………………………… 27
3.4.2.1. The teachers’ linguistic challenges in teaching EEE vocabulary ……27
3.4.2.2. The teachers’ pedagogical challenges in teaching EEE vocabulary 30
3.4.2.3. The teachers’ suggestions to improve their EEE vocabulary teaching 31
CHAPTER 4: SOLUTIONS………………………………………………………….33
4.1. Ways of training EFL Teachers for ESP teaching……………………………… 33
4.2. Improving teachers’ professional knowledge……………………………………….34
4.3. Improving teacher’s activities in teaching vocabulary…………………………… 34
4.3.1. Sample activity 1: Guess the meaning…………………………………….….35
4.3.2. Sample activity 2: .Brainstorming……………………………………………35
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4.3.3. Sample activity 3: Group-work .……………………………………… …… 35
4.4. Teaching word formation……………………………………………………………37
CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSIONS……………………………………………………….39
5. 1. Summary of the study………………………………………………………………39
5. 2. Limitations and suggestions for further studies ……………………………………40
REFERENCES ……………………………………………………………………… 41
APPENDICES ………………………………………………………………………… I
APPENDIX 1 …………………………………………………………………………… I

ix LIST OF TABLES

Table 1a: Teachers’ perceptions of their teaching EEE vocabulary
Table 1b: Rank order of difficult of teaching EEE challenges perceived by teachers.
Table 2: The teachers’ pedagogical challenges teaching EEE vocabulary
Table 3: Teachers’ personal view of sources of their challenges in teaching vocabulary
Table 4: The teachers’ suggestions to improve their EEE vocabulary teaching
that a course should involve specialist language (especially terminology) and content.”
In teaching English for Specific Purposes, however, no one argues that the scope of specialized
vocabulary is a primary goal. Up to now, teaching ESP, particularly teaching vocabulary, has still
been far from satisfaction. With many similar characteristics and a number of different features in
comparison with General English, ESP is viewed as something hard to teach for language teachers.
In the context of Ho Chi Minh University of Industry ( HUI ) based in Thanh Hoa province,
students are taught English as a compulsory subject. In addition, students of Electronic
Engineering have to learn English for electronics at the beginning of the third academic year. In
fact, with a short duration of 30 periods, one of the most important aims of ESP course for these
students is achieving basic ESP vocabulary. However, in reality, the teacher researcher has seen
students have troubled during their English learning process. In the first place, most of the students
said that they had to deal with a wider range of unfamiliar words and cope with their growing
specialized vocabulary. Consequently, it is hard for them to study with their limited knowledge of
vocabulary. They often learn vocabulary passively through their teachers‟ explanation. There are
also too many new words given in each lesson, too little time spent on memorizing and recycling
those words.
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As a teacher of English for Electronics Engineering (EEE), the teacher herself finds out many
difficulties during teaching vocabulary. At first, in her opinion, the difficulties probably arise from
the lack of specialized knowledge, which makes teachers fail to provide every reasonable
explanation. Moreover, the target students at HUI based in Thanh Hoa province are at lower levels
in comparison with those at colleges or universities on the ground of needs, interest and
motivation. In addition, it is difficult for teachers to understand a lot of terminology, complicated
structures and countless expressions.
Facing this problem, the teacher researcher of English of HUI made an attempt to do
something to change the ways of teaching and learning vocabulary in order to improve the

The solutions are also provided to help to improve teaching and learning English in general,
teaching and learning English Electronic vocabulary in particular at HUI.
1.5. Methods of the study
In order to achieve the aims mentioned above, the study was designed to use varieties of
methods including interview, questionnaire and teaching journal analysis. The data were recorded
both formally and informally. The survey questionnaire to teachers is to get more information to
support the study.
1.6. Design of the study
The thesis consists of five chapters, with a list of references, and appendices
Chapter I: “Introduction”, presents the rationale, objectives, research questions, scope as well
as methods of the study.
Chapter II: “Literature review”, deals with the theoretical background for the study. The
focus of this chapter is vocabulary and ESP vocabulary, some important aspects of ESP vocabulary
teaching, some techniques currently used in teaching vocabulary and ESP vocabulary.
Chapter III: “Methodology”, is the main part of the study. It gives a brief introduction on the
context of teaching ESP vocabulary at HUI, the data collection methods and procedures. In
addition, the data will be analyzed and the findings will reveal the difficulties in teaching ESP
vocabulary to the third-year students at HUI. Some suggestions to improve the teaching of ESP
vocabulary will be given in this chapter.
Chapter IV: „Solution”, deals with ways to improving the teaching ESP vocabulary at HUI.
Chapter V: “Conclusions”, summarizes the findings, refers to some limitations of the study,
and offers suggestions for further studies. CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1. An overview of ESP and English of Electronics Engineering
2.1.1. The Concepts of ESP
To talk about challenges in teaching English for Electronics Engineering vocabulary (EEE
vocabulary), we need to begin with the definition of English for Specific Purposes (ESP) provided
4

2.2.1.1. What is ESP vocabulary
In general, English vocabulary includes grammatical words, basic lexical words, auxiliaries.
ESP vocabulary refers to a word or a group of words in the form of a noun phrase used as a
special lexical unit in a specific field with specific meaning to the field (Nation, 2001). It varies
according to different fields of study such as engineering, medical sciences, and applied
linguistics.
5

Similarly, Hatch and Brow (1995: 312) consider ESP vocabulary as “special lexical items
appear in most professions, and every field has special vocabulary to cover abstract concept.
Kennedy and Bolitho (1984:56-58) provide the following specialized word categories for teaching
purposes.
- Technical Abbreviations- e.g. AM, IC, km m3 they sometimes cause a problem for learners.
- Symbols and Formulae- They are the subject matter of the learner’s specialty, and teacher
may explain their functions in the text: e.g. KV ( Kilovolts) MΩ (Megohms).
- Sub- technical vocabulary as the Kennedy and Bolitho’s definition states “words which are
not specific to a subject specialty but which occur regularly in scientific and technical texts – e.g.
reflection, intense, accumulate, tendency, isolate and dense” (1984: 57-58).
2.2.1.2. What is EEE vocabulary
Electronics Engineering is a field of engineering that generally deals with the study and
application of electricity, electronics and electromagnetism, therefore EEE vocabulary is a
technical term that denotes only general electro-technical expressions such as semiconductor,
electric current, wire, capacitor, frequency, transistor, etc.
Originally teaching English for students of Electronics Engineering was reduced to
introducing specific vocabulary. EEE teachers need some understanding of basic electronic
concepts and work patterns in Electronics Engineering in order to best exploit this resource.
2.2.2. Important aspects of ESP vocabulary teaching

constructions such as: the “infinitive” form, the “ing” form, a “that clause”, a “preposition” or
nothing at all. For example, the two words “to want” and “to enjoy” may be presented together
with the verb forms that normally follow them (want to do/ enjoy doing). Similarly, when
presenting a noun, teachers should clarify whether it is countable, uncountable or both. Next, if the
noun is countable, its plural form may be recognized as either regular or irregular forms.
2.2.2.4. Aspects of meaning
Aspects of meaning include denotation, connotation, appropriateness and meaning
relationships.
The meaning of a word is primarily what it refers to in the real word, or its denotation. This is
often the sort of definition given in dictionary. For example, “bird” denotes an animal that can fly.
“Rain”, “wind” denote phenomena of nature.
A less obvious component of the meaning of an item is its connotation: the associations, or
positive or negative feelings it evokes which may or may not be indicated in a dictionary definition.
Connotation includes stylistic, affective, evaluative, intensifying values, pragmatic communicative
values, the word acquires by virtue of where, when, how, and by whom, for what purpose and
what in context it is or it may be used. For example the word “dog” in England, it has positive
connotations of friendship and loyalty, but in Arabic, it has negative associations of dirt and
inferiority.
Appropriateness is a more subtle aspect of meaning that often needs to be taught. It indicates
whether a particular item is appropriate one to be used in a certain context or not. Thus, it is useful
7

for a learner to know that a certain word is very common, or relatively rare, or taboos in polite
conversation, or tends to be used in writing but not in speech or is more suitable for formal than
information discourse, belongs to a certain dialect. For example, the word “sidewalk” in The
United State has the same meaning as the word “pavement” in Great Britain.
The meaning of a word can only be understood and learnt in terms of its relationship with other

and pronunciation makes it exceedingly difficult if not impossible to base pronunciation on the
written form.
2.3. Terminology
2.3.1. Definition of terminology
As defined by Cabre‟(1999), terminology is the process of compiling, describing, processing
and presenting the terms of special subject fields in one or more languages. It is „not an end itself,
but addresses social needs and attempts to optimize communication among specialists and
professionals by providing assistance either directly or to translator or to committees concerned
with the standardization of a language‟.(Cabré, 1999: 10-12)
Terminology may be considered as a system of words or symbols to name a typical
phenomenon or phenomena in natural and social research fields in a scientific way. It also includes
necessary methods in language contents and study to reach sufficient and suitable terms. In
addition, there may be terms that are accepted and used by a large number of individuals and terms
which are admitted by a restricted group of persons.
2.3.2. Characteristics of terminology
Features of terminology have been mentioned in certain research works since the appearance
of this field. One of the theories in terminology concentrates on assigning terms to concepts.
According to Cabre‟ (1999), this research field is primarily concerned with the relationship
between the real objects in the real world and the concepts represent them. Terminology also cares
about the nature of things in the real world and the relationships formed in this world. Subject
specialists and terminologists may cooperate to arrange and standardize the concepts and terms for
each special field.
Another researcher also pointed out different characteristics of terminology. As stated by
Nguyen Thien Giap (1998), the first characteristic of terminology is preciseness, which mentions
the concepts in terminology as accurate concepts of a particular science. The second feature is
systematization, which asserts that the terms cannot exist individually, but they are always present
as elements of a particular term system. The last characteristic of terminology is internationality,
which refers to terminology as special part of vocabulary presenting general scientific concepts for
persons speaking different languages.
In summary, terminology focuses on the process from the concept to the term. It also concerns

cannot even use the words in a correct way- they do not see the interrelationship between one
word and the others in a sentence or in paragraph, In short. This method may cause a lack in
learners‟ knowledge of vocabulary.
2.4.2. The Direct Method
The end of the late 1800s is seen by many as the “dawn” of modern foreign language
teaching. A revolution in language teaching philosophy took place and led the appearance of a
new method named the “Direct method”. Diane Larsen- Freeman described it in details, in her
book Techniques and Principles in language teaching (1986).
10

According to this method, the second language learning should be treated as the first language
learning. It associates directly foreign utterances with object and actions without the use of the
native language. During the process of teaching and learning, only target language is used, no
mother tongue is allowed. The teacher does not translate between first and second language, little
or no analysis of grammatical rules. Besides, it lays an emphasis on correct pronunciation and
grammar.
This method is very useful for teaching vocabulary, the teachers introduce through objects and
pictures. The words used are very common, active and concerning daily activities. By this method,
concrete vocabulary is taught demonstration while the meanings of abstract words are made clear
by association of ideas.
For students of EE, when teachers have explained the words in English, students still ask for
the Vietnamese equivalents as well because of only a few of them can understand the English
explanation.
Finally, to tell the truth, even the teachers cannot assure that they can use English accurately in
explaining legal terms and make students understand them in a correct way.
2.4.3. The Audio-lingual method
The Audio-lingual Method appeared in World War 2. At that time, the “Army Method” was

have been used around the world throughout history. However, the above-mentioned are the most
popular method that have been make better results in language teaching.
2.5. Teachers’ linguistic and pedagogical challenges in teaching ESP vocabulary
2.5.1 The roles of ESP teachers
It can be seen that an ESP teacher has to improve not only the roles of General English
teachers but also ESP course process. That is why there are a number of studies, which have
pointed out the roles of ESP teachers in teaching linguistic. In learning process, it is obviously that
the learner must be helped by teacher to achieve their goals effectively. Especially, the teacher
should pay attention to words, idioms to express the topics like "component values or "radio", etc,
plus words in the general in teaching vocabulary. In addition, the teacher must present the students
with the anxiety- free atmosphere. The comfortable environment should be created so that students
are able to practice to memorize new words.
Hutchinson and Waters (1987; 157) state that an ESP teacher will have to deal with needs
analysis, syllabus design, materials writing or adaptation and evaluation. Likewise, Martin (1992)
continues by listing and explaining the different roles of the teacher. He points out the role upon
the process of carrying out a task in ESP lesson" before, during and after a task. A teacher wishing
to support learning throughout the various phrases of a task would need to be able to play an
extended a set of roles including explorer, organizer, adviser, instructor and a guide.”
Furthermore, Little Wood (1981: 51) suggests that the ESP teacher is expected to "perform in
a variety of roles, separately or simultaneously”. Nunan (1988) also found that an ESP teacher is
considered as an instructor, a manager, a counselor, facilitators, organizer, a curriculum developer,
a material writer, a material writer and even a friend. Robinson (1991) agrees with that point and
12

highlights that the ESP teacher does not only teach but very often he or she is involved in
designing, setting up, administering, evaluating and testing the ESP course.
From above most of researchers admit that the ESP teacher‟s work involves much more than

13

To conclude, depending on the type of syllabus and course, the teaching and learning
environment, etc. The roles of an ESP teacher must be flexible and variable.
2.5.2. Teachers’ linguistic challenges in ESP vocabulary
Linguistics is the systematic and scientific study of human language. Linguistics mainly
concerns itself with three major problems: how we learn languages, how language vary, and what
is universal to language. In this study, the author addressed the teachers‟ linguistic knowledge in
EEE.
From the roles of an ESP teacher presented in the previous parts, various difficulties appear to
the ESP teacher. According to Fries (1963) meaning at the social level is the meaning that exceeds
the language code and is related to the background knowledge of the native speakers of that code.
Understanding the total meaning of a sentence occurs only when the linguistic meaning of the
sentence is fitted into a social framework of organized information. For the mastery of the foreign
language Fries (1945:100) argues that “ one must find some substitute for the kind of background
he has in his own language”. The teacher of English who can not meet the inevitable gaps in
specialized lexis will constitute a very appreciable problem. In addition, this, unexpectedly perhaps,
is far greater in size and degree of difficulty for a teacher than for a student. This is for three reasons
(a): The teacher will need to know the basic lexis of a wide range of different specifications,
whereas each group of his students will be concerned with only a limited number of inter-related
ones. Then, (b) the students will be a acquainted with many items since they will be similar in form
to their vernacular equivalent or will be universally – used technical term. Finally, (c) the teacher
will in many cases have to learn the concept as well as its linguistic form. Another problem for
teacher is that even the comparatively small number of items which comprise the „core- language‟
of science and technology ( i.e. those of high frequency and wide range over all discipline) are
likely to contain numerous difficulties.
According to Strevens (1988), one of the most common difficulties for ESP teachers is the gap

Dealing with all types of teaching ESP vocabulary is too large for study this size. Thus, this study
focuses on investigating linguistics and pedagogy challenges that the teachers encounter in
teaching ESP vocabulary.
First, all the teachers have the responsibility to teach both GE and ESP. They even have to
deal with a number of different ESP subjects at the same time. Therefore, they encounter many
difficulties in their teaching process such as the choice of methodologies and teaching materials.
Second, they must be flexible because they have to perform different roles in different time to help
the learner solve the problems in ESP lessons. Further more, the great majority of ESP teachers
have not been trained to be ESP teachers but General English teachers.
More importantly, some unskilled teachers prefer traditional teaching methods. When
teaching vocabulary, they write the new words on the board, then translate them into Vietnamese
and make sentences with them. They sometimes make an attempt to get the whole class repeat the
words in chorus, ask some students to read the words aloud and sometimes show some pictures on
the projectors to illustrate new words. As a result, the vocabulary learning activities are neither
interesting nor motivating.
2.6. Summary
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In Chapter 1, I have discussed significant information about English for Special Purposes,
terminology, vocabulary, methods of the teaching ESP vocabulary and some problems in teaching
ESP vocabulary. This theoretical review is necessary for the next chapters of methodology and
data analysis.
Our school has15 teachers of English language aged from 24 and 45. Ten of them had formal
ELT training in different universities inside VietNam, they graduated from College of Foreign
Languages- Vietnam National University, Hanoi, Hong Duc University and Vinh University. One
of them has a PhD in Russian and re-trained to teach English. Another is taking MA course at
College of Foreign Languages- Vietnam National University, Hanoi. The oldest teacher has more
than 15 years of teaching experience and the youngest teacher has one year. The number of
teachers is limited and there are no teacher teaching separately. They are all teachers of GE who
didn‟t attend any ESP courses before, nor do they have electronic knowledge. They, therefore, find
it difficult to deal with unfamiliar subject matter. Actually, those who were appointed to teach
English for electronic hesitated to accept their duty because it did take time for the teachers to
become familiar with ESP course materials. They have to face with many difficulties concerning
the gap of content knowledge and the choice of appropriate teaching methodology.
At HUI, English teaching and learning activities are mostly carried out in fixed classrooms that
make it difficult for teachers to make a change in applying new ideas of new teaching methods in
language teaching. Furthermore, there are often more than 50 students in each class. It is not easy to
carry out a communicative task in a large class with students of mixed ability. In addition, one
teacher may have to take over two or more different ESP courses, e.g. English for computing,
accounting, banking and so on. The content burden has become double heavier to them. To make it
worse, these teachers do not teach ESP only. Very often, they are involved in many other tasks at
the same time, ranging from designing the syllabus, preparing the materials, frequently under the
time pressure, and teaching GE courses.
In order to meet the demands of the university as well as the students in teaching ESP, the
teachers at HUI have to work hard and try to acquire the knowledge of ESP on their own in a
limited time. In fact, they are rarely able to arrange time to observe each other‟s lessons or hold
group meetings to share the experience in teaching and the knowledge of ESP vocabulary teaching.
For most of ESP teachers, the common method of teaching in ESP vocabulary is the traditional
teacher- centered approach. In class, the teachers‟ duty is to explain every new word, new structure
to students. In actual teaching vocabulary, they often employ three following steps in teaching
vocabulary. First, new words are introduced through some games, word maps, word groups, gap
filling . Sometimes, if possible, some visual aids or real objects related to the topic of the lesson

each unit is divided into five parts, and each part lays a focus on grammar, function or vocabulary.
As a result, in each unit, students have more opportunities to learn and develop their knowledge in
categories of grammar, vocabulary, communication skill, and pronunciation through practice
activities of, reading, writing, and speaking.
3.2.2. Book content
The whole course for the third year EE students consists of 6 units from unit 1 to unit 6 in the
first semester. The syllabus consists of 30 periods (45 minutes per period) and is delivered within 6
18

weeks covering 6 topics as follows: Unit 1: Electronics in the home -Unit 2: Component values-
Unit 3: Making a recording - Unit 4: Remote control-Unit 5: Alarm systems -Unit 6: Radio.
The following unit structure is used throughout the book with some variation among 9 units:
1 Tuning-in : introducing the topic through picture description or fact discussion
2 Language study: revise structures and grammatical points necessary for students to deal
with electronic documents in English .i.e. Actions in sequence, If sentences, Reduced time
clauses
3 Word study: developing students ‟knowledge of electronic terms, vocabulary use and
word form, i.e. Prefixes, Word pairs, Transitive verbs.
4 Technical reading: providing practice through various kinds of tasks as well as
expanding students‟ vocabulary repertoire, i.e. Understanding diagrams, Resistor values,
Capacitor values, Diode codes.
5 Writing: Provide practice in writing skills, i.e. Describing diagrams, a process, a system
It is very effective to work with this book as it provides students with a great deal of technical
terms and develops their reading comprehension and writing electronic documents. However, the
teachers and students have found it difficult in teaching this course book because of the following
reasons.
First, as each unit has five periods the students usually do not have enough time to practice in